BFCM 2023: Email, SMS, and push message statistics & trends

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The use of email, SMS, and push message marketing by brands is not new. How they are used in the continuing evolution of BFCM is the more interesting part, as it often sheds light on how brands approach the next twelve months. About this year’s BFCM period, a few questions needed investigation.

• How early would brands begin their BFCM marketing and would it match consumers’ shopping habits?
• In an era where brands fiercely fight for attention while trying to maximize advertising ROI, how much would brands rely on these channels to increase sales and were they effective?  

In our 2023 BFCM marketing report, Omnisend looked at sales and the performance of email, SMS, and web push marketing channels in November, paying special attention to Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and the Cyber Ten (the Sunday before Black Friday through Giving Tuesday).

There are a lot of granular stats and details in the report, but here are the key findings:

Email marketing:

• Brands sent more than 2.5 billion promotional campaign emails in November, a 35.3% increase from 2022, which resulted in a 24.5% increase in orders. 
• The total number of campaign emails sent during this year’s Cyber Ten eclipsed one billion, a 23.8% year-over-year (YoY) increase. 
• The conversion rate for campaign emails finished the Cyber Ten at 0.09%, a rise from 0.07% for emails sent from January through October. Open rates during the Cyber Ten increased by 5.4% YoY.
• People started shopping early. The week of 10/22 saw sends increasing by 40.2% and orders increasing by nearly 26% over the same period in 2022, with the following week seeing increases of 37.9% and 27.7%, respectively.
• Automated emails generated 29.3% of all email orders during the Cyber Ten while accounting for only 1.75% of email sends.
• Nearly 37% of people who clicked on an automated email went on to make a purchase. 

Vertical performance:

• Brands in the Arts & Entertainment industry had the best conversion rate during the Cyber Ten at 0.28%.
• The Games vertical finished fourth-best for both click rate (2.13%) and conversion rate (0.17%). 

SMS marketing:

• During the Cyber Ten, merchants sent 41.2% more SMS, ending with a click rate of 5.58%, a conversion rate of 0.17%, and 12.3% more orders than in 2022. 
• SMS sends increased 308.9% on Cyber Monday and generated 221.9% more orders YoY.
• Black Friday accounted for 26.3% of SMS sales during the Cyber Ten.
• Automated SMS during the Cyber Ten increased by 199%. Compared to scheduled SMS campaigns, automated SMS converted 91.7% better. 

Push messages:

• Merchants sent 12.7 million push messages during the Cyber Ten, an increase of 91.3% YoY, resulting in 61% more orders.
• Brands sent more than 151% more automated push messages during the Cyber Ten. 
• Automated push messages made up 18.8% of push message orders and 2.3% of sends during the Cyber Ten.
• Automated messages convert 871% better than scheduled push campaigns.  

Methodology

For this report, we analyzed over 2.5 billion marketing emails, 29 million SMS, and 30 million web push messages sent by Omnisend merchants in November of 2023. We calculated conversion rates by looking at attributed orders compared to total emails/SMS/push messages sent and calculated click rates by looking at the number of clicks compared to the number of emails/SMS/push messages sent. 

When making YoY comparisons, we analyzed this year’s Cyber 10 with last year’s, which lasted from November 20 to November 29.

We also use the following terminology:

• Promotional campaigns (campaigns): messages manually sent by brands, such as promoting special offers, discounts, new products, and other promotional-style messages.
• Automated messages (automations): automated messages triggered by user behavior, such as when a user abandons a cart, subscribes to a newsletter, or makes a purchase.
• Cyber 10: The period starting the Sunday before Black Friday through Giving Tuesday.
• BFCM weekend: Thanksgiving Day through Cyber Monday 

Black Friday, Cyber Monday holiday ecommerce sales

Stop me if you’ve heard this before: inflation, economic worries, and an earlier-than-ever start to the shopping season. While these may not be new issues affecting consumers, they were all talking points heading into BFCM 2023. As it turns out, they all had an impact on sales this holiday season. 

Sales did start early. In 2022, we saw a spike in early shopping during Amazon’s October Prime Day. This year, dubbed Big Deal Days, Digital Commerce 360 reported that 82% of the top 100 online retailers joined the fray by offering deals. It worked. October 10 and 11 generated $3.93 and $4.09 billion in sales respectively. Email marketing metrics seem to match these early October sales as you’ll see below.

Leading into November, online sales from November 1 through Cyber Monday increased 7.3% YoY, according to Adobe. Only two days in November fell under the $3 billion in online sales, the last of which was November 7. While Black Friday and Cyber Monday remain the two best sales days of the season, it is clear that moving forward brands should plan for a Gray November versus a Black Friday Weekend. 

