Black Friday kicks off a busy time in the retail calendar. In 2021, sales over the infamous shopping weekend generated an astonishing £9.42 billion in the UK, with sales in America reaching $8.9 billion on Black Friday alone.
Happening on Friday 25 November this year, Black Friday is a proven opportunity for every business to drive sales and attract new customers. But how do you maintain that momentum once the dust has settled?
With the help of customer feedback, you can take advantage of this opportunity to grow your business and more after the Black Friday buzz has quietened down.
Prepare for returns
A boost in sales can do wonders for your business, but are you ready for “Returns Thursday”? Year after year, the first Thursday in December uncovers the true picture of Black Friday, as shoppers send back their unwanted purchases. 2019 to 2021 saw a 129% year-on-year increase in Black Friday returns, with one in three Black Friday shoppers adding multiple items to their carts with the intention of returning at least one.
Swathes of extra shoppers returning their Black Fridays bargains can have a ripple effect through your business, placing extra pressure on your logistics chain, warehouse staff and customer service team. As time and resource go into dealing with your new customers and their returns, loyal customers may end up taking the brunt.
So how can you reduce those returns?
As well as putting in extra measures, such as updating your FAQ page, adding useful popups, and making changes to your call system for example, using customer feedback from previous shoppers can help reduce returns altogether.
Ensure your customers know what they’re getting by adding feedback to your product pages - photo and video reviews can give your customers the extra insight they need. Genuine feedback from verified customers points first-time shoppers in the right direction, so they make the right decision and get exactly what they need from your business.
Make the most of the rush
76% of consumers plan to spend money over the Black Friday weekend. That 30-day period between Black Friday and Christmas is a significant opportunity to gather valuable data insights and learn about this surge of customers - both loyal and new.
By collecting feedback over this busy period, you can help improve your business and foster better relationships. Making changes off the back of data insights can increase customer loyalty - potentially turning that one-time Black Friday deal-seeker into a loyal customer.
Show you listen
You need to show your new customers that your business is worth using all year round, and not just for a one-time deal. Listening and responding to your customers is what will keep them from shopping around elsewhere when your prices return to normal.
Overwhelmingly, Feefo clients tell us that once they enter a feedback loop with their shoppers, they never look back. By building that understanding of what shoppers think and feel about your products and services, you’re taking significant steps on the pathway to building customer loyalty.
Show customers that you are a business that listens, learns and implements new ideas like product changes, service upgrades and any other positive (or negative) factors consumers feel are important to them.
Black Friday offers businesses the chance to spotlight their product or service during one of the most high-profile shopping events of the year. With the proper planning, you can effortlessly keep customers happy whilst using genuine feedback to help improve the way you work.
Feefo has a range of tools designed to help you collect the right information:
- For simple and practical insight, add Feefo Surveys as a popup on your site
- If you have a bricks and mortar store and want to improve performance, try Feefo Places
- To gather data at more points along the journey and boost your customer experience, we recommend our Campaign Manager Tool
- And to measure loyalty over the all-important Black Friday period, discover your Net Promoter Score - and increase your chances of gaining repeat business
