Sinéad Hammond: 0:04
Hello and welcome to episode five of Shoppernomics to our special Shopify Podcast Unwrapping Holiday Shopping Success Lessons Learned from Black Friday and Cyber Monday. You can already see people popping on, which is super exciting. So joining me today is the MD of Shopify, EMEA Deann Evans. Welcome, Deanne, how are you?

Deann Evans: 0:28
I’m great Thanks for having me Sinead.

Sinéad Hammond: 0:31
Brilliant. Thank you so much for joining us on our ecommerce podcast. I’d love you to tell us just a little bit about yourself and your career in e-commerce just before moving into your current role.

Deann Evans: 0:38
Sure, absolutely yeah. So I have been an e-commerce for nearly 20 years now, so my career has spanned across commerce, e-commerce, marketing and technology. So I’ve joined Shopify a little over two years ago. I am currently the managing director for Amia Powering, working with our teams that are powering our growth across the Amia region. And a little bit about Shopify for those of you that don’t know us Shopify provides essential infrastructure for commerce and we’ve created a unified commerce operating system, so we’re letting retailers and businesses manage everything from their online store, their offline store, social media channels and B2B, and we currently have millions of merchants on the platform and we have processed a lot. I know we’re going to talk a lot about stats, but I’ll share one. We’ve processed over 700 billion GMV to date on the platform, so quite a wide view across commerce.

Sinéad Hammond: 1:38
Absolutely so many, and on this Shopify podcast we’re talking specifically about peak seasons and the amount of shopping that happens during those seasons, so I’m sure some of these numbers contribute to that enormous number there. So today’s Shopify Podcast is all about holiday shopping and how brands can make the most out of these peak seasons, and we’re thrilled to be the very first e-commerce community to talk about the 2023 Shopify Black Friday and Cyber Monday results. So thank you so much for giving us this time and exclusive to be doing this. So these were only revealed yesterday, so hot off the press. So this is really exciting to be able to talk through Just before we dive into the questions on this Shopify Podcast. A reminder to Shoponomics regulars and also some newbies here that this is an interactive event, so that means as a listener, to this Shopify Podcast you can get involved with the conversation. Just simply ask to speak at the bottom there in the LinkedIn live event and we can welcome you on stage. We can invite questions during the Shopify Podcast or we can take them at the end as well, so make sure you write your notes throughout and we’ll answer those afterwards. The chat usually lasts sort of an hour, so we should be turning off at 2pm, so hopefully you can stick around and listen in. You can make comments throughout the event if you’d like to, on the actual LinkedIn event, or just react with little emojis down there, which I know is a fun way of keeping involved in the conversation. So let’s get on with the question. So the big headline for 2024 is that Shopify broke records with weekend sales of 9.3 billion US dollars globally, which is just a massive number for the four days. So what are some of the other standout highlight numbers from this year’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday weekend?

Deann Evans: 3:30
Yeah, so it was incredible weekend for our customers on Shopify. So, like you said, 9.3 billion in sales globally and it was a 24% increase in sales from 2022. So this is a huge increase year over year. When we look at how many consumers globally made a purchase from a Shopify merchant during BFCM, that number is 61 million. So 61 million consumers were making a purchase. Yeah, it’s a huge number. And looking as well at where do we sell, so where were our merchants selling? There was top selling countries across the globe, but when we look at cities, london was among the three highest performing cities, along with New York City and Los Angeles.

Sinéad Hammond: 4:18
Incredible. It’s interesting that we have such huge numbers, given kind of the sort of economic climate we’re in at the moment. That’s why we’re excited to be doing this Shopify Podcast. Does it tell you anything sort of about shopper behavior at the moment?

Deann Evans: 4:31
Yeah, so one of the things that we saw with shopper behavior going into the BFCM really seasons this peak sales season is that consumers were saving for this moment. Right, so shoppers, even though they have been feeling the pinch recently and we are in a time of economic crisis we did some research and we saw that, specifically in the UK, 74% of UK consumers were reducing their discretionary spending over the last couple of months leading up to this time. Right, so they were getting ready for the sales moment.

Sinéad Hammond: 5:05
So actually preparing, you know, sort of keeping purse strings tight until this point? Has that kind of been seen sort of across businesses up to this point? Do you think, in terms of the way the customers have been behaving up to this point?

