on offer or offering a frictionless experience. There are two main target markets on Black Friday ö Loyal customers: Re
S E P T E M B E R 2017 Black Friday
OPTIMISING THE BLACK FRIDAY EXPERIENCE
KEVIN MURRAY, MANAGING DIRECTOR — www.greenlightdigital.com | +44 (0)20 7253 7000
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Commerce
Black Friday – two words that strike fear in the heart of even the most weathered retailer. It’s fair to say the adjustment to the Black Friday phenomenon has been difficult for retailers; we all remember the images from 2013 of people fighting in shops, websites crashing and orders taking two weeks to be delivered. However, Black Friday 2016 was very different to the craziness of 2013 and 2014. Dare I go as far as to say it felt relatively calm? With a whopping £6.45 billion1 spent over the seven days of Black Friday week and very little in the news about issues, it’s clear that retailers have learnt a lot from previous years. They’re now planning – pouring over analytics, testing performance well in advance, and ensuring fulfilment doesn’t fall over at the very last stage. And that wasn’t the only thing different about Black Friday 2016: what began as a one-day phenomenon started moving to a five-day event, and there was a significant shift from offline to online (with online sales over the period rising 36%2), with many shoppers choosing mobile over desktop.
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Commerce
SO, WHAT CAN WE EXPECT FROM BLACK FRIDAY 2017? WHAT WE ALREADY KNOW Black Friday falls on 24 November – however, many
öö Do you offer an “expected” Black Friday experience?
retailers are now running sales for up to a week over this
This could be anything from clearly highlighting deals
period
on offer or offering a frictionless experience
öö Your website is going to see a huge spike in additional traffic, so you need to ensure you have more on-site
There are two main target markets on Black Friday
infrastructure capacity in place and to test your web
öö Loyal customers: Regular site visitors who have an
platform’s performance for different scenarios in
idea of what they want and wait for the sales to buy
advance
from their preferred retailers. They’re typically more
öö And above all: preparation is key!
focused and have an explicit idea of what they want (e.g. a particular handbag model).
There are also some not-so-obvious questions that need
öö Bargain hunters: Those who are loyal to the price only, and who track a number of different retailers for
to be answered: öö What is your journey profile on Black Friday? öö Are you attracting your regular customers, or new and/ or irregular bargain hunters?
the same product. They’re typically not as informed, and will buy an item either on impulse or to meet a general need.
OPTIMISING THE EXPERIENCE Today’s consumers expect to shop on their own terms: on
increasingly deliver sophisticated customer experiences
the device they want, where they want, when they want
to shoppers, there are times when a simplified option
– and all with a consistent experience. While retailers
might be exactly what the customer wants.
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Commerce
FOCUS ON SHOPPING CONVERSIONS As the key objective of Black Friday is selling more, it makes sense to increase site throughput by creating a more streamlined customer journey. REDUCE
REDUCE
REDUCE
RANGE
TIME SPENT BROWSING
TIME SPENT CHECKING OUT
Categories
Site Search Optimisation (SSO)
Single-click checkout
Products
Alternative navigation
Reduce complexity and options
WHY REDUCE RANGE?
WHY REDUCE BROWSING TIME?
öö Give customers what they want;
öö Maximise your system resources on öö During Black Friday, shoppers are
analyse data from previous years to understand what shoppers are typically looking to buy öö Curating a smaller range enables you to sell more quickly, while
what’s important for that period öö Look to Site Search Optimisation
WHY REDUCE CHECKOUT TIME?
more driven by price than by the intricacies of customer experience,
to improve UI and UX (site search
and are likely to get frustrated by
goes up 50% during Black Friday)
complex checkout processes
öö Consider alternative navigation
öö A sleek checkout experience is a
maintaining high control of stock,
options (e.g. by including a gift
standard goal for any retail site –
eliminating performance concerns,
finder)
yet still a common pitfall
and delivering a good end user experience
öö Key reasons cited for cart abandonment are unexpected shipping costs (28%), having to create an account (23%), concerns about security (13%), and confusing checkout design (12%)3 öö Single-click payments could be introduced for Black Friday to simplify and speed up checkout time
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Commerce
OTHER CONSIDERATIONS öö Evaluate if you can afford to turn off any personalisation steps or settings for Black Friday to minimise users being deterred from checking out öö Don’t forget mobile experience – more than three fifths of Black Friday sales conversions took place on
way for the Brexit effect öö Make sure that any changes made solely for Black Friday are easy to revert afterwards öö Plan beyond Black Friday to ensure you develop a longstanding relationship with new customers
mobile in 20164 öö Factor in more international order options to pave the
YOUR BLACK FRIDAY ARCHITECTURE The day itself isn’t just about hosting and site capacity, so take a holistic approach when it comes to planning and keep these points in mind: öö Focused merchandising: don’t forget to highlight deals to customers öö Site feature relevance review: turn off or remove anything not relevant to Black Friday sales
öö Optimise experience for the event: make it easy to find and buy products öö Hosting and capacity still has a place: be prepared to bring in more processing power, but try to use what you have efficiently öö Consider creating a microsite just for Black Friday: this may align better with your brand and product priorities by avoiding tinkering with your existing site
Most modern enterprise eCommerce platforms provide the capability to scale for peak periods, provide a seamless checkout experience and allow you to easily reduce your range and revert back; however, if your platform doesn’t make it easy for you to make short-term changes, maybe it’s time to consider upgrading to get more out of peak trading periods.
1. 2.
http://www.techradar.com/news/black-friday-2017 http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-blackfriday/uk-black-friday-online-spend-jumps-36-percent-to-1-1-billion-pounds-experian-imrg-idUKKBN0TJ1HQ20151130
3.
https://www.emarketer.com/Article/How-Take-Advantage-of-Shopping-Cart-Abandonment/1011802
4.
https://econsultancy.com/blog/68587-black-friday-cyber-monday-2016-ecommerce-stats-bonanza/
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