The holiday season encompasses the next three months in the form of Halloween by the end of next month to Christmas and New Year by the end of the year. But the most important or ‘peak’ holiday season lies between the two (in November this time) in the form of Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM).
Since we’ll be talking extensively about these days in this article, we’ll use the acronym BFCM hereafter.
This article is not only for e-commerce experts but also for the e-commerce novice. So bear with us as we go through the details.
What is BFCM and Why is it so Special?
Thanksgiving is no longer a single-day event in the festive season. It is the start of a 5-day event dubbed Cyber Week or Cyber Five. The event consists of Thanksgiving followed by Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Super Sunday, and Cyber Monday. Black Friday and Cyber Monday are the Friday and Monday following Thanksgiving.
Not just Cyber week, Thanksgiving also marks the official commencement of the holiday season itself. Talking about BFCM, the trend started when customers, who wanted to get their shopping done ASAP to prevent their favorite products from going out of stock, began shopping for Christmas right at the end of Thanksgiving.
There’s usually high demand for items such as toys, home furnishings, mattresses, and apparel on Black Friday. At the same time, Cyber Monday is known for low prices on tech-related merchandise, like smartphones, laptops, TVs, gaming consoles, and VR devices.
With the growth of e-commerce, changing trends, and customers’ increasing shopping needs, BFCM 2022, just like the last couple of years, has become more than just a couple of days by starting weeks before and extending weeks after.
Therefore, the best opportunity to bring in more customers to your store, positively impact them, and ultimately increase profit margins is now.
Here are some tips and tricks for you to make the best out of BFCM 2022.
BFCM 2022: Insights for E-commerce Businesses
1. Set definitive BFCM KPIs
With less than 100 days to go for BFCM 2022, this is your time to finalize your drawing board plans and work on definitive KPIs that can set you up for success. Having a fixed set of goals helps you stay on track and provides room for improvements. For starters, you can include KPIs such as increasing conversion rate, net profit, website/ app traffic, reducing bounce rates, etc.
2. Make effective use of email and SMS
Assort your campaigns as pre-BFCM, BFCM, and post-BFCM to meaningfully engage with your customers and bring in more holiday sales. Let your customers know of your BFCM offers, follow up with campaigns tweaked based on segments, and end it with elements that add a sense of urgency for those who have abandoned their carts.