Cyber Weekend Benchmarking Information: 2023 SaaS and software holiday Spend Report -
Q4 sales numbers usually outperform the rest of the year due to the end of year holidays and the associated shopping cycle However, what percentage of that increase translate to the software or SaaS sales? Does it help B2B business sales as well, or is it more just a B2C advantage?
is a seller that acts as a record-keeper for more than 3500 businesses that utilize our platform daily to sell digital products globally. We've examined aggregate sales data to give you insights into the importance of Q4 to be to your SaaS, software or any other digital good commercial.
Although the latest trends in holiday shopping may have started by offering Black Friday deals and spread into Cyber Monday, the entire weekend is nowadays referred to as Cyber Weekend -- and sales across the entire quarter generally are strong as consumers are getting ready for their many Christmas celebrations. Are you optimizing all possible potential sales in Q4 for your software company?
Below, we'll cover:
About Us Data
Where the Data Are From
The company supports more than 3500 businesses to help sell digital goods to more than 200 nations and territories around the globe, but we've narrowed down the data we used for this report in order to keep the report applicable to software as well as SaaS companies.
The data below are also particular to where the sales took place and not the location which location the businesses are situated.
To get the overall statistics, we selected eight countries which include: including the United States, Canada, Germany, Great Britain, India, Brazil, Australia as well as China in order to provide the full picture of the worldwide sales.
when it comes to the Data Are From
The data below are pulled from 2018 to 2022, providing the most recent information while showing trends that are similar across the five years as well as avoiding outliers that could skew the information unnecessarily.
Also, we utilize a seasonal index that highlights the sales of each quarter or month against the year's monthly or quarterly average.
US year-end trends for SaaS and Software Purchases
We first looked at U.S. software and SaaS sales figures from 2018-2022 in order to get insights into monthly and quarterly sales trends across the last five years.
In order to calculate an average for the month, we compared the month's sales to the average in order to calculate an approximate percentage. If, for instance, February's percentage is 90%, this signifies that it's 10 percent less in sales than the monthly average. If, for example, November has a percent that is 111% that indicates that its sales are 11percent higher than the average monthly.
5YR US SaaS Average and Software Sales by Month
Although sales peak during November when they are 11 percent higher than the average monthly however, the sales for the entire quarter are the highest throughout the year, with October with a 4% increase and December being 8% more.
5YR US Average SaaS as well Software sales per Quarter
Looking at the average of quarterly sales Sales for Q4 are up by 8 percent -- high enough that three of the quarters falls just below the median.
World Year-end Trends in SaaS and software purchases
Going beyond the U.S., we combined data with the same characteristics from U.S., Canada, Germany, Great Britain, India, Brazil, Australia and China. This gives us a clearer image of how late-year software sales might vary across the world.
In fact, the bump gets bigger.
5YR Global Average SaaS and Software Sales per Month
The global sales rose to an annual high of 16% higher in November compared to the monthly average. Similar to above U.S. data above, October and December round out the highest quarter of the year by registering 4and 7 percent increases.
5YR Average Global Software and SaaS Sales by Quarter
From a quarterly perspective the Q4 figure is 9.9% more than the quarterly average and, yet again, so high as to push the other three quarters below the median.
While global Q4 quarterly sales were only 1percent higher than the sales within the U.S. for the same quarter, November as a standalone month saw an increase of 16% over the U.S.'s 11% growth in the same month -and indicating that the month of November offers a tremendous opportunity for sales across the globe.
5YR SaaS Average and Software Sales per Month for each Country
For more detail of how each month's sales break into countries, we parsed the information for eight nations we included in our global review. Below is a look at what monthly software sales changes look like using five years of data for those countries: the United States (US), Canada (CA), Germany (DE), Great Britain (GB), India (IN), Brazil (BR), Australia (AU), and China (CN).
Significantly high gains in countries such as China and Germany in November suggest an enormous potential for SaaS and software companies to make money in the fourth quarter in particular if they're targeting those countries as part of a global expansion plan.
In addition, although U.S. data suggest a smaller lift of only 11% in November, keep in mind this: North America accounts for a huge huge portion of the world's software and SaaS sales, with one study reporting that 43% of the 2022 total software sales that is attributed to North America, and another reporting a share of up to 57.5 percent of 2020 global SaaS market that is attributed to the NA. So, a rise of 11% during November in the U.S. could mean a greater amount of revenue, if you consider it a piece of a much larger pie.
B2C vs. B2B
Many companies that use to sell software globally serve both B2C as well as B2B markets, but regardless of whether your SaaS company is focused only on one or both, it can be helpful to keep track of how the Q4 sales performance differs between two markets. The resulting information can assist you in determining how to focus marketing and sales activities within these two categories, specifically if one segment offers a greater potential.
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 median for the period and is perhaps not surprising during a time of year that is known for its promotion of consumerism- "consumer" is part of the wording.
