#70. Black Friday Cyber Monday: The Bounce Back Strategy to Hook Holiday Shoppers | Podcast

Vira: 0:16

Today we will be talking more about like what happened to customers who have placed an order with you during the Black Friday Cyber Monday season. And like how to retain those holiday shoppers with your post purchase bounce back offers.

Alissa: 0:54

Hello. Hello everyone. Welcome to another episode of Email Einstein. Vira and Alissa here we are, two email marketers at an email marketing agency called Flowium. We are so passionate about email marketing and because we love what we do, we want to share our insights with you. Flowium is one of the fastest growing email marketing agencies in the world. We specialize in providing a premium full service e commerce email marketing experience for all of our clients. Our service is tailored specifically for your business and is designed to help you increase your online retail revenue. We deliver the right message to the right person at the right moment. That’s what we’re all about here at Flowm. And we have this is feels like part 100, but it’s really just I think part three or four of our black Friday Cyber Monday saga. Vira, take us away.

Vira: 1:43

I love how you call it and I feel like our episodes getting shorter and shorter. Not because we have nothing to say but because Alissa started recording the episodes while Henry’s having a nap and Henry is her nine months old. Nine months?

Alissa: 1:59

Nine months on Tuesday. Crazy.

Vira: 2:00

Nine months on Tuesday. He’s nine months old so his nap time is getting shorter and shorter. So very soon it’s going to be 10 minutes episodes. Yay. Gosh, I wish he could be with us here today. Honestly. He’s such a sweet little baby boy. And his middle name is Bear too, right?

Alissa: 2:18

Yeah, yeah. Bear dove in. In Hebrew.

Vira: 2:21

So such a cute middle age. He’s a cutie.

Alissa: 2:24

Maybe when he actually starts talking about email marketing, which I would guess is around the age of three.

Vira: 2:29

I think it’s sooner Alissa.

Alissa: 2:31

We can have him on to give us like a fun fact about email marketing.

Vira: 2:35

Can you imagine? We should do that.

Alissa: 2:37

That’d be wild. It’d be very wild. The children of Flowium.

Vira: 2:40

Yeah, I think it’s gonna be. I think it’s gonna be sooner than three years. He’s basically been with you on all of the calls since day one. So yep, yep, yep.

Alissa: 2:49

And records the training videos with me and everything. He knows more about most of us, so yeah, watch out. Stay tuned world. Henry. Henry Taggart is coming at you.

Vira: 3:00

Awesome. So let’s continue our Black Friday Cyber Monday saga. So in 2019, nearly 187 million consumers shopped in stores and online in the States during Thanksgiving holiday weekend. However, in 2020 this number was even higher partly because of the COVID 19 pandemic. But in 2020, 44% more consumers shopped online over the holiday weekend compared to 2019. And this year it’s going to be even bigger. We’re not trying to scare you, maybe we do a little bit. But this year it’s going to be bigger. Bigger than ever. And it gets bigger and bigger every freaking year. So we talked a lot about like preparation, how to prepare for the Black Friday itself. But today we will be talking more about like what happened to customers who have placed an order with you during the Black Friday Cyber Monday season and like how to retain those holiday shoppers with your post purchase bounce back offers. So here are some fun numbers that I found when we were preparing for this podcast. So basically 37% of all online shoppers shop with more brands around the holidays than they did one year ago. So also 54% of those people make purchases online from brands that are new to them. So there is basically more chances that you will buy something from new brand around the holidays than around like a normal time. So expect to have a lot of first time buyers around the holidays and also 75% of Americans. And this number was very interesting to me to see 75% of Americans have actually changed brands during the pandemic. So because of pandemic they started shopping around and started shopping with different brands. Yeah, and we saw this study where they compared actually the lifetime value. They took like 50 e commerce retailers from different sort of industries and they compared those non holiday customers, so business as usual customers to new customers who like specifically shop around Black Friday Cyber Monday holidays and gifting period. And it turned out that while we actually see growth in both of those groups in like your normal customers and holiday customers, you can expect to generate more revenue from customers acquired over like before the holidays. So customers acquired over the holidays have significantly lower lifetime value than non holiday buyers, which was like really interesting to me to see, like suspected this number will be lower, but I just like didn’t realize that it will be that much lower.

Alissa: 6:05

Yeah, yeah.

