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Everyone loves a sale.
When it comes to online retail there are sales happening every day, from the level of small sellers all the way up to retail giants, but it’s the truly big shopping events that have the potential to drive the greatest volume of the world’s eager retail traffic.
A lot is at stake.
It’s no surprise,then, that rivalries are heating up over global online retail, as major players vie for a slice of that nearly $6 trillion pie.
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The Scene
You read that dollar figure right.
Last year the global retail e-commerce market was estimated at USD 5.8 trillion, and is expected to grow at a CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) of 11.6% from 2024 to 2030.
It’s no wonder anyone who can take a bite is.
One of the best ways to drive retail traffic is to have a sale, and if you’re a marketplace or a destination that routinely draws lots of eyeballs, it might seem it would be really great to have one of your own.
Turns out it is.
The Classics
Let’s start with the classics. The events we all know that, while not attributed to a single entity, are nevertheless a benefit to all who sell.
Specifically the largest sales/shopping events, Black Friday and Cyber Monday. BFCM, if you want to make typing that easier. We do, so we’ll use it.
BFCM represents two industry-wide mega events that run together every holiday season, driving shoppers to every form of retail outlet, looking for deals, ready (expecting, even) to spend their money.
In fact, if you don’t know the history, “Black Friday” got its name because that was the moment each year when most retail businesses went “into the black”. Basically, the frenzy of holiday buying – leading to tons of sales – brought in the profit needed to lift retailers out of the red.
Cyber Monday followed as an online equivalent, and BFCM was born.
Each year during BFCM the sales flow, and retailers are happy.
No surprise, then, when one of the largest single players in the retail industry (hint: Amazon) decided, “Hey. Why don’t we make our own one of these?” it turned out to be their most successful event ever.
The Bright Idea
In 2015 Amazon was on a rocket-ride of growth when they introduced Prime Day.
The sale was only for one day, and only in nine countries, meant to mark the 10-year anniversary of the introduction of Amazon Prime (2005), yet Prime Day ended up surpassing Amazon’s Black Friday sales figures for the previous year, with customers ordering 398 items a second, or 34.4 million in total.
If you listen closely you might still hear the echo of champagne corks and high-fives coming from Amazon HQ.
They kept it up.
At first a one-day event, it has since morphed into two, and Prime Day has now joined BFCM as one of the most anticipated shopping events happening each year.
Amazon, of course, is not the only big player out there. There are others, with plenty of their own users looking to spend money.
As would be expected, a few of those competitors have latched on to Amazon’s bright idea.
The Upstarts
Clearly there’s (lots of) value to carving out a unique slot on the calendar and creating your own buzz, like Amazon did with Prime Day.
Why not create your own major shopping event?
At least two major players have had that epiphany.
We speak of TikTok and Shopify.
TikTok is a social platform, Shopify an ecommerce platform, but both are perfectly positioned to capitalize on shopper interest. Both have lots of purchase-ready traffic, both are perfect for showcasing products, and both have recently rolled out their own unique sales days.
The surface differences between their events and Prime Day are subtle.
The objectives are entirely the same.
TikTok Deals for You Days
TikTok kicked off their new entry, Deals for You Days, this July, on the 9th – an even week before Amazon’s Prime Day.
Bold.
Deals for You Days is a US summer sale event hosted by TikTok Shop, designed to compete with Prime Day, featuring savings on thousands of products.
TikTok Shop, if you're not familiar, is an e-commerce feature within the TikTok platform. Comprised of affiliate marketing with micro-influencers activated to be the affiliates, TokTok Shop allows sellers to display and sell products directly on TikTok.
We’ve talked about TikTok in other articles, and perhaps you may be concerned about their potential for being banned in the US.
That particular bit of info has made quite a few headlines.
While that threat does exist, the new statute will likely be challenged in court, and the implementation of any ban could take years.
Meantime TikTok traffic represents 1.5 billion monthly active users, expected to rise to 1.8 billion by year’s end. Those users generated over $16 billion in revenue in 2023.
Threat of a ban or no, TikTok is going all-in on consumer retail. This latest event, Deals for You Days, is just another example of them upping the ante.
Shopify Shop Week
Shopify’s almost-marketplace Shop app is not a shopping destination, but it drives sales as a by-product of the Shopify ecosystem.
Through this Shop app Shopify started hosting yearly sale events that promise higher rewards. June 3rd through the 9th this year they hosted Shop Week. Last year it was a single-day, Shop Day.
Shopify says:
“Shop Week is our Shop app’s biggest shopping event of the year. All week long, Shop app users can earn up to 20% Shop Cash on over 100 Shopify brands in beauty, apparel, fitness, and more.”
Shop Cash is Shopify’s rewards program available to Shop app customers in the US or Canada.
Shopify processed $236 billion in ecommerce sales in 2023.
Having a presence on Shopify makes sense for many Amazon sellers.
The Stakes
Expect new sales events to roll out as these and others continue to look for ways to dial up the FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) among consumers.
Sales as a tool are timeless; from deals in the bazaars of Babylon to closeout sales down at the mattress store, they’ve always been a great way to drum up business.
In our modern era, with $6T in online sales at stake each year – and growing – the clamor to claim that revenue is high.
When we look at the bigger picture, global sales growth will likely stick to forecast. Meaning the introduction of more events will not, very broadly, lead to more sales for each new upstart across the board. Rather, it will lead to a different distribution.
The ones that had been grabbing the most revenue will now get varying degrees of “less”, and new players will get more than they did.
Such is the way of the world.
What does it mean for you?
The Opportunity
When major players stir the pot, when they introduce big ideas that generate buzz and fresh interest, the ones at the top of the food chain may suffer under the threat of competition, but it’s almost always good for the rest of us.
So should it be for these new mega sales events.
TikTok’s Deals for You Days and Shopify’s Shop Week are two examples of events that you, as a seller, can take advantage of. In the same way Prime Day has become a huge opportunity, these events and, certainly, others like them to come, will develop their own followings over time.
It’s worth a look at how you can participate, and elevate your game with each.
Having an experienced team in your corner is equally important. When it comes to maximizing opportunity for your Amazon business, whether during mega sales events or day to day selling, you increase your advantage with tools, services, and knowledge.
At Carbon6 we provide these things.
With a dozen tools spanning four categories of solution:
- Profit Recovery & Inventory
- Advertising & Listing Optimization
- Insights & Operations
- Data & Analytics
along with multiple, insightful webinar series, seller services, free tools, and one of the most active seller communities, we lead in the Amazon space.
Everyone loves a sale. Being part of the biggest makes good business sense.
