Shopify merchants set a Black Friday record this November 24th, 2023, with a combined $4.1 billion in sales, a strong start to the biggest holiday shopping weekend of the year. From the crack of dawn in New Zealand through the final minutes in California, our merchants drove a 22% increase in sales over last year. Shopping peaked when collective sales reached $4.2 million per minute at 12:01 p.m. EST on Friday. Now its time to look at post BFCM strategy for your store!
Globally, BFCM 2022 according to Salesforce, resulted in $65.3 BN and $46.2 BN on Black Friday and Cyber Monday. In the US, Black Friday accounted for a whopping $9.12 Mn and Cyber Monday accounted for $11.3 BN alone.
In 2022, last year – Shopify merchants, the entrepreneurs that keep the economy buzzing accounted for 7.5B of those sales with more than 52 million consumers purchasing for brands all powered by Shopify. This was an increase of 12% from 2021.
Black Friday 2023 highlights from Shopify Merchants:
a) Hottest product categories: clothing, personal care, and jewellery
b) Average cart price: $110.71 ($110.08 on a constant currency basis)
c) Top selling countries: U.S., U.K., and Canada
d) Top selling cities: Los Angeles, New York, and London
e) 15% of total orders were made across borders
f) 33% year-over-year increase in global sales made on Shopify POS
During BFCM, your DTC store would have acquired customers at very high paid acquisition costs. To ensure long-term success beyond the BFCM during the holiday season, you must focus on customer retention and fostering loyalty.
According to a Klaviyo 2023 consumer spending report, consumers plan to shop primarily online this holiday season. On an average, consumers spend $745 on holiday gifts.
Implementing effective retention marketing strategies, Post BFCM can help you build a loyal customer base and create a sense of community around your brand. Here are some powerful strategies to consider:
Retention Strategies Post BFCM:
1. Embrace Zero Party Data:
In today’s privacy-focused landscape, relying on third-party data is becoming increasingly challenging. Instead, focus on zero-party data—the information customers willingly provide directly to you.
Octane AI is a zero-party data platform that helps increase conversion rates by collecting zero-party data (data that customers choose to give you). With Shop Quiz and Conversational Pop-Ups that personalize the shopping experience at every stage of your customers journey – website, email, SMS, ads and facebook messenger. This should be a key focus area post BFCM and in the holiday season.
a) Greet Customers with Conversational Pop-Ups: a faster way to increase opt-ins and data collection are conversational pop-ups. They help collect more data and opt-ins by asking a simple question. Deliver personalized product recommendations right in the pop-up. In addition, one can also set up click to messenger opt-ins, messenger ads and comment capture to gain more visitors and convert them into email, SMS or messenger subscribers.
Ask a friendly question, collect email or a phone number, show recommended products based on their answers and give an optional discount code. Then you can save all data to Octane AI and instantly sync with your email, SMS and or your ad platform. Post BFCM, your shoppers have a high brand recall for your brand, engage and greet them with fun conversational pop-ups.
b) Create a Shopify Quiz with Octane AI: collect detailed zero-party data to power deeper personalization. Learn more about visitors with unlimited quizzes, questions and logic branches. Improve AOV, by adding cart from the results pages. To know more about how to use quiz data to convert on-site traffic during the holidays click here.
c) Sync with email and SMS to power greater ROI: Improve email and SMS ROI by synching data with Klaviyo, Yotpo, Okendo and other platforms like ReBuy and Recharge Post BFCM.
d) Build Deep Relationships with Product Quizzes: It can be difficult for customers to identify which product(s) might be right for them. So, here is where one can leverage product quizzes to build deep relationships. Product quizzes enable you to offer great experiences for your customers, enhance CX and drive 5X higher sales.
2. Develop Referral and Loyalty Programs: referral marketing often has the highest conversion rate of all acquisition channels, leading to conversion rates of nearly 4X higher than the average rate of all channels according to an Okendo Study is a highly effective and cost-efficient way to expand your customer base.
