CX Design
Why Your Strategy Needs Customer Service Quality Assurance
TL;DR:
- Manual QA is time-consuming and inconsistent. Reviewing conversations manually makes it difficult to ensure uniform quality across agents and touchpoints.
- Automating QA saves time and improves accuracy. Automation ensures all tickets are reviewed with the same quality, freeing up agent time to create stronger customer connections.
- QA helps teams continuously improve. It enables better agent training and brings forth actionable feedback to exceed customer expectations.
- Implement QA one step at a time. Begin by setting KPIs, introducing small changes, and investing in automation tools to streamline and measure success effectively.
Forrester’s 2024 Customer Experience Index reports that 39% of brands’ customer experience (CX) quality has declined over the past year.
It can be challenging to get a full understanding of how your team –– and AI, if you use it –– are truly performing.
This is true even with metrics like CSAT.
“A 5-point scale only tells you and your agents so much, and relying on consumers providing feedback further limits what you’re able to look at and learn from,” says Kayla Oberlin, Senior Manager of Customer Experience at amika.
Quality Assurance (QA) is becoming a more crucial component of a customer experience strategy, especially one that prioritizes customer happiness.
We’ll cover the importance of customer service QA, best practices, tools, and tips to implement QA effectively.
🗺️ This article at-a-glance
- What is QA (Quality Assurance) in CX?
- Why QA is critical for customer experience
- Best practices for implementing QA in CX
- Challenges
{{lead-magnet-1}}
What is QA (Quality Assurance) in CX?
In the CX context, QA (Quality Assurance) refers to reviewing customer conversations to improve your support team’s performance and enhance customer satisfaction. QA ensures a consistent and satisfying customer journey across touchpoints, including your website, support channels, and social media.
Common QA pain points for CX teams
Aside from accuracy issues, a manual quality assurance process is:
- Time-consuming: Manual conversation reviews are slow and labor-intensive.
- Limited visibility: It’s difficult to get a clear, scalable view of team and AI performance.
- Inconsistent: Maintaining uniform quality across customer service teams can be tough.
- Resource allocation: Difficulty in ensuring the right skills, training, and resources are in place.
- CSAT limitations: Negative scores often reflect policies, not agent performance.
The solution isn’t for CX teams to skip the QA process altogether but to automate it.
According to research from McKinsey, “A largely automated QA process could achieve more than 90 percent accuracy — compared to 70 to 80 percent accuracy through manual scoring — and savings of more than 50 percent in QA costs.”
With an automated QA process, brands can:
- Save time: Automated quality checks help support agents to focus on the most critical tickets.
- Ensure consistency: Both human agents and AI agents are evaluated with a unified, comprehensive QA score.
- Boost performance: Agents receive targeted coaching to provide more consistent customer experiences.
- Meet customer expectations: Customers benefit from higher-quality support with quicker resolutions and accurate responses.
Why QA is critical for customer experience
According to Statista, 94% of customers are more likely to purchase again after receiving top-notch support. Quality assurance ensures that every customer gets the same experience, and provides agents with the feedback to learn and stay on-brand with each resolution.
At its core, QA:
- Prevents errors
- Ensures consistency
- Builds trust with customers
- Helps with personalization
- Aids in better coaching and training
- Offers opportunities for continuous improvement
Prevent errors
Addressing errors early is important, as even small mistakes can harm customer trust and create lasting negative impressions. QA tools can prevent mistakes because of better coaching and training. This can stop misinformation in its tracks –– and from escalating into bigger problems down the line.
Ensure consistency
QA makes sure that all customer touchpoints, like calls, emails, live chat, and even AI responses, are handled with the same level of care. This is especially helpful when training new team members, introducing new products or policies, or during high-traffic periods.
Build trust
Consistent and reliable experiences build customer trust and loyalty. If you were to reach out to a brand and have an amazing experience the first time but a bad experience the next, you’d probably question which experience was the norm.
Top-notch experiences that happen time and time again tell your customers that you’ll always be there to help. This can boost repeat sales and even referrals: According to Statista, 82% of customers recommend a brand after a great experience.
Personalize experiences
Aside from increasing happiness and making customers feel heard and appreciated, personalized support also affects your bottom line. Statista notes that 80% of businesses found that providing personalized customer experiences led to increased spending for consumers.
Aids in better coaching and training
With QA, teams are able to rate and review all tickets instead of spot-checking. This provides them with a:
- Quicker turnaround on coaching opportunities
- Wider volume of tickets they can review, learn from, and use for training
- Better understanding of when a Macro or a process is leading to incomplete or unhelpful conversations
- Bigger opportunity for constructive feedback and flow improvements that are based on real responses and not frustrations with brand policies
Continuously improve
Whether it’s lowering resolution times, introducing a knowledge base, or adding an AI agent to your team, making continuous improvements will help you stay ahead of the competition.
Implementing a QA program (especially if you can automate it) is one of those additions that provides you with the refinements you need on a resolution-to-resolution level.
Best practices for implementing QA in CX
QA best practices include:
- Establish a baseline for metrics and KPIs
- Monitor and evaluate regularly
- Implement automation tools
- Collect customer feedback
Establish a baseline for metrics and KPIs
As you set out to integrate a Quality Assurance process into your CX program, first establish benchmarks for various metrics and KPIs. These benchmarks help track and evaluate the performance of QA as you implement it.
If you don’t already track customer support metrics, CSAT, first response time (FRT), resolution time, and net promoter score (NPS) are great ones to start with.
💡Tip: If you use Gorgias, you’ll find your current support performance statistics in the Statistics menu. Make sure that you can see back at least six months. Then, compare an equal time frame for post-QA implementation.
Monitor and evaluate regularly
While it might sound a bit “meta” to monitor your quality assurance (which is already monitoring your support responses), it’s still worth noting.
Ensure that your QA process works smoothly, helps your metrics rather than hurts them, and provides actual helpful feedback to your agents.
Implement automation tools
The simplest way to maintain your support quality standards is to use an automated QA tool. Automating the QA process lets CX teams get deeper insights into agent strengths and areas for improvement, and captures deeper insights than a CSAT score could.
Collect customer feedback
Understanding how customers feel will allow you to fine-tune your processes and ensure you’re delivering a consistent and high-quality experience. Here are a few ways to collect feedback:
- Surveys and reviews - Post-interaction surveys or direct reviews provide real-time feedback on what customers think of their experience.
- Social listening and real-time feedback - Monitoring online reviews, social media mentions, and customer comments offers insight into how your customers are feeling that might not be captured through formal surveys.
Challenges of adding QA
Lack of resources, ineffective training, poor communication between team members, not having the right tools, and doing everything manually are some of the challenges you can encounter when adding a QA process.
Here are a couple of solutions we recommend:
- Start with phased rollouts. Rather than rolling out a QA process across your whole team, let more seasoned agents experiment with it first to give you feedback and make tweaks.
- Make incremental improvements. Changing an entire CX process at once to include QA can be overwhelming. We recommend making small changes (like starting to send CSAT surveys if you don’t already) one at a time. These changes will allow you to better measure what’s really working.
- Invest in better technology. A manual QA process can be more time-consuming than helpful. Look for an automated QA tool that’s already integrated into your helpdesk. It will allow you to measure AI and agent responses equally, while also measuring results from a handy dashboard.
Ensure customer experience meets quality standards
By prioritizing QA, your team can identify potential problems early, reduce errors, and improve overall performance, leading to a smoother, more reliable experience for customers –– and your CX team.
In the long run, brands that focus on QA can gain a competitive edge, building stronger relationships with customers and driving sustainable growth. Book a demo now.
{{lead-magnet-2}}
TL;DR:
- AI Agent reduces workload and prevents burnout for CX teams. It handles routine queries and allows your human agents to focus on providing a higher level of service where it's needed most.
- AI Agent is secure and compliant with industry standards. Gorgias uses a zero data retention policy and follows strict security regulations, including SOC 2 Type II certification.
- AI Agent delivers personalized, on-brand responses. Custom Guidance and data from sources like Shopify allow AI Agent to maintain brand consistency while providing tailored customer interactions.
- Real-world success stories show tangible results with AI Agent. Brands like Psycho Bunny and Baby Gold have seen significant improvements in response times and resolution rates by implementing AI Agent.
AI changes the way CX teams operate. But we firmly believe that it’s a good thing.
It will help you improve your team’s workload, say goodbye to burnout, and create a more consistent and speedy experience for your customers.
Here’s the process we recommend for pitching Gorgias’s AI Agent to your boss, complete with an FAQ section for quick answers.
Jump to a section:
- Start with the benefits
- Outline the data & security safeguards in place
- Highlight its brand accuracy and personalization
- Share success stories
- Set expectations
{{lead-magnet-1}}
Start with the benefits
Gorgias views AI as an extension of CX teams, and that’s how many of our customers see AI Agent as well. Baby Gold calls theirs Michelle, Psycho Bunny calls theirs Lisa.
These autonomous agents allow your human agents to focus on more complex and nuanced issues, providing a higher level of service where your customers need it most.
Here are some other things that make AI Agent a great addition to your team:
- ⏰ 24/7 availability: AI Agent operates around the clock, ensuring that customer inquiries are addressed promptly at any time, including weekends and holidays.
- 🏔️ Scalability: AI Agent can handle a high volume of inquiries simultaneously without any decrease in performance. This scalability is particularly valuable during peak times like BFCM.
- 🚀 Efficiency and speed: AI Agent can process and respond to queries much faster than human agents, leading to quicker resolutions and improved customer satisfaction.
- 🦎Adaptability: AI Agent can quickly adapt to new information, products, or changes in policies immediately – all you have to do is add them to your knowledge docs and to the Guidance you set.
- 🦾 Full control: You stay in full control of how AI Agent behaves in specific scenarios. Give AI Agent custom Guidance to ensure that each interaction with your customers reflects your brand’s values, policies and tone.
📚 Further reading: Our AI Approach: Onboard, Automate, Observe, and Coach
Outline the data & security safeguards in place
Rest assured that AI Agent and Gorgias operate under a zero data retention (ZDR) policy. Once data is used, it isn’t stored.
We’re SOC 2 Type II Certified and follow strict regulations in regards to data security.
You can view the terms that cover the data we collect and how we use Artificial Intelligence by reading Our Master Service Agreement (MSA) and Data Processing Agreement (DPA).
🎯 Resource: How AI Agent works & gathers data
Highlight its brand accuracy and personalization
AI Agent provides consistent, accurate, and on-brand responses based on the information in your Help Center, Shopify order data, Macros, handover instructions, and the actual custom Guidance you set for it.
It might just surprise you with just how specialized it can get.
“Sometimes agents forget personal details to call out when communicating with our customers, like birthdays or weddings,” says Sindi Melgar, the Customer Service Manager at Baby Gold.
“But I noticed on a few different occasions where AI Agent (ours is named Michelle) is highlighting these things and is saying, ‘Congratulations on your wedding!’ Just the tone of voice that Michelle is able to adopt is definitely on brand for us.”
Ensure certain topics are handed over or excluded
When you set up AI Agent, you’ll also let it know the types of topics you’d like it not to answer.
AI Agent automatically hands over tickets to your team whenever it lacks confidence in an answer or detects an angry customer.
But you can also use handover rules to choose how AI Agent behaves when it passes tickets to your human team, and add specific topics that it should always hand over to your team.
🎯 Resource: Customize how AI Agent behaves
Provide feedback on responses
Don’t like something AI Agent said? Or, did you love an answer it gave?
It’s easy to let AI Agent know by telling it you liked the response, saying it should have pulled from a different resource, or reporting an issue.
🎯 Resource: How to coach AI Agent and give feedback
Prioritize your team’s docs
AI Agent uses your Shopify order data, Macros, your brand’s webpages, as well as your Help Center to give your customers accurate and on-brand responses. It also prioritizes any Guidance that you set.
🎯 Resource: Why having a quality knowledge base is essential to using AI for CX
Share success stories
We wouldn’t expect you to onboard a new tool without some actual statistics and reviews. Below, browse three success stories and the fantastic metrics that AI Agent helped their teams achieve.
After just one month of implementing AI Agent, the team at VESSEL not only increased the number of emails automated via AI Agent by 20%, but reduced first response time to 58 seconds and saw their resolution time decrease to one minute and six seconds.
When Baby Gold implemented AI Agent, they achieved a 49-second first response time, a one-minute and four-second resolution time, and answered 1,361 tickets. They also quadrupled their email automation rate.
Psycho Bunny saw a 99.8% faster first response time, 99.4% faster resolution time, and 26% of tickets resolved by AI Agent.
“Our customer support KPIs are already fantastic: we're already leading in the industry,” said Tosha Moyer, Senior Customer Experience Manager at Psycho Bunny.
“To improve on that, we need AI — it’s not physically or financially possible with human agents alone.”
Set expectations
AI Agent isn’t going to find lost packages, pick up the phone, or fix damaged products. While this might seem obvious, it’s important to understand AI Agent’s core capabilities, as we want this to be an exciting and useful addition to your team.
“AI Agent does a great job of efficiently handling returns and exchanges, and split shipment tracking info,” shares Tosha Moyer. “The overall tone is good and some of its responses are really excellent.”
Below, find the top use cases for AI Agent, as well as the specific actions you can configure for it within Gorgias.
AI Agent use cases
These are the top AI Agent use cases that we recommend:
- Where is my order? (WISMO) inquiries
- Product-related questions
- Returns
- Order issues
- Cancellations
- Discounts (including BFCM)
- Customer feedback
- Account management
- Collaboration requests
The specific actions you currently can configure for AI Agent include:
- Cancel an order in Shopify
- Edit a shipping address in Shopify
- Send Loop Returns portal deep link
- Send return shipping status from Loop Returns
- Cancel a subscription in Recharge
With more to come! And to quiet any worries, it’s worth mentioning that AI Agent will not perform any actions without you configuring or activating them first.
Enhance your brand reputation and build trust
Offering fast, accurate, and 24/7 support can significantly enhance your brand reputation and build customer trust, which can translate into higher customer loyalty and increased revenue.
{{lead-magnet-2}}
TL;DR:
- AI Agent adapts to your brand's unique tone of voice. Choose from three default voice options (Friendly, Professional, and Sophisticated), or create countless types of tone with the Custom option.
- Aligning AI with your brand voice builds consistency. A consistent tone in customer interactions helps build trust and brand loyalty.
- Specify what AI Agent can and can’t say. Like your human agents, tell AI Agent your brand do’s and don’ts. From going all out with fun and emoji-filled replies to avoiding certain words, use custom instructions to make AI Agent sound distinctly on-brand.
People are only able to identify AI-generated content 46.9% of the time. That’s less than half the time!
In the ecommerce customer service industry, this is just one reason teams are getting more comfortable with using AI.
Better language processing abilities mean AI can be a better extension of CX teams, relieving agents of repetitive questions, like where is my order?, while speaking in a way that’s familiar and delightful to customers.
Upholding a strong brand voice should be one of your top priorities in CX. With Gorgias’s AI Agent, you can choose AI Agent’s exact tone of voice, from sophisticated to fun. Below, check out seven AI Agent brand voice examples from real customer conversations.
“We’ve had customers respond to the AI thinking they were speaking to a real person. That’s how elevated the response was from AI.”
—Emily McEnany, Senior CX Manager at Dr. Bronner’s
What is Tone of Voice?
Tone of Voice refers to how AI Agent communicates with your customers. In Gorgias, you can select from three pre-built tone options:
- Friendly
- Professional
- Sophisticated
Or, you can create a custom tone, keeping your brand guidelines, style guide, and target audience in mind.
Note: AI Agent and Tone of Voice are only available to Gorgias Automate subscribers.
{{lead-magnet-1}}
7 Tone of Voice Examples for AI Agent to Match Your Brand's Style
Explore how effectively AI Agent adapts to seven distinct tones in the examples below. First, we’ll show you what a preset AI Agent tone option sounds like, then we’ll move on to six examples using custom instructions.
Feel free to copy and paste our provided instructions to set up your AI Agent with the custom tone of your choice, or, even better, take some inspiration to create your own.
1. Friendly
A friendly AI Agent is the go-to for most CX teams. A Friendly tone of voice is outgoing and welcomes inquiries with enthusiasm. If you were to imagine the model support agent, they would speak like this.
