72% of Gorgias Uses AI for Decisions: How We Did It
Four months ago, our analysts were dealing with a barrage of questions. "What's our ARR by segment?" "Build me a dashboard for this quarter's pipeline." Quick asks piled up behind complex deep dives. Stakeholders waited for answers that should have taken seconds, and analysts spent their time fielding requests instead of doing the strategic work that creates the most value.
Today, anyone at Gorgias can ask a question in plain language and get an accurate, contextualized response in seconds. Not from a colleague or dashboard, nor from a generic answer from the internet. But a response built on our business context. We call it Cortex, our flagship internal AI agent.
In two months, Cortex went from an idea to fielding thousands of questions every week, recommending actions across the business, and deprecating the need for manual dashboard creation. While most companies right now are treating AI as an initiative — at Gorgias, AI is already part of how we work. 72% of Gorgias employees use Cortex each week, and that number is only growing.
We didn’t achieve this by simply plugging a large language model into our stack. LLMs are a critical part of the equation, but they aren't the driving force — it’s everything else under the hood: the infrastructure, context, platform architecture, and the team that brings it all together.
The framing problem most companies get wrong
The instinct across many companies today is to start with the model, pick a provider to solve a specific challenge, or invest heavily in getting the data right. All reasonable starting points, but most of them solve for one use case. Underneath that approach is a framing problem: seeing AI as an initiative — something you assign and measure. Seeing AI as another tool your company uses versus how your company operates.
We started somewhere different. Every company is built on four pillars: customers, people, product, and decisions. AI investments tend to place heavy emphasis on the first three. We started with the fourth. Our bet was that if we built everything around the need to make effective decisions first, asking what Gorgias needed to know to operate well, then our AI would become dramatically more powerful.
Cortex is that philosophy in practice
Cortex is our flagship internal AI agent, and the product where we established the tenets that now run through everything else we build: composable and modular infrastructure, governed context, and accessible from wherever decisions happen. Cortex lives in Slack, as well as across LLM vendors, in its own browser extension, and even on its own dedicated internal site.
Cortex doesn’t stop at answering questions. It can read and write to Notion, file Linear tasks, create HTML apps, automate signal delivery, and more. It operates across every layer of our stack, from dashboards to data pipelines, because we designed it as one integrated system. It is this connection that adds remarkable depth to what people can ask, and what they get in return.
A Sales Lead is pitching and asks Cortex for the full picture of the merchant. In a customized PDF, Cortex lists coverage gaps, pre-sale intent signals, and product fit options. Everything the sales lead needs to walk in with confidence.
A Senior Product leader asks, "How are we performing against OKR #1, and what can my team do to help accelerate it?" Cortex returns a full ARR breakdown, projected end-of-month attainment, segment-level findings, and connects it all back to company-level strategies. A suite of recommendations customized to the leader, the performance, and the signals that bridge how they can support our goals. The kind of answer that used to take someone a week to put together.
These aren't simple lookup queries. They require deep business context spanning multiple areas. Cortex handles these because its Decision Engine gives it the information to reason against governed data, metric definitions, and business context, turning a generic answer into a credible one.
Overnight, teams have built Cortex into how they work. They’re spending less time searching and more time finding answers, not because they were told to, but because Cortex reduced the distance between question and decision.
Flexibility as the foundation
Cortex’s modular infrastructure allows us to experiment and add new capabilities freely. We’ve already built two more internal AI agents made for entirely different use cases, but using the same Decision Engine as Cortex.
GAIA, our internal experimentation AI Agent, helps our customers identify opportunities in their AI Agent Guidance design. It takes institutional knowledge across our teams and turns it into a scalable system that drives automation and value to our customers. Our CEO, Romain Lapeyre, has been its most vocal advocate since day one.
When we needed a platform for investor readiness and board preparation, we built Oracle. Our board decks and talk tracks are informed and built with the same AI, and our numbers are validated every step of the way.
We’re continuing to expand new AI agents internally, exploring how they can create value for customers and our own teams.
AI has transformed how data teams create value, and we’ve already shifted to account for it
When AI handles thousands of analytical questions each week, the highest-value work for a data team shifts permanently. Late 2025, we repositioned from a Data Analytics function into a Decision Intelligence function — a structural change in what we own and how we operate.
Today, our analysts focus on the most sensitive, complex, and forward-looking decisions and analyses. They partner more deeply with stakeholders by driving next steps from signals. They're even building entirely new capabilities that didn't exist in their role descriptions months ago. Things like AI skills for Cortex, context curation, and insight and recommendation delivery. The role of the analyst hasn't diminished. It's expanded to encompass the most meaningful work an analyst can do: driving outcomes and ensuring those decisions can achieve them.
Our business support model has changed, too. Instead of embedding analysts and dedicated engineers within functional teams, we align capacity to the highest-impact company objectives and move fluidly across them. This model works even better because Decision Intelligence brings together both analytics and engineering teams under one roof.
Elliot Trabac leads our Data, Context and AI Engineering teams. The Decision Engine, Cortex, GAIA, and the platforms I've described exist because of the infrastructure his team innovated and built from the ground up. Noemie Happi Nono leads our Decision Strategy and Operations team, driving decision outcomes with stakeholders, advancing the development of Cortex skills and capabilities, and pushing into new areas of analysis every day.
Together, they're shaping what a modern data function looks like when AI becomes a standard building block for how a company operates.
What’s next for the Decision Intelligence team
The question of ROI is long gone. AI has opened the floodgates to more trusted and meaningful signals than ever. The natural next evolution is Proactive Intelligence, signals surfaced toward what you need to know, before you ask. And we're already building this because our architecture is designed to support it.
In the coming weeks, members of the Decision Intelligence team will go deeper into themes I've touched on here. Yochan Khoi, a Senior Analytics Engineer on our team, recently published a technical walkthrough of our context layer and will go further into building context strategies that scale. Others will cover infrastructure, analytical partnerships, evolving data assets into decision assets, and the cost and efficiency gains that make sustained AI investment viable.
AI hasn't changed the most important element of data and analytics functions — delivering outcomes — but it has raised the bar for what it looks like and how far we can take it. We’re just getting started.
TL;DR:
- AI is resolving tickets, not just replying. AI now handles 31% of customer interactions for ecommerce brands, and that number is expected to nearly double within two years.
- Every channel is becoming a storefront. Conversations are replacing the traditional browse-and-buy journey, with 79% of brands reporting sales from AI-driven interactions.
- AI is shortening the buying cycle. 93% of AI-influenced purchases happen within the first 48 hours of the conversation.
- CX teams are changing, not shrinking. Ecommerce brands are actively hiring for more technical roles to implement, coach, and maintain AI.
- The winning model is hybrid. AI handles volume and speed, while humans handle complexity and judgment.
The way shoppers buy online has shifted and customers are at the center.
They no longer want to scroll through product pages, dig through FAQs, or wait 24 hours for an email reply. They open a conversation, ask a specific question, and expect a useful answer in seconds. Brands that can’t deliver these experiences at scale are seeing customer hesitation turn into abandoned carts and lost revenue.
This shift has a name: conversational commerce. It's the practice of using real-time, two-way conversations as your primary sales channel, through chat, AI agents, messaging apps, and voice.
What started as an experiment for early adopters has become a key growth lever, with 84% of ecommerce brands treating conversational commerce as a strategic pillar this year vs. last year.