By incentivizing existing customers to refer their friends and family to your brand, you tap into the trust and personal connections that drive purchasing decisions. referral programs don’t stop there. The customers you convert and retain (keep reading below for conversion and retention tips) during BFCM can be leveraged to acquire new customers post BFCM, during the holiday season and into 2024 through your referral program. During the holiday rush, when consumers are actively seeking recommendations and looking for the best deals, a well-designed referrals program can generate a steady stream of new customers. This is because referral programs act as powerful endorsements, carrying more credibility than traditional paid advertising.
Did you know? Okendo recently launched Okendo Referrals, making it easier than ever for DTC merchants to turn loyal customers into brand advocates by spreading the positive word about their brand to friends, family, and online peers. For more information, check out this blog on Okendo referrals and its benefits – learn more about Okendo referrals here.
Yotpo, has also made it so much easier to launch a loyalty program and optimize it. And, even more importantly, we’re driving up Loyalty ROI with new ways to increase redemptions and experiences that drive CLTV. Increase program participation and reward participation with:
– New On-Site Experiences: maximize awareness of loyalty program with new earning points modules, sticky loyalty program navigation and more
– Redeem with Expedited Checkout: Allow shoppers to redeem their points when using Shop Pay accelerated checkout
In addition, one can maximize CX, post BFCM, by creating personalized experiences like free shipping at checkout with Shopify functions. Ease the path to engagement and combine loyalty rewards with store promotions. Shopify’s new checkout UI lets Shopify Partners like Yotpo extend the checkout experience to include functionality that isn’t provided natively.
Yotpo Loyalty & Referrals merchants can easily install the new checkout extension on their store to allow their customers to redeem points for a discount when placing an order. The extension will automatically match the look & feel of your brand and fast loading time at checkout, having a positive impact on conversion rates. Additionally, merchants using the checkout extension will be able to offer point redemption to shoppers using Shop Pay.
One of the major benefits of your loyalty program is that customers can earn points when signing up or when leaving reviews. Seamlessly boost engagement by drag and drop dynamic loyalty blocks to personalize the review request email and showcase the members current status or encourage them to join the program by leveraging the loyalty block on Yotpo. Learn more about Yotpo referrals here.
3. Build Trust and Engagement through Community: Building a community around your brand goes beyond transactional interactions. It involves creating a space where your customers can engage with each other, share experiences, and connect with your brand on a deeper level. Post BFCM, check and enable or leverage the data you have about your customers to send personalized messages and offers that align with their interests and values. For example, if you sell athleisure and know you have a segment of customers who love running, you can organize health & fitness meetups or nutrition chats in their area. This allows your customers to connect with like-minded individuals, foster a sense of belonging, and establish a strong emotional connection to your brand.
4. Drive Loyalty through Subscriptions: Helps increase customer retention rate upto 80% and increase customer lifetime value upto 50%. Seamless Onboarding: quicker implementation. Launch your subscription program in minutes post BFCM. With a few clicks, easily add subscribe & save options to one product or multiple products.
Focus on building a more simplified Merchant Experience with a more powerful and time-saving subscription management tools for smaller teams, allowing them to work smarter, not harder. A subscription strategy is powerful if you have at least 5 SKUs. It guarantees predictable cash flow while protecting your margins, critical for a sustainable business. Learn more about Yotpo subscriptions here.
Yotpo’s integrated solutions help brands build more cohesive experiences that drive revenue and provide business efficiencies helping businesses grow.
