Cyber Weekend Benchmarking Information: 2023 SaaS and Software Holiday Spend Report
Q4 sales numbers usually outperform other times of the year thanks to year-end holidays and their associated shopping cycles -- but how much of this trend extend to the software or SaaS sales? And does it improve B2B business sales as well, or is it more of a B2C benefit?
is a seller that acts as a record-keeper for more than 3500 companies that use our platform daily for selling digital products worldwide. We've analyzed aggregate sales data to help you understand how crucial Q4 could be for your software, SaaS and other digital goods business.
While modern holiday shopping trends could have begun in Black Friday deals and spread to Cyber Monday, the entire weekend is nowadays described as Cyber Weekend -- and sales throughout the quarter are generally strong as shoppers are getting ready for their many Christmas celebrations. Are you taking advantage of all revenue opportunities in the fourth quarter of your software company?
Below, we'll cover:
About Our Data
What is the Source of the Data Come From
The company supports more than 3500 businesses to help sell digital goods in over 200 countries and territories globally, but we've narrowed down our data used in this study to make the report applicable to software and SaaS firms.
The information below is particular to where the sales were made, not where the companies are located.
In order to get global data for the global market, we chose eight countries -- the United States, Canada, Germany, Great Britain, India, Brazil, Australia, and China for a a broad view of worldwide sales.
If you are Using the data are from
The information below is gathered from 2018 to 2022, providing the most up-to-date insights, while showing trends that are relatively similar across the five years and avoiding any outliers skewing the information unnecessarily.
Additionally, we use an index of seasonality to show the sales of each quarter or month with respect to the year's weekly or monthly average.
US Year-End trends SaaS as well as Software Purchases
We first looked through U.S. software and SaaS sales statistics from the years 2018 to 2022 in order glean insights on quarterly and monthly sales patterns over the past five years.
After calculating an average for the month, we compared the month's sales to this average to determine the percentage. In the example above, if February has a percent of 90%, that indicates that it's 10% less in sales than the average monthly. If the November sales report shows a percentage at 111% that indicates that its sales are 11% higher than the average for each month.
5YR Average US SaaS and Software Sales by Month
The peak sales are in November at 11% more than average for the month however, the sales for every month of Q4 have the highest levels throughout the year. October is particularly high, with sales being 4% more than the previous month and December at 8% higher.
5YR Average US SaaS as well Software sales per Quarter
If you look at the average of quarterly sales, Q4 sales are higher by 8 percent and are so high that three of the quarters falls just below the median.
World Year-end Trends in SaaS and Software Purchases
Beyond to the U.S., we combined data using the same parameters from the U.S., Canada, Germany, Great Britain, India, Brazil, Australia and China. This helps us get a better understanding of the way late-year software sales could vary across the world.
In fact, the bump gets bigger.
5YR average Global SaaS and Software sales by Month
Global sales jumped to a yearly high of 16% during November, compared to the month-to-month average. Similar to above U.S. data above, November and December complete the highest quarter of the year with respective 4% and 7% increases.
5YR Global Average SaaS and Software Sales by Quarter
If viewed from a quarterly perspective the Q4 figure is 9.9% higher than the quarterly average and, yet again, that high enough to make the other three quarters to below the median.
Global Q4 quarter-end sales were merely 1% higher than sales in the U.S. for the same period, November as a standalone month showed a jump of 16% compared to the U.S.'s 11% jump in the same month -- suggesting that November specifically represents a massive sales opportunity all over the world.
5YR Average SaaS and Software Sales per Month for each country
More information on how each month breaks into countries We analyzed the information for eight countries that we included in our global analysis. Here's what monthly software sales changes look like using five years of data for the United States (US), Canada (CA), Germany (DE), Great Britain (GB), India (IN), Brazil (BR), Australia (AU), and China (CN).
The huge gains in nations such as China and Germany during November indicate a huge potential for SaaS and software businesses to make money in the fourth quarter particularly if you're trying to target those markets as part of a global expansion plan.
Additionally, while U.S. data suggest a less significant increase of 11% in November, it is important to remember the fact that North America accounts for a significant huge portion of the world's software and SaaS sales. One research study showing 43% of 2022 global software revenue attributed to North America, and one study estimating a portion of approximately 57.5 percentage of 2020 global SaaS market that is attributed to NA. Thus, a increase of 11% in November in North America in the U.S. could mean a lot more revenue if you consider it a piece of a much larger pie.
B2C vs. B2B
The majority of businesses that sell software internationally offer simultaneously B2C as well as B2B markets. However, no matter if your SaaS company is focused only on one or both is important to observe how sales patterns differ across the two markets. The information gathered can assist you in determining how to focus marketing and sales efforts in these segments, especially when one market offers better chance.
The data that resulted show similar trends across the year. Q4 was the strongest quarter for both segments.
B2C sales saw an average bump that was 11% higher than the average for the quarter and is perhaps not surprising given the fact that this season is known for promoting consumerism -"consumer "consumer" is the wording.
