Walmart’s Black Friday & Cyber Monday Sales Data: 2020 Ecommerce Insights

2020 Takeaways:

Walmart.com up 124% calendar quarter-to-date for Q4 2020
Black Friday 2020 sales up 100% over 2019; Cyber Monday sales up 57%
Toys & Electronics lead by far

2020 has been a big year for ecommerce players, a mighty list which indisputably now includes Walmart.

In years past, shoppers would be lined up outside Walmart’s doors for exclusive Black Friday sales in the retail giant’s brick-and-mortar stores, kicking off a critical shopping weekend.

In 2020, shoppers are mostly staying home — chiefly due to the COVID-19 pandemic — and opting to shop online instead. So how has Walmart’s online presence performed? We drill into the overall Walmart.com sales over time, as well as department-level insights.

Walmart.com’s Holiday Sales Up 124% Year-over-Year

Walmart’s ecommerce sales have boomed in 2020, with Walmart.com sales nearing $1.2 billion for fourth-quarter dates through Cyber Monday (October 1-November 30, 2020).

In 2019, Q4 sales through Cyber Monday (October 1-December 2, 2019) reached $535 million, indicating a year-over-year increase of 124%.

*2020 dates through November 30

Black Friday 2020: $76M

For Black Friday alone, sales neared $76 million on the 2020 Friday after Thanksgiving, compared to $38 million in 2019, showing a 100% year-over-year increase for the day’s ecommerce sales.

Cyber Monday 2020: $69M

For Cyber Monday alone, sales reached $69 million on the 2020 Monday after Thanksgiving, compared to $44 million in 2019, showing a 57% year-over-year increase for the day’s ecommerce sales.

The “Turkey Five” / “Cyber Five”: $264M

Thanksgiving Day and the four days following it — including Black Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Cyber Monday — are known as the “Turkey Five” (or the “Cyber Five” more recently), and represent critical end-of-year sales for countless retailers.

In 2020, sales for this five-day period neared $264 million, compared to $144 million in 2019, showing an 83% year-over-year.

*Year-over-year comparisons represent the fourth calendar quarter up through the Cyber Monday date of each year, which varies slightly. Cyber Monday in 2019 was December 2; in 2020 it was November 30.

Walmart’s Winning Categories

1. Toys: $44M

The holiday season’s top category on Walmart is toys, perhaps unsurprisingly so since children are the top recipients of all gift-giving, according to consumer survey data.

“Turkey Five” weekend (Nov. 26-Nov.30) total: $44 million
Black Friday (Nov. 27) total: $14 million
Cyber Monday (Nov. 30) total: $11 million
2020 Q4-to-date total: $141 million
YoY category growth: 127%

In 2019, Toys sales on Walmart.com reached $62 million in Q4 through Cyber Monday (Dec. 2, 2019), indicating a 127% year-over-year increase for the same time frame in 2020, which reached $141 million.

Toy sales on Black Friday itself reached $8 million in 2019, indicating approximately 75% increase for Black Friday 2020. And sales on Cyber Monday reached $9 million in 2019, indicating approximately 22% increase for Cyber Monday 2020.

Other peak days for toy sales on Walmart in 2020 were November 25-26, following steady growth throughout the month of November. October 13 also saw about $2 million in toy sales during Walmart’s Big Save event.

Disney, Lego, and Fisher-Price are among the top brands for toys on Walmart.com this season.

2. Electronics: $41M

Electronics have been Walmart’s strongest category during Q4, despite being topped by Toys on Black Friday specifically.

“Turkey Five” weekend (Nov. 26-Nov.30) total: $41 million
Black Friday (Nov. 27) total: $13 million
Cyber Monday (Nov. 30) total: $11 million
2020 Q4-to-date total: $148 million
YoY category growth: 118%

In 2019, Electronics sales on Walmart.com reached $68 million in Q4 through Cyber Monday (Dec. 2, 2019), indicating a 118% year-over-year increase for the same period in 2020, which reached $148 million.

