The noise of 2022’s Black Friday promotions has been more intense than ever with early and deep discounting as retailers and brands have sought to win a more reluctant consumer spend amongst the cost-of-living crisis and soaring inflation.
Now, with Black Friday and Cyber Monday gone, comes the post-match analysis.
So how did your business fare? Did your promotions and messages convince customers to spend or did they got lost amongst the noise, leaving you wondering how you can do better next time?
At Taggstar we believe our real-time social proof messaging provides that extra point of difference to be noticed, even when everyone around you is on promotion. We do that by offering the extra help and buying assistance a customer needs to have more confidence in their purchase than just a knee-jerk reaction to a slashed price.
We appreciate it’s not easy to stand out. Few promotional activities are more intense than Black Friday and Cyber Monday as retailers and brands fight tooth and nail for early Christmas spend. It means that sales messages can get a little lost, overwhelmed by headline discounts designed to attract customers.
The sales event has grown from a US tradition celebrating Thanksgiving into a global promotional phenomenon. Although we may not see the frenzied buying behaviours witnessed when Black Friday first spread outside the US, it still remains an important part of a retailer’s promotional calendar and a consumer’s Christmas shopping plans.
Pre-event one survey suggested that more than half (54%) of UK and US consumers planned to shop this Black Friday, compared to 42% last year, with many expecting discounts of 50% and above.
Promotions started early, according to IMRG, with a 78% increase in live campaigns in the first two weeks of November, compared to 2021. Many retailers delivered on the deep discounting, with New Look offering 50% off on all products on Cyber Monday, for example. Record Black Friday promotions also led to Boots reporting its biggest digital Black Friday ever, with online sales up 18% and store sales up 17% year on year.
The tactics seem to have worked. According to Barclaycard Payments, the number of transactions increased by 3.59% year on year on Black Friday and 5% on Cyber Monday.
But customer behaviour is changing, with consumers becoming more targeted in their buying as they reduce discretionary spend. 60% of consumers shop with an item in mind and 85% only purchase items they know they want or need.
This means that while promotions are an important part of a retailer’s armoury, they aren’t the only thing that will help you to win spend. Consumers will be looking for more than just value but to know they have spent their money wisely rather than simply being seduced by an apparent bargain.
Social proof messaging can help in this mission to stand out from the crowd and the noise of Black Friday, as well as other busy promotional periods such as Valentine’s Day, Easter or Back to School. It effectively works as an online shopping assistant, guiding your customers to purchase through inspiration and education around their product choices which helps them to convert to buy.
It can highlight bestsellers and trending items, but it can also supplement that with additional real-time data, too, so that your customers not only know what the hottest items currently are but also the attributes related to them, such as how they are rated for quality or fit.
It means that consumers are buying based on more than just big discounts but are also investing in popular, quality products that better suit their needs. That equates to a more profitable sale for the retailer and a customer who truly feels they have bagged a bargain.
And that’s how you stand out from the noise and win the sale.
