5 Things eCommerce Managers Should Be Doing Differently - The 2020 Black Friday & Cyber Monday Guide - Namogoo
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5 Things eCommerce Managers Should Be Doing Differently The 2020 Black Friday & Cyber Monday Guide 5 Things eCommerce Managers Should be Doing Differently 1
Introduction
With a global pandemic still raging, the context for
ecommerce has changed, possibly for good. Measures put
in place during lockdown, and restrictions that are still in
force mean that this will be a Black Friday like no other.
To avoid losing revenue, ecommerce retailers will have to
change their strategy to take account of new customer
behavior and expectations.
What can online retailers expect? In this book, we'll
guide you through the new context for ecommerce.
We'll identify areas where online retailers are losing
money, and highlight the strategies they need to
put into practice before Black Friday to maximize
revenue and increase customer loyalty.
5 Things eCommerce Managers Should be Doing Differently 2The New Context
For eCommerce
In the past, Black Friday has been a period of
mayhem in physical stores as people jostle and
press to get the latest deals. At the same time, the
online component of Black Friday has continued
to increase, with one analyst estimating that as
much as 40% of Black Friday sales happen online.
In 2019, Cyber Week represented one third of
annual revenue. That's likely to change this year.
5 Things eCommerce Managers Should be Doing Differently 31 | Black Friday Will
be Bigger Than Ever
This year, you can expect that percentage to increase. As
you'll see, in a global pandemic, consumers will be more
cautious about crowded shopping spaces, putting in-store
sales in jeopardy. Many analysts predict that Black Friday
and Cyber Monday will be bigger than ever, but that most
of that growth will take place online.
5 Things eCommerce Managers Should be Doing Differently 42 COVID-19 Has Accelerated
The Pace of Black Friday
& Cyber Monday Online
Shopping Growth
Even before the pandemic, customer behavior had already
started to change, along with their expectations. According
to Google, 93% of shoppers use online resources when
contemplating a purchase.
Additionally, 68% of shoppers purchase items both online
and in-store. Mobile devices are now integrated into the
shopping process, with 42% of customers using them to
complete purchases, according to the Quiq Retail Mobile
Messaging Trends Report.
Now, with no sign of a COVID-19 vaccine ready for mass
use in November, many people are choosing to stay at
home and continue to shop from there.
5 Things eCommerce Managers Should be Doing Differently 53 | Older Consumers
are Shopping Online
Traditionally, older consumers were more likely to
shop in-store. For many, it was a social experience. But
now, even people in the over 65 age group are now
also buying online. When it comes to holiday shopping,
that age group spends the most on gifts, so that means
you'll get even more traffic to your ecommerce website
as the holidays approach.
5 Things eCommerce Managers Should be Doing Differently 64 | Ecommerce
Competition is Increasing
One result of this new context is that more retailers
are looking to move online, creating an increasingly
competitive environment. And, of course, Amazon
continues to grow. The ecommerce giant already accounts
for half of all online sales, and 44% of product searches
start on Amazon's site. If consumers find what they need
on Amazon, they have no reason to shop elsewhere.
In addition, because of COVID-19, Amazon's major
shopping event, Prime Day, has been moved to October
2020. With some deals regularly outdoing those available
on Black Friday, this could take a chunk out of expected
Black Friday revenue for many retailers.
5 Things eCommerce Managers Should be Doing Differently 75 | Q4 Promotions will
be Longer and Shallower
Speaking of Prime Day, the changed date has extended
a trend that has already started to happen. Black Friday
started as a single day, but over the years the promotional
period has stretched from early Thanksgiving and Black
Friday sales all the way through Cyber Week to Christmas.
With Prime Day 2020 in October, that stretches the
promotional period even further. That means ecommerce
retailers need to start thinking about Black Friday even
earlier. And with good reason. According to a Deloitte
study, early shoppers spend 28% more than those who
wait later.
5 Things eCommerce Managers Should be Doing Differently 86 | Consumers are More
Concerned About Price
There is another factor for ecommerce retailers to
be concerned about: consumer price sensitivity. The
pandemic has increased unemployment for people around
the world, and many who are still working through this
period have been forced to accept reduced salaries.
For online retailers, adapting to increased price sensitivity
will be especially critical heading into Black Friday and Cyber
Monday. Customers are looking for deals and they expect
online retailers to provide them. Price sensitivity may also
be evidenced in risk avoidance, with customers sticking to
what they know rather than trying something new.