The Friendly tone of voice is available by default in AI Agent’s settings.
How it looks in action
Here’s how an AI Agent with a Friendly tone of voice responds to a customer asking for samples and coupons:
2. Direct and brief
Now, we move away from AI Agent’s default Tone of Voice options and toward the vast possibilities of the Custom option.
If you prefer your AI Agent get to the point in as few words as possible, create a Custom tone of voice that breaks up text into separate lines, limits paragraphs to two to three sentences, and keeps responses short.
💡 Tip: Access a custom tone of voice by going to Automate > AI Agent > Settings > Tone of Voice > Custom. A text field will appear where you can write your instructions.
Tone of voice instructions:
Acknowledge the customer's feelings by briefly repeating their initial concern(s). Break text up, don’t send entire paragraphs, and keep responses short and easy to read. Keep interactions brief but filled with empathy. We are not long-winded. Keep an informative tone while remaining professional, clear, and easy for customers to follow. Insert links where needed. Don't use too many adjectives when expressing empathy. Never tell the customer to email support or contact our customer service team.
How it looks in action
Here’s how an AI Agent with a direct and brief tone of voice responds to a customer who wants to cancel their order:
3. Fun (with lots of emojis! 🤗)
Who says support agents can’t have personality? Bring some fun into your conversations by creating a custom tone of voice that allows your AI Agent to use emojis and exclamation points.
Tone of voice instructions:
Greet with first name only. Acknowledge the customer's feelings by repeating their initial concern(s). Be concise and provide shorter responses, try to keep your responses to a few sentences. Use a warm, positive, and engaging—like chatting with a helpful, considerate friend. Sign off with "Best Regards". Avoid jokes or comments related to sensitive topics. Make the customer feel like a friend. You can include approved emojis for a personal touch and exclamation points. Approved emojis to use: 💞🫶✨🥰💖🎀💓💘🥳💗💕💯 You should recognize and celebrate personal milestones mentioned by customers, making the interaction feel more personal. After the customer's initial message, there's no need to restate their issue in follow-up responses.
How it looks in action
Here’s how an AI Agent with a fun tone of voice responds to a customer asking about exchanging their damaged product:
4. Comforting
Customer support often gets a bad rep. Customers anticipate long response times and unpleasant interactions. Flip customer expectations by giving your AI Agent a calming and comforting voice that can instantly fix negative experiences.
💡 Tip: Brands in the wellness and baby industry would do well to use a comforting tone of voice for their AI Agent.
Tone of voice instructions:
Our brand embodies the role of a nurturing parent, promoting happiness, growth, and well-being while creating moments of joy and inspiration. Stay genuine and reflect childlike wonder without being overly sentimental. We maintain a positive and supportive tone, offering a safe, comforting space. Avoid admitting fault or apologizing. Be shorter in replies. Do not offer replacements. Do not give out phone numbers.
How it looks in action
Here’s how an AI Agent with a comforting tone of voice responds to a customer asking about exchanging their damaged product:
5. Bro-y
Give your AI Agent a laid-back, “we’ve got your back” vibe that feels like chatting with a buddy. This tone keeps things casual, approachable, and like you’re ready to tackle any issue together.
Tone of voice instructions:
Sound like a gym bro. Speak casually and friendly. Be eager to help. However, do not go overboard with puns or stereotypical phrases. You may use the following emojis: 🤙💪🏋️ End responses with "Stay awesome,"
How it looks in action
Here’s how an AI Agent with a bro-y tone of voice responds to a customer asking about glove sizing:
6. Punny
If your brand isn’t afraid to lean into humor and puns, this tone will definitely connect with your audience. Let your AI Agent use wit and clever wordplay to keep conversations lighthearted and customers smiling at their screens.
Tone of voice instructions:
Speak in bee and honey puns and use colorful emojis. Use at least one emoji per message. Keep your messages brief. Sign off with a different pun in every conversation. If a customer is upset or needs urgent help, avoid puns.
How it looks in action
Here’s how an AI Agent with a punny tone of voice responds to a customer asking about suit sizes:
7. Bonus: Robotic
In all of our examples, AI Agent responses can easily be mistaken for one of your human agents. But if, for any reason, you want to change that by making your AI Agent sound robotic — it’s possible.
Tone of voice instructions:
Sound like a robot. Make robot sounds and puns. Use short, direct, and easy-to-read sentences.
How it looks in action
Here’s how an AI Agent with a robotic tone of voice responds to a customer asking about exchanging their damaged product:
Say it how you want with AI Agent
Like a chameleon, AI Agent adapts to your brand voice. Whether it’s friendly, professional, or a custom tone, you can be sure that every interaction aligns with your brand’s identity.
With AI Agent on your side, you have the power to make each conversation feel authentic. Take it from Psycho Bunny’s Senior Customer Experience Manager Tosha Moyer who says, “The overall tone is good, and its responses are really excellent.”
Ready to see AI Agent’s excellence for yourself? Book a demo and discover how AI Agent can be a permanent part of your team.
{{lead-magnet-2}}
Newsletter Signup
The best in CX and ecommerce, right to your inbox
Featured articles
How to Leverage Tools to Manage a High Volume of Sales on TikTok Shop
TikTok Shop generated 68.1% of gross market value sales across all social media platforms in 2024 and $3.8 billion in sales in 2023. Clearly, it’s becoming a massive channel with abundant opportunities for sellers.
To effectively harness TikTok Shop, however, brands with high-volume sales need to understand the specific challenges they will face when launching on the social platform.
Many of these are operational, like maintaining an accurate inventory list between platforms, supporting customers efficiently, and fulfilling a large number of orders.
When used together, AfterShip Feed and Gorgias can help you overcome these operational hurdles and start selling on TikTok Shop sooner.
{{lead-magnet-1}}
Streamline order management & customer support on TikTok Shop
TikTok Shop is the commerce-enabled side of TikTok, where brands and creators can list their products for sale. Shoppers then make a purchase through shoppable (in-feed) videos, live shopping, or product showcases. The app aims to provide a “frictionless checkout experience,” enabling shoppers to engage with their favorite accounts and add-to-cart in a flash.
While setting up a TikTok Shop is relatively simple, if you already run an ecommerce store that does a high volume of sales, adding TikTok Shop as an additional channel will be a little more complex. Thankfully, tools like AfterShip Feed and Gorgias can help you solve many operational issues and provide the same best-in-class customer experience on TikTok Shop as you do on your other channels..
Here’s a highlight reel on how you can implement both tools to improve efficiency and customer satisfaction, tackling issues like fulfillment or customer support inquiries from the same customers on different channels.
Centralize customer support with Gorgias
800+ Gorgias customers currently use the TikTok Shop integration. It’s quick and easy to connect. With it, you can:
Manage all customer interactions in one place
Coordinating customer support across different channels can be a pain. With Gorgias, however, you’ll be able to manage inquiries more efficiently and handle all shoppers’ messages by responding to TikTok Shop inquiries directly from Gorgias using text, images, and videos.
Additionally, you can address order-related issues and manage cancellations, returns, and refunds from TikTok Shop in the same Gorgias dashboard you use for your existing channels.
Automate ticket creation
Leverage Gorgias’s automated ticket creation to reduce First Response Time (FRT) and ensure that you don’t miss a single customer inquiry from TikTok Shop. Save time by handling repetitive tasks (like order status updates) with automation.
Enhance customers’ experience
Enabling the Gorgias TikTok Shop integration will allow you to maintain better control over communication and provide a consistent customer experience. Customers shopping via TikTok Shop will benefit from quicker responses, improving overall satisfaction and boosting brand loyalty.
Simplify operations with AfterShip Feed
AfterShip Feed is a reliable TikTok Shop management tool with 1,800 customers. It auto-syncs products, inventory, and orders between TikTok Shop and ecommerce platforms.
Partner AfterShip Feed with TikTok Shop to:
List on TikTok Shop more efficiently
AfterShip Feed makes listing high volumes of products on TikTok Shop easier through bulk uploads and editing, enabling you to update up to 10,000 SKUs at once.
It uses AI to add key product details and keep your product listings accurate and consistent. Tools like category templates and product ID generation make it even easier to list your full catalog.
Safeguard your revenue
AfterShip Feed has several features that will help you avoid lost revenue, especially during busy times like BFCM.
Inventory threshold
Inventory threshold helps you determine the minimum amount of inventory you need to have on hand to avoid selling out or buying too much. You can also set a fixed amount of inventory aside for TikTok Shop.
Price rules
Price rules help you set the ideal prices for each item you sell to protect your profit margins.
Fulfillment hold
A fulfillment hold stops an order at the fulfillment stage to ensure sufficient funds on the customer side, sufficient stock on yours—or to solve another issue behind the scenes. TikTok Shop has a standard 1-hour fulfillment hold, which can cause issues with inventory syncing on your main ecommerce platform.
Streamline order management
AfterShip Feed supports multiple fulfillment methods and integrates with many returns solutions. Sync orders from TikTok Shop with your existing fulfillment systems, ensuring timely and accurate deliveries. You can sync up to 24,000 orders to Shopify per hour.
Other features include order ID, shipping method, and product-SKU mapping.
Which are the top-grossing TikTok Shop industries?
Two industries in particular see massive sales from TikTok Shop: beauty and personal care, and womenswear and underwear. According to a 2024 report from Statista, the beauty category saw over 370 million sales and women’s fashion 284 million sales in 2023.
The beauty category alone has generated almost $2.5 billion in GMV, while the womenswear category has seen $1.39 billion.
If your brand belongs to one of these categories, including Gorgias and AfterShip Feed in your TikTok Shop toolkit could be a great fit for you.
Gorgias and AfterShip create better experiences
Pairing Gorgias and AfterShip Feed will help you deliver a fantastic customer experience and grow your business on TikTok Shop.
A Complete Guide to Black Friday Ecommerce in 2024
Black Friday is the strongest revenue-generating day of the year for retailers, with $9.8 billion in sales reported in 2023, according to a report by Adobe. For online merchants, the revenue potential is even sweeter, with the online shopping period extended into Cyber Monday.
But, it takes a coordinated effort by customer support, sales, and marketing to encourage a shopper to click “checkout.” Without a solid ecommerce strategy, many online retailers will miss out on the Black Friday - Cyber Monday rush.
Whether you’re looking to optimize your existing strategy or starting from scratch, we’ve got you covered. This guide will help you make the most out of your BFCM ecommerce strategy with a clear list of steps (in chronological order) to help you prepare.
{{lead-magnet-1}}
What is Black Friday - Cyber Monday?
Black Friday - Cyber Monday — also referred to as BFCM — are two back-to-back sales days that bring in a ton of revenue for both in-store and ecommerce retailers in the US. The Black Friday - Cyber Monday shopping window also kick-starts holiday shopping from Thanksgiving day through the new year.
Why you need to prepare for BFCM now
BFCM isn’t just about one big day of revenue generation. It’s a crucial period for online retailers to capture new customers and convince them to keep shopping through the end of the year and beyond.
In-person BFCM experiences are out, and ecommerce is in
Shopper sentiment is shifting away from physical experiences. Online transactions are up by 13% year-over-year, according to research from Criteo. So, you probably won’t see consumers camping out in front of physical stores on Black Friday, but those same shoppers still want to find an excellent ecommerce deal.
Consumers are eager to spend despite concerns about inflation
After BFCM in 2023, research from Nielsen found the desire for a good deal caused 57% of shoppers to stay on budget and 18% of shoppers to spend more than they planned in the year prior.
Brand familiarity matters
Shoppers, Gen Z in particular, are more likely to make a purchase with a brand they’re familiar with. So, ensure your marketing tactics are firing well before BFCM will help folks get to know you before the holiday sales season starts.
Get proactive rather than reactive
When you make a plan early, you give your business more time to craft a great marketing campaign. Plus, you give your team time to figure out how to manage customer service on Black Friday for these high-traffic days.
Considering Black Friday - Cyber Monday is the busiest ecommerce sales event of the year, prepare as early as possible to get a leg-up and stay on top of Black Friday trends.
Related reading: Why proactive customer service is essential for growing your business
Pre-Black Friday preparation: What to do before the holiday
Preparing for Black Friday — and building a strong ecommerce strategy — goes well beyond ironing out a limited-time deal.
Tactics like updating key policies, building out customer self-service options, and marketing early will help you be successful.
1. Update key policies on your website before BFCM
Displaying clear-cut and easy-to-find policies on your website makes a huge difference to the customer experience. It sets the customer up for success and cultivates a positive sentiment with your brand.
To prepare for the best Black Friday-Cyber Monday possible, we recommend updating these key policies (and your Help Center) with BFCM-related information.
✅ Tip: A tool like Gorgias’s AI Agent learns from your policies to know how to respond to certain topics and escalate tickets. And we know that more automated tickets leads to a lighter workload for your agents. It makes a compelling case for keeping your policies up-to-date.
“The anxiety for customers during BFCM is real,” says Lauren Reams, Customer Experience Manager at VESSEL. “This year, we are planning on leveraging AI Agent to help us get ahead of the most common questions. AI Agent has been so seamless, so we’re confident that it will help us handle the busy season without needing to bring in additional agents.”
Returns and exchanges
BCFM is a popular time for consumers to buy holiday gifts, which means you could see an influx in returns or exchanges.
✅ Tips: Use return management apps like Loop Returns to provide customers with a self-service return portal to process their returns. Take that idea one step further by using AI Agent Actions to send your Loop Returns link or return shipping status automatically.
Integrate Loop Returns with Gorgias and enable customers to initiate their own returns.
Shipping and fulfillment
Customers expect purchases, especially if they’re buying gifts for upcoming holidays, to arrive on time and quickly (you’re competing with fast shipping speeds from retail giants like Amazon).
If those gifts don’t arrive in time, you’re going to face a lot of angry customers.
✅ Tip: Use your shipping and fulfillment policy to be crystal clear about when you ship orders, how long orders typically arrive, and how customers can look up their order status. AI Agent can perform Shopify Actions, such as editing the order's shipping address. Having this automated means agents do not have to do manual work.
Lost packages
All those Black Friday - Cyber Monday sales equal a ton of packages in transit. You can expect a few to go missing.
When that happens, your customers need to know what happens next.
Make sure you’re clear with your team and customers upfront if you are willing to cover damages (either with refunds or credits). This will help your agents handle the process quickly and consistently. Plus, it gives your customers the peace of mind that accidents won’t put them out.
✅ Tip: Include a policy about damaged items in your FAQs so your customers know what to expect in case anything goes wrong with their order.
Related reading: FAQ Page Template & Tips (+ Free Shopify FAQ Generator)
Automate self-service options
If you’re on Gorgias, Automate includes Flows, Order Management, and Article Recommendations. These different automations can help you deflect up to 30% of tickets, freeing your agents up for higher-value conversations.
Set up Flows to automatically answer common customer questions specific to Black Friday - Cyber Monday related to:
- Shipping policy: Will my items arrive by the holidays?
- Get a gift recommendation: Can you help me find a gift for a friend?
- Return policy: Can I return a gifted item?
- BFCM discounts: Do you offer any holiday discounts?
Related reading: Offer more self-serve options with Flows: 10 use cases & best practices
2. Reduce strain on your customer service team
It turns out that many customer support inquiries your team receives are repetitive.
“If you force agents to respond to every question manually — no matter how small — you're only limiting the time they can spend on tickets that actually need human attention,” says Gorgias Director of Support, Bri Christiano.
That’s why we built Automate at Gorgias: It deflects your most repetitive tickets — up to 30% of your overall ticket volume — so you can focus on the tickets that grow your business.
Tech product retailer Nomad leaned into Gorgias’s automation to support customer service interactions. Not only did the online retailer gain a streamlined way to manage customer feedback, they also reduced response time by 70%.
Customer story: How Nomad uses automation to reduce their response time and resolution time by over 70%
3. Build a marketing campaign to tap into social commerce
Social commerce is on the rise among consumers worldwide.
Deloitte estimates about one-third of shoppers in the US made a purchase through a social media app in 2021. That number is estimated to be even higher for those who were influenced to buy a product after seeing it on social media.
You don’t necessarily have to sell directly through Instagram, but you can leverage your social channels to generate brand awareness.
The need for social-focused customer support is exactly why online retailer MNML turned to Gorgias. The company found that their shoppers turned more and more to social media for answers to their shopping-related questions.
