Rakuten Saw Huge Jump in Visits Leading Up to Cyber Weekend

Content Manager

Rakuten saw a huge jump in visits to its ecommerce site, the rise in consumer sales and traffic began Monday before Black Friday with a spike on Thanksgiving Day and an increase the morning of Black Friday, according to a press release.

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Rakuten kicked off its marketing campaign during the week of Nov. 25 with publicized promotions and over 2,400 limited time deals from over 100 participating marketplace merchants, according to a press release. Tuesday and Wednesday following the sales,  the company advertised its Rakuten Super Points loyalty program and continued momentum by offering 10% back site-wide.

Rakuten also saw an increase in sales, including 101% growth over the 2012 holiday season  on Thursday and 61% growth on Black Friday.  Cyber Monday came early for Rakuten,  Saturday and Sunday proved to be huge shopping days, according to a press release.

The company saw 76% year-over-year growth on Saturday and 123% increase from the 2012 holiday season on Sunday.  Merchants on Rakuten saw an overall increase in sales of 66% over the extended holiday weekend, compared to 2012, according to a press release.

Mobile sales increased by 51% during Thanksgiving and Black Friday and 31% of visits came from a mobile device during the Thursday through Monday promotional period, according to a press release.

Rakuten also saw that shoppers were more engaged, with conversion rates up 25% with a 22% increase in page views per visit on Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday, according to a press release.