Gift card learnings to take into Black Friday and Cyber Monday

It’s almost hard to remember that last year, Black Friday came amidst fears of the omicron variant, and significantly fewer “doorbuster” sales were happening.

Yet interestingly, Adobe Analytics stats showed that while online sales – which sit at the heart of the Black Friday trends – totaled about $8.9 billion on Friday, on Cyber Monday sales totaled a vast $10.8 billion – and gift cards were the top area of growth!

Gift cards were up by 7x YoY – beating video games, appliances and books.

What are your predictions for this year? Share with us in comments!


Based on last year, we would suggest the following:

👉 Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) could be something to integrate into your gift card campaigns – or messages along this theme – buy now, get more later. BNPL usage grew in 2021, with revenues from this method going up 21% YoY. 

👉Your gift card program should have a stellar desktop experience rather than a mobile-first view. Smartphones accounted for just 39.7% of online sales (vs desktop), although customers still used mobiles for browsing.

👉 Out-of-stock messages are common during Cyber Monday – in 2021, the stock was particularly troublesome due to the global climate and low stock notifications were up 258% vs 2019 stats. Showcase your gift cards on your out-of-stock pages and turn a negative into a positive -and a sale!

Need help implementing any of these ideas? Let’s talk!