We surveyed 400 ecommerce decision-makers across North America, the U.K., and Europe to understand how conversational commerce and AI are reshaping the ecommerce landscape. These findings are complemented by aggregated and anonymized internal Gorgias platform data from 16,000+ ecommerce brands.
The State of Conversational Commerce in 2026 trends report breaks down all of the findings, including five key trends shaping the ecommerce landscape.
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Trend 1: AI is table stakes for ecommerce and it’s no longer just about efficiency
A few years ago, adding an AI chatbot to your site that could provide tracking links and Help Center article recommendations was a differentiator. Today, it's table stakes. McKinsey found that 71% of shoppers expect personalized experiences, and 76% get frustrated when they don't get them.
Right now, most ecommerce professionals use AI, with 93% having used it for at least 1 year. Enthusiasm is accelerating quickly, with only 30% of ecommerce professionals rating their excitement for AI at 10/10 in April 2025. Similarly, while AI adoption rose steadily year over year, it reached a clear peak in 2026.
The use cases driving this adoption are practical and high-volume:
- Order tracking and status updates
- Returns, exchanges, and refund requests
- Shipping FAQs and delivery estimates
These are the tickets that flood brands’ inboxes every day. AI agents resolve them instantly, without pulling teams away from conversations that actually require human judgment.
Explore AI adoption and use case data in more depth in the full report.
Trend 2: Conversations are the new path to checkout
The traditional ecommerce funnel, visit site, browse products, add to cart, check out, is losing ground. Shoppers now discover products on Instagram, ask questions via direct message, and complete purchases without ever visiting a website.
Conversational AI is actively increasing revenue, with 79% of brands reporting that AI-driven interactions have increased sales and conversion in their business.
The practical implication is that every channel is becoming a storefront. Creating personalized touchpoints with customers earlier in the journey, through proactive engagement, is impacting the bottom line.
Read the full report to explore how AI conversions have increased QoQ by industry.
Trend 3: AI is accelerating the purchase cycle
Pre-purchase hesitation is one of the biggest conversion killers in ecommerce. A shopper lands on your product page, has a question about sizing or compatibility, can't find the answer quickly, and leaves. That's a lost sale that had nothing to do with your product.
Conversational AI changes that dynamic. When a shopper can ask a question and get an accurate, personalized answer in real time, the friction disappears.
Brands using Gorgias saw this play out at scale in 2025. When AI Agent recommended a product, 80% of the resulting purchases happened the same day, and 13% happened the next day.
Brands are further accelerating the buying cycle through proactive engagement. On-site features such as suggested product questions, recommendations triggered by search results, and “Ask Anything” input bars drove 50% of conversation-driven purchases during BFCM 2025.
Explore how AI is collapsing the purchase cycle in Trend 3 of the report.
Trend 4: AI is making CX teams more technical
There's a persistent narrative that AI is making CX teams redundant. The data tells a different story. 62% of ecommerce brands are planning to grow their teams, not cut them. But the scope of those teams is changing.
New roles are emerging around AI configuration and quality assurance. Teams are investing in technical members to write AI Guidance instructions, develop tone-of-voice instructions, and continuously QA results.
CX teams are also bridging the gap between support goals and revenue goals, as the two functions increasingly overlap.
The result is CX teams that are more technical than they were before. Agents who once spent their days answering repetitive tickets are now spending that time on higher-value work: complex escalations, VIP customer relationships, and improving the AI systems and knowledge bases that handle the volume.
Learn more about the evolution of CX roles in Trend #4.
Trend 5: The future is hybrid: AI-first, humans when it counts
Despite increasing AI adoption, data shows that ecommerce brands shouldn’t strive for 100% automation. Winning brands are building systems in which AI handles repetitive tier-1 tickets, and humans handle complex, sensitive cases.
AI handles speed and scale. It resolves order-tracking requests at 2 a.m., processes return-eligibility checks in seconds, and answers the same shipping question for the thousandth time without compromising quality.
Human agents handle conversations that require context, empathy, or decisions that fall outside the standard playbook. There are several topics where shoppers still prefer human support.
Successful hybrid systems require continuous iteration, meaning reviewing handover topics, Guidance, and reviewing AI tickets on a weekly basis.
Discover how leading brands are balancing human and AI systems in Trend #5.
Where conversational commerce is heading by 2030
The 2026 trends are about expansion and standardization. The 2030 predictions are about what comes next.
Voice-based purchasing is the biggest bet on the horizon. Only 7% of brands currently use voice assistants for commerce, but 89% expect it to be standard by 2030. The vision is a customer who can reorder a product, check their subscription status, or manage a return entirely over the phone.
Proactive AI is the other major shift. Rather than waiting for a customer to reach out, AI will anticipate needs based on browsing behavior, purchase history, and where someone is in their relationship with your brand. Think of it as the digital equivalent of a sales associate who remembers what you bought last time and knows what you're likely to need next.
Explore where ecommerce brands are allocating their AI budgets in the full report.
Start building your conversational commerce strategy today
The brands winning in 2026 are creating smart, scalable systems where AIhandles volume and humans handle nuance. They’re treating every conversational channel as an opportunity to serve and sell.
The data is clear: AI adoption is accelerating, customer expectations are rising, and the revenue impact of getting this right is measurable.
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Featured articles
Conversations Are Becoming a Revenue Channel: The Data Proves It
TL;DR:
- Customer journeys are collapsing to a single conversation. The traditional browse-and-buy journey is giving way to AI-guided shopping that moves from discovery to purchase in a single exchange.
- 79% of brands say AI-driven conversational commerce has increased their sales and purchase rates.
- AI-only influenced orders grew 63% in a single year, from 2.7 million in Q1 to 4.4 million in Q4.
- Brands treating conversation as a revenue channel. They’re not just a support function, generating higher AOV, shorter buying cycles, and stronger retention.
The page-based shopping experience dominated for decades. Customers would search, browse, compare, abandon, get retargeted, return, and eventually buy (sometimes).
That journey is no longer the only option.
Shoppers are turning to chat, messaging, and AI-powered tools to find what they need. Instead of clicking through product pages or reading static FAQs, they ask questions, have back-and-forth conversations, and get answers that move them closer to a purchase in real time. The path to checkout has changed, and the brands that recognize this are pulling ahead.
Read our 2026 State of Conversational Commerce Report to learn more about conversation commerce trends from 400 ecommerce decision-makers and 16,000+ ecommerce brands using Gorgias.
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The shopping journey has collapsed into a single thread
The traditional shopping journey was a solo experience. A shopper had a need, searched for options, browsed across sessions, and eventually made a decision — often days later, after being retargeted multiple times. Support only entered the picture after the purchase.
The conversation-led journey collapses that timeline:
- A shopper recognizes a need and starts a conversation via chat, messaging, or a search-triggered prompt
- An AI agent asks clarifying questions about preferences, budget, and constraints
- The AI provides personalized product recommendations in real time
- The shopper validates concerns about fit, compatibility, delivery, and returns, all inside the conversation
- The shopper completes the purchase directly within or immediately after that exchange
- The AI picks up the conversation post-purchase for order tracking and proactive support
- A human agent steps in only when the situation calls for it
What used to take days now takes minutes. Discovery, evaluation, and purchase happen in a single thread.
Conversation is a revenue strategy, not a support upgrade
79% of brands agree that AI-driven conversational commerce has increased sales and purchase rates in their business. When brands were asked to rank the highest-return areas:
- 38% cited improved customer support efficiency
- 23% pointed to higher customer retention and loyalty
- 20% saw improved purchase rates
Those numbers reflect something important: the value of conversation compounds. Faster support reduces friction. Better retention raises lifetime value. More confident shoppers buy more often and spend more per order.
