Most companies made money during the start of the holiday shopping season, but according to Mikel Lindsaar, CEO of StoreConnect, that's not the most important issue. What retailers should have focused on was the income they didn't realize they were losing over Black Friday and Cyber Monday due to ignoring Customer Commerce.
SYDNEY, Dec. 4, 2023 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Shopping online for the holidays is big business and growing. Online shoppers spent a record $9.12 billion on Black Friday 2022, up 2.3% compared with 2021.(1) Cyber Monday sales grew 5.8% year over year in 2022 to a record $11.3 billion.(2) Estimates for 2023 anticipate hitting $9.8 billion on Black Friday (3) and $12 billion on Cyber Monday.(4) Keeping those shoppers happy and loyal for the long run depends on how much retailers, especially small and medium sized businesses (SMBs), focus on Customer Commerce.
Did every retailer's Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales online go off without a hitch this year? In past years, brands have experienced outages or other site performance problems that have impacted their sales, and more.(5) With Black Friday online retail traffic estimated to be three times that of a normal October shopping day(6), it is no wonder that technical issues can be a significant problem, particularly for SMBs that rely on customer relationships.
According to Mikel Lindsaar, CEO of StoreConnect, that is where Customer Commerce comes into play. He says retailers could be losing potential customers, from 20 to 40%, due to content management and e-commerce system glitches and technical problems. "It's the lost income that you don't see, and, even beyond that, it's the lifetime value of a lost client."
Missing the opportunity in Black Friday and Cyber Monday
Bad service from an SMB can be a deal breaker, with 96% of customers saying they will leave a retailer if they receive bad service.(7) If SMBs missed their chance to create new relationships during Black Friday and Cyber Monday, they have lost out on a powerful key to their future success.
Unlike big retailers, delivering individual service to customers is what sets SMBs apart. Lindsaar likens it to a superpower. "Every interaction with a customer is an opportunity to leave a good or a bad impression," he explains. "Any site outage, technical glitch or incorrectly priced item, can cost SMBS in terms of revenue, ranking and loyalty during Black Friday and Cyber Monday."
StoreConnect — Designed for speed. Crafted for connection. — is a content management system and an e-commerce system in-one that works through the world's number one CRM without the need for any additional tools, and it's all centered on Customer Commerce. It allows SMBs to handle an influx of online sales without any glitches. Instead of relying on 15 to 20 different SaaS products, SMBs can use StoreConnect to transform the shopping experience for $5,000 a year.
"StoreConnect gives small and medium-sized businesses the same ability that retailers like Amazon, Macy's and Walmart offer without having to invest millions of dollars into platforms." Lindsaar adds, "It's a revolution in the e-commerce experience like going from walking straight to a sports car, skipping the horse drawn carts altogether."
About StoreConnect:
Mikel Lindsaar is the CEO and Founder of StoreConnect, a Salesforce Partner Innovation Award Recipient.‥ Mikel is a serial technology entrepreneur having successfully built and sold four SaaS companies within the last decade. StoreConnect has one goal: to help small and medium-sized businesses become scalable Customer Companies powered by Salesforce. Clients achieve this daily by breaking free of the shackles of what Mikel calls "Plugin Purgatory and SaaS Hell." StoreConnect clients don't need multiple SaaS systems connected by plugins to manage their online, in-store POS and in-person Customer Commerce business systems. Many of today's eCommerce solutions are designed to get up and running quickly and inevitably hit a brick wall of scalability and extensibility as companies grow.‥ That's why StoreConnect is built on the world's #1 CRM, so its customers will never need to replatform no matter how fast they grow in size, product offerings or regions. Global growth now has no barriers for any SMB. Being built on Salesforce allows StoreConnect customers to update their websites, funnels, and content in real time, providing an unparalleled competitive advantage. StoreConnect is Time. Well Spent. Visit https://getStoreConnect.com/
References:
1. Salois, Gretchen; "Black Friday online sales reach record $9.12 billion in 2022"; Digital Commerce 360; November 28, 2022; digitalcommerce360.com/article/black-friday-ecommerce-sales/.
2. Davis, Don; "Deep discounts drive Cyber Monday web sales to a record $11.3 billion"; Digital Commerce 360; November 29, 2022; digitalcommerce360.com/article/cyber-monday-online-sales/.
3. "Black Friday 2023: US Sales to Hit $9.8 bn According to Experts"; MarTechCube; November 7, 2023; martechcube.com/black-friday-2023-us-sales-to-hit-9-8-bn-according-to-experts/.
4. Whitelock, Alex; "Cyber Monday deals 2023: best early sales from Amazon, Best Buy, and more"; Tech Radar; November 7, 2023; https://www.techradar.com/cyber-monday/best-cyber-monday-deals.
5. Grothaus, Michael; "Black Friday and Cyber Monday outages and other issues angered customers on these 48 retail sites"; Fast Company; November 30, 2020; fastcompany.com/90580744/black-friday-and-cyber-monday-outages-angered-customers-on-these-48-retail-sites.
6. "115 Black Friday statistics every retailer needs to know in 2023"; Queue It; August 22, 2023; queue-it.com/blog/black-friday-statistics/.
7. "Calculate the true cost of website downtime"; Uptrends; August 20, 2020; blog.uptrends.com/technology/calculate-the-true-cost-of-website-downtime/.
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SOURCE StoreConnect
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