Deann Evans: 5:24
Yeah. So what we heard from consumers right is that they were saving time they are sorry, saving money and getting ready for this holiday season, and they were saving more each month leading up to the season, and half of consumers said that they planned on doing the majority of their holiday shopping during the sales. So really making this that key revenue driving moment.

Sinéad Hammond: 5:45
Yeah, absolutely. I was reading through the stats myself and looking at seeing that customers were being a little bit more kind of savvy with the way that they were shopping as well, so not just buying impulsively anymore. Can you tell us a little bit about that?

Deann Evans: 6:03
Yeah, absolutely. So. You know, there’s a couple of different trends that we’re seeing. So one that they are also kind of going back in store again, right. So when they’re looking to discover new products, they are using the high street, right, and they’re going back into stores to discover new products and doing more browsing than they were just a year ago. So they’re really being more considered around how they are shopping. The other thing that we’re seeing is that they are also looking at all these different channels, right. So things like social commerce become really important during this time. So they’re looking across different channels, trying to think about what are the decisions that they’re going to make. So one of the tips, one of the things that we talk about with our customers as they’re preparing for this, is that businesses need to make sure that they are selling where their customers are. So, whether that be in a store, online, on social channels, you need to be able to not only be discovered, but also offer purchase opportunities at those points for customers.

Sinéad Hammond: 7:09
Interesting. As you say, there’s lots of different channels available at the moment. I mean, tons of shoppers are going from a mobile phone to a desktop to a kiosk in store, so it’s really important to be looking at all those channels, I think, when you’re thinking about where commerce is happening now.

Deann Evans: 7:28
Yeah, definitely. One of the things that we think that the brands should be considering is that they really need to think about tech-driven shopping, right. So how do they enable to your point, how they enable customers to interact with their brands, to buy with their brands in different ways through these tech-driven shopping experiences? And another interesting stat that we have is that 40% of UK shoppers are more likely to buy from, or spend more money with, brands that actively embed technology into the shopping experience. So that could be, like you said, mobile shopping right, using mobile apps, things like self-service checkout or kiosk and kiosk, and also offering things like real-time order tracking to make sure that the technologies that consumers want are part of the shopping experience with their brand.

Sinéad Hammond: 8:15
Interesting. So it’s interesting to hear that that’s something that customers are actually demanding now and expecting. Do you think that’s been influenced by customers getting used to that generally in shopping?

Deann Evans: 8:31
Yeah, definitely. Look, it’s becoming more part of consumers’ everyday behavior, right? So, if I think about myself personally, I probably buy way too much from browsing on Instagram, right, and then immediately going through to a checkout, and then, if that brand that I’m shopping with happens to be on Shopify and have Shoppay enabled, pretty much right away I’m going to be buying the product and so, yeah, it’s just becoming more of our day-to-day right, instead of the opportunity for retailers to embrace technology to actually make sure that they are showing up to their consumers. Consumers are discovering them and they’re able to offer them more of an opportunity to connect with the brand.

Sinéad Hammond: 9:11
Yeah, I can definitely relate to you there. I think if it’s as soon as I put my card details into Instagram, that was it. I was a kind of everything I want to buy, just impulses Makes it so easy. And if the steps are super simple that way and you can kind of just easily see something, go to the site, make that purchase, it’s all kind of loaded into your app or your phone or whatever, then it’s a bit difficult not to, I think. So can you tell us a little bit more about some of the key themes emerging from these results, like sort of what are we seeing in terms of top product categories I mean, you mentioned their top cities but globally, kind of, where are people shopping the most? Maybe more about cross-border commerce, any kind of themes that you saw through these stats?

Deann Evans: 10:06
Yeah, so we talked a little bit about the importance of brick-and-mortar shopping again, right, and we saw that in-store spending surged 28% in the UK compared to last year, based on point-of-sale sales made by Shopify merchants. So we really are seeing that return to the high street and so, again, that’s something that an area that offers a lot of opportunity opportunity for brands and for retailers. And you mentioned cross-border. So over the full weekend 19% of sales on Shopify were cross-border orders. So that really underlies one the strength and opportunity for retailers and brands in the UK, the export, but it also just shows that cross-border commerce is becoming a really big opportunity across the world.