The brands seeing the biggest returns aren't just using AI to deflect tickets. They're using it to create one-to-one shopping experiences at scale.
What the data shows about AI-influenced orders
Looking at AI-only influenced orders across key verticals like Apparel and Accessories, Food and Beverages, Health and Beauty, Home and Garden, and Sporting Goods, the growth across a single year was significant.
Across industries, ecommerce brands saw AI step into conversations, reduce shopper hesitation, and drive higher QoQ conversion rates.
Learn more about AI-powered revenue generation in the full 2026 Conversational Commerce Report.
Why brands are making this a strategic priority
84% of brands say the strategic importance of conversational commerce is higher than it was a year ago. 82% agree it will be mainstream in their sector within two years.
That shift is registering at the leadership level because of what conversational commerce does to the buying experience. Creating one-to-one touchpoints earlier in the journey drives higher AOV, shorter buying cycles, and stronger purchase rates. Shoppers who get real-time answers to their questions are more confident.
What this looks like in practice: TUSHY
TUSHY, known for eco-friendly bidets and bathroom essentials, is a useful example of what happens when you take conversational commerce seriously.
Bidets aren't an impulse purchase. Shoppers have real questions about fit, compatibility, and installation. Those questions used to go unanswered until the CX team could respond, often after the customer had abandoned the cart.
TUSHY used Gorgias's AI Agent and shopping assistant capabilities to automate pre-sales support. AI Agent engaged shoppers in real-time conversations, addressed their concerns directly, and built confidence at the moment of highest intent.
This resulted in a 190% increase in chat-based purchases, a 13x return on investment, and twice the purchase rate of human agents.
How to apply this to your strategy
You don't need to overhaul your entire operation to start seeing results. The most effective approach is to start where the impact is clearest and expand from there.
A few places to begin:
- Pre-sales chat. Identify your most common pre-purchase questions (sizing, compatibility, shipping timelines) and ensure your AI can answer them confidently and promptly.
- Product page engagement. Use proactive chat prompts triggered by page behavior to start conversations before shoppers leave.
- Post-purchase follow-up. Let AI pick up the conversation after checkout with order updates and proactive support, reducing inbound volume and building trust.
- Human escalation. Define clearly which situations require a human agent – complex issues, emotional exchanges, high-stakes decisions.
Want to see the full picture of where conversational commerce is headed in 2026? Read the full report to explore the data, trends, and strategies shaping the next era of ecommerce.
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AI Is Table Stakes for Ecommerce: What the Data Tells Us About 2026
TL;DR:
- AI adoption is rapidly accelerating. 96% of ecommerce professionals now use AI in their roles, up from 69% in 2024.
- AI has moved beyond support automation. Use cases have evolved into revenue generation, personalization, and logistics.
- Brands are tying AI success to profit-and-loss outcomes. 60% of brands consider AOV a top indicator of AI effectiveness.
A year ago, ecommerce brands were still debating whether AI was worth the investment. That debate is over. Today, nearly every ecommerce professional uses AI to do their job.
The shift isn't just about adoption. It's about what AI is used for and how brands measure its impact. Support automation was the entry point. Now, AI is embedded across the full operation, from product recommendations to inventory control to real-time shopping conversations.
In our 2026 State of Conversational Commerce Report, we break down trends on AI usage among 400 ecommerce decision-makers and 16,000+ ecommerce brands using Gorgias.
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AI adoption has reached a tipping point
If we rewind 12 months ago, the industry was still split on AI. Some ecommerce professionals were excited, but most were still hesitant. In 2024, 69% of ecommerce professionals used AI in their roles. By 2025, that number reached 77%. In 2026, it hit 96%.
The confidence numbers back it up. 71% of brands say they are confident using AI for ecommerce, and 73% are satisfied with its business impact.
In early 2025, only 30% of ecommerce professionals rated their excitement for AI at 10/10. Today, zero percent of respondents describe themselves as hesitant about AI.
AI use cases now span the full ecommerce stack
Using AI in ecommerce is not new. In fact, it dates back to the 1980s with the invention of algorithms and expert systems. And if you’ve ever leveraged similar product recommendations or chatbots, you’ve already integrated AI into your ecommerce stack.
Modern AI is far more sophisticated.
With the rise of agentic commerce and conversational AI, brands began leveraging AI agents to automate the processing of repetitive support tickets. That’s still happening today, but the scope has expanded beyond the support queue.
Ecommerce brands are deploying AI across every layer of their operation:
- Customer support automation: 96%
- Product recommendations: 88%
- Automated tracking and status updates: 69%
- Personalization: 64%
- Inventory control: 51%
- Dynamic pricing and discounting: 36%
- Order fulfillment: 18%
When brands were asked which channels contribute most to their AI success, conversational channels dominated. Social media messaging led at 78%, followed by SMS at 70%, and website live chat at 51%. Shoppers want fast, personal conversations, and AI is the best way to deliver that at scale.
Learn more about AI adoption, perception, and use case trends in the full 2026 Conversational Commerce Report.
How AI is changing CX success metrics
For decades, customer support success meant fast response times and high satisfaction scores. Those are still important indicators of success, but leading brands are adding revenue-focused metrics to their dashboards.
91% of brands still track CSAT as a measure of AI's impact. But 60% now include AOV as a top indicator, and higher-revenue brands earning $20M+ are focusing on metrics like total operating expenses, cost per resolution, incremental revenue, and one-touch ticket rate.
AI can now start a conversation, ease customer doubts, sell, upsell, and recover abandoned carts in a single conversation. When you’re only measuring CSAT, you’re ignoring the real ROI of conversational AI investment.
AI makes every conversational channel a storefront
Virtual shopping assistants now proactively engage shoppers, adapt to their needs in real time, and offer contextual product recommendations and upsells. When the moment calls for it, they can close the deal with a targeted discount.
Gorgias brands using AI Agent's shopping assistant capabilities nearly doubled their purchase rates and converted 20–50% better than those using AI Agent for support only.
Orthofeet, the largest provider of orthopedic footwear in the US, is a concrete example of this in practice. Using Gorgias, they achieved:
- 56% of support tickets automated in 2 months
- Email response times down from 24 hours to 35 seconds
- Double-digit revenue growth without adding headcount.
What this means for your AI strategy
The data tells a clear story: AI has evolved beyond a tool for handling tier 1 support tickets. It’s a core part of your revenue generation strategy.
57% of brands are already using AI for 26–50% of all customer interactions, and 37% expect that share to rise to 51–75% within the next two years. The brands building toward that range now are the ones who will have the operational advantage when it matters most.
The practical question isn't whether to invest in AI. It's where to focus first. Based on where brands are seeing the most impact, three priorities stand out:
- Start with high-volume, low-complexity tickets. WISMO (where is my order) inquiries, return policy questions, and order status updates are where AI delivers the fastest return. Automate these first.
- Expand into conversational channels. Social messaging and SMS are where AI is driving the most success right now.
- Connect AI performance to revenue metrics. If you're only measuring CSAT and response time, you're missing half the story. Add AOV, conversion rate, and incremental revenue to your reporting.
Want to go deeper on the full 2026 conversational commerce trends? Read the complete report for data across every major AI use case in ecommerce.
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Further reading
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.”
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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:
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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).
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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.