Ultimately, the company leveled up their customer support on social media to connect with potential buyers.
Get started with these ideas:
Partner with influencers to generate brand awareness
Don’t partner with influencers for the sake of it. Instead, think about it like building a relationship with someone who fits your brand ideals and can cross-sell your products to their audience.
To do this, focus less on influencers with millions of followers on Instagram and TikTok. Instead, look for micro-influencers (or creators with less than 100,000 followers) with audiences that match your brand personas.
Create content that focuses on your store’s Black Friday deals
Once you’ve figured out the Black Friday sales your store will offer, you must ensure people know about them.
Craft content for your social media channels that highlight your deals. Since social media primarily focuses on visuals, start by collecting photos, videos, or illustrations of your products. Then, draft copy for captions, think through the best hashtags, and hand over creative briefs to your design team to build any assets you might need.
Put a little money behind your most successful organic social media posts
The weeks or months leading up to BFCM are prime time to talk about your brand’s Black Friday promotions. Use social media analytics to see which published posts are performing best across your channels.
Turn those high-performing posts into ads on social media by boosting them with a little money. Even with a small budget, you can use social ads to grab even more eyeballs — and potentially bring more people to your website.
A few other ideas to consider:
- Prompt your customers to sign up for an SMS reminder or push notification on their smartphones or mobile devices.
- Give early sale access to email subscribers, incentivizing customers to build a deeper relationship with your brand.
- Pin the sale date and deal information at the top of your social media profiles, especially Instagram.
How to maximize revenue during BFCM in 2 steps
Imagine Black Friday - Cyber Monday is here. Even better, imagine you’ve got a ton of website traffic full of eager browsers. You need a plan to keep those browsers engaged.
One major step you can take to boost your conversion rate and potential revenue is to increase communication touchpoints and focus on recovering abandoned carts.
1. Increase customer touchpoints to keep shoppers engaged
Throughout any customer’s journey, there are many opportunities to interact with your brand. One moment might be finding out about your BFCM sale on social media, signing up for emails to get early access, or browsing the best deals before heading to checkout.
The more you interact with customers along the way, the more you can keep them engaged — and personalized interactions increase your chances of converting a first-time shopper into a repeat customer.
Gorgias’s Convert is a CRO tool that easily personalizes interactions at multiple points throughout a customer journey. Convert offers several ways to increase touchpoints and boost overall engagement:
- AI-powered cross-sell campaigns to offer product recommendations.
- Up-sell campaigns to showcase higher-priced items.
- Share timely discounts, free shipping, or valuable product insights.
- Offer 1:1 support with a smooth hand-off to Gorgias Live Chat.
- Leverage Shopify browsing data to offer product recommendations.
- Set up onsite campaigns without any coding.
Another way to build in more touch points is to use automated chat campaigns that pop up and engage with your customers at crucial moments. Chat widgets are a small addition to any homepage, landing page, or product page that immediately lets customers know where to go for help.
2. Reduce abandoned carts
Cart abandonment is a major source of lost retail sales for any ecommerce business, considering about 70% of online carts are abandoned.
You can easily target customers who have opted into an email list or receive SMS messages from your brand. Design emails or text messages designed to trigger if a cart is abandoned.
Include copy that builds a sense of urgency to drive customers back to their shopping carts to “buy now” before the deal is over.
There’s even a chance to use re-engagement to increase your average order value by upselling once that customer returns to your site.
How to retain new customers you get during BFCM
Repeat customers are valuable — like, really valuable.
According to Gorgias research, returning customers make up about 21% of a brand’s customer base but generate 44% of that same brand’s revenue.
Your brand should re-engage with anyone who shops on your website during the BFCM rush. Those same people could become returning customers who give your shop a revenue boost during the rest of the holiday season.
1. Offer a discount for next time
The perfect moment to re-engage a customer starts at checkout. When someone makes a purchase through your online store, offer them an immediate discount that goes toward their next purchase.
At CX Connect LA 2024, Ron Shah, CEO of Obvi, shared his brand’s strategy for offering discounts to generate revenue. Ron knew implementing AI to support Obvi’s two-person customer support team was necessary to help the brand grow without eliminating the need for his human agents.
“The time saved by AI handled a lot of the redundant work our agents were doing, which meant we could turn them into part-time sales agents. We also gave them a code to help them prevent a refund from happening or upsell somebody. It created a completely new shift in their mindset. They realized, ‘Oh wow, you're not just taking something away from me (with AI) — you're actually elevating my opportunity.’”
✅ Tip: You can increase the touchpoints to re-engage with an existing customer by building a reminder email that triggers one week after their initial transaction. That way, you not only stay at the top of their inbox, you also stay top of mind.
2. Invite customers to join a loyalty program
Loyalty programs are a tried-and-true method to build engaged, returning customers.
In a recent survey, Yotpo found that over half of surveyed consumers agreed a loyalty program would encourage them to purchase more from a brand.
If you already offer a loyalty program, make sure new customers know about how to get the VIP experience with your store. Build awareness touchpoints into your loyalty program marketing strategy. You can also prompt buyers to become loyal customers after they make their first purchase.
3. Continue to improve your customer experience strategy
A successful, positive, and repeatable customer experience doesn’t end after midnight on Cyber Monday. It’s a road rather than a destination.
Consumer habits are always changing, and your support teams must be prepared to handle customer requests.
One way to anticipate your customer’s pain points is to look at customer feedback.
Reviews and social media activity is a great place to start. You might also consider putting a more formal customer sentiment strategy in place, with a CSAT survey to collect direct feedback from customers.
This feedback helps your team prioritize what needs to improve so you’re not left reaching in the dark.
Give your ecommerce strategy a boost this holiday shopping season
The name of the game this Black Friday - Cyber Monday isn’t just to get a ton of online sales; it’s to set up your ecommerce site for a successful holiday shopping season.
Success could look like:
- A reduction in BFCM returns or exchanges
- Having the perfect amount of inventory
- Seeing higher-than-average sustained engagement on your social channels
If you want to move the meter, focus on a strong Black Friday marketing strategy that starts now.
Gorgias is designed with ecommerce merchants in mind. Find out how Gorgias’s time-saving automations and convenient platform can help you create successful customer experiences.
Claim your demo today, or sign up to try Gorgias.
{{lead-magnet-2}}
Building Customer Loyalty Through Effective Post-Purchase Support and Automation in Ecommerce
Let's talk about something that often gets overlooked in ecommerce: what happens after someone hits that "Place Order" button. You might think the hard part's over once you've made the sale, but here's the thing the post-purchase experience can make or break your relationship with customers.
In today's competitive online marketplace, those relationships are everything — especially considering that loyal customers spend an average of 67% more per purchase than new customers.
{{lead-magnet-1}}
The importance of post-purchase support and automation in ecommerce
Providing an excellent post-purchase customer experience can turn one-time customers into loyal advocates who are more likely to make repeat purchases and recommend your brand to others.
It's all about the customer experience
When someone buys from your store, they're not just getting a product — they're starting a relationship with your brand.
A great post-purchase experience shows customers you actually care about their satisfaction beyond just making the sale. 90% of U.S. customers say that an immediate customer service response is "important" or "very important.”
When you nail this part, something magical happens: one-time shoppers transform into passionate advocates who not only come back for more but can't help telling others about their amazing experience with your brand.
Having accessible support and an efficient and easy returns process may make the difference between a happy customer and an unsatisfied one.
Building trust that lasts
Trust is everything in online shopping. When customers feel supported after making a purchase, they're much more likely to give you the benefit of the doubt if something goes wrong down the line.
It's like building a friendship: every positive interaction adds another layer of trust. And that trust translates directly into repeat business and glowing recommendations.
The post-purchase support experience makes a huge difference in building that trust. In fact, 96% of customers say excellent customer service builds trust.
Keeping your return rates down
Great post-purchase support can actually help reduce your return rates. By addressing concerns quickly and providing clear information upfront, you can prevent many returns before they happen.
This can save you money on shipping and restocking and create a smoother experience that keeps customers happy and your business healthy.
Making processes more efficient
Automation eliminates manual tasks, freeing up your team to focus on more strategic initiatives. By automating repetitive tasks, you can improve efficiency and productivity, allowing your team to focus on more value-added activities.
You can automate everything from customer support to returns and exchanges to your order tracking and more. Besides meeting customers' straightforward needs, automation allows you to focus your team's energy on solving bigger problems and strengthening customer relationships.
Accuracy, guaranteed
Automation helps ensure consistency across all your post-purchase processes.
When customers know they can count on a reliable experience every time they shop with you, it builds confidence in your brand.
Plus, fewer mistakes mean happier customers and less time spent fixing problems.
Creating better customer experiences
Speed matters in today's world, and automation helps you deliver faster, more personalized responses to customer needs.
Whether it's instant order updates or quick responses to questions, automation helps you meet and exceed customer expectations. The result? More satisfied customers who feel valued and understood.
How to automate the post-purchase experience for better loyalty
Here are some ways to automate the post-purchase experience:
Automate your returns and exchanges process
Streamline the returns process with automated return labels, tracking, and updates. Use ReturnGO to automate this process, saving time and reducing manual errors. With automated returns, you can provide a hassle-free experience for customers, encouraging them to return to your store in the future.
Automated returns can help to improve the customer experience by making the returns process easier and more convenient. 65% of customers say the speed and ease of refunds affect where they choose to shop.
By automating tasks such as generating return labels and tracking packages, you can reduce the time and effort required for customers to return items.
Think about it from their perspective — if returning an item is hassle-free, they'll feel more confident buying from you in the future. It's like having a safety net that makes customers more comfortable taking chances on new products.
Centralize customer support
In today's fast-paced world, customers expect quick and efficient support. Using a customer experience platform like Gorgias, you can manage all your customer support tickets in one place, making it easier to provide fast, accurate help when people need it.
By centralizing your post-purchase support, you can manage support tickets more efficiently, respond to customer inquiries quickly, and provide the most up-to-date information. This centralized approach can hugely improve response times.
Keep customers in the loop
Nobody likes being left in the dark about their order. Automated post-purchase notifications keep your customers informed every step of the way - from order confirmation to delivery and returns. Using tools like ReturnGO, you can send personalized updates that make customers feel looked after. This is essential for building customer loyalty.
Keeping customers informed about their orders can help reduce customer anxiety. When customers know what to expect, they’re less likely to worry about their purchase and are more likely to keep buying from you again and again.
Create an integrated workflow
To truly streamline your post-purchase customer service, if you connect your returns management system with your customer support system, you really bring all of the pieces of a puzzle together.
When these two systems are in sync, you can create a smooth workflow that makes things easier for both your team and your customers.
By automating tasks like creating support tickets and processing returns, you can save time and create a more reliable, efficient system that helps you serve customers better. No more jumping back and forth between systems to check on a return when a customer reaches out about it.
The ReturnGO-Gorgias integration makes this happen seamlessly, with features like:
- Automatic ticket generation: When a customer requests a return, a support ticket is automatically created on Gorgias, saving you time and preventing errors.
- Real-time updates: Return request information is automatically updated from ReturnGO to Gorgias, so your team always has the latest details right there.
- Centralized system: No more digging through multiple systems. This means your support agents always have access to the most up-to-date information and respond quickly and efficiently to customers.
- Smart widget: The ReturnGO-Gorgias integration includes a widget embedded in your Gorgias dashboard, for managing RMAs directly from within Gorgias. This widget enables your team to:
- View RMA information: See all the relevant details about a return, including the customer's information, the items being returned, and the reason for the return.
- Take actions on the RMA: Easily approve or reject a return request directly from Gorgias.
The ReturnGO-Gorgias integration makes it easy for your team to manage returns and communicate with customers without having to jump between systems to hunt for information.
The path to lasting customer loyalty
So, there you have it! In the world of online shopping, how you handle the after-purchase experience can be just as important as making the sale in the first place.
By automating your post-purchase process, you can create a seamless and satisfying customer experience.
Tools like ReturnGO and Gorgias can help you create the kind of experience that builds customer loyalty.
{{lead-magnet-2}}
Further reading
14 Best Shopify Live Chat Apps in 2023 (Pros, Cons, and Screenshots)
Live chat is changing the game in the customer support and service world. From improving customer experience, to driving sales, to growing retention, live chat has arrived as a new, useful way to engage and support customers.
Take a look at these live chat statistics:
- Live chat can bring a significant improvement in marketing awareness (+29%), early-stage sales development (+32%), and post-sales customer support (+39%)
- Website visitors that engage with a business via live chat are worth 4.5 times more than visitors that don’t.
- Average order value increases by 10% when reviewing the sales from customers who engaged in a live chat before making a purchase than those that didn’t.
So, your However, finding the best Shopify live chat app can become a nightmare when you have so many choices — 405 options, to be exact.
That’s why, as ecommerce helpdesk experts, we want to share a list of the best 14 live chat software for Shopify to help you find the app that works for your business. You’ll learn their main features, pros, cons, Shopify reviews, and pricing options — all in this post.
(Don't use Shopify? Check out our general list of live chat apps overall or the best live chat apps for ecommerce.)
The 14 best Shopify live chat apps
- Gorgias
- Zendesk
- Pure chat
- Takw.to
- PingMe (Facebook Messenger live chat)
- Chatra
- Reamaze
- Tidio
- LiveChat
- JivoChat
- Shopify Inbox
- Facebook Chat Box by Autoketing
- Formilla
- eDesk
{{lead-magnet-1}}
What the live chat apps on this list offer your business
We've already looked at several statistics showcasing the benefits of live chat for ecommerce stores. However, choosing the right live chat solutions can provide your business with features that extend beyond the base benefits of live chat customer support.
With the live chat solutions that were useful enough to make our list, you can look forward to beneficial features such as:
Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning tools
Live chat solutions that are powered via AI and machine learning technology allow you to automatically detect the sentiments of customers contacting you via live chat. From there, the customer is directed to the appropriate customer service channel.
For example, say that a customer contacts you regarding an order they want to cancel. In this instance, live chat solutions that feature customer intent detection will automatically trigger the cancellation and message the customer.
This process helps streamline your customer support process to both boost customer satisfaction and improve the efficiency of your support team.
Low-code or no-code setup
All of the live chat apps on our list are either low-code or no-code platforms. This means that these apps can be installed, customized, and used without any need for coding expertise or outside help from a software development service.
However, still look for some customizable features in your live chat. Your live chat tool will display on your website, so you don’t want it to clash with your colors and fonts.
Integrations with all of your other Shopify and customer service tools
Powerful integrations are essential for any Shopify app, and live chat apps are no exception. Most live chat apps will be a feature of the larger customer service platform you end up choosing. Choosing a live chat app and helpdesk that are able to integrate with all of your other Shopify and customer service tools can provide a range of benefits.
A live chat app that integrates with your email marketing tools, for instance, means that you can easily transition customer conversations from live chat to email. Integrating live chat with social media tools enables customers to contact live chat representatives via the social messaging apps that they are already most familiar with. These are just a couple of examples of how choosing live chat apps that will integrate with the other tools you happen to utilize can provide your ecommerce store with powerful capabilities.
Analytics capabilities
There are plenty of ways that you can leverage customer data to improve your company's customer service quality, but only if you are able to collect quality data and organize it in a way that makes it easy to analyze for insights.
Thankfully, all of the live chat solutions on this list feature analytics capabilities that make it simple to gather and analyze data regarding common customer issues, the performance of your customer service team, and beyond.
Automation features
Features designed to automate time-consuming customer service tasks such as creating and prioritizing customer support tickets can go a long way toward freeing up time for your customer service team. Some of the live chat solutions on our list are also able to provide canned responses to common customer questions, lowering your support team's ticket volume and further reducing their workload.
However, be careful of installing an unhelpful chatbot. Watch the following video to understand why we prefer self-service features in the chat widget over chatbots alone:
1) Gorgias Live Chat: 4.4 ⭐ (541 reviews)
Gorgias is the best help desk ticketing system for eCommerce merchants. It provides you with all the features you need to create an incredible customer support experience, improve team performance, and increase sales.
One of Gorgias’ most noticeable features is its tight integration with eCommerce platforms, including Shopify, Magento, and BigCommerce. Hence, Gorgias can pull relevant data like order tracking numbers, last order details, loyalty points, etc., from your Shopify dashboard and put it right in front of you.
