Gain new insights with our Black Friday stats on how to set up your eCommerce business based on customer behavior during Cyber Week.
Black Friday, Cyber Monday & Cyber Week are a global trend #
Black Friday has become a phenomenon both online and in stationary stores. What started as a purely American event has become a global kickstart to the holiday shopping season and has expanded from Friday to a whole week (Cyber Week).
According to a report by the Boston Consulting Group (PDF), covering different countries (e.g., US, Switzerland, Poland, Germany, etc.), 95 % of consumers are aware of Black Friday and 86 % are aware of Cyber Monday. Awareness has increased drastically in the last few years, mainly because local stores and online shops have adopted Cyber Week practices.
Support Black Friday customers on their hunt for deals and discounts #
According to payment provider Klarna, even inflation and other economic hardships are actually drivers of the success of Cyber Week. 43 % of surveyed customers take advantage of Black Friday and Cyber Monday to shop for the holidays to save money.
Customers are also highly interested in information about sales and price drops. It’s therefore the perfect time to push and market your newsletters, apps, and wishlists / memberships right around now to prepare your customers and inform them of attractive deals.
By the way, we have a blog series about incentives and how to use them in your marketing:
- All about discounts
- Best practices for your coupon marketing
- How to use free trials (and when to skip them)
A frictionless shopping experience reduces cart abandonments #
To make sure that your shop is ready for Black Friday, you need to look beyond marketing and logistics. Don’t forget to check how reliable and scalable your shopping environment and especially your payment solution is.
According to DHL, one third of cart abandonment happens during the payment process. Common reasons aside from delivery and unexpected charges:
- Preferred payment methods are not accepeted
- Discount codes do not work
- Checkout is too complicated
- Site was slow/complicated
Black Friday and Cyber Week are opportunities to reach completely new audiences. But with almost everything in business, first impressions matter and trust is one of the biggest decision drivers. A checkout experience that is confusing, buggy or takes too long to process payment information can cause huge trust issues and result in cart abandonment.
The Frisbii payment gateway is known to be a steadfast solution with an incredibly high reliability. We’ve retail juggernauts as customers, so we know how important a smooth payment process is.
Impulse vs. planned shopping #
A report from marketing automation provider Klaviyo shows that customers are nearly split in half when it comes to impulse and planned shopping during Black Friday – and some customers do both.
- 68 % say that they will very likely make an impulse purchase.
- 59 % plan their Black Friday purchases at least one month in advance.
Adding up these two numbers shows that at a considerable amount of customers is likely to plan ahead but also tends to shop impulsively when the time comes.
Testing company UNGUESS and fintech Scalapay also found out that the budget for Italian, Spanish and French customers who planned their Black Friday shoppings comes up to circa 250€ on average.
Has online beat stationary Black Friday shopping? #
The same study showed that the majority of survey participants preferred online shopping to stationary stores. It is quite likely that the usually chaotic images of American Black Friday customers might deter European customers from entering a shop but it’s also very likely that the convenience, transparent product selection and stress-free environment might be much more attractive – especially given that online shopping is available 24/7 opposed to store opening hours.
Black Friday preparation is more than just marketing & sales #
Aside from attractive deals, successful marketing campaigns and optimized offerings to attract new customers, the Black Friday experience needs to be smooth, inviting and frictionless.
From guest accounts to flexible payment options to a checkout experience that is fast, secure and easy – you want to show new and loyal customers that they are in good hands with your brand.
It is therefore important to prepare for Black Friday by also checking that your website, payment gateway and logistic are ready for the peaks in traffic.
You want a partner that supports you and provides a strong payment experience? Frisbii’s payment gateway is reliable, secure and offers everything you need to enable an optimal checkout experience and flexible payment options.