5 Things eCommerce Managers Should be Doing Differently 9The New Context:
The Bottom Line
While there's an opportunity for ecommerce
retailers in the shape of increased traffic to
their sites, there are several potential threats
to revenue. As Deloitte points out, online
competition will be fierce and customer
retention is going to be even more crucial.
In this new high-traffic, but price sensitive
market, it is more important than ever for
companies to adopt new strategies to maximize
their traffic and avoid losing potential customers
and revenue. It also means that retailers have to
be more vigilant than ever about the ways their
websites are already leaking revenue. We'll look
at those in the next section.
5 Things eCommerce Managers Should be Doing Differently 103 Ways eCommerce
Retailers Lose Out
In the current era, it's almost impossible for retailers to use
their off-line space to improve earnings, which has always
been a great strategy in the past. It doesn't matter what you
do to improve your store, if people aren't visiting it. Instead,
you need to focus on maximizing earnings and minimizing
losses online. Here are three areas where ecommerce
retailers are losing money.
5 Things eCommerce Managers Should be Doing Differently 111 Customer Journey
Hijacking
Imagine that a potential customer lands on your site. The
customer is all set to buy, then spots an ad for a similar
product at a lower price. Instead of shopping on your site,
that potential customer clicks on the ad, and away from
your site, and may never come back. That's called customer
journey hijacking. It's where traffic hijackers use code to
inject unauthorized ads for competing products that appear
on your web pages.
If you're a large online retailer, Customer Journey Hijacking
could cost you millions of dollars. Namogoo's data shows that
between 15% and 25% of website visitors are subjected to
unauthorized ad injections throughout the year. A majority
of these ads feature similar products and competitor offers
that appear across different sections of the website.
5 Things eCommerce Managers Should be Doing Differently 12These compelling shopping alternatives are effective: data
across online industries shows that ad injections reduce
revenue by 1.5% to 5%. So, if you're expecting to sell $10
million in merchandise this Black Friday, you could lose up to
$500K due to these consumer-side disruptions.
Why is this an even worse problem to have
this year? Because price-sensitive consumers
are more likely to click away, and, as we've
seen, post-pandemic customers are VERY price
sensitive. Namogoo's research shows that 53%
of consumers will click on injected ads offering
lower prices. That means reduced on-site
engagement, making it less likely that visitors
will add multiple items to their carts. And with
fewer people completing purchases, that
means reduced conversions and increased
checkout abandonment.
5 Things eCommerce Managers Should be Doing Differently 13Injected ads insert friction into your customer journey by
taking some of your customers out of the loop. But it's not
just revenue that is at stake. It's also your brand's reputation.
Namogoo's consumer survey research shows that 78%
of customers who see injected ads on your website will
view your brand negatively. That means they may click
away and never come back. You lose out on the potential
to create and retain loyal customers who shop with you
time after time. In effect, when injected ads interrupt the
customer journey, that reduces customer lifetime value and
hurts the long-term stability of your business.
5 Things eCommerce Managers Should be Doing Differently 142 Ignoring The Mobile &
Omnichannel Experience
It's no longer a surprise - or at least it shouldn't be - that
mobile devices are a crucial part of the customer journey.
With so many people staying at home, it seems likely that it
will become even more important.
Poor mobile optimization costs ecommerce businesses
engagement, conversions and sales. Research from Google
shows that when mobile page load time goes from 1 to 5
seconds, the probability of visitors bouncing increases to 90%.
5 Things eCommerce Managers Should be Doing Differently 15And if your mobile visitors encounter any issues - like
additional costs or glitches at the checkout - they'll definitely
leave. Barilliance shows that the mobile cart abandonment
rate is more than 80%.
But it's not just the mobile experience that can cost retailers
money. Failure to have a robust omnichannel experience
is also a problem. ReadyCloud shows that 2 billion people
made purchases from their phones in 2019. Of those, 95%
did research on their phones before buying.
The numbers of mobile purchases on Black Friday and
Cyber Monday have increased steadily over the last
five years. With online shopping at an all-time high for
the coming holiday shopping period, those numbers
are likely to get even higher.
Once again, Amazon and other large retailers have set the
bar. Customers expect to be able to switch between a mobile
app, the mobile web, their tablet and their laptop and have a
seamless experience. If your mobile experience makes them
have to re-enter information, they won't be impressed.
5 Things eCommerce Managers Should be Doing Differently 163 Not Using Social Selling
With billions of social media users online, no business can
avoid social media as a sales tool. Social selling is connecting
with potential customers and nurturing them via social media.
