Unlocking Potential: Our Strategic Guide to Maximize the 2023 Digital Shopping Extravaganza
As the leaves turn and the air gets crisper, the retail world gears up for its most anticipated season – Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM). This shopping extravaganza has evolved over the years, and the upcoming 2023 BFCM trends and predictions indicate that we’re in for a shopping frenzy like never before.
Insights that will help shape your Cyber Week marketing strategies:
- Extended Black Friday Deals
- Test Early
- Omni-Channel Shopping Experiences
- Personalization and AI Integration
- Use Lifecycle Marketing to Build Relationships
- Discounts and More
- Social Commerce
- Customer Care
According to Salesforce data, global online retail sales during Cyber Week in 2022 reached $281 billion (a 2% increase over 2021) and $68 billion in the U.S. alone (that’s 9% over 2021 numbers!) However, experts predict that 2023 will outperform 2022, setting the stage for the biggest BFCM event ever. If there was ever a time to prepare your marketing efforts, it’s now.
Let’s dive in…
Extended Black Friday Period
The early bird catches the worm, and in this case, early marketing efforts capture the hearts of consumers. We anticipate a continuation of the extended Black Friday period. Retailers will likely start promotions and deals earlier, possibly even a week or more before the actual Black Friday. This strategy allows consumers to spread out their purchases and gives retailers an edge in a competitive market. Begin with teaser posts and stories designed to create anticipation. Once Cyber Week comes closer, add content with urgent messaging to remind consumers that time is running out to take advantage of your discount.
With economic headwinds like inflation, the employment rate and jobs, affecting our daily lives, recent data from Ware2Go shows that 73% of merchants still expect higher holiday sales in 2023 despite economic pressure.
We expect that 25% off will be the median discount that we will see for goods and services this year with even more aggressive discounts on things like higher minimum AOVs, free shipping, and discounts on subscriptions and bundles.
Test Early and Test Often
Our recommendation is to test during other promotion-heavy timeframes, like July 4th or Labor Day. We recommend investing in creative at 5% to 10% of the annual media budget. Now more than ever, creative is playing a critical role in conversion. Creative extends to brand, ad creative, messaging, product photography, websites, landing pages, collateral, etc.
Regardless of what type of promotion or discount you decide to go to market with this BFCM, know that flexibility and agility is key.
Omnichannel Shopping Experience
Consumers expect a seamless shopping experience, whether online or in physical stores. This year, we predict an even stronger integration of omnichannel strategies. Retailers will focus on providing a consistent experience across various platforms, ensuring that customers can seamlessly switch between online browsing and in-store shopping.
Personalization and AI Integration
Personalization has been a growing trend in marketing, and in 2023, we expect to see an even deeper integration. Using AI and machine learning, retailers can tailor marketing strategies to individual consumer preferences, providing personalized deals and product recommendations. This will enhance the overall shopping experience and increase customer satisfaction.
Use Your CRM to Captivate and Capture Consumers
Email, SMS, and in-app marketing allow you to reach a wide – but engaged – audience, build anticipation, and ultimately drive sales. CRM marketing is more important than ever in the post-iOS14 world as the changes to data and privacy protection elevates the need for a strong CRM strategy.
Build your CRM lists throughout the year with engaging content, pop-ups, incentives, and promotions that resonate with your audience.
We’re recommending five key tactics for successful CRM marketing during BFCM:
- Segmentation, and we cannot stress this enough, segmentation. Send the right message to the right audience at the right time.
- Reward brand loyalty with early access to promotions and incentives.
- Use a mix of SMS, email messaging, and push notifications to talk to your audience in their preferred method of communication.
- Work smarter, not harder, by automating and personalizing your workflows, like cross-sell, upsell, and cart abandonment.
- Test and optimize. Improve your email metrics by testing key components in both email and SMS, including messaging, CTA language and placement, time of send, and more.
Building long-term relationships with customers is crucial for retailers. Exclusive membership and loyalty programs, offering early access to deals, personalized discounts, and special perks, will be a major strategy for retaining and attracting customers during the Black Friday season.
Discounts and More
BFCM may have started out solely focusing on providing exclusive discounts, but what consumers want and expect today has evolved. For instance, according to Zippa, free and fast delivery and customer reviews are more important to Black Friday shoppers than prices.
When it comes to Black Friday shopping, the average shopper spends $430. With consumers ready and willing to buy, brands should offer payment options. Retaildive.com says Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) orders increased by 85% compared to Cyber Week to the week prior, and revenue from it increased by 88%. Afterpay, a BNPL service provider, saw transactions rise by 120% during Cyber Week last year, compared to before the holiday. This data from 2022 emphasizes the growing popularity of BNPL services during the holiday season.
We’re recommending that all our clients integrate BNPL options, if they haven’t already, into their payment systems to help attract consumers looking for flexible payment solutions.
We are also a wide range of incentives throughout the holiday shopping period, like:
- New customer discounts
- Loyalty program perks
- Gift with purchase (GWP)
- Subscription and/or loyalty program incentives
Channel and platform selection is equally as important to defining your promotional plan.
At Lamark, we take a highly collaborative and strategic approach to Cyber Week planning with our clients.
The Rise of Social Commerce
Social commerce is a growing trend, with Deloitte estimating that about one-third of shoppers in the US purchased social media in 2021. We expect an uptick in social commerce, where consumers can directly purchase products from social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok. Retailers will invest more in social commerce strategies to reach consumers where they spend a significant amount of time.
This means that to guarantee success for the 2023 holiday season, social media can’t be forgotten.
You can further connect with users across all social media platforms swiftly and easily by using a holiday-specific hashtag. This can help you engage with potential customers and monitor the effectiveness of your BFCM campaigns across different social media platforms. A great example of this strategy is seen by Target, who used the hashtag #targetholiday across multiple posts in 2022. There are currently over 7.6K posts using this hashtag on Instagram alone.
Quick and Responsive Customer Service
With 2023 expected to be another record-setting year for BFCM sales, you can expect higher-than-average traffic through your website and social platforms. To reduce strain on your customer support team, you should ensure your store policies and FAQs are updated.
Be ready to answer quickly and succinctly as customers expect timely answers. According to manychat.com, Facebook adds a badge on any business page that responds to 90% of comments, posts, and messages within 15 minutes. On Instagram, users expect a response in under three hours, while on Twitter, customers expect a response within 15 minutes. Responding to questions as soon as possible allows brands to build trust with customers and create long-lasting relationships.
This shopping spectacular remains a significant opportunity for businesses to boost their sales and engagement with customers. The insights and predictions for 2023 suggest that this year will be no exception, with a strong focus on early marketing, mobile optimization, and responsive customer service. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither will be your BFCM strategy.
We started conversations with our client’s mid-summer and we’re looking forward to seeing the plans come to life and driving Black Friday/Cyber Monday success.
If you’re feeling underprepared or looking for a new partner, we can help.