While inflation and economic worries are and should be a legitimate concern, they also helped propel some aspects of holiday shopping, specifically Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL). To help soften the impact of the rising cost of gift giving, BNPL hit an all-time high in usage on Cyber Monday, accounting for $940 million in orders. With mixed economic reviews for 2024, it may be worth it for brands to add a BNPL option to their sites. 

Did these overall ecommerce trends match with how brands used email, SMS, and push message marketing during BFCM 2023? Let’s find out.

2023 BFCM email marketing campaigns

This year, merchants sent more than 2.5 billion promotional campaign emails in November, a 35.3% increase from 2022. The open rate ended the month at 26.36%, the click rate at 1.66%, and the conversion rate at 0.08%. This resulted in a 24.45% increase in orders. 

The total number of campaign emails sent during this year’s Cyber 10 eclipsed one billion, itself a 23.79% increase YoY. The five highest send days of the month were the same five as last year, with the only change being the bottom two switched positions. Not surprisingly, all fell during BFCM weekend. In order, they were:

• Black Friday (194 million) 
• Cyber Monday (159 million)
• Thanksgiving Day (123 million)
• Saturday, November 25th (111 million)
• Sunday, November 26 (103 million)

The Cyber Ten finished with a 25.4% open rate, an improvement of 5.40% YoY. The click rate finished at 1.41%, an improvement of 13.56%. Email orders increased 25.0%, even though the conversion rate declined slightly from 0.10% to 0.09% during the period. Even still, the conversion rate was above the 0.07% average seen from January through October. 

As for the days sporting the best email conversion rate, Thanksgiving Day takes the top spot coming in at 0.12% followed by Black Friday at 0.11%. 

We anticipated an early start to the shopping season and it did not disappoint. Looking at the four full weeks before Black Friday Week, starting on 10/22, sends increased by 40.19% and orders increased by nearly 26% over the same period in 2022. The following week saw increases of 37.9% and 27.7%, respectively.

The week of November 5 was more of a break between early sales and the BFCM ramp-up. The lift in weekly sends was slightly lower at 28.9% and orders at 18.2% before increasing for the remainder of the season.

Looking at daily email orders during the Cyber Ten we see something interesting. The days with the largest YoY gains were the Sunday and Monday before Black Friday, up 42.5% and 40.8% respectively, and Giving Tuesday with a 66.2% increase. Comparatively, Thanksgiving Day was up 36.2%, Black Friday 14.3%, and Cyber Monday 19.8%.

While the Cyber Ten remains a very strong shopping period, brands should look to appeal to shoppers’ earlier and earlier shopping habits. 

Automated emails during BFCM

Brands sent more than 20 million automated emails during the Cyber Ten, an increase of 31% YoY. The open rate for all automated emails during this time was 40.7%, marking a slight decrease of 4.1% YoY. Even still, the open rate for automated messages is 60.8% greater than campaign emails. The click rate increased 12.3% YoY, ending at 5.6%. The conversion rate was 2.07%, an ever-so-slight decrease from 2.08% seen in 2022. 

Overall, the Cyber Ten saw a 30.6% year-over-year increase in automated email orders. In all, automated emails generated 29.3% of all email orders during the Cyber Ten while accounting for only 1.75% of email sends. Similar numbers were seen for the entire month of November, where automated emails generated 33.3% of orders and 2.0% of sends. 

The automated emails with the highest conversion rate, in order, were back-in-stock (6.11%), welcome (3.70%), and cart abandonment (2.66%). It’s worth noting that back-in-stock sent a very low number of messages compared to the others. 

The automated messages with the highest percentage of automated orders were cart abandonment (44.92%), welcome (37.69%), and product abandonment (6.01%). 

The automated emails with the largest increase in YoY orders were post-purchase (435.29%), shipping confirmation (83.93%), and welcome (56.64%). If you don’t believe the customer purchase experience matters, think again. Two of these three messages all come after a purchase is made.   

Industry performance during the Cyber Ten

It’s always interesting to see how certain industries perform during the BFCM season as it sheds a little insight into what people are gifting to others and themselves. Like last year, we found that many industries dealing with self-enjoyment came out on top. Let’s look at the top in terms of eyeballs, actions, and purchases.  

The top five industries for open rate, compared to the seasonal average of 25.42%, were wedding (34.52%), holidays & seasonal (34.28%), books & literature (32.42%), sports (31.89%), and food & beverage (31.16%).

The top five for clicks, compared to the seasonal average of 1.41%, were autos & vehicles (2.64%), holidays & seasonal (2.37%), wedding (2.33%), games (2.13%), and firearms & weapons (2.12%)—likely influenced by everyone’s favorite Christmas movie, Die Hard. 