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What Is Ecommerce Retention Rate? (And How To Improve It)
Ecommerce businesses pour time and money into attracting prospects and turning them into new customers. But as acquisition costs skyrocket due to increased competition and rising ad prices, attracting new customers isn’t enough — especially if you can’t keep them around.
Today, ecommerce brands must prioritize customer satisfaction and retaining existing customers. If you can’t retain customers, you’ll never get out from under high marketing costs and grow your brand in a sustainable way. Plus, if you can’t offer a customer experience that generates brand loyalty, poor word of mouth will chip away at your brand’s reputation and make it hard to get new customers at all.
Fortunately, more tools and resources than ever exist to help you develop a good customer retention strategy by improving the on-site experience, customer support, and all the other elements of a great customer experience.
Below, we'll cover the importance of customer retention, how to calculate your customer retention rate, and share ways to improve your customer retention rate and reduce customer churn.
What is ecommerce retention rate?
Customer retention rate is the percentage of existing customers that continue buying from your brand over a given period of time.
If your organization sees many repeat customers and — if applicable — keeps customers subscribed, you’ll end up with a good customer retention rate. However, if your company seldom does business with a customer after the initial order, you have an opportunity to improve your retention rate.
Customer retention rate is the inverse of ecommerce churn rate. Check out our guide on churn if you want to learn more about that side of the coin.
Retention rate for subscription-based businesses
Retention rate is most applicable to businesses that sell subscription-based products or services, like software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies or ecommerce brands that sell subscription boxes.
For these companies, measuring and understanding retention rate is straightforward. As long as a customer has an active subscription, they’re retained. The total number of customers who remain active subscribers each month (compared to the previous month’s number) is the brand’s retention rate.
Retention rate for non-subscription businesses
For customers that don’t sell subscription-based products, retention rate is a bit of a square peg in a round hole. Retention rate becomes more of a proxy to understand customer loyalty and the rate of returning customers, which are a little less concrete. It’s difficult to anticipate a customer’s future purchases because they don’t have a clear subscription status.
Is a customer retained if they buy a product every week? Month? Quarter? What if they don’t buy from your store for half the year, then re-engage for Black Friday — were they retained, or won back? These questions are why retention rate isn’t a perfect metric for the typical ecommerce business.
For these types of companies, we recommend tracking repeat customer rate as well as other leading indicators for repeat shopping, like customer satisfaction (CSAT) and net promoter score (NPS) rather than customer retention metrics.
Why is customer retention rate an important metric?
Your customer retention rate is a valuable measure that gives you important insight into your ability to sustain customer relationships (and turn them into repeat business). It's easier and cheaper to keep a customer than it is to go out and find new customers. According to Hubspot, a mere 5% increase in customer retention can increase the company's revenue by a whopping 25%-95%.
According to Gorgias data, repeat customers make up only 21% of the average brand’s customer base but generate 44% of that brand’s revenue because they shop more often and place higher-value orders.
If your strategy over-relies on winning new customers, you’re missing out. Due to high customer acquisition cost and low returns from first-time shoppers, you’ll overspend on low-return customer relationships, taking your ROI. Of course, acquiring customers is important — but their value is only truly realized if you can keep them around.
Customer retention rate calculation
There's a simple formula for calculating your customer retention rate. It contains three elements:
- Number of customers at the beginning of a time period
- Number of customers at the end of the same time period
- New customers acquired during the given period
Customer retention rate = [(Number of customers at the end of time period - Number of customers acquired during time period) / Number of customers at the beginning of time period] x 100
Customer retention rate example
Company A had 100 customers at the beginning of the year and 80 customers at the end of the year. During the year, they acquired 45 new customers. The customer retention rate calculation for Company A would be as follows:
Customer retention rate = [(80 - 45) / 100] x 100
Customer retention rate = 35%
What is the average customer retention rate for ecommerce stores?
The widely accepted customer retention rate for the ecommerce industry is 31%, according to Omniconvert. Depending on how well they handle their customer base and their effort in building customer loyalty, some companies may enjoy a considerably higher customer retention rate. Those who only gear their resources toward finding and selling first-time customers may have a lower retention rate.
Of course, the most important thing is consistent improvement, regardless of your brand’s current customer retention metrics. Customer retention is an ongoing process, and there's always room to improve — which will benefit your customer service ROI and your bottom line.
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7 ways to improve ecommerce customer retention rate
Ecommerce brands should keep a razor-sharp eye on their ecommerce retention rate and churn rate, just like they need to look at customer lifetime value (CLV) and average order value. These benchmarks are metrics that help measure a business's health and identify opportunities to benefit the bottom line. You can put actions in place that help you keep current customers with you instead of your competition.
Let's dive into six tried-and-true customer retention strategies you can use to increase your ecommerce brand's customer retention rate.
1) Provide a fantastic customer experience
We can't say enough about the importance of a positive and pleasant user experience. According to a 2019 research study by Oracle and Jeanne Bliss, 43% of customers will stop doing business with a brand over a single bad experience. In addition, 59% of them will tell their friends and family about the negative experience.
Evaluate your customer service program with metrics like resolution time, net promoter score, and customer satisfaction, and work on improving essential elements of customer experience like:
- Hiring and training high-quality, well-trained talent understands your customer and delivers top-tier support every time
- Self-service resources to help customers find instant answers when they run into problems
- Automation to help your customer success team perform their jobs faster and more efficiently
- Mobile optimization: According to Statista, smartphone orders generated 46% of revenue for retail ecommerce websites
- Omnichannel support so customers can get ahold of you wherever they are, like social media, text messaging, or live chat support
For more tips on the essential elements of a great customer service experience, check out our post on customer service best practices.
2) Introduce a clear post-purchase experience
One of the most important moments of the customer life cycle is immediately after their first purchase. Think of the post-purchase email campaign as your onboarding flow for repeat customers. You need to set customer expectations with clear, proactive communication or else they’ll be less likely to return to your store.
Here are some examples of the consequences of poor post-purchase experiences:
- If a customer places an order and doesn’t get a follow-up email, they start to doubt whether their order went through
- If a customer doesn’t get an order tracking number after a purchase, they may stress about the shipping time frame
- If a customer doesn’t get set-up instructions, they may think the product doesn’t work and ask for a return
Pay special attention to the communication a customer receives after their first purchase. A lack of communication is fatal, and the right combination of confirmations and email marketing can quickly get customers interested in buying additional products. If you nail it, you give the customer a clear, easy path to long-term customer loyalty.
A great example of clear, post-purchase emails is Princess Polly, an apparel brand. They give customers simple but visually informative confirmation emails that communicate the status of the customer’s order at a glance:
3) Build a rewarding customer loyalty program
Loyal customers come back to your brand over and over, making them a profitable addition to your business. According to a 2020 survey by Yotpo, 68% of customers will join a loyalty program if one is available. Cultivate your customers into raving fans and increase their purchase frequency by employing a customer rewards marketing strategy.
To create a successful rewards program, consider looking into tools like LoyaltyLion. They help you determine the rewards that repeat customers will get for important customer engagement behaviors like mentioning you on social media (which is great for word-of-mouth exposure), purchasing a new product, or generating referrals. Consider offering freebies, deep discounts, and early access to new product launches.
Parade, an apparel ecommerce brand, offers its loyal customers (called Parade Friends) free, early-access items. This supports customer engagement and brand loyalty, and usually leads to a wave of user-generated content (UGC) on social media that promote the brand:
If you use Gorgias, you can also integrate with LoyaltyLion to see customer rewards within the helpdesk so you can see which customers are superfans, prioritize their tickets, and offer personalized service.
