Black Friday 2022: The best in class examples from retailers

Black Friday is over once again, congratulations on making it through another year, especially one this tough…

2022 has been a challenging year full of uncertainty and rapid change. Finally out of the shadow of the pandemic, we then found ourselves surrounded by news of an imminent recession and cost of living crisis. Black Friday predictions this year were equally pessimistic, and retailers have been feeling the pressure to do more with less.

But as the retail event wraps up and we are now firmly in peak season, let’s see how the 2022 numbers measure up.

Black Friday 2022 in numbers

• In the US online sales generated $9.12bn on Black Friday, up 2.3% from last year and breaking 2020’s previous record of $9bn (VOA news)
• In-person visits to stores also increased by 2.9% when compared to last year (NY Post)
• It’s expected that UK online and in-store shoppers will have spent £8.71bn over the course of the 2022 Black Friday weekend, a 5% drop from last year’s total (Statista)

Despite the bleak predictions, Black Friday 2022 marked an encouraging start to peak with relatively strong overall retail performance and record-breaking performance across the US. We also saw an increase in brick-and-mortar spending in the first post-pandemic Black Friday where COVID wasn’t imposing restrictions or even top of mind for shoppers. 

Black Friday at Ometria

Ometria hit some incredibly exciting milestones this year, and are thrilled to share that over the Black Friday period we…

• helped retailers create and deliver half a billion cross-channel experiences
• helped to drive over £400m in revenue for our clients
• ensured 342.8m emails landed into inboxes, with a delivery rate of 99.14%

We hope that you reached new heights over Black Friday and have some incredible successes to shout about too.

However the period was for you, it can feel like there’s not a moment to catch your breath before you’re planning for 2023. With that in mind, we have plucked some of our favourite, best-in-class Black Friday campaigns and delved into them below to help encourage, inform, and inspire you for the year ahead.

Best of Black Friday 2022

Repair, Reuse, Recycle

This year alternative Black Friday campaigns came out in full force. Patagonia used Black Friday as an opportunity to deliver sustainable messaging, encouraging customers to repair existing items at one of their in-store workshops. Vinterior instead focused on re-homing over buying new, opting to promote a range of upcycled and pre-owned pieces to their customers.

These campaigns are brilliant examples of how to capture the conscious consumer, maintain brand values and limit discounting, whilst still being part of the Black Friday buzz.

Cross-channel messaging

Astrid & Miyu gave their customers a seamless cross-channel experience this year, delivering Black Friday messaging via SMS as well as email. Concise copy, exclusive promotions and timely delivery all combined to make these wonderful examples of unique, targeted marketing. 

We also saw SMS used by lots of other brands this Black Friday including Myprotein, BeAtOne, Space NK and The Skinny Food Co — it’s clear that more and more retailers are using cross-channel to help them cut through the noise of the peak period. 

Steadily declining discounts 

One trend we saw repeatedly over Black Friday 2022 was the promotion countdown, or the steadily declining discount. Both Chelsea Peers and LOOKFANTASTIC ran campaigns that started with a certain percentage off and then gradually reduced by 1% every hour. This is a fun and unique way to create a sense of urgency amongst shoppers and leaves room for some tongue-in-cheek email content.

Multicoloured Friday

You’ve probably heard of Green Friday, but how about Blue or Pink Friday? This year saw a rise in rival Friday colours. Pangaia stuck to their Earth-positive brand mission by offering to plant 3 trees (instead of 1) for every item purchased over their Blue Friday weekend, whilst Loud Bodies ran a Pink Friday campaign that detailed all of the ways they plan on spending their profits from the weekend, including giving their workers paid leave and helping to cover office expenses.

These are both excellent examples of transparent marketing, where discounts are offered but the customer can clearly see the positive impact that their purchase with the brand will make. 

Interactive campaigns 

Biscuiteers brought an element of festive wonder into their campaign by including a moving cracker for consumers to ‘pull’, revealing their Black Friday discount.

At a time when inboxes are flooded with emails, and shoppers are looking for something different, interactive campaign templates not only help messages to stand out, but they can also promote subscriber engagement with the email. Win-win.

Congratulations on another epic Black Friday, what now?

We did it, Black Friday is over for another year. Hopefully you have gained plenty of new customers, shown the world your amazing products and now have the exciting task of turning those shoppers into loyal brand advocates over peak and beyond.

We really hope this year went well for you, but if you’re reading this thinking it could have been better, we are here.

Every year we help retailers smash their goals and surpass their own Black Friday records, but don’t just take our word for it. Tash Reynolds, Senior CRM Manager at Not On The High Street shared some exciting early results from their Ometria-powered activities…

“We’ve had a fantastic BFCM with considerable CRM growth YoY. Despite increased send volume, we experienced a 99.6% delivery rate which was easy to maintain with the support of Ometria. 

Through Ometria, our mobile push notification experiences have driven app loyalty which has contributed to 15.79% of automated marketing campaign revenue in November 2022.”

Want to kick off your peak season like this?  Come and talk to us to see how you can join a community of retailers consistently experiencing smooth and successful BFCM powered by Ometria.