How to Beat Your BFCM Hangover

When the crowds settle and the mania of BFCM feels like a distant memory, you’ll probably think it’s time to sit back and relax, but you’d be wrong! There are a bunch of new customers that have come your way over Cyber weekend, and it’s your mission to make sure they stick around.

Often merchants will see a big dip in sales soon after BFCM – it’s not uncommon! We call this the Black Friday Cyber Monday hangover. This is because new customers gained over the holiday season often have a lower overall lifetime value. Despite this, research has found that 46% of customers would return to a shop they’ve already brought from, versus 14% who wouldn’t. So, it’s clear that failing to re-engage new customers and convert them into loyal repeat customers is a missed opportunity.

Here are a few simple tips for how to beat your BFCM hangover and increase customer lifetime value long after the holiday season ends:

1. Ask your customers for reviews

We all know the importance of reviews during Black Friday Cyber Monday. But did you know they play an even more meaningful role after BFCM?

Reviews are a great way to build long-lasting relationships with your customers because they show you genuinely care about what your consumers think. Sending your new customer a review request in their welcome email shows that your brand values its customers.

Think about the huge numbers of shoppers who have flocked to your store over BFCM. This gives you the perfect opportunity to collect a huge number of reviews. Since 75% of consumers refer to reviews to influence their purchasing decisions, rolling into 2023 with hundreds of reviews about your service and products will set you up for a strong start to the new year.

2. Leverage email marketing to build loyalty and drive sales

Another way you can encourage holiday shoppers back to your store is by utilising the power of email marketing effectively. By sending segmented, personalised emails, you’ll be winning your new customer’s loyalty in no time!

Personalisation significantly improves open rates, clicks, engagement and sales. When you send content that’s tailored to specific audience segments, your emails will resonate with the receiver, which ultimately generates better results.

For example, you could automate email flows that encourage customers to sign up for your newsletter, join your loyalty program, or send limited-time discounts and offers. Also, why not go one step further and automate your emails based on user behaviour? This could include ‘viewed product’ segments. Perhaps your customer didn’t end up buying a particular product they were looking at. You can target this type of customer again.

All in all, personalised emails play a prominent role in engaging consumers throughout the customer journey. They deliver value, boost retention, increase upsell and deliver a richer, more relevant shopping experience.

3. Implement a loyalty program

What better way to reward your new customer than with a loyalty program? Offering customers rewards for purchases, referring friends, and leaving reviews to give them a reason to remain loyal to your brand.

Also, loyal customers buy more, it’s a fact. For example, recently our client Personalised Co generated 25% of revenue from its loyal customers and saw a 34% increase in customer spending compared to non-redeeming customers.

However, simply rewarding customer behaviour is just the beginning. You need to ensure your loyalty program is data-driven. This can be done through segmentation based on consumer activity. For example, segments could include loyal customers, those at risk of losing, and customers you need to win back. Third-party Shopify Plus integrations, such as LoyaltyLion, offer merchants the functionality to keep track of these segments and take action.

4. Entice with a post-BFCM campaign 

The BFCM buzz doesn’t have to end in November, so why not prolong it? Encourage your customers to create and share User-Generated-Content (UGC) including pictures of products they brought from you during BFCM.

This is a really simple, yet effective way to drive new shoppers to your store. Execution is easy. All you need to do is promote your request via email and on your social media channels with a short and snappy hashtag.

UGC is an extremely powerful marketing tactic to build trust among new customers and drive conversions for your business. In fact, consumers are 2.4 times more likely to view user-generated content as authentic compared to content created by brands. And with 54% of customers using social media to research a product, a post-BFCM campaign utilising UGC is a surefire to drive your sales back to the top.

Ecommerce Retention Experts

If you want to overcome the BFCM slump and keep your brand top of mind long after Black Friday and Cyber Monday, you’ll need to think fast and implement these ROI-driven tactics discussed. Give your customers a reason to engage with your brand and you’ll have them coming back to your store in no time at all.

If you need help with anything discussed above, get in touch with our team of ecommerce retention experts today.

What’s more, during the weeks leading up to the busy weekend, we’re teaming up with industry leaders, such as Yotpo, Nosto, Brightpearl, Bloomreach and Gorgias, to host a virtual Holiday Retention Bootcamp, every Tuesday at 1 pm. See below for more details and how to register:

• Episode 1: How to Turn BFCM Shoppers into Lifelong Customers Through Personalised Experiences – October 18th, 1 PM (BST) – register here!
• Episode 2: How to Meet Customer Expectations with a Killer Inventory, Shipping & Returns Strategy – October 25th, 1 PM (BST) – register here!
• Episode 3: How to Make Festive Shoppers Stick with Email Marketing – November 1st, 1 PM (GMT) – register here!
• Episode 4: How to Create a Loyalty Program to Retain BFCM Customers – November 8th, 1 PM (GMT) – register here!
• Episode 5: How to Build Trust with Exceptional Customer Service – November 15th, 1 PM (GMT) – register here!