Sinéad Hammond: 10:53
What does this mean for brands? If we’re talking about cross-border commerce, how can brands kind of think about strategically, the next steps to really take advantage of the kind of ability technologies giving us to be able to have that cross-border commerce, can you talk to our Shopify Podcast listeners about this?

Deann Evans: 11:08
Yeah, it’s definitely so. I can talk a little bit about specifically the opportunity that Shopify gives retailers, but we have a product called Shopify Markets that gives retailers the tools and scale to support going international. So the platform will allow you to do things like create custom buying experiences with currencies, languages, domains and payment methods that align with the local markets that you’re operating in, and so it really helps. It helps brands very quickly spin up in new markets, and this offers a great opportunity for international expansion. And, as we know, you know, commerce is local and specific right Payment methods are different, shipping is different, and so you need to make sure that when you’re expanding internationally, you are showing up in the right way and in the way that customers expect to interact with brands and shop from brands in those markets.

Sinéad Hammond: 12:04
Interesting, and I’m going to just take you back for a second to the point you raised earlier about customers going more in stores. So I guess this is kind of a slightly different channel than cross-border commerce in the sense that people are actually going into stores. Now what is that telling us about consumer behavior that maybe again brands need to be thinking about when they’re looking at all these different revenues and channels that are now available to them?

Deann Evans: 12:36
So we’re seeing some brands on Shopify you know once that aren’t brick and mortar, traditional, traditional DC brands. I’ll use Jim Shark as an example. So Jim Shark was, you know, a brand born online, a DTC brand that’s opened up the flagship store on Regent Street, right and so, and within that store, if you’re in London and you have a chance to visit it, it’s an incredible experience. There are gym classes that are offered, they have a Joan the Juice bar in the store, right. It’s all about the community, the fitness community and the mindset, and so a lot of what we’re seeing now is brands are creating experiences like this in the brick and mortar store and customers want to connect with these brands in those ways. We’re also seeing DTC traditional DTC brands use pop-up opportunities to drive new customers and be known in a different way, and so we have a brand on Shopify called Lounge Underwear that they’ve used. They’ve used. They had a pop-up store in the garden over the holiday season last year where they were using that to give their current customers an opportunity to interact with the brand but also for new customers to discover them. And so you know some of the opportunities around pop-up stores you can quite easily use like a Shopify point of sale device to easily spin up a pop-up store and to make sales. But there are a lot of different opportunities along these lines. So you’ve got brick and mortar, you have international expansion. There are also opportunities with things like marketplaces. So there are a lot of different ways for retailers and brands now to get their products into the hands of new consumers 100%.

Sinéad Hammond: 14:19
I was reading as well on your Shopify stats that there’s a lot, lot more sales being done on mobile versus desktop. I don’t think that’s a huge surprise, but what can you say about this kind of increasing shift? Is it an increasing shift from last year can you tell this Shopify Podcast? Do you know whether that’s an increasing shift, or is this just kind of what we’re seeing across the board?

Deann Evans: 14:48
Yeah, I think that what’s interesting about mobile shopping is it’s something right that is going to continue to increase. We all have these devices in our hands online you know, every day, all the time, and so it’s again that convenience and that ability. One of the things that we are seeing is we’re seeing a lot of customers on the platform are building out their own apps Right, and their offering strategy is where you might need to shop in the app to be able to offer, to be able to access an offer or to be able to access some sort of special perk with the brand, and so really, that mobile shopping and making sure that you have a site that’s optimized, the mobile shopping experience is good, you’ve created an app if that’s the right thing for your brand are going to be really critical and continue to be critical as brands think about what are their strategies going into next year and even next next peak BSTM season.

Sinéad Hammond: 15:42
Interesting. Yeah, I was going to say exactly what you were saying there about. You know, it’s constant, it’s the experience in your hand all the time, and I think what you were saying earlier about those collective experiences and having kind of all of those different avenues for people to be accessing commerce, you can understand why people will maybe, you know, either do some possible research, maybe on desktop, or do some research on mobile and maybe do their purchase in store or on mobile. You know there’s an endless sort of customer journey that a person can, a customer can, go through before they make that purchase. So it’s really interesting to keep following this, keep close to that as we go forward. Are there any other key themes that I’ve sort of missed in this section that kind of emerged that you wanted to kind of let our Shopify Podcast listeners know about?

