- 66%+ new customer rate during peak days
- Brand Stores Drove 17% of T5 Sales (↑ from 10% in Oct Prime)
a PLTFRM Company
BFCM 2024: Extended Event Drives 3.9x Portfolio Sales Lift
VENDO’s Strategic 12-Day Push Fuels Consistent Growth Across Amazon Portfolio
Sep 23, 2024
+3.9x
sales lift vs. Nov. baseline (excluding outliers)
+5.1x
lift for brands offering 40% discounts
+23.4%
conversion rate
BFCM 2024 Highlights
Context
In 2024, Amazon expanded Black Friday Cyber Monday (BFCM) from the traditional 5-day Turkey Five (T5) to a 12-day event (T12) running November 21–December 2. The result? A steady stream of demand over a longer window—with a more level sales curve replacing the typical sharp BFCM spike.
Amazon reported its biggest holiday shopping season ever, with 60% of sales coming from third-party sellers. On the consumer side, mobile dominated again with 73% of all orders placed via smartphones, while AI tools like Rufus and Inspire helped customers navigate an increasingly crowded deal landscape. VENDO’s challenge was to leverage the extended event window to drive incremental growth while maintaining efficiency and visibility across a highly competitive marketplace.
Performance Analysis: BFCM Sales Lift by the Numbers
Turkey Five (T5) vs. November Baseline
- +3.9x sales lift across portfolio (excluding outliers)
Main Event Performance by Duration
- 4 days: +2.6x lift (1 brand)
- 5 days: +2.9x (5 brands)
- 6 days: +3.4x (2 brands)
- 12 days: +3.9x (51 brands)
Insight: Longer runways provided more time to convert, with steady demand outpacing past short-term spikes.
Discount Strategy
Deeper discounting correlated directly with stronger conversion and revenue lift across VENDO’s portfolio.
| Discount | Avg. Lift |
|---|---|
| 20% | 1.9x |
| 25% | 2.5x |
| 30% | 4.8x |
| 40% | 5.1x |
Insight: VENDO’s data shows a clear relationship between discount depth and sales performance. Brands offering 30–40% off achieved the highest conversion rates and overall revenue lift, validating the importance of strategic discounting during peak promotional windows.
YoY Trends
The 2024 T5 vs. 2023 T5 performance remained consistent, despite broader economic and consumer behavior shifts.
YoY Category Performance (excl. outliers)
- Health & Household: +1.5x
- Grocery & Beauty: -0.9x
Lead-In Period Performance:
- 2023: +1.31x lift
- 2024: +1.27x lift
Insight: While category dynamics varied, VENDO’s portfolio maintained stability year over year—demonstrating that early preparation and continuous optimization can offset broader market volatility.
Customer Behavior
New shoppers were a primary growth driver during BFCM 2024, signaling a significant opportunity for post-event retention.
| Day | New Customers | Repeat Customers |
|---|---|---|
| Black Friday | 66% | 34% |
| Cyber Monday | 68% | 32% |
Insight: With two-thirds of sales coming from new customers, retention and remarketing strategies in Q1 will be critical to sustaining this growth momentum.
Advertising & Media Strategy
VENDO deployed a full-funnel media strategy combining Amazon Ads, organic ranking, and external ads to capture and convert high-intent shoppers throughout the extended BFCM window.
Amazon Ads Performance
- +2.8x WoW lift in ad-attributed revenue
- Ad % of total sales: increased 8%
- ACOS decreased 2.4% (from 2023)
- CVR decreased slightly to 23.4%
- Recommendation: +150% budget during T5 vs. 30-day avg
Page 1 Ranking Campaigns
VENDO implemented strategically timed keyword diversification to help defend visibility across multiple product categories.
- Facial Roller: ROAS 5.75x, #2 organic position
- Greens Supplement: ROAS 3.43x, top 10 ranking
- Scent Diffuser: #2 for “waterless diffuser”
External Traffic (Meta, Google, TikTok)
- Used Amazon Attribution to boost ROAS by 10% referral fee bonus
- Tracked external traffic impact on ranking and retargeting
- Tools like PixelMe supported post-event remarketing into December
Insight: A synchronized ad ecosystem—combining paid media, organic ranking initiatives, and external traffic—proved essential in sustaining visibility and efficiency across the 12-day BFCM event.
Influencer & Affiliate Highlights
Targeted influencer and affiliate activations played a key role in driving upper-funnel awareness and converting off-Amazon audiences into engaged shoppers.
Health & Wellness
- 19%+ of sales via affiliate
- 22.5K clicks, 30K detail page views (DPVs), 250+ conversions
Home & Kitchen
- 8% of sales via affiliate
- 15K clicks, 21.4K DPVs, 500+ conversions
Insight: Proactive influencer outreach, product sampling, and evergreen affiliate placements generated authentic demand that complemented paid media efforts and sustained sales momentum throughout the promotional window.
Brand Store Performance
Brand Store usage expanded dramatically, accounting for 17% of Turkey Five sales, up from 10% in October’s Fall Prime.
| Category | Store Sales % | Growth vs. Pre-T5 |
|---|---|---|
| Health & Household | 26–57% | +463% to +1592% |
| Home & Kitchen | 41–46% | +1275% to +1592% |
| Grocery | 56% | +93%, but -14% total sales |
| Sports & Fitness | 32–37% | +59% to +612% |
| Fashion & Accessories | 31–37% | +112% to +445% |
| Beauty & Personal Care | 26–31% | +33% to +463% |
Insight: Several brands shifted existing demand into Brand Stores rather than generating net-new sales from them, a trend particularly visible in Beauty and Grocery. In these categories, Brand Stores primarily served as a channel to redirect existing shoppers.
Key Takeaways & Recommendations
- Longer Events Work—With Caveats Extended runways like T12 saw steady, scalable returns, but peak-day impact diluted compared to past years.
- Discount Depth Drives Results Brands offering 30–40% off consistently outperformed lighter promotions, demonstrating the importance of strategic discounting.
- Cross-Channel Strategies Win External traffic, influencers, and Brand Stores all contributed to diversified demand capture.
- Brand Stores Are Critical Categories such as Home & Kitchen and Health & Household showed that optimized Brand Stores aren’t just supplementary—they are essential for driving sales.
- New Customers = Growth Engine With 66–68% of BFCM sales coming from new buyers, Q1 retention and remarketing efforts are key to sustaining growth.
BFCM 2024 revealed a shifting landscape for Amazon tentpole events, with extended promotional windows creating steadier demand and Brand Stores emerging as a pivotal channel for capturing and directing shoppers. First-time buyers drove a significant portion of sales, highlighting the opportunity for retention-focused strategies (e.g., Brand Tailored Promotions, retargeting ad campaigns) post-event.
Looking ahead, brands can capitalize on these insights by refining Brand Store strategies, aligning discounts with shopper behavior, and integrating cross-channel media to drive measurable growth and strengthen customer retention in future tentpole events.