Consumer Insights: Sales Event Spend on the Rise

Each fortnight, Power Retail surveys thousands of Australian online shoppers. Our most recent deep-dive looked at Sales Events. With Click Frenzy kicking off the line up of November online sales events last week, let’s look at what shoppers want and the true impact of online events on consumer behaviour.

Trajectory Report #31 showed that e-commerce revenue for October was down year-on-year, only the second time we have seen this occur since January. While Victoria and NSW emerging out of extended lockdowns surely contributed in part to this shift in purchasing behaviour, looking at sales events shows another contributing element. Shoppers hold off purchasing ahead of online sales events. In fact, a massive 76% of online shoppers say that they wait for online sale events to make purchases.

We know that sales event participation is high. The majority (51%) have participated in an online sales event. It wasn’t that long ago that shoppers had never even heard of Cyber Monday, and now we see that sales events are well and truly part of the mainstream.

So what are the top three sales events? We asked shoppers which events they are saving to participate in. A massive 63% said that Click Frenzy was top of their list, followed by Black Friday and / or Cyber Monday in second position at 34%, which means that November clearly dominates the calendar when it comes to sales events. In third place we have Click Frenzy Mayhem (23%) and in fourth place, Amazon Prime Day (16%). It’s interesting that some events have penetrated the shopping landscape more than others, with the cyber weekend hitting Australia only recently and yet clearly making its mark. Singles Day, on the other hand, doesn’t seem to register. Similarly, 16% are saving to participate in Amazon Prime Day, which is ahead of the 12% planning for Vogue Online Shopping Night spend, despite Prime Day being newer to the market.

Source: Power Retail Switched On Trajectory #31, 5 November 2021

Sales event spend also shows the shift in consumer behaviour. In September 2019, average spend for a sales event was $347. In October 2021, this has jumped to $505.

While it could be assumed that massive discounts are the number one lure when it comes to a sales event, what consumers actually want may surprise! We asked shoppers the three most important elements of a sales events, and the overwhelming favourite was….*drum roll please*…Free Shipping, at 58%. In equal second place at 21%, ‘great deals on a wide range of products’ was second, on par with ‘seeing relevant deals’. It shows that it’s not all about slashing prices, but also perceived value (hello, free shipping) and user experience (seeing deals relevant to shoppers).

To find out more about sales events (the most popular categories, the minimum discounts required to add to cart, and more!) simply download the latest Trajectory Report here. If you’re already a Switched On member, you’ll receive these reports free, each fortnight. Not a Switched On member? Find out more today!

Next up, Trajectory #32 includes the standard Australian e-commerce benchmark trends and Australian online shopper insights as well as a deep dive into the Buy Now, Pay Later space. What’s changed in the last year? How is it being used today? Where are we headed? Switched On members will be the first to know.

The e-commerce landscape is changing. With a Power Retail Switched On membership, you get access to current e-commerce revenue and forecasting, traffic levels, average conversion rate, payment preferences and more!