Electronics sales on Black Friday itself reached $7 million in 2019, indicating approximately 85% increase for Black Friday 2020. And sales on Cyber Monday reached $8 million in 2019, indicating approximately 38% increase for Cyber Monday 2020.

Major brands including Apple, HP, and Samsung are offering some of the season’s top items — earbuds, tablets and laptops, smart phones, and more.

3. Media & Gaming: $17M

Media & Gaming are a distant third-strongest category for Walmart’s ecommerce sales, though still bringing in $58 million with substantial year-over-year category growth.

While the Media & Gaming category trails both Furniture and Sporting Goods categories for the fourth calendar quarter sales through Cyber Monday, it exceeds both categories for “Turkey Five” / “Cyber Five” sales.

“Turkey Five” weekend (Nov. 26-Nov.30) total: $17 million
Black Friday (Nov. 27) total: $5 million
Cyber Monday (Nov. 30) total: $4 million
2020 Q4-to-date total: $58 million
YoY category growth: 190%

Sony, PlayStation, and Oculus are offering some popular hardware items and media on Walmart.com this season.

Black Friday & Cyber Monday Insights

Walmart.com Is Surging in Every Major Category

GMV: Gross merchandise value

Essential products have become gifts.

In Jungle Scout’s study of 1,000 U.S. consumers, 21% said they would purchase essential products as gifts this holiday season, many citing financial strain.

Walmart.com’s “essential” categories with skyrocketing sales* include:

Household Chemicals: 250%+ year-over-year sales increase
Bath and Shower: Up to 200%+ year-over-year sales increase
Personal Care: 100%+ year-over-year sales increase
Hardware and Tools: 100%+ year-over-year sales increase

*For Q4 calendar quarter through Cyber Monday

What Walmart’s Black Friday & Cyber Monday Sales Data Says about 2020 Consumer Behavior

The holiday shopping season started early.

As most retailers now know, consumers started shopping — and shopping online — earlier in the season than in past years, giving the fourth calendar quarter of the year a boost.

Walmart closed its stores on Thanksgiving Day this year and re-opened early Friday, demonstrating the retailer’s shift in focus to ecommerce.

Walmart also introduced a number of events to drive consumers to its ecommerce store, including Walmart’s Big Save, which ran October 11-15, 2020 and coincided with Amazon’s Prime Days on October 13 and 14. In a study of 1,000 U.S. consumers, 35% said they would shop online during Walmart’s Big Save, compared to 53% on Amazon.com during Prime Day.

Ecommerce is enduring.

According to Jungle Scout’s Q4 2020 Consumer Trends Report, 48% of American shoppers would be fine if they never shopped in a physical store again.

Ecommerce has been growing, and 2020’s challenges have accelerated that growth. Amazon is undoubtedly the dominant ecommerce retailer, and even in Q3, 70% of consumers say they shopped on Amazon, compared to 35% who shopped on Walmart.com and 26% on Target.com.

And as more entrepreneurs and brands explore how to sell on Walmart.com, the platform has more product diversity and an increased ability to compete with Amazon.

Methodology

Jungle Scout uses a proprietary algorithm to understand and predict consumer behavior across ecommerce sites. Our modeling factors include over a dozen different signals from online shoppers, including organic and paid search, purchase data, product ranking, sales, reviews, and more.

Data in this report is representative of the U.S. market and reflects sales on Walmart.com. It focuses on the fourth calendar quarter of 2020 through the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. “Black Friday” (November 27, 2020) is compared to the same holiday in the previous year, which occurred November 29, 2019; “Cyber Monday” (November 30, 2020) is compared to the same holiday in the previous year, which occurred December 2, 2019.

Dollar amounts represent gross merchandise value (GMV) in U.S. dollars.

Walmart Ecommerce Data: Black Friday & Cyber Monday 2020