The last Friday of the month was dominated worldwide by Black Friday, one of the most important events in the e-commerce calendar. Bargain hunters had the chance to take advantage of many promotional offers dedicated to this event.

Awin, an affiliate advertising network operating with more than 6,000 advertisers and over 100,000 active publishers worldwide, analyzed this year's results on an ongoing basis, which confirm the growing importance of this event and the year-on-year increase in sales generated on Black Friday.

Awin recorded a 21% increase in global transaction numbers compared to last year, while global revenue rose by 27%.

The growing popularity of shopping on this day is also evidenced by a EUR 5 increase in average order value.

The situation looks somewhat different on the Polish market. Awin's data shows a high, nearly fifty-percent revenue increase (45%) and a EUR 37 rise in average order value, alongside an 18% drop in transaction numbers.

Black Friday, as has been the case for years, surpasses sales on all ordinary Fridays in the fourth quarter of 2017.

As last year, the city with the best results was Warsaw. It was followed by Kraków, Katowice, Gdańsk, Poznań, Wrocław, and Łódź.

Awin concludes that the decline itself may be due to the significant extension, or rather the anticipation, of the shopping holiday. Each advertiser wants to make the most of the opportunity, and some therefore deliberately jumped the gun on the rest of the industry, aiming to get ahead of the competition. An example is Euro RTV AGD, which launched its "Black Weeks" promotion at the beginning of November, cutting prices on part of its available assortment. The culmination of the campaign is, of course, Cyber Weekend, encompassing both Black Friday and Cyber Monday (which has not yet gained such recognition in the eyes of either stores or customers on the Polish market), but discounts in many places were already running earlier. According to Awin, the Polish market focused from the very start on just one day, instead of treating the topic comprehensively. In Western countries, Cyber Monday is an indispensable continuation of Black Friday, which in itself extends the shopping holiday by three days.

Taking into account both the campaigns preceding Black Friday and the selective approach to Cyber Monday, it is difficult to determine whether a decline actually occurred. Customer interest may have been spread over time, which reduced last year's shopping frenzy and the results associated with it – comments Mateusz Łukianiuk, Managing Director of Awin's Polish branch.

Awin also compared international deliveries. It turns out that the largest number of deliveries to foreign customers from Polish advertisers went to Germany and France.

Among Polish customers, desktop plays a dominant role in shopping (84%), but a decrease of 4.55% was recorded compared to last year. At the same time, there is a growing role of smartphones, on which 14% of transactions were made, 5.38% more than a year earlier.

During this year's Black Friday, Polish customers mainly looked for deals in the clothing and accessories category.

The most effective turned out to be publishers offering discount codes (as last year), while content publishers came second. This is a big change, as last year they held fifth position.

The shopping holiday is gaining increasing popularity in Poland as well. A growing number of advertisers is aware of the rising trend, and therefore more readily joins the initiative. The media interest indicator has also risen significantly, not only at the national level – emphasizes Mateusz Łukianiuk, Managing Director of Awin's Polish branch. Poles are increasingly willing to buy online, and the law introduced in recent days, initially restricting and from 2020 completely banning Sunday trading, will only intensify this trend. In my opinion, the decline in the number of purchases is the result of promotional campaigns that go significantly beyond the aforementioned Cyber Weekend – he adds.

Polish online shopping still has a lot to offer. Development will continue as long as restrictions such as GDPR do not negatively affect online advertising, which would translate into declines in revenue from this sales channel.

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Awin is Europe's leading affiliate advertising network. The network comprises 6,000 advertisers and over 100,000 active publishers. Awin operates in 15 locations worldwide, offering the most reliable tools and services to support advertisers' online success.

Summary

Awin's data show that Black Friday 2017 was record-breaking globally – transaction numbers rose by 21% and revenue by 27%. On the Polish market, revenue increased by 45% and average order value by EUR 37, but transaction numbers fell by 18%. This is the effect of advertisers' "false starts," such as Euro RTV AGD with its "Black Weeks" campaign, and the lesser importance of Cyber Monday in Poland. The growing role of smartphones (14% of transactions) and the dominance of desktop (84%) show where e-commerce is heading.