Another exciting feature of Gorgias live chat is chat campaigns, which allow you to prompt chat messages on specific pages of your website. This way, you can quickly start conversations and guide specific visitors through the checkout process.
If you’re running a Shopify store, you can be sure Gorgias will integrate well with your website. It’s quick to install, easy to use, and affordable for eCommerce business owners.
Pricing: Basic plans start at $10/mo. A 7-day free trial is available.
Main features:
- Support omni channel communication, i.e., email, live chat, phone, and social media
- See full live chat and message history with a specific customer across different channels in one view
- Support for multiple stores
- Chat in real-time with customers currently on your store
- Respond in one click using pre-made templates
- See which pages customers are on and their purchase history
- Trigger live chat and popup form on important pages like checkout page
- Perform actions like rewarding loyalty points without leaving the chat
- Set up automated responses and bot for common tickets like “Where’s my order?”
Pros:
- Clean and intuitive user interface
- Offer affordable pricing plans
- Deep integration with Shopify and Shopify Plus
- Support many powerful live chat features
- Fantastic customer support team
Cons:
- No free plan
Who is this for?
As an all-in-one customer service solution for Shopify store owners, Gorgias is an excellent option for anyone who is looking for a comprehensive ecommerce customer service solution. Gorgias’ features include fast-loading live chat widgets in addition to a number of other powerful customer service features.
{{lead-magnet-2}}
2) Zendesk Chat: 3.6 ⭐ (151 reviews)
Developed by Zendesk, Zendesk Chat is a live chat app for Shopify stores. It allows you to communicate with customers over your Shopify storefront, mobile apps, and popular messaging apps like Facebook Messenger, Twitter, and Line.
If you’re a Zendesk customer using the Team plan or above, you can use Zendesk Chat for free.
Pricing: Starting from $49 per agent per month. A 14-day free trial is available.
Key features:
- Send targeted and behavior-based messages to customers
- Use pre-chat and offline forms to collect customer information
- Support chat ratings to gather customer feedback
- Share files like screenshots, product guides, or GIF images with customers
Pros:
- It’s a good choice if you're using Zendesk Support Suite
- Support all essential features of a typical live chat app
Cons:
- Non-user-friendly interface and steep learning curve for beginners
- Expensive pricing plans for Shopify store owners
- Bad customer support team
- A lot of technical errors when installing and using the app
- Not suitable for eCommerce businesses
Who is this for?
As an expensive and often difficult-to-use solution, Zendesk Chat is really best suited for those who are already familiar with Zendesk Support Suite. Nevertheless, Zendesk Chat does provide a lot of impressive features for those who can stomach its price tag and learning curve.
📚Related reading: Our rundown of Zendesk’s features, plus pros and cons.
3) Pure Chat: No official Shopify app store listing
Another top live chat app for Shopify in this list is Pure Chat. This app focuses solely on live chat, which means that if you want to manage customer requests across channels, from live chat to email and social media, you’ll have to switch to another app like Gorgias.
Pure Chat currently supports two plans: Growth and Pro. The Pro plan offers you unlimited websites, 10 agents, up to 1,000 SMS notifications, and Pure Chat branding removal. You can’t install Pure Chat from the Shopify app store, but you can install it from Pure Chat’s website.
Pricing: Starting from $49 per month. A 30-day free trial is available.
Key features:
- Unlimited chats
- Advanced widget customization
- Security roles like admin, power users, and operators
- Canned responses
- Chat notifications
- File transfer
- Real-time analytics
Pros:
- All features are the same in both Growth and Pro plans
- Extensive integrations
- Allows you to customize the look and feel of the chat widget
Cons:
- Technical errors occur when installing the app
Who is this for?
Pure Chat focuses only on live chat directly from your ecommerce website. This makes it an optimal choice for ecommerce store owners who aren't interested in offering live chat support via any other messaging platforms.
4) Takw.to Live Chat: 4.4 ⭐ (229 reviews)
Tawk.to Live Chat is an agent-centric chat application for Shopify stores. The best thing about this app is it’s 100% free — there’s no limit to the number of agents, chat volumes, or sites you can add widgets to.
Pricing: Free.
Key features:
- Video and voice
- Agent messaging, screen sharing
- Desktop notifications
- 1880+ emoji
- JavaScript API
- Unlimited history
- Fire transfer
- Report and analytics
Pros:
- Support 27 languages
- Easy to set up, free forever, and secure
- Available on web browser, desktop, macOS, iOS, and Android
Cons:
- Too many features cause the app not to be user-friendly
- Need to pay a small fee to remove the “Powered by Tawk.to” branding
- The customer support team isn’t always responsive
Who is this for?
For an app that is completely free to install and use, Tawk.to Live Chat is a highly effective live chat solution. This makes it an ideal option for store owners who want to try out the benefits of live chat before they make an investment in a more capable live chat app.
5) PingMe Facebook Messenger Live Chat: 4.9 ⭐ (427 reviews)
If you currently support your customers through Facebook Messenger, you may want to install PingMe Live Chat for your store. This app allows you to connect your Shopify store with your Facebook page, and then a Facebook Messenger icon will appear on your website.
Pricing: $9.99 per month. A free plan is available.
Key features:
- Add a live chat button to your website to chat directly with customers
- Schedule the working time to enable or disable live chat
- Save the history of conversations with customers.
- See a full overview of interactions on one page
- Leave an offline message to get back later when your customer supports are unavailable
- Connect to your Facebook page and live chat through Facebook messages
Pros:
- Simple and easy to use
- The pricing plan is affordable for eCommerce merchants
Cons:
- The chat function sometimes doesn’t work
- Errors happen when trying to connect the app with Facebook page
- Not an ideal choice if you need a professional live chat app
Who is this for?
Thanks to its powerful plugin with Facebook and Facebook Messenger, PingMe Live Chat is an ideal choice for anyone who wants to start leveraging Facebook as a customer support channel.
6) Chatra Live Chat: 4.8 ⭐ (638 reviews)
Chatra Live Chat claims to help you “sell more, answer questions, and alleviate concerns to help visitors place an order.” It also allows you to see a shopper's cart contents in real-time to identify the most valuable customers and provide tailored assistance.
Pricing: Starting from $17 per month. A free plan is available.
Key features:
- Contact customers stuck on the checkout
- See who’s on your website, where they’re from, and what they have in their cart
- Answer chat messages sent by Facebook users to your store’s page directly from the app
- Create group chats with other agents
- Save previous conversation history
- Correct answers after sending the chat message
Pros:
- Support a free forever plan
- Provide useful live chat features like typos correction and group chats
Cons:
- Most advanced features aren’t available in the free plan
- Lack of customization options
Who is this for?
If you would like to leverage live chat specifically for contacting customers pre-purchase in order to boost conversions, then Chatra Live Chat is an option to consider.
7) Reamaze Live Chat: 4.7 ⭐ (212 reviews)
Reamaze is a helpdesk, live chat, ticketing, chatbot, and FAQ for small, medium, and enterprise businesses. It allows you to handle support tickets across channels, including emails, live chat, Facebook pages, Messenger, Twitter, Instagram, SMS, VOIP, and WhatsApp.
Reamaze Live Chat aims to help you support customers faster by chatting with them in real-time. It offers many features that are similar to Gorgias’ and other live chat apps.
Pricing: Starting from $29 per month. A 14-day free trial is available.
Key features:
- Support multiple stores
- Send products to customers in chat
- Support rules and automation to streamline workflow
- Allow to build chatbots to help, guide, and sell to customers
- Offer Live Chat and Bots to automatically engage specific types of customers
Pros:
- Flexible pricing, no contract
Cons:
- The user interface is a bit outdated and not user-friendly
- Macros and rules need improvement
Who is this for?
Re:maze Live Chat is a well-rounded live chat solution that offers just about everything you might need to start offering live chat support across a variety of channels. This makes it an excellent app for ecommerce stores of all sizes.
8) Tidio Live Chat: 4.8 ⭐ (1,549 reviews)
With approximately 1,014 reviews, Tidio Live Chat is currently the highest-rated live chat app on the Shopify App Store. Tidio merges live chat, bots, and marketing automation to provide you with a comprehensive live chat app.
Pricing: Starting from $39 a month. A free plan is available.
Key features:
- Support customers 24/7 with chatbots
- Reduce cart abandonment rate with the Abandoned Cart Bot works
- Free to design the live chat widget the way you want
- Customize the live chat to match with your brand
- Monitor results and automate chats with AI
Pros:
- Clean and modern user interface
- Many automation and bot templates
- Multiple languages supported
- Rich widget customization options
Cons:
- Not tight integration with Shopify and other ecommerce platforms
- Pricing plans are a bit high for Shopify merchants
Who is this for?
Tidio Live Chat is a top choice for ecommerce store owners who are looking for a live chat solution that offers plenty of automations for both customer support and marketing.
9) LiveChat: 5.0 ⭐ (98 reviews)
LiveChat is a messaging app that offers many unique features for its live chat service. It can integrate with most customer relationship management (CRM) like Zendesk and website platforms like Shopify.
Pricing: Starting from $16 per month. A 14-day free trial is available.
Key features:
- See a real-time view of a customer’s cart
- Send product recommendations known as Product Cards right in the live chat widget
- Get more detailed customer information with Customer Insight
- Support more than 170 integrations
- Provide in-depth analytics, multi-channel capabilities, and data security
Pros:
- Chat window loads fast and is easy to use
- Clean and well-designed user interface
Cons:
- Not optimized for Shopify since LiveChat is also a CRM
Who is this for?
As a CRM platform first and foremost, LiveChat is an excellent choice for ecommerce store owners looking for an app that offers CRM solutions in addition to live chat capabilities.
10) JivoChat Live Chat: 4.4 ⭐ (105 reviews)
JivoChat is an all-in-one business messenger that teams use to talk to customers everywhere: live chat, phone, email, and social. The app also includes a built-in CRM allowing you to follow up and convert leads into actual sales.
Pricing: Free or starting from $8 per agent per month. A 14-day free trial is available.
Key features:
- Track visitors and chat with them in real-time
- See the message that visitors are typing before they hit send
- Support canned responses
- Transfer and invite agents to join the open chats with customers
Pros:
- A forever free basic plan is supported
- Prices are affordable for Shopify merchants
Cons:
- Doesn’t support rules and automation
- Not integrated deeply with Shopify
Who is this for?
If you are looking for an app that will make it easy to connect with customers via live chat, phone, email, or social then JivoChat Live Chat is worth considering. However, this app's lack of automation features means that it isn’t as effective in regards to streamlining your customer support as apps such as Gorgias.
11) Shopify Inbox: 4.5 ⭐ (1,499 reviews)
Shopify Inbox is Shopify’s native live chat function that allows you to have real-time conversations with customers visiting your Shopify store. It’s an extension to the messaging capabilities already available within Shopify Ping.
Note that all your chats are managed in Shopify Ping. Shopify also asks your customers to provide a phone number or email address in order to start a chat with you. Their information will be added to your Customer list in Shopify or matched to an existing customer.
Pricing: Free
Key features:
- Add and customize a chat button on your online store
- Respond to customers in real-time while they’re at your store
- Recommend products and share promotional offers in chat
- Capture customer’s contact information
- Track Shopify sales using your sales channel overview and Analytics pages
Pros:
- Clean and intuitive interface
- Free forever
Cons:
- A bit complicated for beginners to install the app
- To use Shopify Chat, you must use Shopify Ping on your desktop (shopifyping.com) or install it on an iOS, iPad, or Android device to receive and respond to messages.
Who is this for?
Shopify Chat is a worthy option for Shopify store owners who are searching for a free live chat solution that integrates deeply with Shopify.
Using Shopify Inbox? Learn why Gorgias is a top Shopify Inbox competitor.
12) Facebook Chat Box by Autoketing: 4.6 ⭐(489 reviews)
Apart from PingMe Live Chat, you can use Facebook Chat Box by Autoketing to connect with customers through Facebook Messenger.
Pricing: Free.
Key features:
- Send messages to your Facebook page through Messenger
- Show a popup with a discount code to encourage customers to join your email list
- Send a friendly reminder message to abandoned customers
- Show detailed notifications about the order status
- Create automated marketing campaigns through Messenger
Pros:
- Free forever
- Simple and easy to use
Cons:
- Can’t control when the chat box pops up
- Lack of customization options, rules, and automation
Who is this for?
Anyone looking for a free and easy-to-use solution for leveraging Facebook Messenger as a customer support and marketing avenue would do well to consider Facebook Chat Box by Autoketing.
13) Formilla Live Chat: 5.0 ⭐ (40 reviews)
Formilla Live Chat offers free live chat and premium services for your Shopify store. You can use this app to chat with your visitors live if they have any questions or need support from your store.
Pricing: Starting from $17.49 per month. A 15-day free trial is available.
Key features:
- See the number of active visitors on your website and start live chats with them. View each visitor’s page URL, referring site, new users vs. returning, and more.
- Support a Helper Bot to automatically respond to common questions at any time
- Customize the text of the live chat buttons, chat forms, and offline email forms
- Enable proactive chat to trigger live chat automatically with a visitor after a defined number of seconds
- Support file sharing, email messaging, desktop notifications, custom banners, and other style options
Pros:
- Easy and simple to use
- Fast connect with customers
Cons:
- Many features are available at higher plans
- Lack of rules and automation
Who is this for?
Formilla Live Chat is a solid solution for store owners who want to connect with customers while they are browsing the store. A lack of rules and automation features, though, means that this live chat app isn't quite as capable as some of the other options on our list.
14) eDesk Live Chat: 4.8 ⭐ (30 reviews)
eDesk is a comprehensive customer helpdesk designed for ecommerce. It helps you create a positive experience for customers across your marketing channels: email, live chat, social media, and online store.
Pricing: Starting from $69 per month per agent. A 14-day free trial is available.
Key features:
- Respond faster with snippets and templates
- Built-in autoresponder
- Instantly respond with live chat
Pros:
- Good customer service team
- Clean and intuitive user interface
Cons:
- Pricing plans are steep for Shopify merchants
- Not optimized for ecommerce
- Lack of essential live chat features
Who is this for?
If you would like to offer live chat support across multiple channels from a single platform, eDesk Live Chat is an excellent app to consider.
Benefits of a live chat app for Shopify
Choosing a powerful live chat app for your Shopify store is something that can offer a variety of different benefits. Here are some of the most significant benefits of incorporating a live chat app into your Shopify store:
Increases conversions and customer retention
Live chat apps allow you to contact customers while they are still shopping for products. This allows you to answer any questions or objections that might be preventing customers from making a purchase, provide product recommendations, upsell customers, and walk customers through the checkout process — all of which can help you improve your store's conversion rate.
By enabling you to resolve customer issues in a way that is as swift and convenient as possible, live chat can help you to boost your customer retention rates as well.
📚Recommended reading: Our guides to conversion rates and retention rates.
Reduces back and forth and customer frustration
Live chat customer support can reduce customer frustration by eliminating the need for extended, back and forth conversations via email. This lets your support team resolve issues in one session rather than dragging them out into email threads that take several days to resolve.
Cut the response and handle times
According to data from SuperOffice, 46% of customers expect companies to respond to customer service inquiries in four hours or less, while 12% of customers expect a response in fifteen minutes or less.
By enabling customers to instantly connect with a customer support agent and eliminating the need for extended back and forth conversations, live chat customer support can reduce both your average initial response time and average resolution time. This helps you meet customer expectations regarding customer service that are growing more demanding by the day.
📚Recommended reading: Our guides to response times and resolution times.
Personalizes and humanizes the customer experience
Communicating with a customer support agent in real-time via live chat personalizes the customer support experience much more than communicating with customers via email. Logically, customers are aware that they are communicating with another human being in both cases. The real-time conversations that live chat apps allow feel much more personal than email conversations, making customers more likely to walk away satisfied with the support that you provide.
Which Shopify app do you choose?
In an ideal world, there would be a Shopify live chat app that works for all stores.
But on the planet Earth, there’s no one-size-fits-all app for live chat software. As one of the most important customer service tools, it’s worth spending some time on before making a decision.
Our advice for you is to try a couple of apps above and check if they offer what you need. Your chosen live chat app should be the one that helps you increase customer satisfaction, make your team members’ job easier, and boost your bottom line.