When it comes to making a purchase, the top five for conversions, compared to the seasonal average of 0.09%, were arts & entertainment (0.28%), health (0.23%), food & beverage (0.18%), games (0.17%), and antiques & collectibles (0.15%). 

In terms of crossover between opens, clicks, and conversions, food and beverage was in the top in both opens and conversions. This indicates that if the product appealed to people they opened the email and jumped at their chance to make a purchase. Brands can look at this and work to optimize their emails for clicks by including more social proof and alternate product suggestions.  

Two industries were in the top for both opens and clicks: holiday & seasonal, and wedding. These make sense. Holiday & seasonal is obvious as to why people would open and click but not purchase. It stands to reason these emails serve more for product discovery that leads to comparison shopping elsewhere. For weddings, the same applies, but many wedding stores are filled with products and offerings that require in-person purchasing.   

Finally, games was in the top for both click and conversions, indicating that people who opened had predetermined intent to make a purchase. Once they opened, they did. Games also make a wonderful holiday present, so making a purchase really is fun for the whole family.  

SMS marketing during Black Friday and Cyber Monday

SMS was destined to be a large part of the holiday marketing season and it was. 

In November, brands sent 56.4% more campaign SMS YoY, nearly reaching 26 million messages. They finished with a click rate of 5.55%, a conversion rate of 0.14%, and generated 9.8% more orders. During the Cyber Ten, merchants sent 41.2% more SMS, ending with a click rate of 5.58%, a conversion rate of 0.17%, and 12.3% more orders. 

We predicted that Black Friday Week would be a strong focus for brands and it appears that it was. Here are some noticeable highlights from the week:

• Monday before Black Friday: brands noticeably increased their sends, sending more than double November’s daily average up to that point. 
• Cyber Monday: sent 308.9% more SMS and generated 221.9% more orders YoY. 
• Giving Tuesday: sent 158.4% more SMS and increased orders by 117% YoY.

The three days sporting the highest conversion rate were Thanksgiving Day (0.27%), Monday, November 20 (0.26%), and Black Friday (0.19%). Overall, the days responsible for the most SMS orders were Black Friday, Thanksgiving Day, and Cyber Monday.

Interestingly, Black Friday accounted for 26.3% of SMS sales during the Cyber Ten, but only one other day saw greater than a 12% share of sales, and that was Thanksgiving Day at 14.8%. The orders were a little more evenly distributed, with lulls coming immediately before premier sales days, like Cyber Monday. 

For those window shoppers who did not complete their purchase, automated SMS was there to re-engage them, and you can see the impact automated SMS messages had below. 

Automated SMS

Like campaign texts, automated SMS adoption grew and helped companies increase their sales. 

In November, automated SMS sends increased by 189% YoY. The click rate ended at 11.01%, a 6.25% YoY lift, and the conversion ended at 0.31%. During the Cyber Ten, sends increased 199%, the click rate increased to 11.72%, a YoY lift of 32.5%, and the conversion rate ended at 0.33%.

The days with the largest YoY increase in sends were: 

• the Saturday after Black Friday (676%)
• Cyber Monday (491%)
• Giving Tuesday (247%) 

The days with the highest conversion rate were: 

• Thanksgiving Day (0.66%) 
• Black Friday (0.65%)
• Monday, November 20 (0.63%). 

In fact, the Sunday before through Black Friday all saw conversion rates greater than 0.57%. Unlike scheduled campaigns, no single day during the Cyber Ten was responsible for more than 15% of the period’s automated SMS sales, indicating automated SMS are effective at engaging subscribers and leading them to purchase. 

During the Cyber Ten, automated SMS converted 91.7% better than scheduled campaign messages and were responsible for 16.97% of all SMS orders and only 9.6% of SMS sends.

In November, automated SMS converted 116.2% better than campaign messages and made up 21.39% of all SMS orders and 11.19% of sends. 

Push message BFCM performance

Last year we talked about how web push was still an up-and-coming channel but one ecommerce brands should seriously take a look at. Fast forward one year and it remains true. Push messages had a great BFCM season. 

Omnisend merchants sent nearly 30 million push messages in November, 12.7 million of which came during the Cyber Ten period. This was a YoY increase of 35.6% in November and 91.3% during the Cyber Ten. The days with the most push messages sent were:

• Black Friday (2.3 million) 
• Cyber Monday (1.47 million)
• November 26 (1.42 million) 

During the Cyber Ten, the open rate increased by 171% (47.6%), the click rate increased by 254% (0.93%), the conversion rate dropped only slightly, from 0.07% to 0.06%, while the total number of orders increased by 61% YoY. Black Friday recorded twice the number of orders than the next closest day, Cyber Monday, and had the highest conversion rate of any day (0.08%).

