Brands Briefing: Changing Cyber Week patterns and drawn-out sales force brands to shift strategies 

This year, the big question on the minds of retail executives was: Will shoppers still spend big, in light of tariffs? And, just like in years past, they did. Shopify merchants did $6.2 billion in sales on Black Friday, up 25% from last year. Separately, an hours-long Shopify outage cast a bit of a cloud over Cyber Monday. 

How much of that boost was due to price increases is up for debate. Salesforce data, for example, showed that, while U.S. Black Friday sales were up 3% year-over-year to $18 billion, prices were up by an average of 7%, while order volumes were down 1%. By midday Monday, Salesforce was projecting that U.S. Cyber Monday sales would reach $13.3 billion by the end of the day, up 4% from last year. 

Still, it was a better-than-expected Black Friday for many brands. Made In, for its part, hit its Cyber Week goals almost exactly on the head, within 1% of projections. But how the brand got there, Malt said, was different than in years past. 

International sales played a bigger role this year, as Made In has prioritized growing that side of the business amid tariffs. Made In also had a better-than-expected November but didn’t see the Black Friday sales spike it had expected. 

Ultimately, it felt “like the [consumer] demand was there, it just got there kind of in a roundabout way,” Malt said. 

On Monday, Modern Retail checked in with three brands — Made In, Brooklinen and Tecovas — about their respective Cyber Weeks. What those conversations showed is that strategies are shifting as Black Friday has become Black November. Shoppers have caught on to the fact that sales are no longer just limited to one or two days; they are stretched out over the course of weeks. That gives shoppers more time to compare deals or hold items in their cart — something that was especially prevalent this year as shoppers have been demanding value, in light of continuous price hikes. 

That makes the weeks and months leading up to Black Friday all the more crucial. Brands can no longer bet on a one-day doorbuster deal, combined with a firehouse of Facebook advertising, to woo customers. There was a greater focus this year among executives on carefully fine-tuning their brand’s value proposition, investing in the right brand marketing to stand out in a noisy environment, and figuring out which media placements actually move the needle, in an age where more people are turning to AI for product suggestions. 

Brooklinen’s focus on brand building

Brooklinen spent much of this year focused on “making our positioning more deliberate for where we are as a premium player in the market, and on specifically giving the consumer a reason to buy our product,” said its CEO, Billy May. That strategy built upon the work the brand did last year of introducing more customers to the brand through partnerships. 

In April, the brand ran a campaign called “Best in Bed,” calling out the fact that it has won more than 200 awards over the past 11 years across a variety of products. It introduced new products, like a plush towel, and relaunched existing ones, like its linen sheets. 

Cyber Week, then, was a test to see just how much the initiatives that Brooklinen put into place earlier in the year would pay off. Brooklinen also did “more planning in advance, with more diligence and more contingencies than in the previous couple of years,” May said. 

Ultimately, May said Cyber Week exceeded Brooklinen’s expectations. Looking across Brooklinen’s entire product assortment, sales of product bundles were up 15% year-over-year, and “represent more than a third of our total business,” which May chalked up to the fact that the consumer is demanding value. 

Robes were also a best-seller this year. Brooklinen’s super-plus robe was named one of Oprah’s Favorite Things this year, “which definitely helped build demand and provide a halo for that product.” May said Brooklinen didn’t just see a one-time sales spike from the Oprah’s Favorite Things mention, but rather, momentum for that product continued to build throughout the month of November.

He said it’s an example of a gift guide that still “provides a certain element of validation,” in that “they look at thousands of products and only a handful are selected.” Brooklinen also incorporated the Oprah’s Favorite Things mention into its broader holiday campaign messaging. As a result, sales of robes overall were up 70% compared to last Cyber Week. 

Telling a different story at Tecovas 

Krista Dalton, chief marketing officer and chief digital officer at Tecovas, said she was feeling very confident heading into Black Friday, based on the state of the business. Sales are up 45% year over year for the Westernwear brand, which has historically been known for its cowboy boots. “I knew we were trending ahead of our forecast, and we had some space to grow,” she said. 

