After retailers registered a healthy Black Friday and Cyber Monday, it’s not surprising that business has slowed in the days since then. But new data from digital insights platform ContentSquare shows there is an opportunity for retailers to capture still more consumer dollars.
Across the board, ContentSquare found that e-commerce metrics performed worse after Black Friday than during the day itself, when looking at client data. Average conversion rates fell to 3.04%, from 4.04%, while the average bounce rate — when users leave a website after visiting just one page — increased by 14%, to 42.8%.
Many retailers factor this decline in engagement into their sales projections, anticipating the large volume of consumers who time their shopping to take advantage of holiday promotions. But many consumers have reported that they planned to shop during the following weeks in December; a recent survey by Episerver found that 31% of consumers didn’t plan to start shopping until after the holiday weekend.
In order to take advantage of this demographic, experts suggest, retailers should search for the areas that consistently perform even during no-sale periods. Mobile is one area that has remained popular, with ContentSquare reporting that mobile usage for browsing and shopping accounted for 65% of traffic during Black Friday — and 67% after the sales day. This suggests that retailers who are able to provide a superior customer experience over mobile or smartphone app may gain an advantage in these last seasonal shopping days.
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“Consumers are clearly eager to engage with brands via mobile channels and, when there is a sense of urgency around special deals and promotions, to complete purchases on the device,” said Jonathan Cherki, founder and CEO of ContentSquare. “Brands should capitalize on this preference and invest in seamless shopping journeys that will keep on delighting customers, even when the Black Friday momentum slows down.”
However, conversion rates on mobile following Black Friday did decrease. While users enjoy the interactive, easy experience of browsing on a smartphone, ContentSquare found that the gap between desktop and mobile sales widened post-Black Friday.
To combat that, experts suggest retailers should focus on the consumer engagement aspects of mobile, as opposed to straight checkout, in order to capture customers.
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