Taken at face value these metrics might not mean much but they are indicative of the acceptance of push messages as a marketing channel. Web push messages are beginning to make their mark with brands and consumers.

Automated push messages

Brands sent more than 151% more automated push messages during the Cyber Ten than they did over the same period in 2022. Overall, the open rate finished at 63.9%, the click rate at 2.5%, and the conversion rate at 0.59% — a 30% improvement over November as a whole. 

The days with the highest conversion rate were:

• Black Friday (0.92%)
• November 26 (0.65%)
• November 21 (0.64%)

Giving Tuesday saw the lowest conversion rate of the period, coming in at 0.46%. But to put that in perspective, while Giving Tuesday may have been the lowest of Cyber Ten, it is substantially better than the 0.06% during the same period for scheduled campaign messages. 

When it comes to automated messages, relevance wins. Automated messages outperform their campaign counterparts, realizing a 34.1% lift in open rate, a 157.2% lift in click rate, and a whopping 871.9% lift in conversion rate. 

All in all, automated push messages made up 18.8% of push message orders and 2.3% of sends during the Cyber Ten.

2023 recap and what brands can do

Between email, SMS, and push messages, marketers left no stone unturned this BFCM season trying to capture sales. We saw record sends across all channels resulting in a record number of orders. We also saw sales and marketing start early and remain fairly consistent throughout the season.

Email, SMS, and web push sends all increased year-over-year and orders followed. It is clear that consumers still flock to email as a primary destination for product discovery and to continue their shopping journeys, and are also rapidly adopting channels such as SMS and push messages for the same purpose — and brands should take notice of this trend. 

Here are the biggest takeaways for ecommerce brands.   

Invest in email marketing 

• Brands sent more than 2.5 billion promotional campaign emails in November, a 35.3% increase from 2022, and resulted in a 24.5% increase in orders. 
• The total number of campaign emails sent during this year’s Cyber Ten eclipsed one billion, itself a 23.79% increase YoY. Even with the massive increase, open rates managed to increase by 5.4%.
• People started shopping early. The week of 10/22 saw sends increasing 40.19% and orders nearly 26% over the same period in 2022, with the following week seeing increases of 37.9% and 27.7%, respectively.
• Nearly 37% of people who clicked on an automated email went on to make a purchase. 
• Automated emails generated 29.3% of all email orders during the Cyber Ten while accounting for only 1.75% of email sends.

Understand vertical performance

• Brands in the Arts & Entertainment industry had the best conversion rate during the Cyber Ten at 0.28%.
• The Games vertical was in the top five for both click rate (2.13%) and conversion rate (0.17%). 

Consumers like SMS marketing

• During the Cyber Ten, merchants sent 41.2% more SMS, ending with a click rate of 5.58%, a conversion rate of 0.17%, and 12.3% more orders. 
• Cyber Monday saw the largest increase in sends during the Cyber Ten, sending 308.9% more SMS and generating 221.9% more orders YoY.
• Black Friday accounted for 26.3% of SMS sales during the Cyber Ten.
• Automated SMS during the Cyber Ten increased by 199% and converted 91.7% better than promotional campaigns.

Don’t ignore push messages

• Omnisend merchants sent over 30 million push messages in November, an increase of 35.6%.
• The total number of Cyber Ten orders increased by 61%.
• Brands sent more than 151% more automated push messages during the Cyber Ten. These messages made up 18.8% of all push message orders.
• Conversion rates for automated messages are 871% better than scheduled push campaigns.  

How ecommerce brands can adapt to BFCM results

• The early shopping we saw from consumers this year is here to stay. Because of this, planning for BFCM and the overall holiday shopping season will now extend deeper into October. Brands should explore all channels and aggressively grow their lists to properly prepare for next year’s season.   

• SMS isn’t annoying! Brands generated 12.3% more orders during the Cyber Ten than they did the previous year. Black Friday accounted for 26% of Cyber Ten SMS orders. This demonstrates that consumers are signing up for text messages from brands and even on premier shopping days like Black Friday consumers are relying on them to shop.    

• Automation is the key to sales growth. During the Cyber Ten, automated emails made up  29.3% of email orders, automated text messages made up 16.97% of SMS orders, and automated push messages made up 18.8% of push message orders. Not using these channels is costing you sales. Use each channel in your automated workflows, especially your welcome, cart abandonment, and browse abandonment messages.

• Explore push messages. Brands sent nearly 12.7 million push messages during the Cyber Ten and increased their orders by 61%. The channel has been growing in usage and performance for several years and brands have finally recognized it. Don’t sit on the sidelines while other companies use push messages to increase their sales.