But she still felt a bit of nervousness, based on “all the macro trends people were talking about.” 

“People were saying there’s only going to be one present that people are saving up for. And so, our job in marketing became: How do we show how special our product is, so that if consumer fear really is rising, we’re the choice for the holidays?” Dalton said. 

One of the things Dalton was most excited about this year was how consistent Tecovas’s growth was — sales weren’t just limited to Black Friday and Cyber Monday. “We continued to grow, like, 30% over the whole week,” she said. 

Tecovas pulled a few levers to help with that. Overall, Tecovas offered 20% across its website. But the brand ran a “doorbuster” deal this year — 40% off its lightweight duffel and men’s leather backpack — specifically from Nov. 28 through the morning of Dec. 2. 

“That helped our traffic and sales on Saturday and Sunday, which are traditionally just a little bit of a lull compared to the other days,” Dalton said. The deal also helped build awareness for Tecovas’s accessories business, which has been a priority this year. When Dalton spoke to Modern Retail mid-Monday, sales of Tecovas’s accessories were up about 80% compared to the same period last year.

Tecovas also ran broadcast TV advertisements during the Texas-Texas A&M and Georgia-Georgia Tech football games, encouraging people to visit a Tecovas store, and calling out the fact that products were 20% off in-store and online this weekend only. 

Another interesting change in behavior Dalton noticed this year was how many people were holding items in their carts. Tecovas lets people who have signed up for the brand’s email and SMS list get early access to its Cyber Week sale. Dalton said sales during the early-access period were a little softer than expected, but that adds to carts were up significantly, “so I think customers were just spending more time in the research phase,” she said. 

Her takeaway from this year was that consumers seem to have much less urgency, now that shoppers know that most deals are no longer strictly limited to Black Friday or Cyber Monday.  

“I think people use their baskets or their carts as like a wish list, and they’re doing a ton of consumer comparative shopping as they go through,” Dalton said.  “That behavior is really interesting, and I’ve talked to the team a couple of times [about the fact] that we need to debrief on what that means for next year.” 

Made In’s value play

Malt, like Dalton, believes consumers have now caught on to the fact that Black Friday sales now last weeks, and are adjusting their behavior accordingly. “It felt like a lot smoother year for us,” he said, because sales were spread out more. 

In particular, Malt said the nine days leading up to Black Friday were much bigger than expected. However, that meant that Made In also didn’t see as big a spike as expected on Friday. Black Friday was still Made In’s biggest sales day ever. But, given how much sales were up in the days leading up to Black Friday, Malt was initially expecting a bigger sales bump on the actual day. 

While shoppers were looking for value, they were also willing to spend. Made In’s site advertised up to 30% off for Cyber Week, but it also offered a curated cookware set — meant to encompass everything a cook may need to complete their kitchen — at $2,500, which was around 33% off. Malt said sales of the complete kitchen cookware set were up about 250% year over year. 

Made In experimented with some new tactics this year to drum up awareness ahead of Black Friday, like running ads during the Paramount+ show “Landman.” 

And, as in years past, value-hungry customers seemed to take longer to make a purchase. During Black Friday, Malt said Made In always asks new customers when they first heard about the brand, and more than 50% said more than six months ago. 

What it proves, Malt said, is that, “When you think about trends [leading] into Black Friday, the stuff you’re doing in March of next year is already setting you up for the following Black Friday.”

What we’re reading

• Some users experienced a Shopify outage during Cyber Monday. 
• Brands that are popular among teens like Edikted, Bandy Melville and Kendra Scott saw big Black Friday traffic to their stores as the holiday remains a popular shopping occassion for Gen Z. 
• Skims is hosting a holiday-themed live-shopping event on TikTok on Dec. 3. 

What we’ve covered 

• Fake apologies on Instagram have become the latest trend that brands risk running into the ground. In recent weeks, brands like Tower28, JVNHair and Material Kitchen have run posts on Instagram apologizing for their products being “too good.” 
• What it’s like running a warehouse on Black Friday, according to Beachwaver, Leatherology and Weezie. 
• How Nisolo’s new CEO plans to turn the footwear brand around.