• by Ray Schultz , November 27, 2017

Email and ad engagement rates leaped in the week before Black Friday -- contributing to a 23% hike in sales on Thursday and Friday, compared with the prior year, according to a study released on Monday by Rakuten Marketing.

Sales grew by 21% during the three-day period from Wednesday to Black Friday, and there was 11% growth in purchases. Click-through rates rose by 154% and ad engagement rates by 111 %.

Black Friday’s average order value jumped by 9%. The peak purchase time occurred at 2 p.m. on Black Friday. Thanksgiving Day purchases grew by 35%, and revenue grew by 28%.

In addition, Rakuten found that:

Thanksgiving Day revenue rose by 28%, and purchases by 35%.

Mobile revenue grew by 45%, purchases by 34% and average order value by 7% during Sunday to Friday of Thanksgiving week.

Forty-six percent of all page views occurred on a mobile device during the week. 

There was a 17% increase in purchases in the two weeks prior to Thanksgiving Week -- "in line with forecasts of an early peak shopping period this year,” Rakuten says.

"Holiday shopping behavior is evolving year after year, and we continue to experience outstanding growth as consumers open their wallets in response to retailer strategies during the peak holiday shopping days," states Rakuten CEO Tony Zito.

He adds: "We expect this upward growth to continue into Cyber Monday, and encourage brands to focus on strategies that re-engage the shoppers who have visited their site over the past week who may be holding out to see if there are deeper discounts on Cyber Monday."