Microeconomic conditions are not in favour of merchants worldwide, though they have their hopes pinned on the Black Friday Cyber Monday (BFCM) holiday shopping season. The busiest shopping season of the US is starting today with its conclusion scheduled on November 28.
Retailers, both online and offline, are looking for the best ways to tackle inflation and make the most of the BFCM 2022. Here below, we have shared some tips to help you sell without worry this shopping season.
1. Stock Up Gifting Products
Most of the shoppers will use BFCM 2022 to buy products for gifting purpose. Essentials are anyways being bought on a daily basis, so shoppers have been waiting for BFCM discounts to buy fewer essential products. With festivals like Christmas and New Year around the corner, they would look for the unique most gifts with lesser costs.
If you have something that makes a nice gifting option, stock it up ahead of the busiest season. If not, then find something in this segment or launch something new to get an advantage.
2. Young Target Audience
Another thing to keep in mind for sellers is to create ad campaigns targeting a young audience. As per online research conducted by Deloitte during October 19 to 28, shoppers above the age of 18 are planning to shop for holiday gifts in BFCM 2022. As part of sample, the 2022 Black Friday-Cyber Monday Survey studied 1,200 adults.
Marketers are faced with rising costs, ad blockers, and the end of IFDA (among other sweeping new privacy changes), and they are looking for new ways to get in front of their target audiences – influencers are the answer.
Anand Kishore, CEO, Aspire
To be precise, 86 percent of Gen Z and 89 percent of Millennials are going to buy more from the BFCM sale. Attracting the young is easier than any other age segment. Influencer marketing is one of the most effective measures practiced by sellers. Across the globe, brands are roping in influencers to boost sales and engagement. While Shopify is allowing brands build their online stores to directly sell to customers, influencer marketing is helping them establish a strong relationship with their target audience.
In a recent interview for Forbes, Gary Drenik asked Aspire CEO Anand Kishore about changing landscape of influencer marketing amid rise of Shopify, which allows small businesses to sell online independently.
“Marketers are faced with rising costs, ad blockers, and the end of IFDA (among other sweeping new privacy changes), and they are looking for new ways to get in front of their target audiences – influencers are the answer,” Kishore explained in his reply.
“Influencers remain the best way to reach your target audience on social media, especially as more and more users are shopping directly through the platforms. According to a recent Prosper Insights & Analytics survey on media behaviors and influence by generation, 25% of Gen-Z and 21% of Millennial respondents said social media platforms influence their buying habits for the most common consumer products like apparel, beauty, grocery, and electronics, compared to 15% of Gen-X and 8% of Boomer respondents,” he added.
3. Sell Budget Friendly Products
Online merchants also need to stock up on budget friendly products as consumers are not in mood to make high-end purchases. The Deloitte research found that consumers are willing to spend an average of $500 during the BFCM 2022 sale. This is 12 percent more than last year.
Even for high-end products, merchants can keep discounts or additional deals to woo customers. These practices will surely attract shoppers and convince them to raise their budgets by a little margin.
Talking about the lower income group, those making $50,000 on an annual basis, research claimed that BFCM will provide an opportunity to spend beyond their budgets. The expected rise is 19 percent year-over-year to $320. The higher income group, on the other end, is expected to increase spending by four percent year-over-year to $650. As part of sample, the higher income group studied earned an average of $100,000 per year.
4. Sell on Credit
Buy now, pay later is one of the most popular concepts going around in the e-commerce market. The research also claimed that 48 percent of consumers want to buy products using credit cards, while 37 percent would prefer a buy now, pay later option.
Those who preferred credit cards for shopping were 35 percent in 2021. Fifty percent of those who belong to a lower income group would use credit cards for online purchases this year. The number was 27 percent last year. While middle income earners that prefer credit shopping include 45 percent, 4 percent are from a higher income group. Lat year, these figures were 38 percent and 45 percent respectively.
Talking about BNPL, the research claimed that 37 percent of shoppers would prefer this option to buy gifts this season.
In October, Shopify came into a strategic partnership with a BNPL platform, Hokodo. The integration with Shopify offers merchants instant trade credit to business customers. The integration is available to both — sole traders as well as limited companies — based in the United Kingdom, France, Belgium, Spain and the Netherlands.
Hokodo is quite safe from the merchant’s perspective as the company gets paid up front while some amount remains protected from the risk of non-payment and fraud practices from customers. This doesn’t mean no cushioning for customers as they also get an option to defer payment by up to 60 days.
5. Deals to Win
Sellers must plan deals and promotions on each product being sold on their website. According to the research, more shoppers are willing to spend half of their holiday budgets to buy the best of products this BFCM. Keeping this in mind, online merchants must offer something additional with the product to stay ahead of the competition.
On an average, eight of every 10 shoppers have been waiting for BFCM 2022 to make the most of purchases. Last year, this percentage was 71 percent. As much as 33 percent shoppers would stretch their holiday budgets as per the research. It is 26 percent more than the last year.
The research also found that 43 percent of shoppers are ready to delay expensive purchases amid inflation.