Deann Evans: 16:31
I think you know one of the things you asked about earlier that we did, that we didn’t or I didn’t get a chance to touch on, was just some of the categories that we’re seeing and that are really trending in. Specifically in the UK we saw the apparel and accessories area trending, health and beauty, home and garden, arts and entertainment and food and beverage so those were some of the highest selling categories in the UK across the BFCM weekend. So I think any retailers that might be listening to this Shopify Podcast, that are in those categories that didn’t have a specific strategy or plan around BFCM, it’s a huge opportunity for them moving into next year.

Sinéad Hammond: 17:11
So apparel and accessories. I saw also health and beauty, home and garden as well a couple of other areas that we’re really doing well this year. Do you think this will continue on to the next holiday season? Do we think there’s kind of a trend going on going forward? Is this to do, maybe, with gifting? Is that what that’s to do with, potentially?

Deann Evans: 17:31
Yeah, it definitely could be Like we saw about 50% of consumers were planning on doing all of their holiday shopping during this weekend during BFCM. So any of those areas where you have products that could be gifts or that are part of that gifting area are definitely, I think, areas where we’ll continue to see increases Brilliant.

Sinéad Hammond: 17:53
I mean. This leads on really well to my next question on our Shopify Podcast, which is sort of talking about peak trending generally in terms of how brands can really make them more popular, how brands can really make the most out of these peak times. I mean, for a lot of brands there are multiple peak trading seasons throughout the year. I mean particularly we focus on kind of this area from sort of November up to the holiday period, because there’s a big flurry of gifting, as we were saying, but there are peak seasons throughout the entire calendar. What would you say is your advice for businesses about how they can really prep for these peak periods?

Deann Evans: 18:29
Yeah. So, look, we know that everything isn’t smooth sailing in commerce, right, and especially when things get busy, and so I think that is a great point for us to spend some time on. One of the first areas that we’re seeing is really it’s a longer sales period, right? So, while BFCM is kind of the main event and we’re looking at, you know, this Friday to the Monday, the sales period is lasting longer than ever, and so we’re seeing, in the months and weeks that are leading up to BFCM, that’s when we’re starting to see sales and promotions coming out right and even extending into 2024. So this is a time where we think you’ve got to. Really, the first thing is to think that it’s not just this weekend, it is a longer peak period.

Sinéad Hammond: 19:15
And so, in terms of the actual, is there any practical preparation suggestions that you can sort of give the brands who might be thinking? I mean, if we’re thinking way in advance, you know what kind of strategies, what kind of thinking can people be doing right now to be able to really make the most of these periods?

Deann Evans: 19:35
Yeah, so it’s really thinking about. You know, thinking about what types of offers are you going to? Are you going to offer you don’t want to put too much up front, right, so make sure that you start communicating your offers earlier, but maybe you don’t put them all out there too early, right? You want to think about how do you want your consumers to be interacting with your brand. Is it going to be online? Are there in-person opportunities? Are there an opportunity for you to drive in-person shopping and drive discovery of new products? So some of these things are going to be really important when they think about that sales strategy. So you know, how are you going to maximize those sales and really revenue opportunities? And then, especially for any of your online anything that you’re driving online or through mobile, you need to really make sure that you’re testing and preparing your store traffic for surges, right. So a slow website, you’re going to lose customers. So you need to be optimizing your performance for Black Friday traffic surges and making sure that you’re like that you don’t have slow, low times or site crashes. You know we saw a number of kind of high profile sites that had issues over the months leading up to leading up to VFCM and you don’t want to be one of those.

