Having just completed its third annual event, Click Frenzy wants to be Australia’s equivalent of Cyber Monday. Here we wrap up data reported by Click Frenzy itself, IBM’s Digital Analytics Benchmark, and Marin Software’s data on search marketing activity. 

The first event, in 2012, had some hiccups, (‘Botched Click Frenzy sale event – advertisers ask for refund‘) but 2014’s event has seen solid growth by all accounts.

Here’s what various parties are reporting about Click Frenzy 2014:

What Click Frenzy says

Two years on, retailers have improved their strategies and tactics and customers are responding, says Click Frenzy Pty Ltd’s PR representative, with significantly more activity across a broader range of offers than seen in the two years the event has run previously.

The company is reporting the following key statistics for the 24 hours between 7pm Tuesday 18 and 7pm Wednesday 19 November 2014:

• Traffic (preliminary figures): 1,230,000 visitors (16% increase on 2013),
• Page views: 7,122,450 (25% increase on 2013),
• Visits sent to retailer websites: 1,977,260 (22% increase on 2013),
• 60% of all visits to Click Frenzy occurred between 7pm and 11pm Tuesday night, and
• traffic from mobiles and tablets accounted for 54% of all traffic, up 5% on 2013, with one-third of all traffic coming directly from smartphones.

The top brands and products were:

• Most searched-for categories: tablets, TVs and sunglasses,
• most popular deals: Bonds kids wear, Sheridan sheets and towels, and Lego with Mr Toys Toyworld,
• hottest brands: Lego, Apple and Samsung, and
• hottest retailers: Anaconda, Quiksilver and Adidas.

Click Frenzy says it’s too early to predict sales results, other than to, “safely say we project an increase on 2013 sales figures.”

What IBM says

IBM today reported record online and mobile sales for Australia’s third Click Frenzy ahead of the Christmas shopping blitz. The results are based on Australian online shopping transactions analysed by IBM Digital Analytics Benchmark. The key trends are:

• Click Frenzy online sales were up 27.7% over the same period in 2013,
• Click Frenzy mobile traffic reached 43%, up 29.4% over the same period in 2013, and
• Click Frenzy mobile sales reached 20.4%, up 15.3% over the same period in 2013.

Ian Wong, retail industry lead for IBM Australia, said, “Our hypothesis is that omni-channel retail experiences have really taken hold in Australia over the last 12 months. We anticipate customers are fusing in-store experiences, using the concept of ‘show-rooming’ to touch and feel products, complemented by mobile browsing both in and out of store, and then using the convenience of online to make the purchase. Australians are really making the most of multiple retail channels to get the best products and best deals possible – and we anticipate this trend will continue to grow in popularity.”

What Marin says

Data provided by search marketing platform Marin Software indicates search advertising spend during the Click Frenzy weekend was 40.5% greater than last year, while clicks are 41.8% higher than last year.

These search marketing stats were provided by Marin:

• Clicks: 44% more clicks on 18-20 November vs the week prior, and 46.3% more clicks on 18-20 November than month average,
• Click-through rate (CTR): 27.8% higher CTR than the week prior, and 25.9% higher CTR than month average, and
• Spend on paid search: 21.3% higher than prior week, and 20.0% higher than month average, and
• Cost per click (CPC): 1.1% higher than prior week, and 0.9% higher than month average.

Marin predicts that as Click Frenzy grows, more retailers participate and more competitors emerge, online activity will follow and so will the ad dollars.

Disclosure: Click Frenzy was co-founded by Grant Arnott, a former employee of Niche Media, publisher of Marketing.