It's about being where your customers are. Global Web Index
reveals that 54% of social browsers use social media for
product research.
One of the areas they look at is product and business reviews.
Shoppers expect to see detailed reviews that show them
they're making the right choice. If they like what they find,
you could win the sale, if you make it easy. Since you can now
set up a shop on Facebook or Instagram in a couple of clicks,
failure to do so means you're missing out on potential sales on
Black Friday and during the holiday season. And once you're
set up, getting those positive reviews will boost your sales.
5 Things eCommerce Managers Should be Doing Differently 175 Key Strategies
For Black Friday
& Cyber Monday in a
Post-Covid-19 Landscape
So, how can you avoid losing out? In this section of this guide
we'll look at the strategies you need to implement to remove
friction from the buying process and ensure you don't lose
money this coming Black Friday.
5 Things eCommerce Managers Should be Doing Differently 181 Avoid Customer
Journey Hijacking
Before doing anything else, ensure that 20% of your web
traffic isn’t already compromised by invasive ads leading
them to competitors. With so much of the year's revenue
at stake, the Black Friday period (and the last quarter as a
whole) is a particularly active period for traffic hijackers,
who use ad injections to monetize this increased traffic
by selling impressions and clicks to ad networks.
Preventing these tactics to skim online customers
translates directly into increased conversion rates. Our
data shows that hijacked visitors recovered by Namogoo
convert 2.5x higher on desktop, and nearly 3x higher on
mobile, boosting your revenue. In less than 30 minutes,
you can eliminate injected competitor ads running on your
customers’ browsers, improve the customer journey, and
boost conversions and revenue.
Calculate your Hijacked Revenues
5 Things eCommerce Managers Should be Doing Differently 192 Improve the Online
Shopping Experience
Now's the time to up your game with the online shopping
experience. More than ever customers will expect the
online experience to be fast, efficient, and personalized.
Online Retailers are increasingly investing in artificial
intelligence (AI) and machine learning. This is not an
overnight solution - Retail World Magazine points out
that online retailers must have the right customer data
AND the ability to use it effectively.
Options for using this technology include:
Using natural language processing (NLP) to
identify keywords on customer chats and
automatically deliver a relevant answer
Using image recognition to identify products
relevant to what the customer is looking at
Using machine learning to understand customer
behavior and tailor your messaging accordingly
5 Things eCommerce Managers Should be Doing Differently 20As is often the case, Amazon leads the way. According to
BigCommerce, the ecommerce giant uses machine learning
to inform product recommendations based on its in-depth
knowledge of what customers buy. It uses NLP for Alexa,
now integrated into more and more devices, and letting
customers shop by voice. And it uses AI to improve delivery
times and other logistical areas to keep customers happy.
The future is here.
Online retailers need to
start planning for it now.
5 Things eCommerce Managers Should be Doing Differently 21Prioritize the Mobile &
Omnichannel Experience
Here's an important statistic: 69% of customers expect the
cross-platform experiences to be seamless. Delivering a
connected experience across multiple channels is the only
way to ensure that you maximize revenues this coming
Black Friday.
While it's not news that the mobile experience will be a
game changer, With many large companies letting people
work from home into 2021 and others likely to follow
suit, it's fair to expect that the at-home shopper is going
to be an even bigger segment of the market. According
to a survey conducted by mobile carrier Twigby, 23%
of people have been using their phones more for shopping
since being at home.
Even when physical retail spaces start to open back
up, customers will likely prioritize their health and
convenience. So if you continue to take the actions that
retained your customers during the lockdown, you'll be
well poised for the new normal.
5 Things eCommerce Managers Should be Doing Differently 223 Implement Subscription
and Delivery Services
One of the ways ecommerce retailers will win is by having
the right kind of delivery options for customers who
are concerned about their health. Contactless payment
options are on the rise and are fast becoming table stakes
for customers.
Subscription services, where you get a set number of
items each month, have proved successful in the past.
Well-known examples include Butcher Box, Dollar Shave
Club and HelloFresh. According to McKinsey, 15% of
online shoppers have one or more subscription services.
Another option for large retailers is a delivery subscription
service, similar to the ones offered by food stores and
Amazon. For example, ASOS gives customers free delivery
for a year in exchange for a one-off initial payment. Price-
sensitive customers like this because it means they know
that after that first payment, they don't pay any more for
delivery. And it's good for retailers, because it keeps income
coming in consistently.
