Qliro blog

INSIGHTS FROM BLACK WEEK 2024 – HOW TO OPTIMIZE YOUR CHRISTMAS SALES STRATEGY

Written by Qliro | Dec 13, 2024 7:00:00 AM

Despite economic uncertainty, Black Week 2024 saw yet another increase in sales. Value-for-money remains a key driver for consumers, fueling higher purchasing activity. For e-retailers, this presents a unique opportunity to capitalize on key shopping behavior trends and fine-tune your strategy ahead of the holiday season. Let’s dive into the most critical takeaways from Black Week 2024 and how to use them to boost year-end performance.

Black Friday is losing ground to Black Week

Black Friday is no longer the biggest shopping day of the year. With more retailers launching deals earlier in the week, consumer spending is spread out. In fact, 41% of all Black Friday-related purchases in 2024 were made before Friday, marking a 5.2% increase from 2023. This trend was further accelerated by early salary payouts during the week.

Action point for 2025: Launch your campaigns early. Ensure your offers are live before competitors go to market, and align promotions with expected early salary dates.

Know your audience – and expand it

The average Black Week shopper made 1.6 purchases and spent SEK 916, a 3.4% year-over-year increase. Women dominated spending, especially those aged 40–49, whose buying activity rose by 21%.

There’s one group the retail sector has overlooked: consumers over the age of 60. This group typically accounts for 10% of total purchases and is usually overrepresented among holiday shoppers. However, this year, this age category was underrepresented by -34% during Black Week – highlighting a significant missed opportunity.

If you can figure out how to attract this group and make them feel more comfortable navigating the chaos of Black Week, there’s a lot to gain. You might think the solution is to target your marketing efforts toward this demographic – and that’s partly true – but it’s just as important to ensure your checkout is optimized for this audience as well. One area where this group stands out compared to others is their preference for “pay later” options, which they choose 18% more often than the average customer.

The data also shows that the use of mobile payment options increased by 98% compared to Black Week 2023, underlining how important it is for merchants to offer mobile-friendly payment methods such as Swish, Vipps, and MobilePay.

Don’t overlook gift shoppers

Holiday buying behavior differs from everyday patterns – many customers are not shopping for themselves but for loved ones. For example:

  • Beauty stores may attract male buyers shopping for partners (+14%)
  • Toy and children's stores may see increased traffic from relatives outside the core parent demographic, especially age groups outside 30–39 (+17%)

Pro tip: Tailor your marketing to secondary audiences. Make your site easy to navigate for first-time visitors and those unfamiliar with your products. 

How to prepare for Christmas sales success

Black Week offers valuable data for refining your holiday sales plan. Keep these three strategic pillars in mind:

  1. Start early: Consumers are shopping before Black Friday. Launch campaigns ahead of time.
  2. Flexible payments: Offer diverse payment options – especially "pay later" methods.
  3. Target the whole household: Customize messaging for your core audience and gift buyers.

 

Data source: Based on Qliro’s Nordic portfolio. Timeframe:
Black Week 2024: Nov 25, 00:00 – Dec 2, 23:59
Black Week 2023: Nov 20, 00:00 – Nov 27, 23:59
2024 Average: Jan 1, 00:00 – Nov 24, 23:59