In case you want a customer support tool solely focused on ecommerce, we recommend you give Gorgias a try. This is the ultimate solution that can bring your customer experience to a whole new level.
What Can You Do With All Those BigCommerce API Calls?
A quick look into BigCommece, and you'll quickly see one of the main advantages about
As eCommerce-Aholic says in their YouTube video: 5 reasons to choose BigCommerce over Shopify, when deciding whether a SaaS ecommerce platform is right for you, you have to consider APIs.
What does this mean for you?
Because more often than not, you don’t have access to the underlying code fuelling your ecommerce website.
This is where APIs come into their own.
In short, API stands for 'Application Programming Interface.' This enables two apps to communicate with each other. As such, this is what allows you to extend the overall functionality of your chosen ecommerce platform.
With that in mind, let’s delve into this subject a little deeper.
BigCommerce APIs
BigCommerce's API coverage is incredibly impressive. As is the number of API calls that BigCommerce can process per second. In fact, it can handle 100 times more API calls per second than Shopify Plus!
Shopify limits you to just two API requests a second, or four API per second if you’re a Shopify Plus user. Whereas BigCommerce can handle a whopping 400 API calls per second!
How Often Will You Need to Hit an API Call?
Let’s take synchronizing your entire stock list with BigCommerce’s Catalog API as an example. This API enables you to integrate your BigCommerce store with your POS and multiple online sales channels...so that you can handle everything from a single platform. Needless to say, this makes selling on popular third-party platforms like Amazon, Walmart (Jet), Wayfair, Best Buy, Houz, etc. a breeze!
So, suppose you’re running a large enterprise and have thousands of items to synchronize (or have tons of different product options). In that case, 25,000 products could take over four hours to sync on Shopify! Whereas, with BigCommerce, that same volume of merchants would take around a minute.
Following this same logic, if you're syncing multiple systems with your ecommerce store, you’ll be thankful that BigCommerce handles so many API calls per second. After all, there are only so many hours in the day!
The biggest perk?
But, that isn't the best thing about BigCommerce's APIs. In fact, it's the real-time information your shipping and logistics partners feedback to your store that's of the most value.
Of course, this also has a knock-on effect on the quality of your customer support. Slow and unreliable API calls adversely impact your store's inventory levels and shipping updates for customers.
Customer Support
While we're on the topic of customer service, just think of the kind of high-quality customer support you could provide, using one of your many APIs to connect your BigCommerce store with Gorgias.
You'll be able to offer all the following at lightning speed:
- Real-time live chat (you can even trigger automatic live chat campaigns depending on your visitor's web page).
- Centralize customer communications - social media, email, phone, etc. You can answer all pending support tickets from the convenience of one dashboard.
- You can create template answers to respond faster to FAQs - just write your response once and save it as a macro. Then you'll be able to reuse it automatically.
- Utilize machine learning to detect what customers will ask - shipping updates, refunds, exchanges, etc. Then, you can send laser-targeted automated responses to proactively answer their questions.
How to Utilize API Calls
On top of the obvious benefits listed above, you can also use BigCommerce's API points to create mobile apps using data retrieved from your online store. Not only does this make app development much easier, but ultimately, it'll also provide a seamless experience for the end-user. Win-win!
For the sake of ease, we've listed some of the different kinds of BigCommerce APIs you can use and how they could benefit your online store. Hopefully, this provides some much-needed inspiration for making the most out of your abundance of APIs.
Storefront APIs: This enables you to manage customer carts and checkouts (from the client's side and your back end). For instance, you can add products to a shopper’s cart, gather and display customer order info, update billing addresses, and erase current e-shopping trolleys.
GraphQL Storefront API: Similar to above, you can also use this API to access your customer's product info and modify customer details and orders. But more unique to this API, you can build frontend apps. This permits you full control over the look and feel of your brand.
Scripts API: You can insert any scripts for analytics, single-click apps, live chat, support plugins, and theme extensions for any apps or integrations you’ve downloaded, so you'll no longer have to manually paste code into your control panel.
Widgets API: Here, you can create modular blocks of content to reuse wherever you want. Similarly, you can also develop tools to empower non-techy users to manage your content. Trust us, your team will thank you for not making them go to the trouble of modifying the theme files.
Payments API: As its name so aptly suggests, this API facilitates the acceptance of customer payments. You can create custom checkouts either using a Server-to-Server Checkout API Orders endpoint or via the V2 Orders endpoint.
Getting Started with BigCommerce APIs
First off, you need to obtain the API credentials.
From there, you can experiment with your APIs using BigCommerce's in-built 'Request Runner.' Here, you just copy and paste your store_hash, client_id ID, and access_token.
Then once you've done that, hit 'Send.'
Alternatively, you can use the REST Client extension to make API requests, using the Visual Studio Code. Once you've installed this extension, you'll need to create a new file called BigCommerce.http.
Then you'll need to paste the following:
@ACCESS_TOKEN = your_access_token
@CLIENT_ID = your_client_id
@STORE_HASH = your_store_hash
###
GET https://api.bigcommerce.com/stores/{{STORE_HASH}}/v3/catalog/products
X-Auth-Token: {{ACCESS_TOKEN}}
X-Auth-Client: {{CLIENT_ID}}
Content-Type: application/json
Accept: application/json
Now, hit 'Save.'
This should trigger a 'send request' link to display above GET. Click 'send request,' and the API response will appear in a split window.
There are other ways to start using BigCommerce APIs, but we don't have time to go through them all in this article. Hopefully, this has been enough to help steer you in the right direction. For more information, take a look at BigCommerce’s API documentation.
Are You Ready to Start Using BigCommerce?
We hope having read this article, you have a better idea of what you could achieve with BigCommerce's generous API allowance. The BigCommerce API lets you sync inventory across channels, and locations, connect to apps, and offer exceptional customer support. How have you used the BigCommerce API?
18 Proven Black Friday Marketing Ideas and Strategies
For ecommerce store owners, Black Friday is an opportunity for record-breaking revenue, website traffic, and engagement. But relying on the same-old marketing tactics is a losing strategy.
According to Shopify's 2023 commerce trends report, new laws and regulations around consumer privacy are posing challenges for online retailers. Specifically, paid ads are increasingly more expensive (and less effective). Since 2021, Facebook ad costs have increased by 89% and TikTok ad costs are up 92% — with worse performance than ever before.
In this article, we’ll guide you through the process of reimagining your Black Friday marketing strategy to be more affordable and effective. By embracing innovative promotion ideas — like influencer collaborations and chat commerce — you can stand out from the crowd and achieve your Black Friday — Cyber Monday revenue goals.
{{lead-magnet-1}}
Black Friday website preparation checklist
While innovation is the theme of Black Friday 2023, some things will never change. And one of those everlasting truths is that your website has to work.
A poorly optimized website may result in slow loading times, crashes, or technical glitches that deter visitors from completing their purchases. To prevent these setbacks, and position your website for success, this section provides a Black Friday website preparation checklist.
Address technical website issues
A smooth and responsive website is essential to provide a seamless shopping experience and maximize your conversion rates. Slow loading times, broken links, or checkout errors can frustrate and deter customers. Prioritizing technical website improvements ensures a glitch-free Black Friday.
- Conduct a thorough website audit to identify and resolve performance issues
- Optimize images and code by compressing image files and eliminating unnecessary scripts for faster website loading.
- Test the website’s mobile responsiveness across different screen sizes and operating systems.
- Implement caching mechanisms, upgrade hosting plans, and stress-test your website to handle increased traffic.
- Create straightforward navigation by categorizing products intuitively and incorporating user-friendly menu layouts.
- Streamline the checkout process by minimizing steps, employing guest checkout options, and providing a variety of payment methods.
- Prominently display a helpdesk chat widget or contact information for customer support.
Focus on mobile performance
A significant portion of shoppers browse and purchase from their smartphones — as reported by Pew Research, 76% of U.S. adults indicate that they have made online purchases using a smartphone. As a result, a mobile-friendly website is paramount for ecommerce business owners.
By focusing on mobile optimization, you’ll enhance user satisfaction, reduce bounce rates, and maximize conversions on Black Friday.
- Ensure your website is responsive, loads quickly, and offers a seamless user experience across various mobile devices.
- Optimize images and code, implement mobile-specific design elements, and simplify navigation and checkout processes for smartphones and tablets.
- Test on different mobile devices, browsers, and screen sizes to find and fix any issues.
Triple-check promotions, discounts, and prices
Accurate promotions, discounts, and prices maintain customer trust and avoid legal issues. Ahead of Black Friday, be sure any active promotional materials and prices are up-to-date and accurate.
- Review and update all promotional materials to ensure accurate pricing.
- Test discount codes to verify their functionality.
- Prioritize quality checks across your online store, product listings, and checkout process to ensure consistency and accuracy.
- Provide clear terms and conditions for promotions and discounts.
Finetune your product descriptions
Craft compelling and persuasive product descriptions to help captivate shoppers and drive conversions. Thoughtful descriptions can tell a story about each product, highlighting key features and complementing your product photography and pricing.
- Check that your product descriptions are accurate, concise, and engaging.
- Incorporate persuasive language, emphasize unique selling points, and clearly communicate any Black Friday-specific offers or discounts.
- Complete an audit to address inconsistencies or errors, update outdated information, and ensure consistency across all product listings.
Start your SEO strategy early
Prioritizing your ecommerce SEO strategy months ahead of Black Friday will ensure your website ranks prominently in search engine results and attracts organic traffic. SEO results aren’t immediate, but the long-term payoff is substantial.
- Research keywords to identify relevant Black Friday-related terms and incorporate them strategically into your content, meta tags, and product descriptions.
- Improve your website’s technical SEO by increasing website speed and mobile responsiveness to enhance user experience.
- Leverage internal and external linking to boost visibility and authority.
- Optimize your site structure and URL hierarchy for better indexing.
Update your product images
Product images help your brand make a strong visual impact and entice customers to make purchases — especially during Black Friday, when customers see endless feeds of products. High-quality images can significantly enhance the appeal of your products, differentiate your brand, and increase trust among potential buyers.
- Refresh your product images to represent your current offerings, showcase key features, and highlight any Black Friday-specific details or discounts.
- Invest in professional ecommerce product photography or consider using UGC lifestyle images that showcase products in real-world contexts.
- Optimize image sizes for fast loading speeds and to ensure mobile responsiveness.
Optimize your product categorization
Great categorization improves the experience of navigating your website. Well-organized and intuitive product categories enable shoppers to find what they’re looking for quickly, reducing frustration and increasing the likelihood of conversions.
- Review your current ecommerce product categorization structure to ensure it aligns with the needs and preferences of your target audience.
- Streamline categories, eliminate duplicates, and create clear hierarchies.
- Incorporate relevant filters and sorting options to allow customers to refine their search results.
18 Black Friday marketing ideas (with examples)
Diverse marketing tactics are key to unlocking unprecedented success for your online business this holiday season. Black Friday can be a make-or-break affair for brands. It’s tempting to stick with what’s tried and true. But without innovating on your marketing strategy, outsized growth remains a distant reality.
Lean into the challenge, pay attention to Black Friday trends, experiment with strategies that might feel daunting, and seize the chance to redefine what’s possible for your brand this year.
1) Embrace social commerce selling
In 2022, Meta reported that Instagram Shop has a potential audience of over 187.6 million people. This statistic points to the rising importance of social commerce for ecommerce brands.
Rather than relying solely on websites, businesses can expand their reach and sell products directly on platforms like Instagram and TikTok. From the simplicity of shoppable social posts to the interactive environment of live selling events, meet customers where they are on Black Friday.
Tips for embracing social commerce selling:
- Explore different social commerce platforms. While Instagram and TikTok are go-to social commerce for brands, branch out to platforms like Pinterest, Snapchat, and Twitch.
- Create engaging content. Go beyond hashtags and typical social media marketing. Leverage the content-driven nature of these platforms to develop engaging videos, images, and live streams.
- Lean into omnichannel ecommerce. Provide a unified and consistent Black Friday shopping experience. Whether the customer is on your website or social media, they should feel a sense of continuity.
2) Use SMS marketing to create urgency
SMS marketing is a unique opportunity for ecommerce companies to instill urgency and excitement in their Black Friday promotions. A 2023 survey of 1,400 consumers, business owners, and digital marketers found that 80.5% of consumers check their text notifications within five minutes of receiving a text. The immediacy of SMS allows for real-time notifications about flash sales or limited-time offers.
Jaxxon, a men’s jewelry brand, encourages website visitors to sign-up for SMS updates ahead of Black Friday, incentivizing sign-ups with the promise of upcoming deals and discounts. Their dedicated landing page for SMS sign-ups is also SEO-friendly, surfacing as a top search result for “Jaxxon Black Friday.”
 |
Tips for using SMS marketing to create urgency:
- Use promo codes and dedicated landing pages. Send unique promo codes or links to dedicated landing pages via SMS. This gives customers an easy, direct route to redeem their Black Friday — Cyber Monday offer.
- Send pre-purchase and post-purchase real-time updates. Leverage the immediacy of SMS to provide customers with updates about your promotion and their purchases after the fact. That includes order confirmations, shipping updates, and delivery notifications.
- Adhere to legal compliance and consent. Before launching your SMS campaign, ensure you have obtained proper consent from customers. Your strategy should comply with all applicable laws and regulations.
3) Partner with influencers and creators
Influencer marketing is a powerful tool for ecommerce companies to leverage large existing audiences to find new customers. A survey of 500 millennial and Gen Z consumers found that 71% of shoppers are likely to purchase a product because of influencers.
Glossier, a cosmetics and skincare brand, partnered with the creator Pamyla Cummings on BlackFriday to share her Glossier holiday gift guide. They simultaneously pointed social media users to their 30% off sale, complementing her recommendations with their deal.
 |
Tips for partnering with influencers and creators:
- Choose the right influencers. Ecommerce influencers with a household name may be too expensive for most brands. However, micro-influencers often have a loyal following and high engagement, offering affordable and effective partnerships for small businesses.
- Trust the creator. Rather than being prescriptive, allow the creators you partner with to guide the development of promotional content. They know their audience best and will understand how to get them interested in your product or brand.
- Track the partnership using promo codes and referral links. Monitor your sales, website traffic, and brand awareness during and after an influencer promotion. This will inform future influencer marketing strategies.
4) Rethink your promotional email campaign
An email marketing campaign is an important part of your overall Black Friday marketing strategy. A study conducted by Litmus found that email drives an ROI of $36 for every dollar spent.
With direct access to inboxes, ecommerce companies can establish a direct link to customers with customer service email marketing. Aim to stand out in a sea of promotional emails during Black Friday. Find the delicate balance between intriguing subscribers with early promotion news and overwhelming their inboxes.
Magic Spoon, a brand creating high protein and no-sugar breakfast cereal, sent out three emails as part of their Black Friday email promotions: an early bird email on Wednesday, a 25% promotional offer on Black Friday, and a final reminder email on Sunday, ahead of Cyber Monday. They coupled their promotional discount with a gift, sharing all the details with their email subscribers and featuring a clear call to action.
 |
Tips for planning a promotional email campaign:
- Craft a compelling email subject line. Make your subject line catchy, relevant, and intriguing enough to entice the reader to open it. Try A/B testing to discover what resonates. Review your analytics to see what headlines have performed well before.
- Segment your email list. Cater to individual needs by segmenting your email list based on customer behavior, preferences, and purchase history. This allows you to personalize messages, increasing engagement.
- Optimize for cross-platform reading. Ensure emails are responsive and mobile-friendly.
Use your support emails to drive Black Friday promotion
Your company sends more than just marketing emails. Your customer service emails — from issue resolution emails to product troubleshooting communication — are another opportunity to drive awareness of your upcoming Black Friday promotions.
Use Gorgias’ PS Macros to drive sales at the bottom of your support emails. Build up your Macro library ahead of Black Friday, testing different email post-scripts and tracking their performance.
5) Use chat campaigns to promote Black Friday offers
The old-school understanding of chat is reactive: You receive questions and respond with answers. You can also use your chat widget to proactively reach out to visitors with chat campaigns.
For example, Gorgias Chat Campaigns send prospective customers information about exclusive sales, bundles, or reminders — in the flow of shopping. This Black Friday, set up a chat campaign offering discounts or coupon codes to website visitors, converting browsers into buyers.
