CSA Exclusive: Black Friday helps drive Cyber 5 mobile ‘halo effect’

The period between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday saw a significant jump in mobile shopping activity.

According to new analysis released exclusively to Chain Store Age from mobile analytics platform Adjust, Cyber Five, the five-day period covering Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday, produced a significant “halo effect” (positive correlating performance metrics) for mobile commerce apps.

Black Friday (Nov. 24) in particular produced strong mobile performance numbers. Following are Adjust findings on U.S. installs and sessions of several different categories of mobile commerce apps during “Cyber Five: 2023:

E-commerce 

• During Cyber Five in 2023, installs were 3% higher than the November average.
• Black Friday 2023 installs surpassed the November average by 11%.
• Sessions during Cyber Five saw a year-over-year (YoY) boost of 6% in 2023.
• During Cyber Five in 2023, sessions were 4% higher than the November average.
• Thanksgiving (Nov. 23), Black Friday and Cyber Monday (Nov. 27) sessions all increased by 6% YoY.

 Shopping

• Installs during Cyber Five saw a YoY boost of 9% in 2023 and were 8% higher than the November average.
• Installs on Thanksgiving 2023 had YoY growth of 14%.
• Installs on Black Friday 2023 grew by 8% YoY.
• Installs on Cyber Monday 2023 saw a YoY boost of 7%. 
• Sessions during Cyber Five saw a YoY boost of 18% in 2023 and were 16% higher than the November average.
• Sessions on Thanksgiving 2023 had YoY growth of 20%.
• Sessions on Black Friday 2023 grew by 20% YoY.
• Sessions on Cyber Monday 2023 saw a YoY boost of 16%.

Deal discovery

• During Cyber Five in 2023, installs were 68% higher than the November average.
• Installs on Thanksgiving 2023 were 65% higher than the November average.
• Installs on Black Friday 2023 were 114% above the November average.
• Installs on Cyber Monday 2023 were 59% higher than the November average.
• During Cyber Five in 2023, sessions were 47% higher than the November average.
• Sessions on Thanksgiving 2023 were 31% higher than the November average.
• Sessions on Black Friday 2023 were 76% above the November average.
• Sessions on Cyber Monday 2023 were 46% higher than the November average.

Adobe, Salesforce track holiday upswing in mobile shopping

According to Adobe, smartphones accounted for $5.3 billion of all online sales on Black Friday, up 10.4% YoY, and accounted for 54% of online sales. Adobe expects mobile to overtake desktop for the first time this holiday season, with more than half (51.2%) of spend online to take place on mobile.

In addition, Adobe data indicates that on Cyber Monday, 59% of online sales came through a smartphone (compared to 55% in 2022). Mobile usage remained high across Cyber Week, Adobe said, with smartphones driving 51.8% of online sales (up from 49.9% in 2022).  

Similarly, Salesforce data shows that mobile traffic represented a record-breaking 79% of Cyber Week e-commerce traffic, up from 76% in 2022.