Black Friday and Cyber Monday
How can small business make eCommerce work!
Black Friday which started in the USA and became one of the biggest retail days in the calendar, where retailers hoped to take advantage in the huge volume of footfall traffic the day after Thanksgiving looking for a retail bargain. A new holiday spawned from Black Friday called Cyber Monday and the focus was on exclusive deals online or through eCommerce. This is all becoming a bit of a blur now with Black Friday starting earlier and earlier every year with exclusive deals and at least in my house, we don’t talk about cyber-Monday so at some stage I think it was eaten by Black Friday. My kids are already reminding me about Black Friday and are helpfully pointing me to great new deals for smartphones and new laptops, and other gifts for Christmas and upcoming birthdays. Most small businesses will rely on in store footfall to boost their black Friday sales, however eCommerce can work for small business too, and it does not mean giving up a sizable portion of your sales in return to traditional eCommerce solutions.
Some Black Friday Statistics
While Black Friday started in the USA, its now a fixture in other countries and the UK is no different.
Here are some great statistics from Statista on this upcoming Black Friday in the UK
- This year UK consumers are forecasted to spend £8.71B over the Black Friday weekend, with £4.81B online and £3.9B in stores.
- This forecast is down from 2021, where UK consumers spent £9.4B over the Black Friday weekend, with £5.7B online and £3.4B in stores.
- It is no surprise that value for money is the number one priority for consumers.
- The average spend amongst women over black Friday is forecasted to be £174
- Value of spending over Black Friday weekend in the United Kingdom (UK) from 2016 to 2021, with a forecast for 2022
Finder research surveyed which generations were most likely to shop online versus in store. Interestingly, generation X (53%) and baby boomers (53%) are more likely to shop only online than any other generation.
Figure: How do you intend to buy the items this year on Black Friday/Cyber Monday? Source Finder Research
What should Small Businesses look for in an eCommerce Store?
As shown in the previous graph, Small businesses should take note the low percentage of In Store only plans, meaning that having an eCommerce solution is critical to taking advantage of the Black Friday increase in sales. So, what type of eCommerce solution is right for a small business?
For most small businesses, simplicity to setup and simplicity to maintain is often the first consideration. This is because most small business owners have no IT skills. The good news here is that eCommerce stores are getting simpler and simpler to setup and there are lots of solutions which will also manage (called hosting) your store/website for you.
The next consideration is how easy is it to upload your product and/or services catalogue (think of it as your menu or your product price list). As this is something which is updated frequently by businesses, requirements are for a simple to use bulk upload with a simple to use template. Businesses also like their store to have a storefront or theme that is relevant to their business. For example, Coffee Shops want coffee related themes, whereas Gyms are looking for a storefront related to health or exercise. Again, the good news here is that most eCommerce store solutions offer the ability to select different themes and customize your store.
Customers of eCommerce stores require a friendly store where products are organized logically in categories and have a good search function, so they are easy to find. Consumers are visual so they will require good descriptions and clear and appealing photos of the products and services. As we are all on our mobile phones, eCommerce stores must be mobile friendly. Customers like to be able to add products to wish lists for later consideration and to shopping carts so they can make a final checkout by paying with their preferred method i.e., credit card, bank or Paypal for example. Of course, businesses want to turn those wish lists and shopping carts into sales so good reporting is critical to businesses to highlight their top selling, lowest selling products and abandoned carts.
Where do traditional eCommerce Stores fail small businesses?
There are few important ways that traditional eCommerce solutions fail small business and should not be overlooked.
The first point is costs. eCommerce store solutions typically come with a starting monthly subscription of £20 for a limited feature set and support. What these eCommerce solutions don’t highlight is the percentage of sales. For example, many of these eCommerce solutions take 2% of sales on top of credit card charges. A business that has £100,000 in sales annually will pay the eCommerce store £2,000 annually or £166 per month. Ouch, way more than the £20 monthly subscription !!
The next point most eCommerce solutions lack is flexibility. Customers want to interact with your business in many different channels like web, an app, other eCommerce platforms or through messaging. These eCommerce solutions mandate you use their store and don’t allow you to bring an existing store you may have or using existing digital payments. Think vendor lock in and it’s not easy to get out when the costs start to rise.
Oh, and by the way they do not including reporting in their basic plans and that requires and upgrade to their advanced plan – more ££.
The final issue is that it’s very difficult for Customers to find your store through Google or to get customers to download your app. Of course, if you are an SEO (Search Engine Optimization) expert and have a lot of time and money to pay for search optimization (page 1 on google), google or Facebook ads to get people to your site.
Payemoji eCommerce – fit for Small Business?
At Payemoji we pride ourselves in making eCommerce solutions fit for Small Business. We will never take a percentage of your sales and will always allow you to bring an existing store or digital payments. Here is a quick summary of our eCommerce:
- We charge a low monthly £9.99 for our monthly subscription.
- Your business can sell products and services through messaging like WhatsApp or on the web.
- We give you the flexibility to use our eCommerce store or bring your own.
- Payemoji supports digital payments like Apple Pay, Google Pay, Credit Cards, and Debit Cards. You can bring your own digital payments if you have them.
- Each eCommerce store comes with a set of store front themes to match your business.
- Get business dashboards that provide you key insights into how your business is performing e.g., daily sales, daily orders, top selling products and much more.
Outside of eCommerce we also provide in the same low monthly subscription
- Online appointments. Allow your customers to book an appointment or call out all through messaging.
- A messaging concierge / chat bot that can answer queries like opening hours, location, contact details, specials.
- A shared inbox where your staff can see all the engagements between your clients and your store. At any time, your staff can interject and message directly with the client.
- Share newsletters with your customers on upcoming events or at special times during the year.
- Marketing promotions and specials. As you will have the number of every customer that engages with your store through messaging, you can promote to these customers later.
At Payemoji every Business is provided a local Mobile Number (separate from their business number) that can be advertised on the Facebook business account or online such as Google business. We also provide Businesses with QR code(s) that make it simple for your customers to engage through a Messenger App with your Business.