5. Enhance the Post Purchase Experience
i) Focus on building a solid email and SMS retention strategy: include personalized recommendations tailored to customer buyer behavior and purchase intent data in Klaviyo and push these communications on both email and SMS channels. Tailor the headline and hero images, CTA and text based on a customers browsing or buyer behavior, by customizing HTML elements on email. Launch segmented journeys on SMS channels, leveraging Attentive or Postscript. Launch personalized cross-sell messages on your abandoned cart emails and SMS marketing communications.
ii) Personalize Email and SMS Campaigns with Zero-Party Data: every customer is different, so why serve them the same messaging? Leveraging Zero-Party data Post BFCM, allows you to dynamically personalize the subject lines, copy, images and recommended products in your welcome series based on the answers each person gives when interacting with a conversational pop up or product quiz. Site visitors takes your quiz or engaged with your conversational pop ups, use data collected to determine the best type of products and sync data to your email platform, then instantly show product recommendations, send a personalized email with dynamic product recommendations
iii) Personalize your post purchase flows with zero party data: Post purchase flows are critical to turn one-time customers into your repeat customers. Use data collected via conversational pop-ups and Shopify quizzes to determine the best products that this customer segment might be interested in. Personalize all email and SMS post purchase flows, so you can personalize campaigns in the future.
iv) Sync with Zero-Party Data Everywhere: whether its about synching Octane AI with your CDP like Klaviyo or with other platforms like Yotpo, Privy, Attentive, Justuno, Recharge, ReBuy, Malomo or Gorgias, Okendo – ensure you are synching all your tech platforms accordingly to avoid any loss of zero-party data and personalization efforts.
v) Enhance the post checkout experience with transactional emails: on an average a customer checks their status 4-6 times per order transaction. The standard Shopify setup has plain templated transactional emails and texts that drive customers to a generic order tracking page. The order tracking page is of significant importance as it is drives at least 10-20% of total website traffic. By implementing a solution such as Malomo, your store will be able to engage, inform and interact with your first time and repeat customers and personalize the experience based on the best experience you’d like to offer for your customers. Post BFCM, ensure you have also enabled the opportunity to drive cross-sell and upsell opportunities for your product portfolio and improve repeat purchase, enhance AOV and CLTV for your DTC store.
vi) Double down on Returns automation: Todays DTC world focuses on sustainable and profitable growth. And the best brands know they need the right returns partner to optimize return costs, retain more revenue and prevent return losses. Loop helps you optimize your website. Also helps you retain revenue, preventing revenue loss due to returns and supports your store with the capabilities to reduce return rates.
vii) Launch CRO across your website: Focus on personalization tactics for your DTC store. Preparing your site for the holiday season is key to driving those conversions and gift sales (as well as wish list wants!) – and it all starts with the home page. If you are looking for easy solutions to optimize your store, look no further – these tactics take minimal time and effort or development resources.
a) Highlight your bestsellers: The holidays are the peak season for people to visit your site that have possibly never been there before – likely because they’re shopping for someone on their list. If they know someone on their list is a fan of your brand or store, make sure your homepage highlights your bestsellers to give shoppers unfamiliar with your brand a jumping off point to learn more.
b) Show product they recently viewed: The likelihood of someone visiting your site, finding a gift they want to buy, and immediately purchasing it are pretty low. Customers tend to leave the site to think things over, search for coupon codes, compare prices, or research other items before deciding your item is ‘the one’. Save shoppers the hassle of trying to remember a product name by simply displaying what they looked at most recently.
c) Create a featured collection: The great thing about featured collections is they give your customers an immediate chance to preview what gift ideas you’ve got in store from the homepage, rather than having to find a gift guide that they think ‘might’ have what they’re looking for. And since customers can add products to their cart right from your recommendation boxes, this can also speed up your time to checkout
d) Promote region-specific offers and policies: Whether you ship locally, regionally, nationally, or internationally, chances are you have different fulfilment options for different geolocations. Lime Spot allows you to serve up different content and recommendations based on a customer’s location. You could use this to promote BOPIS (Buy Online, Pick Up In Store) availability when a shopper is near a retail location, free in-store pickup, discounted local delivery, and more.
e) Spotlight different gift guides to different audiences: Chances are you’ve got more than one gift guide post BFCM or during the holiday season, likely based on budget, gender, age, interests, or some other factor. The challenge becomes how do you spotlight them all without overwhelming your shoppers? With Lime Spot, you can change any HTML element on your site based on your customer’s browsing or purchasing behavior to promote a specific gift guide.
