Unlocking Potential: Our Strategic Guide to Maximize the 2023 Digital Shopping Extravaganza

Extended Black Friday Period

The early bird catches the worm, and in this case, early marketing efforts capture the hearts of consumers. We anticipate a continuation of the extended Black Friday period. Retailers will likely start promotions and deals earlier, possibly even a week or more before the actual Black Friday. This strategy allows consumers to spread out their purchases and gives retailers an edge in a competitive market. Begin with teaser posts and stories designed to create anticipation. Once Cyber Week comes closer, add content with urgent messaging to remind consumers that time is running out to take advantage of your discount.

With economic headwinds like inflation, the employment rate and jobs, affecting our daily lives, recent data from Ware2Go shows that 73% of merchants still expect higher holiday sales in 2023 despite economic pressure.

We expect that 25% off will be the median discount that we will see for goods and services this year with even more aggressive discounts on things like higher minimum AOVs, free shipping, and discounts on subscriptions and bundles.

Omnichannel Shopping Experience

Consumers expect a seamless shopping experience, whether online or in physical stores. This year, we predict an even stronger integration of omnichannel strategies. Retailers will focus on providing a consistent experience across various platforms, ensuring that customers can seamlessly switch between online browsing and in-store shopping.

Personalization and AI Integration

Personalization has been a growing trend in marketing, and in 2023, we expect to see an even deeper integration. Using AI and machine learning, retailers can tailor marketing strategies to individual consumer preferences, providing personalized deals and product recommendations. This will enhance the overall shopping experience and increase customer satisfaction.

Use Your CRM to Captivate and Capture Consumers

Email, SMS, and in-app marketing allow you to reach a wide - but engaged - audience, build anticipation, and ultimately drive sales. CRM marketing is more important than ever in the post-iOS14 world as the changes to data and privacy protection elevates the need for a strong CRM strategy.

Build your CRM lists throughout the year with engaging content, pop-ups, incentives, and promotions that resonate with your audience.

We’re recommending five key tactics for successful CRM marketing during BFCM:

• Segmentation, and we cannot stress this enough, segmentation. Send the right message to the right audience at the right time.
• Reward brand loyalty with early access to promotions and incentives.
• Use a mix of SMS, email messaging, and push notifications to talk to your audience in their preferred method of communication.
• Work smarter, not harder, by automating and personalizing your workflows, like cross-sell, upsell, and cart abandonment.
• Test and optimize. Improve your email metrics by testing key components in both email and SMS, including messaging, CTA language and placement, time of send, and more.

Building long-term relationships with customers is crucial for retailers. Exclusive membership and loyalty programs, offering early access to deals, personalized discounts, and special perks, will be a major strategy for retaining and attracting customers during the Black Friday season.

The Rise of Social Commerce

Social commerce is a growing trend, with Deloitte estimating that about one-third of shoppers in the US purchased social media in 2021. We expect an uptick in social commerce, where consumers can directly purchase products from social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok. Retailers will invest more in social commerce strategies to reach consumers where they spend a significant amount of time.

This means that to guarantee success for the 2023 holiday season, social media can't be forgotten.

You can further connect with users across all social media platforms swiftly and easily by using a holiday-specific hashtag. This can help you engage with potential customers and monitor the effectiveness of your BFCM campaigns across different social media platforms. A great example of this strategy is seen by Target, who used the hashtag #targetholiday across multiple posts in 2022. There are currently over 7.6K posts using this hashtag on Instagram alone.

Quick and Responsive Customer Service

With 2023 expected to be another record-setting year for BFCM sales, you can expect higher-than-average traffic through your website and social platforms. To reduce strain on your customer support team, you should ensure your store policies and FAQs are updated.

Be ready to answer quickly and succinctly as customers expect timely answers. According to manychat.com, Facebook adds a badge on any business page that responds to 90% of comments, posts, and messages within 15 minutes. On Instagram, users expect a response in under three hours, while on Twitter, customers expect a response within 15 minutes. Responding to questions as soon as possible allows brands to build trust with customers and create long-lasting relationships.