Vira: 6:06

So there is like a whole group of customers who come like to your store specifically around the holidays who are gift givers and like window shoppers and holiday buyers. And this statistic is even more frustrating when you know that the margins for holiday shoppers is usually even like farther crunched because of all of those like huge discounts. Right. That sellers are offering to attract those customers at the first place. I mean, it is what it is. We’re like not complaining. It’s just interesting to understand this, to understand how this like entire ecosystem works. So the good news is that actually a well executed post purchase flow or like bounce back flow can help you to drive those customers back to your store to continue shopping with you and like to drive some excitement to increase the likelihood of repeat purchase. So at least I know you sort of have an opinion about what’s better, like pre purchase, holiday offer versus post purchase and which one you should have or maybe you should have both. So what do you think? Post purchase offer, pre purchase offer.

Alissa: 7:18

Yeah. So it’s interesting because there are sort of different ways to look at that question. So most retailers, so online brands who are wanting to actually boost their average order value and lifetime value tend to focus more on pre purchase offers. And for sure these kinds of offers can work. We actually mentioned these in our previous episodes, one being the. I think this was part one in our Black Friday saga. So that episode is episode 68, the Early Bird. Often when we talk about that. So it’s definitely workable and it does work these pre purchase offers. Right. But one of the most tried and true methods that will always not. Sorry, always is very absolute. Right. That is very, very, very, very likely to boost your aov, your average order value is to build a post purchase, sort of cross sell and upsell sequence. And that’s why in the past, actually very, very early days of when we started out this podcast, we talked about the post purchase sequence and what that looks like. And within that post purchase sequence we incorporate cross selling and upselling opportunities within there because usually after a customer makes their first purchase, they’re pretty excited about your brand. And actually there’s a statistic out there where someone is more likely to purchase again the same day that they’ve made their first purchase than they are as time goes on. Yeah, it is very, very bizarre. But if you think about it, the amount of times where you’re like you go in, you buy something at a store and then you leave and you’re thinking about that item that you wish you had bought. It’s a lot more likely that you’ll go back into the store and buy that item that you had thought about versus leaving the store, leaving the mall, getting in your car, going home and thinking like, oh, I wish I bought that item. You’re not going to go back and buy that item unless you need to place a return, you know, unless you have a physical reason to be in the store. And the same applies in the digital world. So there is one particular offer, however, that we like to talk about. We have talked about this in the past, but this is super applicable for holiday is a bounce back offer. And this is something that Vira will kind of go into what it, what specifically it is. But the reason why we find it so effective is shoppers are in peak buying mode. So your post purchase funnels are essentially an untapped gold mine of dollars, revenue money that you can be making as a brand that a lot of other brands actually overlook. So a lot of brands think I made the conversion, I made the sale, whatever, it’s over, it’s a one and done thing. But it’s not. You can actually milk a lot more out of that one individual customer than you can getting one individual purchase from multiple different people. And recency. So how recently you’ve performed an action and in this case placed an order is one of the top factors that we look that help predict what future behavior is going to look like. So the more recently a customer has purchased from you, the more likely they are to buy again. Which again like I mentioned, if I just made a purchase, I’m more likely to make that purchase again in five minutes than I am in five days. And post purchase offers, just as kind of a reminder, should only be served to qualified buyers. And that’s why these offers convert a lot better. So a qualified buyer, meaning someone who’s purchased and they’re not going through buyer’s remorse or and are in the process of canceling or trying to refund their order, someone who’s purchased is happy with their order and are willing to buy again because they had such a great experience.

Vira: 10:43

Yep, that’s a good one. And yeah, it’s basically people who have purchased from you, they are like your warm or your hot leads. Right. Because they have converted once. It’s like much easier to convert someone who’s like one time purchaser into two time buyers than it is to convert someone who has Never purchased from you into like first time buyer. So the cost of acquisition is usually much higher for that. Like first time buyers, right?

Alissa: 11:08

Yeah, yeah. And the cost of acquisition is something that I think a lot of more novice brands don’t really think about.

Vira: 11:14

They don’t, yeah.

Alissa: 11:15

It’s hardcore. Even for us as an agency to acquire a new lead or to acquire a brand new customer from scratch costs way more money than it does for us to get a referral from someone or to work with someone who owns more than one brand that is a lot, a lot less time and cost heavy on our company. So for sure, for sure.