Sinéad Hammond: 20:48
Yeah, absolutely, and we’re going to talk a little bit about sort of mistakes and issues a little bit later in our Shopify Podcast because obviously, as all brands, we do experience every brand experience these and obviously we want to be able to kind of prevent these as much as possible. I think what I’m really getting there is there’s a lot of preparation that needs to be done right, so something you can spin up in a couple of hours and or couple of days and before, and it really needs to be planned methodically in a full campaign, which is really important, and also prepping for these sort of surges in activity as well, really really key. We recently released some a blog kind of about how you know customer service needs to sort of maintain that really quality service even throughout these periods, and it can be quite tricky, but I think you mentioned before about technology being able to really enable this and really helping, supporting with these peak seasons, so customers are able to still experience that quality service, that quality shopping experience, whilst you know the, the, the surge is happening during that period, which is really really important. So just to remind us that everybody listening to this Shopify Podcast as well and that we always take questions at the end. So we’ve gone through quite a few statistics, themes, ideas already so far, so be really keen to listen to any questions on this Shopify Podcast afterwards. If anyone has any of these, don’t forget you can step up at the end or you can react as well to what’s going on on the chat at the time. So going back to you, Deann, do you have any success stories of brands who’ve made changes? I mentioned Jim shark earlier and any other brands that made changes to succeed in their holiday campaigns from from this peak season or previous peak seasons that you’d be able to sort of share with us? Yeah, definitely.

Deann Evans: 22:41
So I talked a little bit about a little bit about Jim shark, but one of the things that I will talk more about them is just that their crust joggers were one of our top trending items globally, for sure, for shoppers on Cyber Monday this week, and one of the things that they did is they made their promotions even better this year by adding an extra 25% off to their sale. So we’re expecting them to have another another seller on Black Friday, cyber Monday and you know, we talked a little bit about, talked a little bit about, like, mobile shopping, right, and one of our merchants, blake Lee, their clothing store. They took a new approach to their ads to drive yeah, to drive traffic to their site during Black Friday, cyber Monday. So they really want to make sure that they had created original and engaging content Right, so they used a lot of video and created standout content that doesn’t feel like an ad and that’s going to increase interaction. If you think about kind of the doom scrolling we all talk about, right, you’re scrolling through Instagram, you’re scrolling through TikTok, whatever that is, they really made sure that their content was really attention grabbing. They used some user-generated content for their ads and incredible social proof which could drive interest in this crowded marketing space, so that was the great one that started out to us. It’s not just about what are the sales, what’s the site look like, but also how are you going to drive people there, and using engaging content to get customers to the site is really important.

Sinéad Hammond: 24:12
I would say this is probably a really good point for all peak seasons is because you mentioned there that it’s incredibly competitive during this period. You know everyone’s looking to grab attention. I feel like when I was looking through my own feed and my inbox and looking at all the Black Friday promotions it’s a lot of it you can kind of see, oh, we’ve done this before, I’ve seen this before, this isn’t new to me, this isn’t attention grabbing, and I think one of the big things is really pushing forward and trying innovative new things, trying something stand out. I think it’s super, super important, and making you stop that scroll is a phrase that we use quite a lot just to really have a. You know, oh, wow, this is grabbing my attention and that will make it then to make that final purchase, I think.

Deann Evans: 25:02
Absolutely, and I saw there was one that drove me to make a purchase is there is a brand called Scampindude, which I’ve purchased from in the past, a clothing store, but they had a great concept where they had I believe they called them swag bags and their picture was like makeup bags with different patterns on them, and they had collaborated with different celebrities that had helped design the bags, and then, with each purchase of a bag, they made a donation to a charity that was aligned with one, specifically that that celebrity had chosen. And so I saw it advertised on Instagram, right, I clicked through and I ended up buying a couple of those as gifts for friends, because it was just a different approach with one you know with with donating money to charity. They were priced well and they made them an accessible gift and it really stood out to me. And so I think you know thinking about for retailers, thinking about what aligns with your brand, what can you do that’s different, and then betting it not only again in the sales and the products, but also in kind of the advertising and the promotion to get people through to that purchase.

Sinéad Hammond: 26:14
Love it. Really. Really good tip, thank you. They’re really useful to show and it’s all these individual products that we see and ideas that we can then use going forward. It’s really interesting to see how creative brands can be during these seasons. You mentioned a trending product that you saw over the period. Are there any other ones that you saw that really stood out to you during this weekend that you can talk about for this Shopify podcast?

Deann Evans: 26:42
Yeah, so there was quite. I mean, we had a lot. We talked a lot about some of those trending categories, but within kind of the health and wellness space, there is a company called Bloom Nutrition which has greens and superfood products. That that was really really super trending. So I think for me interesting to see that, you know, people were thinking about their health and wellness as well during, during, during, all their shopping. We also saw different things like a brand called Tush Baby which has a baby hip carrier, so a baby carrier. That was another one of the another, one of the like highest trending products. And then, looking at things like apparel skims, which is Kim’s Kardashian brand, they had a cut and ribbed tank. That was a super, was a high trending, a high trending product, and so a lot of different examples of products that were trending across across the across the weekend.

