Black Friday Cyber Monday (BFCM) weekend is often the busiest time of year for ecommerce brands, with customers around the world anticipating massive savings and exclusive deals ahead of the holiday season. According to Shopify, merchants reached a record $9.3 billion in sales in 2023 - a 24% increase from 2022 - with over 61 million customers purchasing from Shopify-powered brands worldwide. Better yet, over 55,000 brands had their highest-selling day ever.
As for Stamped, our brand community had an incredible BFCM last year, too:
- Over $250 million in total GMV (USD)
- Customers earned 3.3 billion reward points and spent 176 million reward points
- Around 300,000 customers moved into a new VIP tier
- One of our biggest brands saw a 25% conversion rate after review searches
With all the hype around BFCM, we wanted to dig a little deeper into how things panned out last year so we can help you make the most of it this year, whether it’s driving more sales, collecting more content, or retaining more customers. Here's a preview of what to expect from our insights report, Beyond the Numbers: Unlocking BFCM 2024.
BFCM customers are the least valuable customers you’ll acquire all year.
....that is, if you don't do something about it.
BFCM is the perfect time to acquire tons of new customers - after all, everyone is looking for good deals and you just might have exactly what they need. With the right offer, strategy, and product, you might think you’re ready for your best holiday season yet.
But here’s a thought: what are your newly acquired customers actually worth? Probably not as much as you’d like. In fact, they might be the least valuable customers you’ll acquire all year.
Consider how you acquired these customers and it’ll all make sense. Maybe they were buying gifts for a friend and weren’t actually the end user. Maybe they wanted to take advantage of a huge deal and have no plans - or budget - to come back. Maybe their preferred brand didn’t have a great deal or their desired item in stock, and they plan to go back to their usual shopping habits now that the holidays are over.
No matter what it is, you might end up spending a lot of time, resources, and effort on trying to retain customers who just aren’t that into you. They aren’t interested in clicking your ads, opening your emails, or making another purchase. And they're not only driving up your marketing costs, but driving down your customer profitability, too.
Here’s what we found:
- Only 18.1% of customers who made their first purchase in November have since returned to make another purchase, and just 15.1% of customers who made their first purchase in December
- The average drop from month-to-month was around 1.3%, but between October to November, this dropped 4.6% from 22.7% to 18.1%
- For comparison, the average percentage of customers who returned after making their first purchase in 2023 overall was 24.28%
- And finally, the highest rate of returning customers comes from those who made their first purchase in January at 28.8%
And if you’re curious about the value of those first purchases, here’s what else we found:
- Average order values during BFCM are bigger than usual, but not enough to make a difference. AOV for the entire year averaged out at $90, while AOV during BFCM averaged out at $95. The good news is, discount rates don’t significantly decrease AOV: for example, the health & beauty industry achieved both its highest discount rate and lowest AOV all year during Cyber Monday, as you’d probably expect. But, despite the 29% average discount rate, the $74 AOV was only slightly smaller than its annual average of $82.
- Average basket size is not only smaller during BFCM, it was at its lowest during Black Friday. Customers purchased an average of 4.73 items per order throughout the year across all industries. This dropped all the way to 3.2 items per order by Black Friday, then jumped back up to 4.2 items per order during Cyber Monday. There could be a few reasons for this - customers spreading their holiday budget across multiple stores, customers shopping in-person - but the drop is steep enough to make a difference.
In short, customers making purchases during the holiday season aren’t spending any more than usual and they aren’t very interested in coming back, meaning you might be the one paying the price.
So, what can you do to solve this?
- Retention isn't just about following up, it's about following through. As tempting as it is to focus solely on how to bring in new customers during BFCM, acquiring them isn’t the only thing that matters. In fact, getting a plan in place for how to retain them now is just as important. And while you might be thinking, sure, they’ll start receiving your marketing emails eventually, that’s not enough to get them to stick around. Top brands focus on setting up repurchase, cross-sell, and about-to-lapse flows to fold BFCM customers into their communities and marketing emails to keep them engaged well beyond the holidays.
- Surprises and delights that actually matter. We all know what comes after we make an online purchase: the barrage of post-purchase emails about your order, and then the marketing emails we might eventually unsubscribe from, because we don’t really plan on coming back. Stand out with delightful experiences that aren’t about making a sale. Create a hook that’s more compelling and maybe even a little unexpected. Send a text-only email that feels more like it’s from a friend, thanking them for their purchase. Explain your returns & exchange policy so they know you’ve anticipated their needs and are here to help. Maybe throw in an extra discount code, because why not?
- Don’t ask for a second purchase just yet. Customers are usually all shopped out by the time the holiday season is over, so the last thing you want to do is ask them to make another purchase and lose any goodwill you might have had. Find other ways to provide value so customers know you aren’t just about getting that next sale. This might look like sharing a few of your latest posts from social media or including user-generated content in your next email blast. Tell them about an upcoming event or tease your next product release and get them excited about engaging with your brand.
- Send them a little nudge - but only a little. Like sending a message after a first date or an email after a job interview, timing is everything. If your product is the kind that needs to be replenished - think food or skincare or supplements - then consider your product’s lifetime before deciding when to ask them if they’re ready to buy it again. If your product is the kind that isn’t as easily replenished, if at all - think apparel or appliances or furniture - then consider when they’ve had enough time to experience your product before sending a related product recommendation their way.
Get instant access to the rest of the report and discover how your customers will spend, review, and redeem this holiday season.
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