For example, bidet brand TUSHY programs a chat campaign on the homepage, which pops up to advertise their “Brown Friday” promotion. A similar campaign is set for each of their product collection pages, promoting the offer and boosting conversion.
 |
Tips for using chat campaigns to promote Black Friday offers:
- Set specific campaign parameters. When building a chat campaign, choose when and where a campaign on your site is trigged. For instance, your message can pop up after a visitor spends more than 30 seconds in their online shopping cart or when a visitor is about to exit a page.
- Capture interest with a deal. Grab attention with a compelling offer — a secret sale, a meaningful discount, or a free shipping reminder.
- Set business hours. Automated chat campaigns can fire 24/7, but you don’t have to offer live chat 24/7 (or at all). With Offline Mode, you can deactivate the live chat function of your widget, so customers won’t respond to the campaign and get confused when nobody responds.
6) Share behind-the-scenes preparation on TikTok
As of 2022, TikTok has over 1.4 billion users but remains underutilized by brands who feel more at home on Facebook and Instagram. This holiday shopping season, create vertical videos that spotlight your employees preparing for Black Friday, sharing behind-the-scenes preparations on TikTok. The casual feeling of the platform offers an excellent opportunity to humanize your brand by providing a candid view of your team in action.
Kulani Kinis, a swimwear brand, leaned heavily into TikTok marketing for Black Friday 2022, creating nearly half a dozen videos to promote their sale. Amongst them was a video from their Ecommerce Coordinator, JJ, who provided details about discounts and showcased some of her favorite picks from their Fever Dream collection.
 |
Tips for sharing behind-the-scenes preparation on TikTok:
- Get candid and embrace authenticity. Opt for real, raw content instead of polished, highly-produced videos. This authenticity resonates with TikTok users and enhances engagement.
- Pack orders on camera. Combine ASMR with personalized content by packing customer orders for TikTok content, giving viewers a glimpse into your ecommerce business.
- Leverage the platform’s potential. With TikTok’s lack of a social graph and emphasis on the “For You” page, TikTok’s algorithm and the platform’s high virality potential make it a fertile ground for reaching a wider audience. Lean into trends, using popular sounds or meme formats for your brand’s TikTok.
7) Partner with a brand-aligned charity or non-profit organization
A 2022 research study found that 82% of shoppers prefer a consumer brand’s value to align with their own. Furthermore, 66% of shoppers are seeking out eco-friendly brands and products. Partner with an aligned charity and donate a portion of Black Friday and Cyber Monday profits to appeal to conscious consumers and highlight what your brand stands for.
Poppy Barley, an ethically-made, sustainable footwear and accessories brand, set a donation goal of $20,000 and committed 100% of the proceeds from their 2023 Black Friday sale to KidSport. This amount went towards funding 100 girls in sports, helping them develop confidence and leadership skills for the future.
 |
Tips for partnering with a brand-aligned charity or non-profit organization:
- Choose a relevant partner. Identify a charity or non-profit that aligns with your brand values and showcases your commitment to causes your customers care about.
- Communicate your intentions. Promote your partnership and donation plans on your platform to increase awareness.
- Share post-sale results. After Black Friday and Cyber Monday, share the impact of the donations. This transparency boosts your brand’s credibility and builds trust with your customers.
8) Provide customers with mobile app-exclusive deals
If you have a mobile app or plan on launching one this upcoming holiday sales season, consider integrating it into your Black Friday promotion. Offer an exclusive Black Friday discount code to app users, incentivizing app downloads. This also establishes a direct channel for sending in-app notifications about future products and sales.
Tips for providing customers with mobile app exclusive deals:
- Promote exclusive app discounts widely. Use your website, social media, and email newsletters to advertise the exclusive Black Friday deal available only to app users.
- Offer a unique discount code. If you plan on also providing a discount to website users, ensure that your app discount is unique to allow for tracking and analyzing results.
- Maximize in-app notifications. Use your app as a direct communication channel. Send in-app notifications about the exclusive deal, and later about new products and sales, to engage users continually.
9) Use your chat widget to automatically answer pre-sales questions
Customers abandon carts if they can’t find information about shipping and returns. Use your chat widget’s automation to answer pre-sales support questions for holiday shoppers browsing your website on Black Friday.
Take advantage of a tool like Gorgias to create Quick Response Flows that automatically provide answers to these frequently asked questions.
For example, Loop Earplugs proactively educates customers about the product with questions like, “Can I still have a conversation wearing Loops?” to instill buying confidence:
 |
Consider FAQs that answer questions about your promotions this Black Friday, too:
- Do you offer Black Friday/Cyber Monday deals?
- Can I return or exchange items bought during the Black Friday/Cyber Monday sale?
- Do you offer free shipping for Black Friday/Cyber Monday?
- Can I use my Black Friday/Cyber Monday discount code for purchasing gift cards?
- Can I use Black Friday/Cyber Monday codes on sale items?
Tips for using your chat widget to automatically answer pre-sale questions:
- Make your chat widget visible and accessible. Ensure the chat widget is easily noticeable and accessible on every page of your website — especially if you’ve changed your website theme for Black Friday.
- Constantly update and refine your FAQ. As your Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales progress, keep updating your Quick Response Flows based on real-time feedback.
- Train your team for the big day. Chat is a complement to your customer support on Black Friday, not a replacement. Make sure your team is equipped to handle more complex inquiries.
10) Offer free or discounted shipping
According to a 2023 commerce trends report from Shopify, people order about 2.5 items with free shipping, compared to less than 2 items with paid shipping. Additionally, people buy over $22 more on the median order with free shipping compared to paid shipping. Ecommerce companies can leverage this tactic on Black Friday to reduce purchase barriers, increase perceived value, and attract customers who make larger order sizes.
Tips for offering free or discount shipping:
- Market your shipping offer. Promote your free or discounted shipping on your website, email campaigns, and social media. Make it a central part of your Black Friday messaging to attract deal-seeking customers.
- Set minimum order thresholds. Encourage larger order sizes by offering free shipping for orders above a certain amount to increase average order value.
- Highlight the savings. Feature the discounted amount at checkout to ensure customers are aware of the savings they are making on shipping.
11) Host a flash sale or hourly deals
Flash sales and hourly deals infuse a sense of urgency into your Black Friday marketing strategy, prompting customers to make quick purchase decisions. With each flash sale, showcase a carefully selected product or a curated collection, offering a significant discount or exclusive bundle. By limiting the availability of these deals to a short duration, you tap into customers’ fear of missing out, urging them to seize the opportunity before it expires.
Clothing brand Princess Polly used a broad discount alongside flash sales across Black Friday weekend, keeping website visitors informed about deals and creating urgency with a countdown timer. They also updated their homepage banner throughout the shopping weekend, having it read “FINAL HOURS!!” as the countdown neared the end of the sale.
 |
Tips for hosting a flash sale or hourly deals:
- Set realistic discounts. Ensure that the discounts or promotions you offer during the event are attractive and meaningful to your customers while allowing your business to maintain profitability.
- Use Countdown timers. Implement countdown timers on your site to underscore the time-sensitive nature of the deals and increase urgency.
- Manage inventory Effectively. Prepare for the surge in demand by ensuring sufficient stock levels to prevent customer disappointment from sold-out items.
12) Delight buyers with a free gift per purchase
Include a gift with each purchase to enhance the customer experience during the Black Friday sales period. This marketing strategy distinguishes you from the competition while building brand loyalty and incentivizing larger purchases.
A gifting gesture also creates a moment of delight that leaves a lasting impression, increasing the chances of repeat purchases and word-of-mouth recommendations.
For Black Friday 2023, the skincare brand Topicals offered customers a free Faded Eye Deluxe sample on orders over $100. This promotional offer allowed customers to buy to buy their best-selling Faded cream, while also getting to try a newer complementary skin product offering for free.
 |
Tips for sending off buyers with a gift per purchase:
- Choose the right gifts. Ensure the complimentary gifts align with your brand and are likely to be appreciated by your customers. Small branded items (e.g. a tote) or samples of other products work well. Avoid large or delicate items that complicate your shipping.
- Present the gift at checkout. Display the gift in the customer's cart at the point of checkout. This creates a positive surprise and reinforces the deal’s value to the customer.
- Package to perfection. Pay attention to the presentation of the gift, using attractive and branded packaging that reflects the quality of your brand.
13) Release a brand-new product
While your business likely has more than enough happening during the busiest sales season of the year, unveiling a new product is a powerful magnet. The allure of discovering something new and exclusive, combined with the limited-time deals and discounts of the sales period, creates a compelling proposition for both new customers and loyal advocates.
Tips for releasing a brand-new product:
- Launch a hotly anticipated product. Opt for an offering that has been highly requested and validated by looking through customer requests.
- Incentivize first buyers. Offer limited-time incentives for the first set of customers who purchase the new product. This could be an extra discount, free shipping, or a complimentary item.
- Use social media for showcasing your new product. Conduct a live unboxing or feature early customer testimonials to showcase what customers will receive.
14) Offer product bundles and loot boxes
Product bundles and loot boxes offer customers a value-packed deal, combining multiple products or exclusive items at a discounted rate. The appeal of this Black Friday marketing strategy lies in the perceived value they receive. The bundled price is often lower than the individual prices of the included items.
Bundles not only encourage customers to explore and try different products but also present an opportunity to showcase lesser-known items and drive sales for slower-moving inventory.
Casper, a mattress company, bundled together and discounted a set of pillows and sheets for their Black Friday product special. Dubbed their “Comfy Bundle”, this offering also complements the mattresses and larger-ticket items that were on sale, too.
 |
Tips for offering product bundles and loot boxes:
- Bundle complementary products. Combine products that naturally go together or enhance each other’s use, creating a complete solution.
- Offer surprise loot boxes. Build excitement by offering a loot box with mystery items. These boxes incentivize purchases by playing on the element of surprise.
- Promote bundle savings. Communicate the savings customers gain from purchasing a bundle versus buying each product individually (e.g. “$50 value for $24.99”).
15) Sell gift cards at a discount
Most ecommerce promotional offers explicitly exclude the purchase of gift cards. However, offering gift cards as an option on Black Friday extends a convenient solution for shoppers unsure about what to purchase or who may be purchasing presents for the holidays.
Gift cards can lead to additional sales beyond the initial purchase amount, as recipients may spend more than the value of the gift card when redeeming it online or in-store.
Tips for including gift cards as a product option:
- Ensure prominent promotional placement. Ensure that gift cards are clearly displayed on your website, specifically highlighting them as a Black Friday offer.
- Offer e-gift cards and physical gift cards. Provide both options to accommodate customer preferences — e-gift cards for instant delivery and physical cards for a tangible gifting experience.
- Opt for attractive visuals. Create visually appealing graphics with custom imagery that showcase the gift cards.
16) Use a tiered discount model
Implement a tiered discount model for your Black Friday promotions. This approach offers different levels of discounts based on the total order value, encouraging customers to spend more to unlock higher savings. Leverage this strategy to increase average order value and maximize sales during the Black Friday shopping frenzy.
Hive, a sustainable online grocery store, used a tiered discount model on Black Friday, advertising the offering prominently on their website. They offered customers 10%. 15%, or 20% off, depending on how much they spent.
 |
Tips for using a tiered discount model:
- Set clear discount thresholds. Communicate the savings customers can unlock at each level to incentivize them to reach the next threshold.
- Promote upgrades. Use banners, pop-ups, and email marketing to encourage customers to upgrade their carts and take advantage of higher discount tiers.
- Offer limited-time incentives. Create a sense of urgency by making the tiered discounts time-limited. Encourage customers to complete their purchases within a specific timeframe to qualify for the higher discount tiers.
17) Create a product quiz to provide personalized product recommendations
Creating a product quiz to provide personalized product recommendations is a compelling way to drive sales (as well as upsells and cross-sells). This approach engages customers in a unique and interactive experience while helping them discover products that align with their needs.
Additionally, it generates valuable data and insights on customer preferences, informing your future marketing efforts.
Dr. Squatch, an organic soap brand, offers a quiz year-round, including during Black Friday. The quiz is linked prominently in the top-bar navigation. And with just a few questions, the personalized quiz helps buyers choose the product with the best scent, exfoliation, and hair care for them.
 |
Tips for creating a personalized product quiz:
- Design relevant quiz questions. Tailor the quiz questions to align with the different product categories or segments you offer.
- Link your quiz prominently. Brands like Dr. Squatch and Loop Earplugs understand the conversion power of personalized recommendations, and link quizzes in the top navigation.
- Capture customer data. Require customers to provide their email address or other contact information to access the quiz results. This lets you gather valuable data for future marketing efforts, such as email campaigns or targeted promotions.
Add a quiz to your chat widget, too
You can make your quiz even more discoverable by using Quick Response Flows in Gorgias, which build your product quiz into your Chat Widget or Help Center. Dr. Squatch adapted their quiz into a Quick Response Flow — check it out below (or on their website).
 |
18) Keep the conversation going through to Cyber Monday (and beyond)
According to data from over 10,000 Gorgias merchants, repeat customers generate 300% more revenue than first-time customers.
While attracting new customers during Black Friday is undoubtedly valuable, retaining Black Friday customers for the long term holds even greater significance. Lean into strong customer service, strategic campaigns, personalized email marketing, and social media engagement to foster long-term customer relationships that build brand affinity and maximize sales.
Tips for keeping the conversation going through to Cyber Monday (and beyond):
- Plan a Cyber Monday campaign. Design a dedicated Cyber Monday campaign with exclusive deals and promotions. Build anticipation by teasing these offers during Black Friday and encourage customers to return for more special discounts.
- Leverage segmented email marketing. Use email marketing to reach out to different customer segments based on their Black Friday behavior. Tailor personalized emails offering recommendations and send out cart abandonment reminders.
- Double down on social media engagement. Encourage customers to share their Black Friday purchases, run a giveaway, and offer incentives to create a sense of community and excitement around your brand that extends beyond the sales event.
Remember: the purchase isn’t the finish line
During the hustle and bustle of Black Friday marketing, it’s crucial to zoom out and remember your long-term goals beyond the sales frenzy. While driving immediate sales and capturing new customers is key, it’s equally important to focus on the customer experience that improves retention, reduces BFCM returns, garners reviews, and turns first-time buyers into loyal customers.
Building strong relationships with your customers, and providing exceptional post-purchase experiences, will pave the way for long-term revenue growth for your ecommerce business.
Encourage customer feedback, engage with reviews, and implement strategies to foster loyalty. By nurturing these aspects, you turn Black Friday shoppers into loyal advocates who return all year round.
{{lead-magnet-2}}
Creating a Seamless Customer Experience with Gorgias & BigCommerce
No matter what product or service you sell, customer support is always one of the highest priorities. If you don’t give your customers the best support and experience possible, a few things can happen:
- You can lose customers… fast
- Receive poor reviews
- Stress out your own internal team
- And much more.
The good news is, if you’re here you’re already thinking in the right way -- you want to enhance your support so that it’s seamless for both the customer, and your team.
That’s why all BigCommerce store owners can now integrate with Gorgias to deliver an outstanding customer support experience to consumers.
 |
Gorgias is all about the customer-first model and this aligned vision with BigCommerce stores can bring your business to the next level.
But Why Does It Matter?
We touched on that a little bit already, but let’s dive in more on why support actually matters.
Countless business owners view the support side as a cost centre, but when you look at it as more than that, this is when you really start seeing success. By improving satisfaction overall, you’re able to maintain loyal customers, which is key to growing your store. On top of that, you can increase engagement on-site and also across social channels because when people have a good experience with a brand, they love to share the story.
Of course, at the end of the day, it also heavily contributes to sales. Using live chat and other means of customer support channels you can advise people quickly on what the best product for them is. When you create those loyal customers, word of mouth can be one of your strongest driving forces.
How To Actually Give Customers World-Class Experiences
Nowadays your audience and customers are everywhere. On top of that, they want the same experience across all channels which can sound very overwhelming. That being said, it is possible to make everything from social media to live chat, phone and beyond (we’ll talk about that in a little bit) work together seamlessly. By making all these channels easier to check on and respond on, it’ll help immensely with organization and responsiveness.
 |
We all know that the faster you respond the happier the customer will be. The issue is, countless stores have a low response time, and this offers a big opportunity for those who can do better. Not only does it lead to higher customer satisfaction, but it can lead to more sales too.. For instance, if someone is asking your support team about a particular product, there’s a good chance they have other stores open in other tabs, and if you can answer that customer first they may be more likely to go with your product over another.