Learn more about the Gorgias and LoyaltyLion integration.
4) Offer customers discounts and deals
Everyone likes to feel special. Score some big points with your current customer base by offering them exclusive incentives. This could include letting loyalty program members order new products before the general public, offering them member-only discounts, offering free shipping, and sending a free gift with their purchase. These extra touches will increase your customer's satisfaction and keep them loyal to your brand.
Amazon is a great example of a company that uses deals and discounts to get people to shop on their site. When you sign up for Amazon Prime, you get free shipping, an enormous library of original movies and TV titles, and so many other perks to incentivize you to keep shopping at Amazon.
Of course, this strategy isn’t feasible for small stores running on Shopify, BigCommerce, and other ecommerce platforms. But, if it makes sense for your products, consider replicating the strategy with a Subscribe and Save option. By signing up for automatic repeat purchases, customers get a discount. This is great for customers because they save on the purchase and don’t have to remember to restock. It’s also great for your company: You retain more existing customers, driving revenue.
Here’s an example of how OLIPOP, a beverage brand, advertises their subscribe and save option on product pages:
5) Conduct surveys and learn from customer data
Don't assume you know what your customers want — ask them! Retaining customers takes continuous communication, as their interests and preferences can change over time. It's necessary to periodically survey them to ensure you're hitting the mark with your retention efforts. Gather and review customer feedback, looking for trends to use to elevate your buyer's experience.
These surveys don't have to be long or time-consuming. A question or two during checkout or a marketing email asking for two minutes of their time is enough to give you valuable intel.
Learn more about gathering customer feedback with CSAT surveys or NPS surveys.
6) Improve your ecommerce store’s marketing with segmentation
Consistently improve and optimize your store to keep it functioning quickly and efficiently. Segment your customers for more personalized, impactful messaging. For ecommerce brands, the best tool around is Klaviyo. Klaviyo helps you segment your customer base and send highly targeted SMS and email marketing campaigns.
Plus, if you use Gorgias, you can integrate with Klaviyo to bring you SMS marketing and support into one tool:
On top of segmentation, continue making your website as seamless and low-effort as possible. Check your load times for your web pages, measure the success of your calls to action (CTAs), and cut down on the number of required clicks where you can. Remember, the best way to delight customers (and keep them coming back) is a low-effort experience.
7) Utilize cross-selling and upselling strategies
Upselling and cross-selling are the most effective strategies to maximize the lifetime values of repeat customers by driving higher order values. While you never want to be too pushy, you can employ retention marketing strategies to suggest new, exciting products to existing customers to bring them back to your store and spend more.
Check out our guide to ecommerce upselling strategies for:
- A list of tools to support your upselling efforts
- Tips to turn customer support interactions into upsell opportunities
- Tips to proactively reach out to customers as an upsell strategy (which has been shown to lift revenue)
- Tips to reduce returns and get more exchanges instead, which reduces lost revenue and still gives you a chance to wow customers
Alternatively, learn how Ohh Deer, a stationery brand, partnered with Gorgias to revamp their customer support and upselling strategy and lift quarterly revenue by $12,500.
Increase your ecommerce retention rate with Gorgias
By focusing on providing a wonderful customer experience at every touch, creating customer loyalty, and cross-selling at the right moments, you can increase your ecommerce company's retention rate and enjoy more profit from your existing customer base.
Ready to improve your customer service? Gorgias, the helpdesk built exclusively for ecommerce, helps ecommerce businesses enhance, automate, and increase the speed of their customer support, improving customer experience and, by extension, customer retention. Brands that switch to Gorgias see an average of 5% higher gross merchandise volume (GMV).
We also help you monitor performance with features like our support performance dashboard and live statistics about agent performance.
Book a demo today to learn how you can increase your customer retention rate with exemplary customer service.
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NPS Survey Best Practices for the Best Response Rate
Some hold up the net promoter score (NPS) as the holy grail of KPIs. While we won’t go so far as to declare it the most important metric of all, we will say that it is one of a few that is absolutely crucial to your brand and customer success.
That’s because you can learn a lot about customers when you dig into NPS feedback. What keeps customers happy, what upsets them, how you can boost retention, how to slow down churn — you name it, NPS can become a valuable feedback loop that reveals insights into all of these things and more.
That’s why we’ve created this guide. Read below to learn how to improve response rates to create a better, more accurate net promoter score.
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NPS formula and calculations
If you’re unfamiliar with net promoter scores, we have a detailed explainer on how to calculate NPS that will tell you everything you need to know. But for now, let’s have a quick refresher.
It all starts with asking your customers a simple question: On a scale of 0-10, how likely are they to recommend your offerings to a friend?
From there, collect these numbers:
- Promoters: People with scores of 9 and 10 who are likely to recommend you.
- Passives: People who gave 7 and 8 scores — not necessarily unhappy, just not happy enough to actively promote for you.
- Detractors: People who gave answers between 0 and 6. These people range from those unlikely to recommend you to those who will actively detract from you via word of mouth, bad reviews, or negative social media posts.
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Calculating your NPS is easy. Determine the percentage of promoters and detractors from the total number of responses. Then, subtract the detractor percentage from the promoter percentage for your score. So if you have 70% promoters minus 10% detractors, your NPS is 60.
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11 best practices to improve response rates in NPS surveys
Before making business decisions based on your NPS, you need the best possible dataset to work with. That means improving response rates to NPS survey questions creates a larger sample size — and below, we’ll show you the best ways to do that.
1) Choose when to send surveys: Lifecycle-based, transaction-based, and pulse checks
There are three great cadences to send out your NPS surveys:
Lifecycle-based surveys
These should trigger at certain moments of the customer’s lifecycle. They’re a great way to get customer feedback at key points of the customer journey.
This way, you can easily triangulate high-impact changes — for example, if NPS goes way up after customers receive an email with set-up instructions, consider making that information available earlier.
Other examples include:
- 30 days after signing up
- A year after signing up
- After a certain onboarding step
Transactional NPS surveys
A transactional NPS survey gets triggered by set customer interactions. Much like the lifecycle surveys above, this helps you collect customer feedback and take a temperature check where it matters most. In this case, after key customer touchpoints:
- In ecommerce, this will most likely be after a purchase or a subscription renewal
- In the SaaS world, it could trigger after a customer installs a new feature
Pulse-check surveys
Pulse checks are a bit different in that they survey your whole customer base all at once. You can use NPS surveys to gauge customer sentiment following a company rebrand, after a push to get new customer referrals, and so on.
Especially while conducting lots of customer research to ensure product-market fit, conduct pulse-check surveys with some level of regularity to maintain a healthy feedback look. Many companies do pulse checks twice yearly just to get a sense of customer sentiment across the entire customer base.
2) Only ask one question in NPS surveys (most of the time)
Where NPS surveys are concerned, less is more. The longer your survey, the lower the chances are that people will hang around to finish it. Sticking to one question can improve your response rate — and you want a great response rate because larger sample sizes will create a more accurate NPS.
So, what's a good survey response rate? There is no one clear answer because response rates can differ between channels (email surveys versus telephone or in-app surveys, for example) or based on how engaged your customers are with your brand.
However, good response rates can generally vary between 5% and 30%. If your response rate shoots up to 50% or more, you’re doing extremely well — and your customers are highly engaged.