Vira: 11:38

So we have briefly started talking about this bounce back offers. So what is a bounce back offer? Basically brick and mortar retailers, they invented the bounce back offers. Bounce back offer is an offer that often given to customers immediately after they have made the purchase. And then offers they are designed to bring them back. It’s like those gap cash, I don’t know if you have them in the States. Probably you do. It’s basically like when you buy something they give you like$5 coupon for the next order or something like, like that. And that order has to be made within the next month or so. So this is how they sort of like make you come back for more. But unfortunately this bounce back offers aren’t used much in online retail, in online world. But, but we really do think that they should be because they help to solve that like one time buyer problem a lot. And just like you Lisa said, customer acquisition cost is very, very high. I remember I saw this study where they showed that finding a new customers on like paid channels like Google Ads or like Facebook or like Instagram ads, they are actually targeting a three times return on ad spend. So that basically means, means that the cost of acquiring your lead is typically 1/3 of the sale price. Obviously this number is like different for different industries and for different products. But if you add like to those costs, if you add huge, huge discounts that we are offering around the holidays, if you add the cost of like handling the goods, sending the goods and if your margins are low, you are not actually making money. In some cases you are actually unfortunately losing money money. So unless you are lucky enough to have very low acquisition cost or like massive, massive margins, you probably are facing these challenges. That’s why having some sort of like bounce back flow in place is a must around the holidays. Yes it is a problem, but it’s also an opportunity. Think about it, you probably have like a lot, a lot of first time buyers around the holidays. And one of the quickest ways to like turn them into like a positive cash flow is to figure out how to like turn them into two times buyers. And the easiest way to do it is through that post purchase or bounce back flow. So I know Alissa, you have like a good example of a bounce back offer sequence specifically for the holiday buyer. So tell us about it.

Alissa: 14:03

So we would recommend putting this in place across the board no matter what brand you are. Well, okay, that’s a sweeping statement.

Vira: 14:10

Except if you are a mattress brand.

Alissa: 14:12

Yeah, yeah, yeah. If you’re a matt and maybe a little hard unless you’re selling fitted sheets, that’s a different story. But so your customer purchased a product during your Black Friday Cyber Monday promo period. And let’s just say for the sake of this example, your Black Friday Cyber Monday offer was a 20% site wide discount. So once the customer gets into the post purchase part of the funnel or their journey, they will be added to a bounce back automation only once. This can only happen one time where you, the brand will actually, actually offer them an even better personalized deal based on the fact that they just made a purchase and what they’ve purchased. So you would basically send them an email and typically we see bounce back offers going out anywhere between like 1 to 15 minutes after the fact. And it would say something along the lines of hey customer, thank you for buying whatever products during this holiday season. And you used our 20% off site wide discount, which is awesome. Hope you had a great time using that discount. We are actually currently running another secret promotion with an even higher discount for those who have already made a purchase this Black Friday holiday period. You can get 30% off towards another purchase at our store for the next 48 hours. And if you wanted to, you could send another email that kind of follows up. But what is going on here in this situation and why is this beneficial? So first things first is you’re actually letting the customer know that you’re aware of what just took place place. And you’re also giving them thanks and showing gratitude for the fact that they made a purchase. You are showing or sharing that there is exclusivity behind this offer. And because it’s a private email, it’s not open to the public and you make them feel special, which is important for our customers. And they are also receiving a greater financial incentive to come back and become a repeat customer with you, which helps. Right? It always sweetens the deal when there’s a little bit of a discount or there’s in it for one of your customers. So this is definitely something that you can implement with very, very easily. It’s just a one off automation, one email and if you wanted to you could kind of add another email as well just to remind them that they still have that 30% off or whatever it is that they can use over the course of the next day. If it’s a two day promo period.

Vira: 16:32

That’s a good one. That’s a good one. And yeah, just like you said, I like the post purchase sort of like flows and bounce back flows because you can compare to campaign gains. You can make them very like customer specific and very like timely too which make them very, very successful. So here are guys a few things to consider when you are thinking about your bounce back offer. First of all, and that’s just something that we’ve tested internally. We recommend to have only like one offer or like one product for this bounce back offer. It’s like a paradox choice. You know when people have like too many choices they are less likely to to buy something but when they have like one choice they are more likely to buy. It’s a simple yes or no decision for them. Right? So don’t make your customer think this bounce back flow, it’s very like timely. Don’t make them think twice. So that’s the first thing to consider. Also make sure that your item is always in stock. I know it’s like silly to say that but.

Alissa: 17:33

No, but it’s awkward. It’s awkward.

