Blog post
Cyber Week 2022: Top Retail insights on Microsoft Advertising
This Black Friday, we saw record-breaking numbers—with online sales reaching $9.12 billion, a 2.3% increase year over year (YoY). Cyber Monday was even stronger with $11.3 billion in sales, which equals out to a 5.3% increase YoY. In total, “Cyber Week” (the timeframe between Thanksgiving and the days back at work as people continue to shop online) is estimated to have net out at about $35.27 billion in sales online, which accounts for almost one-fifth of all sales in the months of November and December.1 This growth carried over to Microsoft Advertising, as we saw a strong lift YoY across multiple Retail categories on both Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
Top keyword trends and category growth
Of the top 50 keywords searched on Black Friday (containing “Black Friday”):2
- 58% contained big-box retailer brand names
- 20% included either “sale” or “deal”
- 18% included either terms related to “Apparel” or terms related to stores focused solely on “Apparel”*
- 16% included either terms related to “Consumer Electronics” or terms related to stores focused solely on “Consumer Electronics”*
- 16% included either terms related to “Home Improvement” or terms related to stores focused solely on “Home Improvement”*
* Stores that are focused on multiple categories weren’t included in percentages (for example, Target).
Top 10 Retail categories by YoY search growth on Black Friday:2
- Home Storage & Organization → +100%
- Kitchen & Bathroom Cabinets → +97%
- Rain Gear → +93%
- Make-up & Cosmetics → +74%
- Shaving & Grooming → +63%
- Computers → +57%
- Skin Care → +55%
- Parties & Party Supplies → +54%
- Sports & Fitness Apparel → +53%
- Lip Care → +52%
Top 10 Retail categories by YoY search growth on Cyber Monday:2
- Rain Gear → +100%
- Office → +81%
- Make-up & Cosmetics → +74%
- Home Storage & Organization → +68%
- Yard, Garden, & Patio → +66%
- Sports & Fitness Apparel → +58%
- Computers → +58%
- Parties & Party Supplies → +55%
- Skin Care → +48%
- Consumer Electronics → +48%
[1] Techcrunch, Cyber Monday online sales hit a record $11.3B, driven by demand, not just inflation, says Adobe. Date information pulled: 12/6/2022. Retrieved from:
https://techcrunch.com/2022/11/29/cyber-monday-online-sales/
[2] Microsoft.com Insights, Microsoft Advertising Insights search data 2022. Date information pulled: 12/5/2022.