While you want to keep your surveys brief, nothing says you can’t follow up with particular customers individually. In fact, you absolutely should follow up with customers who offer particularly interesting responses in your survey’s feedback section. Send out a more in-depth survey or schedule a 1:1 interview to discover the reasons behind their responses.
Here’s a great example of a one-question survey sent with NPS survey tool Delighted, plus a follow-up question made possible by Delighted’s integration with Gorgias:
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When to use multi-question surveys
There are a couple of limited cases when you can send out multi-question surveys:
- When you need deeper feedback on specific new products
- To get in-depth feedback from loyal customers who are willing to spend more time answering questions
Use these longer surveys judiciously to collect highly targeted information — and strive to keep them as brief as possible.
3) Always, always, always A/B test your surveys
A/B testing is a common marketing technique that has users compare multiple pieces of content to determine which pieces perform best. You can — and absolutely should — use A/B tests for your surveys, too. Doing so will help you optimize surveys to get the best response rate.
When you’re designing an A/B test, consider testing for the following:
- Email subject lines: (“Let us know what you think!” vs. “We want to hear from you!”)
- Number of questions (single-question vs. multi-question surveys)
- Delivery channel (email, in-app, after-purchase pop-up, etc.)
- Best time of day (morning, end of day, etc.)
- Best stage of the customer lifecycle (one day, week, or month after purchase)
- Testing by customer segments (repeat customers vs. first-time shoppers)
- Best time to test after an interaction (so the interaction still feels fresh)
Those tests will get you started, but feel free to add more as you spot areas to potentially improve.
4) Make your NPS surveys visual and brand-friendly
The first step to creating an attractive survey is to add visuals. Don’t rely on people typing in answers to questions. Use graphical buttons instead. Be sure to use your company’s logo in the design, and introduce your brand’s colors through borders and other elements.
Make it brand-friendly, too — whatever that means for your brand. If your brand gives off a sleek, posh vibe, then your net promoter score survey should do the same.
Rather than building these emails from scratch, consider using an NPS survey software with convenient templates. There are many great options, but we recommend Delighted — especially given its integration with Gorgias:
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Delighted does a great job of letting you brand the survey (using your logo and colors) without over-crowding the email and distracting the survey-taker from the main purpose of the email: Choosing an NPS score.
5) Consider offering a reward for filling out NPS surveys
Free swag is an excellent motivator, and so are discounts. Offer a little something extra in exchange for NPS survey responses, and you’ll likely see your response rate shoot up dramatically.
What can you offer? The sky's the limit. Create swag bags to send out to respondents or offer a limited-time promotional item. You can also offer digital gift cards or discounts, too.
The only issue with offering rewards is that it may not be sustainable. One great way to work around this is to set up a drawing or raffle, so that survey respondents have a chance at winning something awesome. It’ll be more affordable for your brand — and an attractive enough offer that more customers will leave feedback in exchange for a chance at the prize.
6) Add a comment box for customers to explain their numerical answer
NPS survey best practices include always making sure there is a comment box below the numerical survey question. Some customers won’t leave a comment, but some will. Use these comments to understand why your happy customers are so delighted with your offerings and why unhappy customers are less than thrilled with the experience you’ve offered.
If you use an NPS tool like Delighted, you can opt in to include an optional “Tell us more” box:
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7) Look deeper into your NPS and customer data to get the most valuable insights
Your NPS score is a valuable tool, but it will only get you so far. It’s essentially a measurement of how “loud” your promoters are compared to the detractors. Focusing too much on the relative volume of each group can be misleading.
For example, you may be tempted to invest a lot of time into rescuing your detractors, but think about this: Maybe the problem isn’t that your detractors are unhappy. Maybe they were never the right target market in the first place.
That’s why you need to dig deeper into the data behind your NPS score. You might find interesting patterns, like nearly all of your detractors live abroad or a huge percentage of your promoters bought the same product. That suggests perhaps you need an audience from closer to home.
- Dive into demographic patterns on Shopify or whatever ecommerce platform you use to learn about the characteristics that make up promoter, passive, and detractor groups.
- Keep track of feedback from comment boxes. Do detractors routinely mention shipping delays? Now you know where to start on improvements.
- Send out follow-ups to members of each group to see if you can learn more about the factors that drove their initial response.
8) Always send a follow-up message to thank customers who filled out the survey
Thank-yous are a fantastic way to build goodwill and customer loyalty. This step doesn’t have to be anything complicated, either. In fact, the CRM tools or survey templates you use to generate surveys should automate the thank-you process — either as a final screen of the survey or a separate email.
Ideally, your survey should pop up with a quick statement of thanks once the survey has been completed. Make sure to personalize the message — but keep it brief to ensure that it’s both seen and appreciated.
This is how a thank you message will appear if sent with Delighted:
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Less ideal — but still acceptable — is to send a follow-up email to say thank you. The problem with this method is that people aren’t always appreciative of inbox clutter — plus, there’s a chance customers may delete the email unread.
9) Just get started and aim for statistically significant sample sizes later on
Worried that your survey isn’t optimized to its fullest? Or that your customer base is too small to generate meaningful results? Set those fears aside and launch your NPS survey anyway.
The truth is, even small brands can get a lot out of comparatively few NPS responses. A/B testing your survey to optimize it is important — and it’s also something you can do to improve as you work through the process.
Now, if you’re a super small B2B brand with only a handful of customers, or a brand that is just starting, NPS scores may not be all that worthwhile. Instead, you may need to roll up your sleeves and dive in to ask for feedback the old-fashioned way: with phone calls or messages directly to your point of contact.
10) Test your survey before sending it to customers
We’ve talked about the importance of A/B testing — but what about regular beta testing? It’s an easy and crucial step that ensures an easy-to-use survey tool for your customers.
Just have a handful of people at your company so they can click all the buttons and check various features. Request feedback on the design, and be sure to load the survey on mobile and desktop platforms, too.
Testing the technical aspects of your survey is especially important if you have any sort of automatic personalization. If you use a tool like Retently, for example, send a few test emails to different recipients to make sure the personalization is accurate:
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💡Tip: If you use Retnetly, you can integrate with Gorgias to follow up with customers — like winning back unhappy customers or inviting happy customers to a referral or loyalty program.
11) Think beyond the surface of the results
Up above, we mentioned that sometimes you learn important things about your target market based on your detractors — and that’s why you should always look beyond the NPS score itself. Do a deep dive on your detractors to really analyze what is happening. Examine demographic information and pay close attention to any comments they leave.
For example, do you have a large group of detractors who love your product but are unhappy with customer support or your website experience? This might indicate that your customer service team needs additional training or managerial support, which is a straightforward fix to raise your score. Or what if all of your detractors share certain characteristics, like age, income level, and geographical region? It could mean that this subset isn’t your product’s target market, and you’ll be better off re-targeting your product.
Find out how Gorgias helps ecommerce brands increase their KPIs
Ready to boost your NPS? Gorgias makes it easy. It’s customer support software specifically designed for ecommerce, built to integrate with the ecommerce tools (like NPS email software) you already use.
On top of NPS, you can facilitate follow-up questions, automate thank-you emails, and get a real-time view of other statistics like customer satisfaction (CSAT), average response times, and resolution times.
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To learn more, sign up here and check out everything Gorgias offers.
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Post-Purchase Behavior: Understand How Customers Think & Boost Loyalty
When a shopper places an order, the second phase of customer acquisition begins: Turning new customers into repeat customers. Return customers generate 300% more revenue over first time buyers on average, according to data from 10,000 ecommerce brands.