Sinéad Hammond: 27:36
Do you think there’s anything specific? When you talk about trending products, is there anything specific that these brands did in advance that you noticed? I mean, maybe, maybe, maybe you didn’t, but I’m just wondering if there’s anything specific that these brands were doing that may have got them to that point during that period, do you think, can you tell our Shopify Podcast listeners?

Deann Evans: 27:58
Yeah. So you know from my opinion, it’s, you know, it is that well thought out, well thought out, full campaign, right? What products are you going to discount? What are the products that you want to push? Do you have a product that is Incredibly popular? Things to think about. Are there products that are, you know, kind of the first product that people tend to discuss From your brand right, or a key selling product that you can offer an additional promotion on, again, to get more people in shopping and Interacting with your brand? During this time, there are obviously Many retailers most retailers have some sort of a promotion or thing Happening that weekend. So how do you make, how do you make that stand out? And a lot of times, looking for those key products, those key moments will help, will help retailers to drive the, to drive the, to drive, to drive sales. The other thing that’s interesting and I don’t know if you saw it, shanaid, but Shopify during the Black Friday, cyber Monday period, we actually we have a globe that you can access and you can see all the trends that are happening Throughout the weekend in different cities. You can see what the top trending products are, and so if you, if anybody listening, to this Shopify Podcast didn’t see that this year. I’d highly recommend taking a look at it next year. Is it something that we do every year and you’re able to see what’s trending, what’s happening Across the globe?

Sinéad Hammond: 29:23
Nice, I love that. That’s a really cool thing to do. I didn’t know that existed, so I’ll definitely have to check that out. And so I’m wondering we sort of mentioned it, touched on it a little bit before in this Shopify Podcast, and but there’s always going to be a Few kind of hiccups, I guess, and not everything in commerce is smooth sailing, as I’m sure a lot of people on this call would agree, and so can you give us some tips and tricks potentially to avoid some mistakes when things do get busy?

Deann Evans: 29:59
Yeah, absolutely so. We talked a little bit earlier about making sure that you have done all the testing that you need to do, and you know if we want to get more around like traffic surges and things like that for your site, if we want to get a little bit more specific around that, you know there are analytics tools that you can use, such as page insights and Pingdom, to help you achieve faster loading speeds. There’s a study that we’ve seen that found that just a point, one second increase in site speeds can result in about a 10% increase in conversions. Wow, which is which is incredible, yeah, and that that feels like such a small change, doesn’t it? but the impact of that is is huge, yeah so, if you think about what a 10% increase in conversion does for revenue, it’s incredible, right, yeah, yeah. And then also, you can access the architecture of your site, so make sure it’s not overloaded with unnecessary tools that could slow it down. So, what are the different tools? What’s everything on your site? You know, also, doing things like keeping customers engaged, minimize pop-ups, displaying deals and special offers also increases the likelihood of conversions. So, though, you know these are things to keep it keep in mind. If you’re all of a sudden, you’re saying, okay, we’re gonna have 10 different sales, we’re gonna have different sales, we’re gonna have different products that we’re trying to show people, make sure that you’re really keeping those pop-ups and offers, you know, down to a minimum In terms of the customer flow and UX and experience. Experience Also optimizing product pages for conversions. So make sure you have clear call to actions, descriptions, payment methods. And really, something that I mean retailers and you know should be thinking about when it comes to DC and online always is their checkout. How optimized is your checkout? Do you have a one-page checkout? Is it simple? So these are all things that, from from an online perspective, should be thought about.

Sinéad Hammond: 31:56
Absolutely. Actually. I would love for you to dive a little bit deeper into that comment you just made there about online checkout, because I think that’s actually a really key Well, it’s obviously a very key part of a shopping process. It’s that final step before a shopper does make that conversion. Is there any anything you could talk about in terms of the impact of online checkout During these peak seasons? Any advice, any ideas, cased is that sort of thing?