Vira: 17:35

We’ve seen it happen before. So remember that your bounce back offer is automated. It’s not like your campaign where you are like checking everything before you’re sending it. It is automated. So make sure you give a discount on something that is always, always in stock. The last thing you want to happen is to annoy your customer with email by offering them something that is not available. And we’ve seen it happen. So been there, done that, don’t do this mistake. But also something that you can do and it’s a bit more advanced sensed but it’s totally worth experimenting with it. You can consider a different product category than the product being purchased. Say if someone purchased jeans, maybe you can offer them discounts for tops and vice versa. So you know your products, you know what is the typical customer journey is. So most ecommerce funnels are like very, very simple but you can be a bit more adventurous with it and you can actually do custom offers based on what your customer have purchased.

Alissa: 18:37

Adventures

Vira: 18:40

and also free gifts with a purchase or like buy one, get one free or buy one, get one 50% off is like another offer. You can experiment with it also. It works really well for this holiday flow. And even doing something simple, like you might also like this sort of like product recommendation to bounce that customer back and to have that monetary incentives in the email. It can work really, really well. So say like, yeah, you’ve purchased this top. This jeans go really well with your top. Here’s the$10 off, like extra$10 off or something like that. So, yeah, so be creative, be adventurous with your bounce back offer and definitely, definitely have something like this in place for your holidays automations. That’s like a big deal.

Alissa: 19:28

Yeah, you just, you said be adventurous and I’m like, be aggressive, be aggressive.

Vira: 19:34

What is this?

Alissa: 19:35

That’s like a. It’s like a cheerleader chant from like, it’s, it’s. I think that’s like a us thing, but.

Vira: 19:42

Really?

Alissa: 19:42

Yeah. Do you guys have cheerleading and stuff in. In Ukraine?

Vira: 19:45

I mean, in Ukraine, it’s not a popular thing. They just started doing it because of American movies. It’s got a cultural thing. I think they do have them in Canada. I’m sure they do. Were you a cheerleader?

Alissa: 19:56

No, I was.

Vira: 19:57

No, you weren’t.

Alissa: 19:58

I was not a cheerleader. I played field hockey and I played lacrosse. But you were saying, be adventurous. And I’m thinking, be, be aggressive, be aggressive. And it’s hilarious. That’s just like a silly, like cheerleading chant.

Vira: 20:12

Oh, that’s a good one. Yeah. So be aggressive around the holidays, you guys. At least I just gave you permission.

Alissa: 20:20

Be aggressive. Yeah. Cause sometimes you think that the bounce back offer is aggressive, but then you put it in place and you’re like, wow, there’s like a lot of revenue that’s being generated here. The thing is, is like you’re giving your customer, you’re giving them like an additional opportunity. You’re almost giving, giving them more permission to come back and purchase with you sooner rather than later.

Vira: 20:39

Right. And it feels very exclusive too. Right? Yeah, it feels like you did something like extra. You did something like behind the scenes almost. I don’t know. It just feels special. I like it.

Alissa: 20:49

No, for sure, for sure. So there you have it, y’.

Vira: 20:52

All.

Alissa: 20:52

Another Black Friday Cyber Monday little strategy in there. So use the bounce back whenever you can. Even outside of holiday, it’s still very, very applicable. So, guys, as always, thank you for listening on today’s episode. Don’t forget to subscribe and share this podcast with your friends. As always, if you have any questions that you Want us to feature on our podcast episodes, please send them at flowium.com/ask as always, if you like what we do, please leave us a review. And if you do leave us a review, make sure that you go to flowium.com when you go there, you will be entered into a type form. All you have to do is plug in your name, your address, a screenshot of your review, and then we will send you some socks. I just got mine in the mail last Friday and they are the best, like, 10 out of 10 very high quality socks. I love flowing them, obviously, because I work here, but they’re so fun. They’re so awesome. I actually posted a little boomerang of them to our Flowium premium Instagram.

Vira: 21:58

Oh, so it was your feed. Oh, that explains everything. Because, like, I thought it was like, Andriy’s, but I was like, does he have, like, such tiny feet? I don’t think he does. Like, they were, like, so teeny tiny. Like, so cute. The socks look amazing.

Alissa: 22:16

Yeah, the socks are a lot of fun. So make sure that you leave a review, send us over some proof that you left a review, and you’ll get your very own socks. They’re actually amazing, amazing, amazing. I love.

Vira: 22:25

That’s awesome.

Alissa: 22:25

Yeah.

Vira: 22:25

And next Tuesday, we will be talking about those really good Black Friday Cyber Monday subject lines and how to write your perfect Black Friday email subject lines. And we will consult with our rockstar copywriters. Maybe they can help us with some research for this podcast. So it’s gonna be a good one. Come back next week.

Alissa: 22:45

Yeah. I love it. Thank you guys so much.

Vira: 22:47

Thank you for listening. Bye.