So, what kind of post-purchase behavior leads to long-term loyalty? Ideally, your customers follow up purchases with:
- Leaving positive reviews and CSAT scores
- Signing up for a customer community or participating on social channels
- Introducing friends and social followers to your brand and products
- Engaging with follow-up marketing email campaigns
- Making repeat purchases with the help of product recommendations or a generous loyalty program
Below, learn more about the psychology of your shoppers once they place an order, and get tactics to improve your brand's post-purchase experience.
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What is post-purchase behavior?
Post-purchase behavior is the set of actions customers take after purchasing an item. Post-purchase behavior can be positive (repeat purchases, raving fans), negative (poor reviews, excessive returns), or neutral (transactional purchases, simply using the product).
Why is it important to understand post-purchase behavior?
Post-purchase behavior matters because making the first sale isn’t the finish line. It’s the beginning of a race to win long-term, loyal customers: people who repeatedly return to your store, have a high customer lifetime value, buy more from you (increasing cart size and transaction value), and send new customers your way.
Gorgias’s data shows that while repeat customers make up 21% of all customers, they bring in 44% of revenue.
What is post purchase dissonance?
Post-purchase dissonance, or what’s also known as “buyer’s remorse,” is when an otherwise positive purchase experience creates cognitive dissonance in the form of discomfort or other negative feelings.
Usually, customers experience post-purchase dissonance when you don’t give enough information about:
- Order confirmation: “Did it go through?”
- Shipping: “When it arrive on time?”
- The product: “How do I set this up?”
- Returns: “Am I stuck with it?”
This often, understandably, dampens positive post-purchase behavior. On the other hand, a great post-purchase experience and strong customer service and support can drive positive post-purchase behavior, including brand loyalty.
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13 ways to provide a pleasant post-purchase experience that leads to more sales
Happy customers tend to become repeat customers. Focusing on creating a positive post-checkout process can increase customer satisfaction, bolster your repeat customer rate, and build customer loyalty.
Here are 13 ways to anticipate what your customers may think after clicking “Confirm order” and how steer your customer’s post-purchase behavior.
1) Do some audience research before getting started
Consider: What metrics are we optimizing for?
The first step in encouraging positive consumer behavior through a thoughtful post-purchase experience is understanding what you want your customers to do. Then, take a look at who they are, what they care about, and how they behave. The key is to fully understand your brand’s customer journey. This will help you craft a better experience for them that’s based on real learnings about your business.
“The first question brands should ask is, what kind of post purchase activities do you want to drive differently,” Bri Christiano, Director of Support at Gorgias, says. “And, who are you really targeting? That's going to dictate what your main metric is, and it’ll determine where you focus.”
After you have a top-level understanding of the kinds of results you want to see overall, you can drill down into the specific activities that will be effective, like timely email sends.
2) Immediately send an order confirmation email
Customer sentiment: “Did my purchase go through?”
In order to ensure a stress-free purchase process for your online store, send shoppers a confirmation email so they can confirm that their transaction went through.
Include details like their order number, the shipping destination address, payment method, product details (in case of an order mistake), and the total cost including any promotional discounts.
Caption: Gorgias customer Printfresh sends a thorough post-purchase email that includes all important order details.
💡Tip: Bri recommends sending timely emails that “catch customers when they're interacting with your brand. Don't send random emails at times when you’re likely not top of mind. Then, add personalization when you can for goals that they have, if your brand aligns with that.”
Even better if your order confirmation email links to a clear and helpful order management portal where customers can track their order, report issues, and modify the order.
3) Set up self-service order management
Customer sentiment: “Shoot, I messed up my order. I need to change it, fast!”
Sometimes a customer realizes that they didn’t make the right decision about an order, or legitimately made a mistake.
Giving customers the opportunity to cancel an order themselves before it ships gives them peace of mind and allows them to correct their mistake in time without having to wait to send in a return. Using a helpdesk like Gorgias, customers can use self-service order management in chat or in the Help Center to cancel a recent order.
If you do require customers to write into support (or if customers bypass your self-service options), set up a ticket prioritization system to surface those urgent tickets before it’s too late. Ensure that your support reps can do a quick information search to find the order and change or cancel it quickly.
Here’s an example of a Gorgias Rule that automatically tags tickets about order cancellation requests from orders within the last two days, so your agents can confirm the cancellation before the order is shipped:
4) Be transparent about shipping times, carrier information, and customer service information
Customer sentiment: “When will it get here?”
Retail disruptions have reached 59% or higher over the past couple of years. With supply chain issues and shipping delays, giving people as much information as possible about how and when their purchase will reach them helps better meet customer expectations.
Plus, questions about order status make up a large chunk of customer service requests. So, preemptively providing this information can help reduce the number of those repetitive tickets that don’t actually require a human touch.
Offering real time order tracking information (ideally, without making customers jump through hopes) provides transparency, sets expectations, and allows customers to stay up to date with any order delays or changes without having to reach out to customer support.
📚Recommended reading: Check out our post on how to offer real-time order tracking for more strategies.
5) Enhance the “unboxing” experience
Customer sentiment: “A package! I hope I love it.”
Every moment, from the moment a shopper makes a purchase to when they unwrap your product for the first time, should build anticipation. Creating a fun and creative unboxing experience will help.
Stationary brand Ohh Deer and its subscription program Papergang sends visually stunning packaging, especially for its monthly boxes. These fun, “keepable” boxes spark joy, can be reused or gifted, and create an overall positive experience that customers can look forward to.
To get started, take a look at brands like Arka or Fantastapack, which provide custom options for enhancing your packaging.
6) Have an honest and forgiving return/refund policy
Customer sentiment: “What if I don’t like it?”
When customers inevitably experience hiccups in the order process, the goal is that their behavior is constructive and positive, rather than angry and combative. To get that kind of post-purchase behavior, you need to offer easy paths to contact customer support and a smooth return or exchange process.
Customers love the peace of mind of knowing that they can return something without hassle, even if they never have the need. Communicating that returns are easy (and free, if you can manage it) upfront can even encourage shoppers to convert.
Still, solely-online retailers can be tricky for consumers. Many are hesitant to make a purchase decision on items that they can’t see in person first. To address that concern, share your returns process and policy in every order confirmation email and in FAQs and the Help Center on your website.
Mattress company Casper created an easy and generous return policy that’s a gold standard for ecommerce: If you don’t like your mattress, tell them within 30 days, and they’ll cover shipping for a free return. With something as bulky as a mattress, free return shipping can eliminate any concerns about not liking such a big investment.
A returns tool like Loop can really help you optimize the product so customers don’t have to jump through hoops to return a product:
7) Encourage exchanges over refunds
Customer sentiment: “I don’t love it. Should I get my money back?”
Encouraging shoppers to make an exchange keeps them around as a customer and also allows you to keep the revenue from the sale, which will help with your bottom line. According to returns tool Loop, “Turning refunds into exchanges is 10x more impactful than reducing return costs.”
Loop incentivizes returns by offering customers slightly more in-store credit than they would get for a refund:
Shopify stores that use Loop for their returns see a 15% reduction in returns on average. If you use Shopify or Gorgias, it’s easy to integrate Loop as an impactful return/exchange tool.
8) Provide detailed instructions on how to use the product or service
Customer sentiment: “It’s here! How do I set it up?”
Devices or tools that arrive with no or unclear instructions, DIY furniture assembly that seems nearly impossible, or even complex software tools with poor onboarding can cause a less than positive experience, even if the end product is great.