f) AB test your personalization strategy: It’s all too easy to get wrapped up in an idea you love, but putting all your merchandizing and personalization eggs in one basket is a risky proposition. AB testing often and early in your holiday campaign is essential to ensure you’ve got the ideal promotion, message, and imagery served up to your customers when the apex of peak shopping season hits.
g) Strengthen engagement through reviews: 93% of consumers say that online reviews have an impact on their decision making. More than 80% of reviews are submitted from a mobile device. For this reason, Okendo has created a mobile experience that is frictionless at every touch point within the review cycle. Each element of the Okendo platform has been built for superior speed and performance. Customizing reviews with attributes enable merchants to capture deeper insights into who their customers are and what they love about the products. Learn more about Okendo reviews here.
Enhanced mobile-first features include:
a) Mobile-friendly reviews widget
b) Strict adherence to iOS and Android security policy
c) Upload or capture new media within review form.
Referrals convert 4X higher than the average rate of all acquisition channels. Ask 5-star reviewers & NPS promoters to refer their friends. Make sure you syndicate Google product listing ads.
Yotpo is one of the most sophisticated Reviews solutions in the market today, helping thousands of forward-thinking brands build trust and accelerate their direct-to-consumer growth. But sophisticated doesn’t mean complicated, our scalable and buildable model uniquely allows us to support brands at all stages of growth-from those entering the market, to the largest and most established brands in the world. Learn more about Yotpo reviews here.
Your clients can collect customer reviews, photos, and videos by engaging shoppers where they are: on their phones.
a) Capitalize on mobile usage.
b) Mobile-optimized for easy and efficient content submission
c) Add a product’s average star rating to cart abandonment texts to leverage social proof into urgent recovery.
Yotpo Reviews sees a 66% increase in conversion rate. When sending review requests via SMS or email. 18% increase in CTR by incorporating social proof in SMS.
6.Enhance CX and minimize the order tracking experience: The significance of a reliable order tracking partner for Shopify brands cannot be overstated. A seamless and transparent order tracking system is a fundamental component of the customer experience, offering shoppers real-time visibility into the status and location of their orders. As consumers increasingly prioritize convenience and instant gratification, a robust order tracking mechanism becomes a crucial factor in building trust and satisfaction. Shopify brands that invest in a reliable tracking partner not only enhance the post-purchase journey for their customers but also reduce customer inquiries and support requests related to order status.
A dependable order tracking system reflects positively on a brand’s professionalism and commitment to customer service, fostering loyalty and repeat business. In an era where the overall customer experience is a key differentiator, a Shopify brand that prioritizes a reliable order tracking partner positions itself as customer-centric, reliable, and well-equipped to meet the expectations of today’s discerning online shoppers. In a first, market leader Malomo partnered with Loop more recently to improve retention by combining branded order tracking with an intuitive returns/exchanges experience – learn more about Malomo’s partnership with Loop here.
Want to learn to create the best first CX experiences for your store? Read more about how you can drive a phenomenal first CX experience here.
7. Invest in Post Purchase Email and SMS Flows & Campaigns: When a customer buys something from you this Black Friday or Cyber Monday, keep the conversation going post BFCM, for holiday marketing and for Q5. Send a personalized thank-you email, provide tips on how to use or care for the item they bought, suggest related products they might like or educate them on product ingredients and their benefits.
You can also offer exclusive offers or deals to those who complete a purchase, because there’s no better time to upsell than immediately after a customer’s already bought from you. Offer an extended return policy beyond BFCM.
People often buy gifts, and knowing they can return items hassle-free can make them more willing to purchase. Be upfront about your return policy changes to build trust.