Lastly, don’t forget that sounding robotic isn’t cool and customers can usually read right through it. By being human, you’re able to have a more personal relationship with customers as opposed to something strictly transactional. By personalizing answers, your customer will truly feel like you care and know them, making it far more likely that they’ll purchase from your store again.
How can Gorgias help BigCommerce brands?
Well, let’s start with a couple words from Iris Schiefer, Sr. Strategic Partnerships Manager, EMEA at BigCommerce. She knows what Gorgias can do to help shop owners out, saying that it “allowsBigCommerce merchants to offer an exceptional support experience and deepen relationships with customers.”
 |
This is fairly broad, and that’s because there’s lots of ways Gorgias can benefit your BigCommerce store. By using Gorgias, you can actually cut your customer support first response times and ticket resolution time without losing that precious human touch element.
Gorgias allows BigCommerce merchants to offer an exceptional support experience and deepen relationships with their customers. We are strongly aligned in terms of both our values and dedication to providing best-of-breed solutions to our merchants - We couldn't be happier to have Gorgias on board as a BigCommerce partner.
- Iris Schiefer, Sr. Strategic Partnerships Manager, EMEA at BigCommerce
We understand, it sounds too good to be true, but it is possible. So, let’s dive into a few things you’ll be able to do if you integrate Gorgias into your BigCommerce store.
One place for customer support
You can connect BigCommerce along with all your communication channels including email, social media, phone, live chat and more to Gorgias. This centralizes everything into one platform so that it's all in one place. This allows you to not miss any requests, and handle responses much faster.
With Gorgias, you can view your customer’s order history easily from the BigCommerce backend. This way, you can ensure speed and accuracy in responses as opposed to switching between tabs or cutting and pasting.
Personalization becomes easy and far less time consuming as well. With Gorgias, you can integrate data provided by BigCommerce like first name, shipping address and much more. This gives you the opportunity to send automatic and accurate messages for a personalized customer experience.
Repetitive questions can get frustrating, but Gorgias also has a function to get to these quickly and easily. You can automate answers to common questions to save valuable time for your team, that way they can focus on new customers and those with more complicated requests.
When you integrate Gorgias, you’re also using advanced machine learning to detect the intent, along with sentiment of each and every message. This means that by learning about tracking updates, return policies and urgency, Gorgias helps set priorities and categorize tickets based on what they’re all about.
Just like every other area of your business, tracking customer support performance is essential. Using Gorgias you can track KPIs to ensure you and your team are on track to delivering incredible support.
How does the Gorgias + BigCommerce integration work?
By integrating Gorgias, you’ll be able to also integrate with some of the biggest Apps in the BigCommerce Marketplace including Klaviyo, Omnisend, Smile.io and many more.
Now, how do you get started? It’s easier than you might think:
- Sign up for Gorgias (if you haven’t already).
- Go to your BigCommerce account and Install the Gorgias App.
- You’ll receive a request to access your store from Gorgias then click Confirm, then Connect.
- From there, you just add in your Gorgias authentication credentials, which is simply just your Gorgias helpdesk name.
- After hitting save, you can now sync your BigCommerce customers who haven’t placed an order by selecting “sync customers who haven’t placed an order.” Then select the order cut off and hit Save.
- Now, you’ll see an active green icon and this means you’re good to go!
You can find a more detailed step by step guide here.
Are you building out your ecommerce tech stack and seeking more app recommendations for BigCommerce? Check out our lists of:
By the way, if you haven’t already signed up for Gorgias, you can start off by getting a free, 7-day trial to test it out on your BigCommerce store!
Black Friday vs. Buy Nothing Day
For most retailers, Black Friday is the busiest and most profitable day of the year. However, not everyone is into shopping on Black Friday. Every year, more and more activists are protesting the consumer culture by celebrating ‘Buy Nothing Day.’
Never heard about it? Although the anti-consumerism celebration has been gaining traction in the last couple of years, it’s still not well-known among the general public.
How did we come to this point? That’s what we’ll learn today.
You’ll find out:
- A short history of Black Friday
- What’s Buy Nothing Day All About
- Black Friday vs. Buy Nothing Day
{{lead-magnet-1}}
The History of Black Friday
As high-speed Internet spread across the planet so did Black Friday. What initially started as a mall craze has evolved in an online phenomenon. But do you know how Black Friday started? When and where did it happen and how did it spread?
How Black Friday Started
The holiday got started in the early-50s, in Philadelphia. The term was used to describe the heavy traffic on the day after Thanksgiving when hordes of tourists and suburbanites would storm the city in advance of the annual Army-Navy football game.
While we don’t know for certain, the term “Black Friday” was possibly coined by the members of the Philadelphia police department to describe the shoplifting, traffic jams, and general mayhem. Yes, Black Friday incidents are nothing new.
Even though retailers tried to change its name to “Big Friday” during the late 60s in an effort to avoid the negative connotations, the original name persevered. In the mid-80s, marketers started using the term in connection to “being in the black” after a financially bad year.
Cyber Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Black November
Black Friday sales became commonplace across the United States, in the early 90s. By the mid-2000s, online shopping started gaining traction. In 2008, online shoppers spent $534 million on Black Friday.
During the same period, Cyber Monday got its start. The holiday took off when the staff at Shop.org noticed a 77% increase in online sales on Monday after the Black Friday weekend. Since Cyber Monday was so successful, some of the largest store chains in the US, like Walmart and Amazon merged the two into a single shopping weekend.
Soon after, retailers started creating different spin-offs of the Black Friday/Cyber Monday weekend. For example, the day after Black Friday is called Small Business Saturday. That’s why some retailers now celebrate Black November all month long.
Pros and Cons of Black Friday
Last year, retailers from all over the world saw more than 93 million people shopping online, during the Black Friday weekend. While a huge number of people are looking forward to the holiday, there are some that aren’t as nearly excited.
The holiday has its positive and negative sides. Some of the Black Friday pros include:
- Most consumers are able to save a lot of money on great deals
- Retailers are able to make a good percentage of their yearly revenue during BFCM
- It’s great for the economy; 30% of retail sales happen between BFCM and Christmas
Of course, we need to take into consideration Black Friday cons as well:
- People tend to overspend during BFCM and buy things they wouldn’t otherwise
- Some retailers that artificially heighten their prices in the weeks leading up to BFCM
- Some small businesses can’t compete with large discounts offered by large chains
{{lead-magnet-2}}
The History of Nothing Day
Not all people see Black Friday as a great opportunity to buy that 40-inch smart TV for a fraction of its price. Some see it as nothing more than a decadent celebration of commercialism. That’s why some people opt to celebrate Buy Nothing Day.
Never heard of Buy Nothing Day before? You’re not alone. A lot of people haven’t. But don’t worry, we’re here to explain everything…
How Nothing Day Started
Now, Buy Nothing Day is actually nothing new. The anti-holiday was originally thought out by a Canadian artist by the name of Ted Dave way back in 1992. His anti-shopping campaign started gaining steam once it got picked up by the non-profit magazine, Adbusters.
According to the official Adbusters website, the day is meant for ordinary consumers to re-examine their spending habits and take a look at the “issue of overconsumption.”
During the 90s and 00s, this anti-holiday was mainly “celebrated” in the US and Canada, but in the last couple of years, thanks to the Internet, it reached a worldwide audience. While it’s certainly not popular as Black Friday, it’s slowly catching on.
How is Buy Nothing Day Celebrated
Seeing how Buy Nothing Day is still new, it’s no wonder that different people celebrate it in different ways. However, over the last decade, certain traditions have developed. Here a few universal ways in which people celebrate Buy Nothing Day:
- Cutting Up Credit Cards: This is perhaps the most extreme way in which people celebrate Buy Nothing Day. Some consumers gather in front of shopping malls on Black Friday to cut up their credit cards in protest of consumerism.
- Starting Whirly Marts: Another “on-location” way to celebrate Buy Nothing Day is to take a shopping cart and create a long -conga-like line around the mall. As you might’ve guessed, the shopping carts are traditionally empty.
- Taking Buy Nothing Hikes: A less confrontational way to celebrate it is to ignore the stores and shoppers completely and go for a group hike. This allows people to leave the stress-filled spending day behind them and enjoy nature.
Pros and Cons of Buy Nothing Day
People who are preoccupied with the negative aspects of commercialism are obviously more likely to participate in the Buy Nothing Day celebration. But just like its consumerism-celebrating counterpart, Buy Nothing Day has its negative and positive sides.
Let’s go over the positive aspects first:
- It encourages people to think about how much money they’re needlessly spending
- Also, it helps consumers control the urge to buy things compulsively and spend wisely
- Finally, it shows that your personal happiness doesn’t revolve around material objects
Nothing is perfect and Buy Nothing Day isn’t the exception. Here are some negative aspects:
- Not overspending for a single day doesn’t mean you won’t do it for the rest of the year
- Consumerism drives a country’s economy, so it’s not always the most sustainable protest.
- Not shopping for a single day won’t prevent consumerism on a large scale
Black Friday vs. Buy Nothing Day
As a retailer, are you wondering if you should be worried? Can Buy Nothing Day turn some of your customers against you, destroy your relationship, and hurt your sales? Let’s see how the BFCM weekend will stack up against Buy Nothing Day in 2020.
The Emergence of the Conscious Shopper
Consumers have become more conscious in recent years. They’re more worried about global problems than ever before, and they would like the companies they’re dealing with to share their concerns.
But if overspending in rampant consumerism is such a problem, why isn’t Buy Nothing Day bigger? You have to remember that the day is competing with well-established holidays. Also, Black Friday backlash has been much more noticeable outside the US.
For example, just last year in France, protesters gathered in an attempt to block an Amazon warehouse in the suburbs of Paris. In other European countries, lawmakers are considering banning Black Friday altogether, due to the negative environmental impact.
Make Black Friday Green Again
Speaking of France, a collective known as MFGA (Make Friday Green Again) recently formed in the country, in order to help the citizens become more conscious about their consumption. More than 450 brands signed up to support the MFGA initiative in 2019.
Faguo, the organization behind the movement is inviting consumers to drop unwanted clothing items into their stores and encouraging consumers to take part in their tree-planting campaign.
The #OptOutside Campaign
In the United States, REI, an outdoor-gear manufacturing company is doing its part to slow-down overconsumption during the BFCM weekend. On Black Friday, the REI officials close all of their stores, give their employees a paid day off, and encourage people to go outside for a walk, hike, or a campaign trip.
Their Opt Outside campaign not only helps their consumers become more physically active and financially responsible, but also spreads awareness about their values. The fact that the healthy activities they promote are what their products are made for is not a coincidence.
Buy Nothing Day vs Ecommerce
Will Black Friday sales suffer from Buy Nothing Day? Not really. While some will choose to ignore the BFCM weekend, most people are either not aware of Buy Nothing Day or don’t feel like they have any trouble controlling their spending.
Large stores probably won’t feel any consequences. However, their small-to-midsize counterparts might feel the hit.
Around 60% of all online spending during BFCM goes to a dozen or so large retailers. None of them will feel the impact of Buy Nothing Day. The rest of the money goes to thousands of small stores. They’re the ones that could potentially feel the hit.
How to Do Your Part
Should you be concerned about Buy Nothing Day? Yes and no. On one hand, you have to be aware that as a small business owner, you can’t afford to lose any customers. On the other, it’s not likely that many of your customers will choose Black Friday to ignore you.
There’s a simple solution if you feel like Buy Nothing Day may be a problem. To get the younger, socially-aware crowd on your side, you just have to show them that you care.
You can use your website to encourage people to spend more time outdoors or promote a good cause. Take DoneGood for example. In 2018, the Boston-based ecommerce website donated Black Friday revenue to the RAINN foundation.
Looking Beyond Black Friday 2020
It took nearly 50 years for Black Friday to become a worldwide phenomenon. Although information travels fast nowadays, it’s not realistic to expect for Buy Nothing Day to become a large-scale protest against consumerism any time soon.
When done right, Black Friday can be a great day for both retailers and shoppers. If you’re a store owner and you want to make it great for your customers, here’s what you need to do:
- Creating catered, personalized experiences
- Taking a mobile-first approach to ecommerce
- Becoming more environmentally-conscious
- Focusing on creating a great customer support experience for Black Friday shoppers
One thing is certain: your customers should always come first. You need to show them that you share their values, respect their concerns, and that you’re ready to take that extra step to keep them satisfied. And you can’t do that without a good helpdesk.
With Gorgias helpdesk, you can attend to your customers, establish, and nurture relationships with ease.
Go ahead, sign up for Gorgias, get your 15-day free trial, and see your customer satisfaction rates skyrocket.
Black Friday Trends: What The Statistics Tell Us About BFCM & Ecommerce
Every year, Black Friday and Cyber Monday trends shift, but one thing is for sure — it’ll be the biggest US shopping event of the entire year and the start of the holiday shopping season.
The last few years have been particularly dynamic given the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and the supply chain issues that followed. After that came record-high inflation. All of this has had a deep impact on how we shop.
Those factors make it especially important to dial into this year’s Black Friday trends. By looking at data from past years and predictions about the upcoming year, you can better prepare for the holiday shopping season and even tap into shopping trends that could shape your whole ecommerce business, year-round.
How is Black Friday–Cyber Monday 2023 shaping up?
The big question is: will BFCM ecommerce see big sales in 2023? All the data we have indicates that yes, 2023 Black Friday shopping will be bigger than ever.
The pandemic had a marked impact on BFCM ecommerce sales. While many chose to stay home and shop online in 2020, US shoppers were more willing to venture outside in 2021. As a result, ecommerce sales dipped from $9.03 billion in 2020 to $8.92 billion in 2021, according to Adobe Analytics.
But in 2022, ecommerce sales bounced back, with a record-setting $9.12 billion spent online in the US. With shopping habits stabilizing from pre-pandemic levels, we can predict another record-setting year for online retailers in 2023.
The total spent per person rose in 2022, too. According to the National Retail Federation, it was predicted that the average person planned to spend $833 — an increase from 2021.
The takeaway here is that you should be prepared for the biggest BFCM to date.
{{lead-magnet-1}}
12 Black Friday statistics
Every bit of BFCM data offers insights into what to expect for 2023. Retail sales give you an idea of the overall volume, and more niche data like the percentage of mobile sales or marketing trends tell you how best to prepare your presence online.
Let’s go over trends that have emerged in recent years and discuss what they mean for your ecommerce business.
1) Cyber Monday is the biggest day for ecommerce
As mentioned above, a record $9.12 billion was spent online in the US on Black Friday in 2022. For in-person sales, Mastercard reported an increase of 12% in consumer spending in-store for Black Friday 2022.
Cyber Monday remains the biggest shopping day for ecommerce, however, with $11.3 billion spent in the US in 2022, according to Adobe. That’s compared to $10.7 billion in 2021.
For context, a regular day in the US sees about $2 to $3 billion in online sales, CNBC reported. Over at Amazon, sales were also far above average, with 128% more revenue generated on Black Friday. The only other event that compares is Prime Day.
All of that accounts for a record 196.7 million Americans who bought something, according to the NRF.
What this means for you
- Black Friday will be big, but Cyber Monday will be bigger — expect more orders and a higher volume of customer support inquiries
- Plan your best discounts for Cyber Monday
2) BFCM has spread internationally
Black Friday and Cyber Monday seem like a uniquely American phenomenon, and that is certainly how it started. Black Friday, after all, is always the day after American Thanksgiving and marks the beginning of the US holiday season.
However, sales have spread across borders. Behind the US, Canada and the UK have the highest sales for BFCM, according to Shopify. London, UK is one of the top cities for BFCM shoppers worldwide, alongside LA and New York City.
Even within the US, BFCM excitement and spending varies. According to Finder, BFCM is most popular in Northeastern states like New York, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts where 59% of people planned to shop oN BFCM. That’s compared to 46% of shoppers in the western portion of the US.
What this means for you
- Localize Black Friday deals for online shoppers in different regions
- Even if you’re not located in the US, consider running BFCM deals as you’re likely to see increased sales
3) More purchases are made on mobile
More BFCM purchases happen on a mobile device than ever before. According to Shopify, 73% of sales for merchants on the platform during BFCM were made by mobile in 2022, compared to 71% in 2021.
