The stretch from Black Friday through Cyber Monday is to online retailers as the Super Bowl is to football. If you’re in eCommerce, this is what you live for. Black Friday and Cyber Monday are not only synonymous with the holidays; they have essentially become holidays themselves.
The holiday shopping season is big–tell you something you don’t know, right? Being a digital engagement partner to top global brands and businesses, Moxie has an all-access pass to Black Friday and Cyber Monday data. Here’s what we saw in 2016:
Moxie’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday Data Roundup
Moxie customers saw 2x traffic to their website over the Black Friday-Cyber Monday weekend.
The biggest spikes in traffic were 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. on Black Friday and 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Cyber Monday.
A case study on one major retailer’s use of Moxie Concierge revealed the following:
Almost 1 in 2 digital engagements via Live Chat resulted in a sale.
Total engagements increased 66% over the Black Friday weekend compared to the previous month.
Live chat conversions increased by 60% during the same period.
Across the board, our customers saw an average of double the amount of conversions over the Black Friday weekend compared to previous non-holiday weeks.
Make the Most of Your Next Traffic Spike
Black Friday isn’t the only time of year that businesses need to prepare for. Christmas, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, and even Back to School bring significant sales opportunities in just about every market. Here’s a quick guide to help you prepare for your next wave of web visitors.
Review
What happened last time? How about the year before? Did you have ample staff, licenses, and interaction rules in place? It’s important to learn from past data. During busy times, many businesses lose track of lessons learned and areas for improvement.
Communicate
Make sure your entire staff is aware of the promotions that you are running. Sound internal communications are key to maximizing traffic surges. Update your response templates to ensure agents can speak confidently about promotions and answer the barrage of questions they will likely receive.
Educate
Seasonal demand often calls for additional staffing. The one thing you don’t want is for a customer to receive sub-par service due to a lack of knowledge on an agent’s part. All of your agents should be properly trained. If time is tight, Contextual Information can make things easier. Cross training is also critical–you need your staff to be interchangeable and knowledgeable in every area.
Mobile First
Consumers are spending more time than ever using their mobile devices to search for–and more importantly, purchase–products and services. They expect a seamless experience across different devices, so don’t forget to test across every entry point. This should be done well ahead of an anticipated spike in order to provide time for any fixes that might be needed.
Mobile Wins …For Traffic
Mobile saw majority of traffic with 56%. Tablet was at 9%. This trend held over the weekend until cyber Monday when desktop momentarily spiked to 52%. We believe this is due to traffic from work!
Monitor Struggle
Check your analytics not just before and after the busy period, but also during. With the high volume, it is possible that customers are seeing things you are not aware of. Be flexible with your interaction rules, and change things on the fly to help alleviate reported pain points that might be losing sales.
Be Flexible
Remember that “normal” consumer behavior doesn’t always apply during busy periods. Traffic spikes are dynamic, which means you need to be, too. Offering different routes for sales and service assistance is essential. Don’t make it hard for the customer–provide knowledge where needed, and instant access to live chat when self-service isn’t succeeding. The conversion process should be as smooth as possible regardless of which route a customer takes.
It’s not all About Black Friday
Sometimes the days you think will be the busiest turn out to be disappointing–that’s part of eCommerce. Many viewpoints see Cyber Monday as less of an event than the preceding Black Friday, but that isn’t necessarily the case. At Moxie, we saw more traffic on Cyber Monday than on Black Friday–indicating that online retailers shouldn’t be taking their eye off the prize at the start of the week, or ever, for that matter. To learn more about Moxie’s digital engagement suite, click here.
The post Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2016: Inside the Numbers appeared first on Moxie.