Specialising in cashback websites and loyalty concepts, global publisher OrangeBuddies Media aims to provide added value for both consumers and advertisers while shopping online. CEO Sabrine Boogers shares how Black Friday and Cyber Monday performed across the markets they operate in last year, as well as their preparations and expectations for this year’s event.
How big of an event is Black Friday for your local market? What impact has the event had on your business in previous years?
For OrangeBuddies Media, Black Friday is a huge, yearly sales event that clearly shows an increase in the number of purchases, website searches and pageviews.
In the last few years we have seen purchase numbers and order value doubling or even tripling in some countries during Black Friday weekend, for example in The Netherlands, Germany and Italy. For us, this clearly shows the growth of the event over the past few years in different countries.
For OrangeBuddies’ members the chance to get huge discounts plus cashback is what makes it very interesting for them. They postpone their purchases until Black Friday starts as they want to benefit from the crazy deals which they know will be available during the Black Friday weekend. With our recently launched ShopBuddies websites offering 100% cashback, they get even higher cashback rewards during Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
What plans do you have for Black Friday 2017?
There is a media kit available especially for the Black Friday weekend for all countries which shows the different display options we can offer our partners. We are contacting close partners to give them the first option for the best display positions during Black Friday 2017.
Alongside the sales activities, we also have a special marketing and content event plan setup to make sure our members worldwide will be presented with the widest range of the best Black Friday cashback deals.
Which products do you expect to be the biggest sellers?
When looking back at the purchases made by OrangeBuddies’ members in 2016, the electronics category performed the best. Not surprising as this is the product category with the most and best discount deals during Black Friday weekend. Our cashback members have a more than average interest in shopping with discounts, which makes the crazy Black Friday deals a perfect match for them.
For 2017 we expect electronics to be a top performer during the Black Friday weekend, but we also saw an increase last year in other product categories. Not one product category in particular, but purchases are split across different categories. This year we expect to have more specific stats after the Black Friday weekend regarding upcoming Black Friday categories amongst our cashback shoppers.
Will you also be participating in Cyber Monday?
For us Black Friday is not only one day, it is Black Friday weekend which ends with Cyber Monday. For 2017 this means we will promote the event for the full four days starting Friday November 24th and ending Monday 27that midnight. Our partners can promote their deals for just one or two days or for the full weekend at special rates.
Although we promote both Black Friday as well as Cyber Monday in all countries we operate in, we do see differences in performance on these days. In some markets – such as the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden - Cyber Monday achieved a higher total order value than Black Friday last year, although the number of purchases were higher on Black Friday. On the other hand, we also have countries (such as Italy, Germany and Poland) where Black Friday is leading in terms of numbers and order value. It might take a few years for those markets to get Cyber Monday on the same level as Black Friday.
What are your predictions for Black Friday/the Cyber weekend in your market overall?
OrangeBuddies Media has grown a lot since Black Friday weekend last year, not only by expanding to new markets but also by increasing the number of members per cashback website in each country and increasing the activity of our members. This makes our expectations for this year's Black Friday weekend rise to another milestone. We should at a minimum double the numbers of 2016 Black Friday for our top markets. For new markets we have no comparison yet, so we will analyse after this year's event and then make detailed goals for next year.