8. Invest in Post Purchase Surveys: Fairing is an always on stream of consumer feedback, tied directly to their own transaction data. With fairing, one can gain proprietary insights at scale with 50%+ response rates. Question Stream allows for progressive profiling and post purchase feedback allows you to continue investing in enhancing CX, boosting product innovation and quality all with the goal to delight your customers.
9. Incorporate Reviews into Paid Advertising with Google Shopping: Customers flock to Google, with more than half saying when it comes to a purchase, they plan to make online, they use Google for research. That means building an effective search strategy is paramount. Make use of Google’s powerful product search platform to showcase your store to a vast audience actively shopping.
Platforms like Okendo make it easy to enhance Google Shopping Product Listings and Ads with ratings, reviews and UGC, providing a highly effective way for merchants to optimize their Google Shopping campaigns and stand out from the competition.
In addition, brands should leverage Google Seller Ratings to showcase their store’s star ratings on Google Ads. Enhancing Google Ads with ratings are demonstrably proven to:
-Stand out in Google search results and increase CTR
-Drive more qualified, high-intent shopper traffic to merchant stores
-Decrease Google Ad costs and maximize campaign ROI
10. Drive Post Holiday Retention with Automation and Self-Service Resources:
Customers value immediate responses and prefer a variety of support channels. Meeting customers on the channels they already use can improve both engagement and satisfaction. According to insights from News Cred, brands with omnichannel support have 23% higher CSAT scores. By leveraging a central helpdesk that keeps track of customer information in one place, brands can provide faster and more convenient assistance across channels.
Gorgias is the world’s #1 ecommerce helpdesk automation platform for Shopify, Big Commerce and Magento 2 brands. Gorgias helps you transform your customer support into a profit center. Gorgias integrates seamlessly with top ecommerce apps. Automates up to 20% of tickets using machine learning.
True omnichannel management includes SMS, phone, live chat, Facebook and Instagram comments and DMs, all in one place. Improve your team efficiency, customer retention and conversion rate with best-in-class customer service.
Small-to-medium and enterprise ecommerce businesses see drastic reductions in their first response and resolution times using Gorgias. Gorgias and its automation add on helps support teams automatically resolves common requests around order status, return requests, billing questions and more.
The Automation Add-On i.e. AAO, acts as a 24/7 virtual agent, powered by AI to help identify customer intent, allowing it to respond to personalized answers. Includes quick response flows, order management, article recommendation, email autoresponders for common queries including sending tracking information emails, request return emails, auto spam emails.
11. Focus on Cross-Sell and Upsell Opportunities, Maximize AOV:
In light of rising inflation, consumers are potentially less loyal and more price-sensitive. They’re also doing their holiday shopping a lot earlier. To make the most out of every engaged shopper on your site, you need to help your customer cut through all the product choices and focus them on a highly targeted, personalized shopping experience.
With technology tools such as ReBuy, CartHook and Lime Spot one can launch intelligent automated bundling strategies that help drive up AOV, CLTV and repeat purchase rates.
Upsell and promote trending items, bestsellers, reach customers at the right time when they are ready to make that purchasing decision whether its on your homepage, product detail pages or cart. Highlight your bestsellers, show products they recently viewed, create a featured collection and spotlight deals of the day or gift guides to specific segments accordingly.
12. Invest in Martech Stack Optimization: Now that BFCM has gone past it pays to take a deeper look at what worked and what did not. This also means focusing on identifying gaps in your martech stack, conducting an audit of potential issues with overinvesting and underutilizing your tech stack as well as outsourcing effective deployment and use of your martech stack by tapping retention commerce agencies that have the right resources to partner with your team and help you achieve exemplary store performance.
By executing the above strategies, you can supercharge your DTC store and build a sustainable and profitable DTC business. You can also increase AOV, repeat purchase rate and grow your profit margins. Convert your first time visitors to first time buyers and turn them into repeat purchasers.
At Smarte Digital Inc. we offer irresistible Q5 holiday offers that will help you and your team get to a winning start in 2024. To know more, book a free 30 min introductory call with us at https://www.smartedigital.com/contact-us.