Deann Evans: 32:25
Yeah, so I think you know it really, checkout is, as I said, it’s paramount to any online shopping experience. So retailers need to think about in terms of in terms of online, how do you make the process or it’s checkout, how do you make the process as frictionless as possible? Shopify offers a one-page checkout, so there’s, you know, there’s opportunities when you have to. If you think about just your consumer experience Right, if you have to click through five, six times to get through to a checkout, it’s not a great experience and the customer is really, you know, more likely likely to Unchurn and not convert within the checkout. There are a lot of opportunities you can offer accelerated checkout or checkout Wallets, making sure that you have as many shipping options as possible. So these are all really important and making sure that, again, it’s an easy experience for the consumer to purchase from you and transact with you, and so it’s a really key, obviously, moving into these peak moments like BFCM, but it’s also something that should I think every retailer should be constantly optimizing and looking for ways to give consumers options To make it simple for them to check out as smoothly as possible. Yeah, absolutely, I mean.

Sinéad Hammond: 33:35
There’s so much more option now in terms of payments. You know things like buying our pay later, buying things on loyalty schemes, even all of those different options. I read somewhere recently that people were doing a lot of saving up and sort of loyalty points and spending them or buying things on credit, which is a newer trend emerging that hasn’t really been seen quite as much in the past and I attribute that down, I guess, to financial crisis or difficulties. People are sort of using shopping a little more savvy I suppose it’s probably the best way to say it and obviously having those options available in the basket and checkout process Kind of fundamental, especially if you know, for you’re used to shopping and we were talking about customer habits and how people are used to this convenience and the speed. I think it’s really important there to be able to make sure you’re taking advantage of simple. Again, they’re just you know we were talking about them for simple tweaks really but can make an enormous impact to the customer journey and zero for revenue during these seasons.

Deann Evans: 34:42
Yeah, absolutely the options buy now, pay later. Tools again accelerated checkouts we have through Shopify. We have shop pay and we’ve seen we’ve actually seen we had a study done by a big three consulting firm and shop pay boost conversion by is just 50% compared to a guest checkout. So if you think about that, just the opportunity to have an accelerated checkout where a consumer already uses that makes a big impact on, ultimately, conversion and revenue.

Sinéad Hammond: 35:14
Exactly, exactly. So as we go into the final sort of questions here on this Shopify Podcast, I just wanted to remind everybody who’s listening in to this Shopify podcast that there is an opportunity to ask some questions. I have actually had a question submitted online just whilst someone has had to drop off the call, so I will be asking that one. But if there’s anybody else who wants to ask any questions while we have Dianne here to speak to us on this Shopify Podcast, then definitely take this opportunity. And so, just as we draw to a conclusion with this, I’d love to know some of the key lessons for merchants for the rest of the holiday season and into 2024 and beyond.

Deann Evans: 35:52
Yeah, absolutely. I think you know, as your, as your again planning for BFCM, you know it needs to start early, right, and knowing that these promotions can have a lot of moving pieces, it’s really crucial to start to plan very early and stay organized throughout the season. So you could think of doing things like creating a plan sales map to give a simple outline of all upcoming sales and promotions. And you know, as we said before, we expect that these, that these sales, will go into 2024, right, so it’s not just this weekend. You need to make sure that you’re organized and ready to go, and we also want to make sure that you know if we’re thinking about that in store or brick and mortar experience. You want to make sure that you are adequately prepared for the retailers to have customer service, that they need to make sure that they have the right store stuff that they need to make sure that they’re thinking about things like return policies. How does this work? You really want to make sure that you’re fully prepared to meet customers, both online and offline, with the right staff, the right opportunities and the right experience.

Sinéad Hammond: 37:03
Absolutely. I love that as CPUs for advice, especially as we go into Christmas, although I do feel like Christmas is well underway. I think Christmas shopping started in July for some people or retailers, having their advent calendars out in July. I’m not sure quite how I feel about that at the moment, but it’s definitely the longer period shopping. But as we go into kind of I mean brands in sort of home and furniture, look at an apparel and accessories. We’re looking at January sales and then you have period sales throughout the year as well. So there’s so many opportunities for brands to be able to take the learning that you guys have collected from Black Friday, cyber Monday and to be able to then take that into future learning on this Shopify Podcast. So really, really useful information there.

