Retailers target ways to boost post-Cyber Week sales
Source: Crate & Barrel

Retailers target ways to boost post-Cyber Week sales

This year’s Cyber Week — from the Tuesday before Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday — experienced 18 percent sales growth vs. the previous year period, according to insights provided in a RetailWire webinar given by Ken Cassar, vice president and principal analyst at Slice Intelligence. Sarah Engel, CMO at DynamicAction and Julie Bernard, CMO at Verve, joined Mr. Cassar to discuss the implications of the numbers for retailers hoping to give their sales a boost as the holiday season continues.

Mr. Cassar said that in 2016, Amazon’s share of total sales, at 24 percent, was lower on Black Friday than one might expect, then peaked at 50 percent by the Monday before Christmas. He noted that the increased share of sales farther out in the season indicated less brick-and-mortar-centric marketing after Cyber Week, as well as an increased level of trust for Amazon’s ability to deliver on time. He expects that, while at 32 percent of total share this November, Amazon should see another big increase in the remaining days ahead.

slice cyberweek cht

With Christmas coming on fast, Ms. Bernard and Ms. Engel both offered steps that savvy retailers can take to pick up seasonal share in this Amazon-dominated timespan.

“The days of planning your promotional calendar 12 and 18 months out and sticking to it exactly as it is are really over,” Ms. Bernard said. “Various digital mediums allow us to react to what we’re seeing in the moment and tap into real-time execution and deliver more meaningful content up until those very last shopping moments.”

Ms. Bernard suggested that, given the short lead time required for mobile campaigns and the amount of data companies have on hand, successful mobile-targeted, personally relevant campaigns were feasible in the last weeks of the holidays.

Ms. Engel added that there are specific overlooked customer segments perfect for targeting in this timeframe.

“A lot of time we see the retailers are focused either on brand new customer acquisition or their most loyal customers, and there is a big middle ground there,” said Ms. Engel.

Ms. Engel suggested developing campaigns aimed at two-to-five time buyers, who according to DynamicAction research drive 13 percent more profit per-order than 11-plus time buyers.

“If you’re looking at how many times a person has purchased … you can do some more targeted campaigns that are very specific to those kinds of brands and affinities, and what tends to take that two-time buyer and turns them into a three-time buyer,” said Ms. Engel.

BrainTrust

"Retailers need to run campaigns around best gift ideas as many shoppers don't know what to get."

Seth Nagle

Senior Marketing Manager, RW3


"The data is there for retailers to use so those that are prepared to react in real-time will be the most successful. "

Ricardo Belmar

Retail Transformation Thought Leader, Advisor, & Strategist


"Individual customer purchase history, in real time, holds a plethora of customer preference intelligence."

Cynthia Holcomb

Founder | CEO, Female Brain Ai & Prefeye - Preference Science Technologies Inc.


Discussion Questions

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS: What kind of marketing campaigns should retailers be launching right now to combat Amazon’s late-season peak activity? Do you agree that retailers can succeed post-Cyber Week with well-targeted mobile campaigns based on real-time insights? What do you think of the suggestion to focus campaigns on two-to-five time buyers? 

Poll

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Katherine Black
6 years ago

Holiday is a unique time in terms of shopping patterns. At this point in the cycle, it is important to capture that repeat shop and also to convert those who have been watching items throughout the season. If a consumer is checking an item regularly, figure out what is keeping them from purchasing either through alerts programs or good old-fashioned survey work and then tailor a profitable campaign for them. Also, at this point in the cycle delivery options become increasingly important. It is time to highlight pick up in-store options and immediate availability for brands that have great capabilities in that space.

Byron Kerr
6 years ago

Email still plays a tremendous part in successful marketing. Target offered a 20 percent coupon for purchases during Black Friday, usable only after the Black Friday/Cyber Monday time frame. This encourages repeat purchases and if Amazon did something similar, could entice that “two-to-five time buyer” to transact a bit more frequently.

Retailers can succeed with highly targeted mobile-first campaigns, promoting omnichannel and last-minute purchases. Was someone shopping for an item online, left it in the cart and didn’t complete the purchase? Send a push alert when that shopper is within x miles of your retail location to finish that purchase in-store.

Seth Nagle
6 years ago

There’s nothing that will make a shopper pull a trigger faster than a 20 percent off coupon that expires that night. Many shoppers have a set price in their head for an item, the moment they see can make that purchase and stay within budget the sale is almost instant.

Additionally, retailers need to run campaigns around best gift ideas as many shoppers don’t know what to get and anything that can help push them towards a decision is a win.

Cynthia Holcomb
Member
6 years ago

How about looking at WHAT a customer has purchased as opposed to how many times a customer has purchased? In the run-up to Christmas Day, the odds of recommending a preference-based recommendation to an individual customer is a far more relevant recommendation than a group segmentation play, no matter how many times that customer has purchased from a retailer.

Individual customer purchase history, in real time, holds a plethora of customer preference intelligence. Customers tell a retailer with every purchase what they individually like and do not like. Retailers should jump on this magnificent opportunity to provide true one-to-one personalized recommendations to their customers.

Ricardo Belmar
Active Member
6 years ago

There are many ways shopping data could be sliced to gain insight into what campaign types will succeed for retailers this holiday season. I agree there should be more focus in that middle ground — the most loyal shoppers are loyal because you know they will come back, but it’s those middle ground shoppers who purchase once that may need encouragement to make a repeat buy.

The data is there for retailers to use so those that are prepared to react in real-time will be the most successful. Just as retailers who upgraded their store infrastructure to support in-store promotions and new in-store experiences will benefit from increased foot traffic, online sales need to take advantage of the data insights available to keep share away from Amazon.

Ken Morris
Trusted Member
6 years ago

As we get closer the final days of the holiday shopping season, retailers need to heavily promote buy online, pickup in the store (BOPIS). This service will be a must-have, as last-minute shoppers don’t want to drive to many different stores to find the one that has it in stock. For products that can’t be delivered same-day by online retailers, such as Amazon, the BOPIS service for retailers with a broad physical store presence will offer an advantage for last-minute shoppers.

Those retailers that can leverage real-time retail capabilities to offer customers personalized offers bases on customer context will be most successful during the holiday season. As retailers that look to make occasional customers that like the brand into frequent customer that love the brand, the retailers that exceed customer expectations during the holidays will win and those that don’t will lose. This is the time of year when retailers need to hit a home run on customer service.

Ralph Jacobson
Member
6 years ago

In the current economy, there is plenty of opportunity for retailers of all sizes and all kinds (including Direct-to-Consumer CPG Brands). Online presence is still a great way to impersonate the big retail giants when you don’t have their market share with a compelling, easy-to-navigate shopping site. That is easier said than done, however, it is definitely possible with today’s marketing tools. Technologies that employ the latest real-time personalization capabilities, leveraging true machine learning can capture the loyal shoppers’ demand accurately, as well as anticipate those less frequent shoppers’ needs.

Additionally, there is no longer the high expense required to capture entirely new customers when your promotional campaigns are automated and your systems are able to detect struggles on your websites, anomalies in shopper journeys and other aspects of these processes, so you can compete effectively with the biggest competitors.