Black Friday Cyber Monday (BFCM) is right around the corner. This holiday shopping frenzy is the busiest period of the year for CX teams — but also holds the most revenue-generating potential for ecommerce brands.  

Set yourself up for success this holiday season with our library of BFCM resources. 

Prepare your customer support

Equip your customer support team with the tools they need to handle the influx of tickets that come with increased website traffic and orders.

New trends emerge each year during BFCM — 2023 was no different. Retailers saw a record breaking $9.8 billion in sales, up from $9.12 billion in 2022. Customer expectations also evolved, with some key predictions coming true in 2023: 

• Customers expect big discounts
• Mobile commerce is a huge opportunity
• Marketing efforts start earlier and last longer

Brush up on some key 2023 BFCM statistics and trends to prepare for this year.

A successful BFCM relies on getting your customer support ready ahead of time. Here are 5 steps to take now:

1. Update your customer service policies and SLAs.
2. Leverage automation with tools like Automate or AI Agent to encourage self-serve support.  
3. Forecast your ticket volume.
4. Get more customer service help. 
5. Double down on chat for BFCM support. 

Discover how luxury men’s jewelry brand Jaxxon handled a successful yet challenging peak season in 2023 that brought in three times more customer support tickets than normal. With Gorgias, Jaxxon enabled Flows to handle FAQs, monitored ticket trends in real-time, and automated repetitive questions to let agents provide personalized experiences. 

Aside from self-service FAQs like JAXXON, adding other creative marketing ideas to your BFCM strategy can help you stand out and drive more sales. Tactics like early-bird deals, personalized promotions, SMS marketing, social commerce, and many others have proven to help the best ecommerce brands crush their BFCM revenue-goals. 

Plan your BFCM Logistics

The BFCM surge causes many logistical challenges for ecommerce brands like fluctuating demand, ensuring realistic delivery times, and preparing for increased returns. Manage these obstacles with strategies like demand forecasting, maintaining inventory levels, and optimizing your shipping process.

Gorgias makes BFCM logistics even easier by centralizing customer tickets from all channels like email, live chat, social media, or SMS, into one intuitive dashboard. You can automate responses to repetitive questions about shipping or return policies to free up your agent’s time. 

“Gorgias AI Agent is going to be a game-changer for us during BFCM. With the ability to provide immediate, personalized responses, we’re confident it will not only reduce the volume of repetitive inquiries but also ensure our community feels supported during the busiest time of the year. It's all about delivering a seamless, stress-free experience for our community, and AI Agent is key to making that happen."

—Kailey Burton, Community Experience Head Coach, LSKD

Once you set the stage with effective preparation, you’re ready to tackle BFCM. 

Revenue-driven customer experience

Customer experience is not just about resolving problems, it’s about driving revenue. While a lot of work is done ahead of BFCM, there’s still potential during the sales period itself. 

Increase sales with Gorgias Convert 

Shoppers are flooded with promotions from every angle during BFCM. Keep customers engaged with key tactics across multiple channels to stay top of mind. 

‍Gorgias Convert is a CRO tool that helps personalize customer interactions and increase revenue through:

• AI-powered cross-sell and up-sell campaigns
• Onsite campaigns
• Personalized product recommendations based on customer data
• Timely discount codes
• And more…

‍💻 BFCM Conversion Boost Webinar — Join us on October 24, 2024 at 3:00pm EDT to learn top tips to maximize sales this Black Friday and Cyber Monday. 

Let Convert do the work for you this BFCM, reducing cart abandonment and engaging customers wherever they interact with you.

Automate wherever you can

Automation reduces the strain on your team during BFCM by addressing common inquiries about order tracking, delivery times, and return policies. 

Automating customer support is just the beginning. Gorgias allows you to harness the power of automation to enhance your marketing efforts, simplify returns, and improve conversions. Get top tips and tactics from industry experts like Yotpo, Loop Returns, ShipBob, TalentPop, Onepilot, Dedication Agents, and C(x)atalyze by Brolly Labs.

Retain customers after the rush 

If done right, the BFCM excitement should last long after midnight on Cyber Monday. Use strategies like future discounts, loyalty programs, feedback surveys, customer reviews, and return monitoring to retain newly acquired customers and turn them into loyal, repeat customers. 

Handle post-BFCM returns 

Returns are an inevitable part of BFCM, but the process doesn’t have to be painful. The key is managing and reducing post-BFCM returns to protect revenue. 

One of the best ways to reduce the stress from returns is preventing them. Key strategies include:

• Planning your BFCM inventory based on historical data 
• Providing accurate product descriptions
• Offering pre-sale support to answer customer questions
• Ensuring a helpful post-purchase experience with order confirmation messages and tracking

If a customer still needs to make a return after all that, you can streamline the process by creating self-service options for customers for things like order tracking, starting a return, or finding answers to FAQs. 

Ready for the rush?

It’s not too late to have a great BFCM. Dive into these resources to learn how to automate your customer support, minimize returns, and protect your revenue after BFCM.