Citi names Black Friday, Cyber Monday’s winning retailers

Citi analysts say there’s one retailer that stood out in the rush to tempt online customers in the pre-Christmas rush.

Jewellery retailer Lovisa successfully brought new shoppers to its website during the cyber shopping season, Citi analysts say. Picture: Alix Sweeney

Jewellery retailer Lovisa has emerged as the biggest winner from the recent Black Friday sales as customers rushing its discounted offers and promotions drove a 149 per cent spike in its online page views, although the raging success of the shopping event is likely to have pull forward traditional Christmas sales.

A report on the wash-up from the Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales from Citi analyst Sam Teeger has nominated Accent, Baby Bunting, Lovisa, Beacon and Michael Hill has the big winners among small-cap retailers, with all having made a positive start to the 2019 holiday trading season.

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“In our view, online engagement between retailers and consumers is key to driving online sales and preventing consumers from switching to pure play online retailers such as Amazon,” the report says.

Mr Teeger said in his note to clients that all five retailers experienced online traffic growth during the key Black Friday to Cyber Monday week.

But it seems as though jewellery chain Lovisa won the week.

“We observed the largest increase - 149 per cent - in online page views during the 2019 Black Friday – Cyber Monday week at Lovisa. While this is pleasing, Lovisa’s online sales is growing off one of the smallest bases among the five retailers, and at this point we view online as being more helpful in landlord negotiations opposed to a material contributor towards sales growth,’’ Mr Teeger said.

“Lovisa continues to have the best long-term growth story in the Australian small cap retail sector, underpinned by its global rollout.”

Mr Teeger said that rival jeweller Michael Hill had a growth in online page views of 53 per cent, supporting its turnaround strategy, while sneakers and streetwear retailer Accent, whose brands include The Athlete’s Foot, Platypus and Hype DC, had around 1 million visits to its key websites.

“Accent’s strong momentum was demonstrated during the 2019 Black Friday – Cyber Monday week when more than 1 million consumers visited Platypus, Hype DC, The Athlete’s Foot and Skechers’ Australian websites, resulting in 22 per cent increase in total page views.

“We see Accent as well placed to drive digital sales growth over the medium term given opportunities in new platforms and investments to scale infrastructure.”

Citi said Baby Bunting continued to be well-placed from an improved competitive landscape, and new growth opportunities in shopping centres and related services. However, Mr Teeger added short term challenges may exist as growth in total page views at Baby Bunting’s website during the Black Friday – Cyber Monday week were up 8 per cent and slowed relative to 2018, when growth was 48 per cent.

The key now is to see how the growing popularity of the sales event so close to Christmas will affect sales in the lead up to December 25 and the Boxing Day sales.

“The outcome of (Black Friday and Cyber Monday) which is likely to be a pull forward of December sales into November and cleaner inventory heading into the Christmas trading period. We expect the Christmas trading period to continue to ramp up later each year with the ongoing growth of Black Friday.”