Mirakl-powered Marketplace Sales Soar During Black Friday 2020
Black Friday in 2020 didn’t look anything like previous years, with capacity limitations restricting foot traffic in stores and holiday deals kicking off a week or more in advance of the actual Black Friday date. But even so, it remained one of the most important retail sales events of the year – and in a year that has turned the retail industry upside-down, online marketplaces have continued to prove that they are a critical driver of eCommerce growth. This year, Mirakl-powered Marketplace sales during Black Friday nearly doubled over 2019, and the Mirakl Marketplace Platform handled more than 150 million API calls, all while experiencing zero latency and maintaining 100% uptime. (Note: that these numbers don’t yet include France, where Black Friday sales have been postponed until this Friday.)
Across Europe, gross merchandise value (GMV) of transactions on Mirakl-powered Marketplaces during Black Friday through Cyber Monday – also referred to as the “Cyber Five” – increased by +72% year-over-year. In the U.S. and Canada, Mirakl-powered Marketplace sales also grew steadily, with GMV growing by +70% year-over-year. Mirakl-powered Marketplaces in Latin America also saw strong growth of +72% this year, and in Australia, GMV nearly doubled to +92%.
Third-party sellers worked closely with marketplace operators across the globe to offer a remarkable 25 million+ discounts to consumers shopping on Mirakl-powered Marketplaces, using Mirakl’s best-in-class Promotions engine to ensure that every buyer found a great deal. Online sales for Black Friday reached an all-time high in 2020, with eCommerce spend reaching $9 billion in the United States alone, an increase of 21.6% over last year. The sales extended throughout the weekend and into the next week: Adobe Analytics estimates Cyber Monday was the biggest online shopping day ever, reaching between $10.8 billion and $12.7 billion.
For leading Spanish electronics and technology brand PcComponentes, 45,000 orders were made through their Mirakl-powered Marketplace during Black Friday, a 300% YOY increase. In addition, 150 Spanish SMEs have increased their sales by selling their products through their marketplace.
David Morales Reyes, Marketplace Director at PcComponentes, commented:
In this period of logistical stress and stock tension, the marketplace has helped us to maintain a much wider inventory, which has allowed us to guarantee the availability of products so that the customer always find what they are looking for. Similarly, we have managed to increase the number of references, allowing us to broaden our catalog and offer a greater variety. All sellers that wanted to participate in the Black Friday campaign on our marketplace have also been able to do so for free. The icing on the cake – 97% of our Black Friday orders have been delivered on time and most of them within 24/48 hours from purchase. 2020 has been a record-breaking year for PcComponentes’ eCommerce strategy!
This year, the holiday coincided with a second wave of COVID-related lockdowns across the globe, which drove even more shoppers online for their holiday shopping needs. In the U.S., store traffic was down by 52% compared to Black Friday 2019, putting even more pressure on retailers to scale their online offerings to make up for in-store losses. In France, Black Friday itself was actually postponed by a week: megaretailers like Amazon and Carrefour agreed to launch sales a week late, giving non-essential businesses that weren’t permitted to open during Black Friday the chance to participate in the sale.
While these are turbulent times for retailers, the marketplace model is a bright spot, driving critical growth during the make-or-break holiday season – and Mirakl is proud to give retailers the tools they need to succeed with Mirakl-powered Marketplaces of their own. Stay tuned for next week’s global holiday sale update, when we’ll share the growth of Mirakl customers in France and across the globe, during Black Friday and beyond.
This post is part of Mirakl’s coverage on the 2020 holiday season. Subscribe to the Marketplace Strategy Blog to have these stories sent straight to your inbox.