5 Things eCommerce Managers Should be Doing Differently 234 Introduce D2C Options
Some brands that used to sell mostly through online retailers
are accelerating their direct-to-consumer (D2C) options.
It's one of the strategies suggested by Global Trade Mag
to ensure you remain connected with your customers, the
online magazine says:
retailers must "employ risk- mitigating strategies, which
will allow them to continue reaching customers. These
include diversifying supply chains, implementing DTC
models, relying on automation, as well as re-thinking the
entire business process."
Even CPG and food processing companies are joining this
trend. Customers can now order their beans direct from
Heinz, instead of going through a supermarket or other
online retailer. They can even buy a nearly new Ford this way.
Even legacy brands have started to get the message, and are
pivoting to include a DTC option, or make this the core of
their business. This is proving a lifeline for legacy retailers,
helping them to connect more with customers, build better
long-term relationships, and earn higher margins.
5 Things eCommerce Managers Should be Doing Differently 245 Offer Curbside Pickup
If you implemented curbside pickup during the pandemic,
prepare for that to be a big point in your favor during Cyber
Week. The stats show that curbside pickup has increased
more than 200% during the pandemic and that 59% of
customers would like to see it continue.
Offering curbside pickup will help you stand out against the
competition. It will show your customers that you care about
their health, and it will help you to make sales.
Don't worry if an item is out of stock. Just be sure to
communicate. A recent article on Moz suggests that fashion
retailers could use the opportunity to encourage customers
to create a dream wardrobe, then email them when items
are back in stock. This kind of innovative thinking will help
you make sales during the holiday season.
5 Things eCommerce Managers Should be Doing Differently 25How Much
Could You Save?
If you prepare your business for Black Friday using the tips
in this guide, the potential increase in revenue is huge. For
example, don't forget that by preventing Customer Journey
Hijacking, you can enhance conversion for approximately
20% of your traffic during this critical shopping period. Here
are some examples:-
5 Things eCommerce Managers Should be Doing Differently 26Deckers Brands discovered that Customer Journey Hijacking was
impacting 16.53% and 18.72% of visitors to their UGG.com and Teva.
com websites respectively. By ridding their brand sites of ad injections,
their overall conversion rate increased by 2.43% on UGG.com, and by
1.78% on Teva.com.
Lamps Plus found that 11.3% of its customer journeys were being
interrupted. Namogoo helped the retailer recover that traffic and
boost conversions by 3-5%.
D2C brand Dollar Shave Club were shocked to learn that 25% of their
visitors were being exposed to unauthorized competitor ads. Eliminating
these disruptions with Namogoo has increased their overall conversion
rate by 5.5%.
With an 11.7% hijacking rate, ASICS was leaking significant revenue.
Namogoo helped the retailer recover that traffic, resulting in 3.2%
increase in conversions and a 4.8% decrease in checkout abandonment.
5 Things eCommerce Managers Should be Doing Differently 27Conclusion
Here's a quick recap of the key issues facing ecommerce
retailers during the holiday shopping season as a result of
COVID-19:
• The Black Friday and Cyber Week period will be bigger than
ever, as more people shop from home across all age groups
• Because everyone now has to gain online attention to
maintain a healthy business, there's more competition than
ever in EVERY sector
• With Prime Day now in October, Q4 will be a longer period
of shallower promotions, as the buying season stretches out.
• Widespread unemployment and underemployment means
consumers are more price-sensitive than ever
• Ecommerce retailers are losing 20% of their traffic to Customer
Journey Hijacking at a time when every visitor counts
• Customers expect a seamless mobile and omnichannel
experience as more people shop from home
5 Things eCommerce Managers Should be Doing Differently 28And here's what retailers need to do to maximize traffic
and conversions, and grow their customer base in a way
that produces higher lifetime value:
• Stop losing traffic and revenue by implementing Namogoo's
technology to stop Customer Journey Hijacking
• Use AI, machine learning and NLP to make the online
shopping experience more targeted and personalized
• Streamline the cross-channel shopping experience,
and ensure it works on mobile
• Use subscription services to woo price-sensitive
customers AND gain reliable revenue
• Strengthen your DTC strategy to mitigate risk and create
a stronger relationship with your customers.
• Offer curbside pickup as this is what more customers expect.
To learn more about protecting 20% of your Black Friday and
Cyber Monday traffic and boosting revenues , contact Namogoo.
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