Interestingly, the prominence of mobile varies throughout the BFCM weekend Adobe reported that 55% of sales came from mobile devices on Thanksgiving — likely because people are celebrating with their families and not sitting at a computer. That’s compared to 43% on Cyber Monday when people are back to work and shopping on a desktop.
What this means for you
- Ensure your site is optimized for a mobile shopping experience
- Make sure your chatbot is available on mobile and anticipate customer service requests from social as well
4) Buy Now Pay Later is a conversion tool
There are now several Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) service providers available, and consumers are happy to take advantage of them. According to Adobe, BNPL use rose 85% during BFCM compared to the week before in 2022. As well, BNPL revenue rose 88%.
It’s worth noting that BNPL is a proven conversion tool — according to RBC Capital Markets, BNPL can increase conversions by 20% to 30%.
What this means for you
- Offer a variety of BNPL options on your site, such as Klarna, Afterpay, and Affirm
5) Toys and electronics reign supreme
Looking at the most popular items sold during BFCM, it’s clear the trend is that people use BFCM for holiday shopping, especially for kids.
Toys had the biggest boost on Cyber Monday in 2022, with ecommerce sales in the toys category growing 684% compared to an average day in October. Next, electronics sales were up 391% and computers were up 372%. Other categories with significant boosts include sporting goods, appliances, books, and jewelry.
What this means for you
- Anticipate needing higher inventory for toys and electronics
- Target your discounts for these popular categories
6) Average order totals are rising
According to Shopify, the average order total for BFCM in 2022 was $102.10 — up slightly from $100.70 in 2021.
Last year, shoppers were more concerned about inflation, but those concerns have eased into the latter half of 2023. From that, we can predict that the average order total will rise in 2023.
What this means for you
- Your site should be optimized to recommend related items before checkout
- Prioritize bundles for your deepest discounts
7) All of Cyber Week will get a lift
The BFCM shopping event peaked on Black Friday in 2022 at 12:01 p.m. EST, with sales of more than $3.5 million per minute, according to Shopify. Traditionally, however, Cyber Monday is the biggest day for online sales across all sites.
But it’s also worth noting that the Black Friday weekend sees an uptick in shopping, including Thanksgiving Day itself and the Saturday and Sunday between Black Friday and Cyber Monday. The whole shebang is referred to as Cyber Week. Even Thanksgiving Eve sees higher revenue, according to Adobe.
It doesn’t stop there. Even the week before BFCM sees a lift. According to Amazon, sales on the site increased 185% in the week leading up to BFCM.
What this means for you
- Save your best deals for Cyber Monday when they’ll be most expected, but also run promotions through the entirety of Cyber Week
8) Curbside pickup is dropping
As shoppers feel more comfortable with in-store shopping, online orders for in-person curbside pickup have actually decreased over the past couple of years.
According to Shopify, In 2022, 13% of online orders on both Thanksgiving and Black Friday took advantage of this service, for those stores that offer it. That’s down from 21% in 2021. On Cyber Monday, it was 17% of orders, down from 18% in 2021.
What this means for you
- Expect the majority of your online orders to be for delivery
- If you offer curbside pickup, you can safely dedicate less resources to this service than last year
9) Crossborder sales remain steady
Shopify reported that 15% of BFCM sales were cross-border (bought from one country and shipped to another) in 2022 — the same as in 2021. Most of this activity was orders going from the US to Canada, Canada to the US, and the UK to the US. This makes sense as these are also the countries where BFCM sales are most prevalent.
What this means for you
- Focus your localization efforts on the US, Canada, and the UK
- Don’t surprise international shoppers with higher-than-expected shipping fees, as this can lead to cart abandonment. List your international shipping rates up front and include duties where possible
10) Discounts have hit record highs
Adobe reported that discounts hit record highs in 2022, peaking at an average of 25% off the listed price on Cyber Monday. Some categories saw deeper discounts than others, such as 34% off toys, 20% off computers, and 18% off apparel.
What this means for you
- Black Friday shoppers wait for BFCM to make purchases and expect big discounts, so a simple 5% or 10% off may not be attractive enough
- Save your best discounts for Cyber Monday
11) Paid search is the top digital marketing strategy
According to Adobe, paid search was the biggest driver of sales during Cyber Week, accounting for 28% of online sales. However, owned channels like email and SMS were also important.
Omnisend reported that brands sent 68% more SMS on Black Friday, resulting in a 57% increase in orders.
What this means for you
- With paid search so competitive, take advantage of SMS and email marketing to communicate your discounts to high-intent customers
5 Black Friday trends and projections
Here’s what we can predict for BFCM 2023 — and how you can prepare.
1) Customers expect big discounts
Although inflation is waning, shoppers will still be reeling from its effects compared to pre-pandemic times. We know that holiday shoppers wait for BFCM discounts to save money, so they’ll be expecting big discounts.
Offering great deals is important, but so is doing that in a way that protects your revenue. A great idea is to concentrate your best discounts on bundles — that increases your AOV while still being attractive to bargain hunters.
2) Biggest Black Friday Cyber Monday yet
All indications point to BFCM 2023 being another record-setting year. Ecommerce sales bounced back in 2022 compared to 2021. Given that trajectory, we can anticipate that 2023 will be the biggest BFCM ever.
The last thing you want is to be caught without enough inventory to meet demand. Take a look at sales from last year and plan accordingly for the increased demands of BFCM logistics.
3) Mobile will be huge
Online orders made by a mobile device have reliably risen each BFCM, and 2023 should be no different. Ensure your website performs well on mobile, including testing your site on different devices such as smartphones and tablets.
Knowing people will be shopping from their phones means that’s also an opportunity for marketing. Ahead of BFCM, encourage customers to sign up for SMS reminders or push notifications if you have a shopping app. That way they’ll be the first to know about deals and can click to shop immediately.
4) Marketing efforts will start early
With more competition for shoppers than ever, you’ll want to start preparing your BFCM marketing campaigns early. Start planning your campaign during the summer, including determining your discounts, prepping social media posts, and creating a calendar of SMS and email sends. Start communicating and teasing your offers at least a month before BFCM.
As well, your SEO efforts should start early, in the summer. Optimized pages take time to rank on search results pages, so start sooner rather than later.
5) Prepare for a week-long extravaganza
BFCM is a marathon, not a sprint. The extravaganza starts on Thanksgiving Eve and lasts for a week. It even extends through January, as the influx of gifts purchased on BFCM gets opened and returned.
Ahead of Cyber Week, stress test your website to ensure it can handle increased traffic over the week. Also, create contingency plans — what will you do if your top seller runs out? Prepare for the worst, just in case.
How to navigate the upcoming BFCM holiday
More orders will inevitably mean a higher volume of customer inquiries and you need to be ready. Gorgias can give you a helping hand with BFCM customer support.
You’ll be receiving customer inquiries not just through email, but through your social media channels. Gorgias’ customer service helpdesk pulls all inquiries into one place, saving your team time and making sure no customer messages fall through the cracks.
Gorgias also offers a range of self-service features, including (but not limited to):
- A robust Help Center where you can host a library of helpful content
- Automated FAQs in your chat widget and Help Center
- Self-service order tracking in your chat widget and Help Center
Gorgias automations can also help you streamline returns requests. More orders in the holiday season means more BFCM returns, which can be time-consuming and expensive for your team. Using the chatbot, customers can initiate their own returns or be directed to an exchange instead. You can even integrate Gorgias with a returns platform like Loop Returns, to automate the returns process and keep your customer service team in the loop.
Having these solutions in place ahead of time will ensure a smooth and successful BFCM.
{{lead-magnet-2}}
Celery + Gorgias
Celery just released their API on Github, currently in beta. Here are some of the cool stuff you can do with it in Gorgias.
Display customer information
When you receive an email from a customer, you can connect your Celery account and see customer information (orders, shipping address, etc.). Here’s what it looks like:
To configure it, grab your Celery access_token, head to integrations, and add an HTTP integration using this URL:
https://api.trycelery.com/v2/orders?buyer.email={ticket.requester.email}
Then you can customize the sidebar to only show the Celery data you need to respond to customers. Click the cog and simply drag and drop elements you want to show.
Refunds, order change... without leaving tickets
Celery’s API enables you to perform a few actions from your favorite helpdesk:
- Edit an order
- Cancel an order
- Issue a refund
- Create a coupon
Here’s an example of how you can cancel an order from Gorgias itself. Say you already have a macro to cancel an order. Add an HTTP action to it, in this case:
https://api.trycelery.com/v2/orders/{ticket.requester.customer.data[0].number}/order_cancel
Then, when you use this macro and send it to the customer, it will automatically cancel the last order at the same time:
We hope this integration with Celery can save you time. If you'd like to try Celery with Gorgias, shoot us a note! At support@gorgias.com.
How Campus Protein built a multi-million dollar business
The supplement industry is not often the first thing that comes to mind when looking to start a new business. It’s crowded, the barriers to entry are low, the margins are thin, and there are some established and well-known brands with large budgets to outspend competitors.
And yet, Campus Protein, a provider of supplement to college students that started in a dorm room in 2010, has managed to carve itself a highly profitable niche and power its way to millions of dollars in revenue.
No, there’s no magic sauce or secret weapon that helped them do it. They have the same access to resources as everyone else. In fact, they have a smaller team than older brands in the space.
The only difference is they focused on one thing that others in the industry weren’t, the customer experience. This is the story of how they did that and dominated behemoths like GNC in colleges across the US.
Identifying The Problem
Before coming up with the idea, founder Russell Saks was just another sophomore at Indiana University. After joining a fraternity, his new friends convinced him to start hitting the gym.
As Russell started getting into fitness, he noticed that every month his friends would head to the local supplements store to purchase $200 to $300 worth of protein and workout drinks. These were the same people who always complained that they didn’t have beer money on the weekends. Yet here they were, spending hundreds of dollars on supplements without batting an eyelid.
In any industry as crowded as the supplement industry, there are always cheaper options. You can go online and buy your supplements at a much lower price than at the local store. However, the drawback is that you have to wait for it. And, as Russell found out, college students never planned ahead and always needed their next tub of protein powder instantly.
Ever the entrepreneur, Russell figured there was an opportunity here. If he could combine the affordability of online prices with the same-day delivery of the local store, he had a business. All he had to do was bulk order product from a low-cost site in advance, store it locally, and then redistribute it to students when they needed it.
As with any business, those initial days were rough. Yes, there was demand and Russell would often sell out each batch soon after they came in, but the margins were razor thin. To maintain cost-effectiveness, Russell sometimes had to take a loss on certain products.
On top of that, Russell found that his life was getting consumed by the fledgling business. To scale it up, he needed help. His friend and first business partner (now Chief Sales Officer), Mike Yewdell, was a fellow student at Indiana University with lots of connections. With his network, they quickly became the go-to source for supplements on campus.
Russell’s next stop was his high school friend (now business partner and CMO), Tarun Singh, who was studying in Boston University at the time. Tarun noticed the same problems at his school and quickly expanded Campus Protein to his school and then the entire Boston area.
The final piece fell into place when they entered into a business competition and won $100,000 to scale up. With the up-front money, they could negotiate deals with supplement makers to improve their margins, and expand to more college to increase sales.
Today, Campus Protein is in over 300 colleges across the US and shows no signs of slowing down. But none of that would have happened if Russell hadn’t been hyper-focused on a certain type of customer and their needs.
Customer Experience As A Growth Channel
One thing Russell learned early on was that college students had very specific needs. Thus, they craved a personalized experience. They needed help with what supplements to buy based on their goals and budget.
At the local supplement stores, Russell noticed that they couldn’t get any of that. Firstly, they sold to everyone so they didn’t have any expertise specific to the college student market. Secondly, they were trained to sell as much product as possible, so they’d often push supplements that weren’t right for the students.
Russell realized that Campus Protein needed to really understand the needs of a college student to own the market. That meant the company needed to hire students who were into fitness. And so the Campus Rep program was born.
A Campus Rep's main job is sales and marketing. They grow awareness for the brand and encourage help other students achieve their fitness goals.
By recruiting Reps in each college, Campus Protein could keep their core team lean while maintaining a large salesforce on the ground.
This has been the real key to their growth. These Reps are their ideal customers, and they hang out with other prospective customers. Thus, they provide a customer experience that’s far better than anything other brands can offer.
Imagine you’re a college student. Before Campus Protein came along, you had to figure out which products to buy, got pressured into buying unnecessary stuff, and ended up with very little money left over.
Today, you probably have a Campus Protein rep in your gym, wearing a branded tank. He’s giving out free tasters, providing you with workout tips and nutrition advice, listens to your goals, and hands you a card with a link where you can buy exactly what you need for much less. How’s that for customer experience?
Extending The Experience Online
Campus Protein may be marketing offline with their campus reps but all their sales come from their Shopify website. That’s the best way for them to scale.
Here’s how it works - they have warehouses across the country where they stock product. Because of their deep customer understanding, they know exactly what to stock and what not to stock. The campus reps then go around building awareness, and students head to the website to make their purchase. Because of the warehouse network, they get their products pretty quickly.
Because the actual sale is made online, the website becomes a crucial part of their strategy. If they don’t provide the same level of customer support and care their reps do, they’ll drop the ball and lose the sale. More importantly, they’ll lose trust. One bad experience could hurt their reputation across an entire college.
To replicate the one-on-one support of their reps, they used website chat. In the early days, they started with Zopim Chat. But as they grew, they found that it was too basic for their needs. They couldn’t tell if someone they were chatting with was an existing customer or a new one. They couldn’t tell if it was a new conversation or a continuation of one that happened in a different channel. It was a poor experience for the customer and the company.
Remember, they have a small core team, so they needed a customer support tool that could do the heavy lifting for them. That’s when they came across Gorgias and it allowed them to create an online experience that increased conversions and revenues.
For starters, Gorgias combines all their customer support channels (chat, email, phone, social media) into one unified view, and builds a profile of each customer. When a student chats with them, Campus Protein know if they are a previous customer, can see all past conversations and sales in their dashboard, and can provide relevant support.
Compare that to the typical support you get when you’re forced to repeat your previous conversations each time you chat with someone.
To speed things up, Gorgias also has macros and templated responses based on the question. For example, if a customer wants to know where their order is, Gorgias presents the support agent with a templated response that pulls in the customer’s order details from Shopify. With just a click, the support agent can answer the question in near real-time.
Automations like this also frees up time for support agents to provide more detailed answers to complicated questions, like when a student asks for nutrition advice. Again, they can provide the same level of caring support that reps do and this helps increase sales.
Another way they increase sales is by detecting if customers are spending a lot of time on a certain page and initiating a chat with them. For example, if someone is on the checkout for too long, Gorgias automatically pops a chat and ask them if they need help. This directly increases conversions.
Perhaps the most important way Campus Protein uses customer support to increase revenues is by converting feedback into website and product changes. For every question that comes in, they try to understand why it wasn’t obvious on the website, and make the appropriate change. This leads to fewer tickets of the same type and higher conversions.
Widening The Moat
At the end of the day, Campus Protein is just another retailer. In an industry like supplements, anyone can replicate their model, or existing brands like GNC can enter the market. So why hasn’t that happened yet?
Like Warren Buffett says, every business needs to have a moat, something that defends them against competition. In Campus Protein’s case, it’s their deep customer knowledge and the personal level of support they provide.
A college student is introduced to Campus Protein via the local rep. They’re nice, helpful, and remember the student’s name each time. When the student goes online, they have the same experience. Their previous conversations are remembered and even their most complicated questions are answered with care.
Now, you may not be able to create a rep army like Campus Protein for your eCommerce business, but you sure can create an online customer experience that sets you apart from others in your industry.
With Gorgias, whenever a customer creates a ticket on any channel, you have all their information like previous conversations and sales, right there. Instead of asking the customer if they’ve written in before or what their order numbers are, you can get straight to the important stuff. And with all the templates, macros, and automations available, you can do it in minutes.
When a customer has to decide between purchasing at a store where they forget about you after the sale, versus one where they treat you like a friend and remember you a year later, which do you think they’ll choose?
Give your customers a great experience and, like Campus Protein, you’ll have a business that keeps going up.
Curious about how Gorgias can optimize customer service? Click here to learn more.
Building delightful customer interactions starts in your inbox
