Beyond Black Friday: How to Sustain eCommerce Momentum Post-Sale Season

With Black Friday and Cyber Monday just around the corner, ecommerce businesses are gearing up for the biggest online shopping events of the year. According to data collected by BigCommerce, “in 2020, desktop orders were at 49%, while smartphones accounted for 43% during a record-setting year —  despite disrupted supply chains.” Although Black Friday provides online retailers with a chance to greatly increase their revenue, this often sets many ecommerce companies up for a sharp nosedive in sales when January rolls around. As Black Friday is fuelled by impulse buys and the desire to bag the best bargains, over-buying leaves many consumers with aching pockets and tightened budgets for the following months, so how do we sustain ecommerce momentum post-sale season?

Understand The Value of The Post-Purchase Experience

With such an influx of new shoppers, eCommerce businesses have a chance to gain a horde of regular customers. Whether retailers retain these customers, though, is all down to the way in which they navigate the post-purchase experience. It’s integral to keep in touch with the customer even after they press ‘purchase’ and continue to add value to their experience. A few ways you can do this is through offering discounts on next purchases, providing them with all the information they need regarding their purchase and introducing loyalty schemes. For example, our partner Stamped uses AI-powered rewards schemes to maximise engagement and boost customer retention. This attention to aftercare can turn a one-time customer into a lifetime one.

Email Marketing Campaigns

An increased effort in email marketing campaigns is a great way to keep your customers interested and aware of your businesses’ presence all year-round. However, the key to success when it comes to using email marketing is personalisation. Often, email campaigns can disappear into the abyss of the customer’s inbox (or just become a nuisance) because they don’t show that the customer is valued as an individual. Chris Christoff from MonsterInsights suggests “send a message to all of your subscribers living in a colder climate with a promotion for your winter gear, or segment your email list based on what they previously browsed in your store. Send them messages with exactly what they want.” By tailoring your content to the individual, you’re showing that their wants and needs are your top priority.

Solidify Your Returns Policy

As much as we’d like customers to always be satisfied with the products they have purchased, returns are inevitable. Especially during periods like Black Friday when prices are slashed significantly, many customers flock to bag the best bargains, often leading to over-buying. However, there are ways we can reduce the need for returns and make the process as smooth as possible when they are necessary. Firstly, it’s important to make sure your returns and exchange policy is clearly outlined, especially before the customer hits the checkout. For smaller businesses, you may want to put stricter policies in place to avoid being hit with return costs. According to The Guardian, “it costs up to £20 to reprocess each individual item” that is returned, which has led to a lot of retailers choosing to put a charge on returns. Read all about our take on this statistic and how to navigate returns as a retailer in our whitepaper ‘The Point of No Return: A Retailer’s Guide To Returns’. Although retailers can make their own decisions about their returns policy, if you don’t make these policies clear, you could end up with some very angry customers which ultimately means bad reviews for your site. If a customer does decide to return an item and is abiding by the returns policy that has been outlined, make sure to keep them updated. No one likes being kept in the dark.

The Importance of Customer Service

Staying in touch with customers post-purchase might also mean keeping them in the loop when their purchase isn’t going smoothly. Whether it be an issue with returning an item or delayed delivery times, any inconvenience to the customer could easily leave a sour taste and deter them from returning. However, this is also a great opportunity for you to show off how great your customer service is. Being honest with your customer and ensuring any problems are resolved efficiently will ultimately build trust and make the customer feel like they’re in safe hands, even when things go wrong. 

Request Feedback

As well as an increase in revenue, an influx of new customers is a great chance to gain lots of useful feedback. Customers who are new to your site are going to bring a unique viewpoint that can enable you to improve and grow. In addition to this, by getting back in touch with loyal long-term customers, you’re letting them know that their opinions are valued and gaining an understanding into why customers may or may not choose to return to your site. Gathering this information and utilising it is a great use of that post-sale slump. By digging into the data, you could glean some valuable insights to incorporate into your most successful strategy yet.

Black Friday brings with it many opportunities for ecommerce growth, but this growth shouldn’t halt as the sales end. By leveraging a spike in engagement with a thorough post-purchase strategy, retailers can soften the blow of the post-sale slump and sustain the momentum that huge sales events put into motion. With our dedication to organic and sustained ecommerce growth, 5874 Commerce can help you to implement these strategies for your business. For example, read our blog post on ‘Unlocking The Power of Customer Reviews with Stamped’ for more on how we can help you leverage customer reviews for a better post-purchase strategy.