But don't sleep on the B2B market in Q4. Even though B2B sales appear slightly more stable throughout the year in comparison to B2C revenues, a five percent increase in Q4 is significant within a sometimes spend-happy segment that still takes advantages of sales at the end of the year, regardless of whether a buyer is buying to themselves or for their business. Corporate credit cards are still used by a lot of people, those who are looking to purchase software, and who may still want a good deal in particular if tight departmental budgets are a factor in their purchase decisions.
Furthermore, some B2B customers could be looking to make use of up budgetary money before the end of the year so that their budget is not cut the following year. They may be pushing their departments or teams to be equipped using the appropriate equipment prior to the beginning of the new year. Business-specific instances like these could be a factor in the rise of B2B sales during Q4 despite the numerous holiday work disruptions.
Cyber Week Strategies For SaaS and Software Companies
Wondering about the best ways to take advantage of that Q4 bump? No matter if you're targeting B2B or B2C customers These are a few tactical ways to increase sales of software and SaaS sales by the end in the calendar year.
Offer Partners Custom Coupon Promo Codes
In addition, you'll have the ability to better track how that sale promotion was able to perform compared with other coupon codes.
Aren't able to find partners to give Special Coupons to? Locate Some!
If you're not yet taking advantages of promotions, the holiday season can bring new contacts. Find other SaaS and software companies with products which complements your own. (For instance, if for example you create a database application search for companies who make front end tools.)
In addition to custom coupon codes, provide the opportunity to trade Cyber Weekend promotions to each of their audiences through the use of newsletter messages, website banners, social media mentions, or other preferred methods to help each company increase end-of-year sales.
Email Your Own Prospects
Even if you don't decide to engage in partnership-related promotionsin the event that it's a larger project you'd need additional time to plan -- emailing your existing prospects is an incredibly quick and easy tactic to carry out.
Potential buyers can't benefit from offers they don't even know about Don't just rely on a website banner to attract the attention of potential purchasers when they go to your site. Inspire the visitors into your website by sending them proactive mailers about coming or current sales to get their attention where they are.
Send Your Current Customers an Email
Like prospective customers, consumers can't get upsold if they don't know about the holiday sales, neither.
Here are a handful of the profitable opportunities you can pursue within your current user base
- Add-ons to upsell. Examine user information for those who use your products the most often or the most general, because they may have the highest likelihood of wanting additional features as well as accessibility.
- Increase subscriptions by offering additional features. Like downloads, if it is possible to determine your product's top users, you can target people who are most likely to buy more of your product.
- convert freemium customers into paid subscribers by offering an irresistible sales. If freemium is a big component of your model, a successful Christmas sale could serve as a lever to bring in customers who are enthralled by their access to but know they could really use a lot more of them.
- upsells from individual subscriptions to team subscriptions or from enterprise to team subscriptions. It might not be straightforward to find out which power users are also evangelists for your products within their own company, but if have contextual user information (such such as the kind that can be collected by your internal salesforce) then Q4 is an ideal time to reach out to businesses with some users, but also the opportunity to get much more.
- Cross-sell to completely new products. If your company model includes various standalone items, you have a huge possibility to market the base of one product with promotions to buy another or reverse. If you're able to offer more products, the more the segmentation that you are able to do, and the more opportunities you have.
- Switch users between annual to monthly subscriptions. The English phrase "A bird in the hand is two in the bush" frequently applies to business, as revenue available to your company right now might be better than slightly more revenue doled out in a gradual manner over the next. Profit from buyers in a shopping mindset at the end of Q4: tempt customers with an appealing bargain to cut costs for the future when they switch their subscription to a yearly one.
Leverage Social Media
Social media is an excellent platform to commemorate holidays, and sharing festive posts from your business can work well.
A lot of social media platforms offer advertising options that target users by geographies or by interests. Take advantage of the ability to display regional holiday advertisements within the relevant regions or to display ads to users who may have mentioned their interests in the holidays on the platform.
Conversely, organic social media posts -- which can often be seen by all users that follow your account, regardless of location can also be a good option to increase sales while not restricting views to a tiny group of people. Be aware that if you have followers or an audience are very diverse the holiday-related posts you post must be as well.
Give More Exciting Discounts in The Target Geos
If you have higher profitability within a specific region, or simply want to get into a different market, offering more competitive discounts in certain regions can help you further profit from Cyber Weekend sales increases.
For implementation, you can use GeoIP-based features on your site to promote region-specific discounts.
Use's Store Builder Library to automate the application of these coupons during checkout. This can boost your conversion rates.
Localize Holiday Promotions
While Cyber Weekend has become popular all over the world There are a few local holidays that are more lucrative in the region or country you're trying to reach. The holidays like Boxing Day can rival more U.S.-centric specials (such such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday) for countries like those in the UK, Australia, and Canada.
Make sure you tailor your Christmas season promotions by geography so you don't miss great opportunities in important regions.
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