However, don't be too smug about B2B sales in Q4. While B2B revenue appears to be slightly more stable throughout the year as compared to B2C revenue, the 5% lift in Q4 is significant in a high-spending segment, which is taking advantages of sales at the end of the year, regardless of whether a buyer is buying either for themselves or their business. Corporate credit cards are of course still wielded by a lot of people, those who are looking to purchase software, and who might still want a good deal, especially if rigid departmental budgets play a role when making purchases.
Additionally, some B2B shoppers could be looking to make use of funds from their budget prior to the year's end so that their budget is not cut the following year. Or, they might be pushing teams or departments to set up with the right equipment ahead of the start of the year. These kinds of business-related events could contribute to increased B2B sales in Q4 despite the many holiday work disruptions.
Cyber Week Strategies For SaaS and Software Companies
Looking for the most effective ways to take advantage of that increase in Q4? Whatever your goal is, whether B2B or B2C shoppers, here are some tactical ways to increase sales of software and SaaS sales prior to the close in the calendar year.
Partner Custom Coupon Codes Give Partners Custom Coupon Codes
Plus you'll be able to better track how that sale promotion was able to perform compared with other coupon codes.
Do You Not Have Any Partners To Give Discount Coupons Customized to? Locate Some!
If you're yet to take advantages of promotions The holiday season is a great time to bring new contacts. Look for other SaaS or software firms with products that compliments yours. (For instance, if for example you develop a database software check out companies that produce front-end software.)
In addition to custom coupon codes, provide the opportunity to trade Cyber Weekend promotions to each of their audiences through the use of emails, web banners, social media mentions or any other method to help each company increase end-of-year sales.
Email Your Own Prospects
Even if you choose not to go after partnership opportunities -- or if that's an even bigger project that you'll need more time to plan for sending out emails to your current prospects is an incredibly straightforward and simple method to execute.
Prospects aren't able to benefit from offers they don't even know about Don't just rely on banners for your website to draw the attention of purchasers when they go to your website. Get them to your site with proactive mailers about coming as well as current deals to grab the attention of those who are.
Contact Your Current Customers
As with prospects, customers can't be upsold if they don't know about holiday promotions, either.
Below are some possibilities for profit you can pursue within the existing users you have:
- Upsell add-ons. Examine user information for those who use your products the majority of the time or broadly, since they might be most likely to want additional features as well as usability.
- Upsell bigger subscriptions with more features. Similar to downloading, if you are able to pinpoint your product's power customers, you can focus your efforts on the ones most likely to purchase more of the product.
- Change freemium users to paid subscribers by offering an irresistible sales. If you consider freemium to be a major component of your model, a successful sales during the holiday season could serve as a lever to bring in customers who are enthralled by the features they have access to but are aware that they could use a lot more of them.
- Upsell from individual subscriptions to team subscriptions, and from team-based to enterprise subscriptions. It might not be straightforward to determine which users also become evangelists of your product at their own company, but if have contextual user information (such such as the kind that can be gleaned by your own internal salesforce) the fourth quarter of 2018 could be an ideal time to reach out to companies where you have some customer penetration, and an opportunity to acquire many more.
- Cross-sell into entirely new items. If your business model comprises a variety of standalone items, you have a huge opportunity to target the user customers of one with offers to purchase the other or reverse. The more products you have and the greater segments you're able to create, and the more chances you'll have.
- Switch users from monthly to yearly subscriptions. It is the English adage "A bird in a hand is worth two in the bush" frequently applies to business because the revenue that is available to your business today might be better than a little more money distributed slowly throughout the next year. Make the most of customers being looking for bargains during Q4 by entice customers with an appealing bargain to cut costs over the long term by switching their monthly subscription to a annual one.
Leverage Social Media
Social media is an excellent platform to commemorate occasions, which is why sharing holiday-themed posts from your business can work well.
Numerous social media platforms provide advertising services that can target users by geographies or by interests. You should consider taking advantage of the capability to display regional holiday advertisements within the relevant regions or the ability to show ads to people who have expressed interests in this holiday on the platform.
Conversely, organic social media content that can be viewed by anyone who are following you, regardless of where they are located -- are also a great option to increase sales while not limit the number of views you can get to a specific group of people. Be aware that if you have followers or an audience are very diverse, your holiday-specific organic posts should be too.
Provide More Coupons for Geos. Geos
If you have higher profitability in one particular area or simply want to enter a new market, offering more competitive discounts in certain areas can allow you to profit from Cyber Weekend sales increases.
For implementation, you can use GeoIP-based elements on your marketing site to promote region-specific discount codes.
Then use 's Store Builder Library to automatically apply those code at checkout. This will improve your conversion rate.
Localize Holiday Promotions
While Cyber Weekend has become popular across the globe There are a few local celebrations that could be more lucrative in the area or nation you're looking to target. Holidays such as Boxing Day can rival more U.S.-centric promotions (such like Black Friday and Cyber Monday) in countries such as the UK, Australia, and Canada.
Create your own holiday campaign according to geography, so that you don't miss big opportunities in key areas.
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