Deann Evans: 37:52
Yeah, and I think you know, should I have the other thing to think about, when you’re thinking about preparation and what you just said, like you know, advent calendars in the store in July I think brands need to make sure that they’re communicating right communicating early and communicating well with their customers on when their sales are coming, what they’re going to be doing and really making sure that they have a strategy around the communication and that it’s personalized and that you’re sharing, you know, warm up emails with Vincent teasers, that kind of thing and really planning for that full campaign right, making sure that all of your different departments internally, whether that be marketing, comms, your E-com team are all working together and really planning across like a unified motion for these different sales periods.

Sinéad Hammond: 38:37
Definitely. I feel like I’m already thinking of emails that got into my inbox as early as sort of September, dropping hints about this, but they’re effective because I’m remembering them and pulling them up and so it’s really important that they’re there from that period because, like you say, you know it’s super competitive, people are starting really early and so obviously, really making that plan, having that plan in action as a marketing person myself, you know from really early on I know campaigns launch miles in advance of when they are, or planned miles in advance of the actual launch. So, yeah, it’s really important to get those teams involved and have those strategies and plans in place. So I did have a question about this. I was going to kind of see if there’s any questions on this Shopify podcast, but the question I’ve got is directly related to this. So just to continue that point, you were saying that holiday shopping is lasting longer than ever, longer periods than ever, going way beyond BFCM period but the question is how long can this period feasibly get extended before losing impact? So if Black Friday continues to start the beginning of November and run almost to the January sales, some of that scarcity and urgency messaging might lose its punch a little bit. What do you sort of see? Where do you see that period? Is there a specific period? Is there kind of a cutoff day, or do you see kind of another solution maybe for this to keep people still engaged?

Deann Evans: 40:04
Yeah, I think there are a few things there. We’re seeing an extend, we’re seeing brands, like we said, are starting earlier and finishing later, but we still saw a 24% increase in sales from 2022. We talked a little bit earlier about international sales as well, not only from a cross-border commerce perspective, where we’re seeing more cross-border orders, but even things like London being one of the top-selling cities, and so I think BFCM is becoming more of a global event and it’s something where you know, at least our data, year-over-year, is showing that it is increasing In terms of, again, how retailers can make sure that they don’t have consumers aren’t fatigued. I think it’s going to be all about that smart planning, communicating well, really making sure that how a retailer shows up in BFCM, whether it be with offers, with the products they’re showcasing, are relevant to their customers. So I mean, let’s see what next year brings, but it doesn’t look like it’s slowing down.

Sinéad Hammond: 41:13
Thank you so much. They’re all super insightful snippets that you’ve given us. Using the statistics that you’ve collected over the weekend is so important, to say Paramount. Thank you so much for sharing them on here with us because, you know, Shoppernomics is a community created to help brands from across the retail space really understand how they can utilise things like these statistics. You look at customer behavior. Really, you know, make the most out of the using technology and building better customer experiences and creating these seamless experiences talking about. So it’s really really vital and useful to have you on here to be able to share this with us. So thank you so much for going into the detail you’ve got into to really unwrap that for us. Does anyone on the call have any questions on the Shopify Podcast? Before we wrap up in the end? This is where it’s always really quiet. Don’t be shy. No, okay, well, afterwards, if you want to connect with Deann, she’s very kindly said that she’s more than happy to answer any questions that you may have. But, as always, thank you very, very much for tuning in for those who came at the beginning and had to drop off, or those who came halfway through and came in, and we love that you’re able to kind of drop in and drop out, and the recording of this Shopify podcast will be available for the entire audio event after this, after we’ve closed off, so you should be able to find it on Shoppernomics website tomorrow, which is exciting. So I just want to take this opportunity to just say thank you so, so much for spending the time this afternoon during your lunch to have a chat to us, to kind of dive into these stats a little more for us and the next Shoppernomics event will now be after Christmas, so it’ll be after the holiday season, so we’ll be back the second week of January, so hopefully we’ll be seeing you guys again tuning in then. So just yeah, another thank you so much, Deann, for being here today. It’s been really lovely chatting with you.

Deann Evans: 43:37
Thank you, Sinead, I really appreciate it.

Sinéad Hammond: 43:39
Thank you so much. Cheers guys, Enjoy the rest of your day. Bye.