Create a simple YouTube video, send clear step-by-step instructions with images, or share a live chat hotline customers can reach out to if they get stuck. These options make it easy for people to get all of the information they need to set up or use the product or service they just purchased successfully.
For example, GEN3 e-bikes come with a paper manual for assembly, but they also send a QR code (using a QR code generator like Beaconstac) that takes shoppers to a short, high-quality how-to video that’s less than 5 minutes long.
9) Send a CSAT survey and request product reviews from high scorers
Customer sentiment: “This is seriously (un)cool.”
Brands usually send a customer satisfaction (CSAT) score after a customer has interacted with customer support. Consider only asking for product reviews from people who score 4 or 5 on CSAT and leave positive feedback about their interaction with support.
If you use a helpdesk like Gorgias, you can likely send these kinds of CSAT surveys automatically after conversations, purchases, and other kinds of transactions:
📚Recommended reading: Our Director of Support’s guide to improving CSAT score and survey response rate
10) Include relevant product recommendations
Customer sentiment: “Loved it! What else do they have?”
The time when shoppers are still deciding on a purchase is a prime opportunity for your support team to cross-sell or upsell them on additional items.
For example, a customer might have trouble finding an item on your website that they saw on social media. Or, they might ask for recommendations for what to purchase or for items that will go best with the item that they already bought from you.
After a purchase is complete, consider surfacing additional product recommendations for customers via email. Even if these don’t result in an immediate second sale, you keep customers engaged and thinking about how that recommended item would improve their lives or enhance the use of the current item they have.
11) Incentivize customers to show off their purchases on social media
Customer sentiment: “This product’s the best — everyone needs it.”
Providing discounts or other perks in exchange for social media shares and reviews brings more exposure to your brand and enhances the post-purchase experience for your fans.
Underwear brand Parade runs a program like this called Parade Friends. Existing customers apply for the program, and once accepted, post pictures of themselves wearing Parade items on social media. Their followers can then use their Instagram handle as a discount code, incentivixzing future purchases (with a discount for customer delight).
That means that both parties benefit, which makes them happy, and you benefit by bringing in new customers and more revenue.
12) Build a community for your customers
Customer sentiment: “I love this brand! Where can I find more?”
For many brands, community drives customer perception of the brand — and drives future sales. Brands have leveraged Facebook groups, Reddit forums, Instagram Live, and more to encourage community among their customers and fans.
For example, soap shop Dr. Squatch hosts its community on Discord, a community-based social and chat platform, so its customers can hang out with each other and chat about the brand.
Creating a community can increase customer engagement and satisfaction, generate trustworthy, quality customer feedback about your products, and make more opportunities for cross selling and upselling.
📚Recommended reading: What is Ecommerce Community Management and Why Does it Matter?
13) Follow up with special offers and marketing sequences
Customer sentiment: “Which brand was that again?”
Inevitably, your brand won’t always be top of mind for customers, even if they absolutely love it and your products. This is where a thoughtful marketing strategy comes in, and where email automation can be really effective.
Set up automated flows that offer personalized product offerings, discount emails based on customer behavior, target returning customers, and ask for feedback.
📚Recommended reading: 8 Ecommerce Email Automation Series for Online Stores
Encourage great post-purchase behavior with Gorgias
Turning first-time customers into repeat, loyal, raving-fan customers takes meticulous attention to the customer experience, especially in the post-purchase window. This is where Gorgias shines.
Ultimately, getting the ideal post-purchase behavior starts — and ends — with delivering a great customer experience, especially in the post-purchase evaluation phase. Gorgias delivers a powerful platform for your customer service helpdesk, tailored to the needs of ecommerce businesses who want to deliver an exceptional customer experience.
Gorgias offers powerful features that drive ecommerce success, including:
- Ticketing system
- Live chat
- Self-service order management
- Intent and sentiment detection
- Data analytics
- Powerful macros and automations
See how Gorgias can transform your customer service efforts. Sign up now!
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Shopify vs Shopify Plus: Which Version is Right for You?
Quick summary:
- Shopify Core plans are ideal for small and midsize businesses, while Shopify Plus caters to larger enterprises with around $1 million in gross merchandise value (GMV).
- The primary difference between Shopify and Shopify Plus is pricing. Shopify Core plans range from $5–$399/month while Shopify Plus starts at $2,000/month.
- Shopify Plus provides more storefront functionality, unlimited staff accounts, merchant support, lower transaction fees, B2B selling capabilities, and more overall features.
Choosing the right ecommerce platform to host your online store is no small decision, but sometimes it's hard to know which option is right for your business. Shopify and Shopify Plus are two platforms that get a lot of buzz within the ecommerce community, and many store owners give them rave reviews.
What’s the difference between the two, and which plan is best for your ecommerce store? The main difference is that Shopify is for small and midsize businesses (SMBs), while Shopify Plus is for larger, or even enterprise-level businesses.
Below, we’ll discuss what each plan offers before diving into pricing structures and key differences between Shopify and Shopify Plus. Whether you’re considering upgrading to Shopify Plus from the regular Shopify plan or migrating from another ecommerce platform (like BigCommerce or Magento), read on to understand which option is right for you.
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What is Shopify?
Shopify is an ecommerce platform that offers businesses a way to promote, sell, and ship their products. It’s widely recognized as being great for beginners, meaning that the learning curve for new ecommerce store owners is minimal, and provides a level of customization that most small businesses find attractive.
Key features of Shopify
- Shopify point of sale (POS)
- Online sales channels
- Security features
- Mobile functionality
What is Shopify Plus?
Shopify Plus is a Shopify upgrade designed for large enterprises making high-volume sales that total around $1 million in gross merchandise value (GMV). The higher price tag unlocks more storefront functionality, automations, support, and integrations than core Shopify plans.
Key features of Shopify Plus
- Allows up to nine storefronts
- Customizable checkout
- Unlimited staff accounts
- Access to a merchant support manager and 24/7 support
- Lower transaction fees
- Allows B2B selling
Pricing: Shopify vs. Shopify Plus
The main difference between Shopify and Shopify Plus lies in pricing, which is tailored to accommodate the unique needs and budgets of merchants.
Core Shopify plans cater to small to midsize businesses (SMBs) and has fixed pricing plans with the cheapest starting at $5/month. In comparison, Shopify Plus is made for larger enterprise businesses, starting at $2,000 per month and is customized to each merchant via quote.
Let’s take a closer look at the breakdown for each plan within Shopify and Shopify Plus.
Shopify pricing
Shopify has five plans depending on your online store requirements and the size of your team.
- Starter: $5 per month
- Basic: $39 per month
- Retail: $89 per month
- Shopify: $105 per month
- Advanced: $399 per month
It’s important to note that all standard Shopify plans are subject to online and in-store transaction fees, as well as non-Shopify payment fees.
Related: Our comparison of Magento and Shopify for ecommerce merchants
Shopify Plus pricing
Shopify Plus pricing plans can only be determined via quote but start at $2,000 per month, plus a percentage of your store’s monthly sales volume. This enterprise-level commitment comes with additional transaction fees, online store development, site launch, third-party services, and add-ons.
Shopify Plus doesn’t provide flat pricing plans. Instead, you will need to contact a Shopify Plus sales representative to receive your quote.
9 key differences between Shopify & Shopify Plus
Understanding the main differences in the two options is essential to make the best choice for your ecommerce store.
Below, we’ve identified nine ways Shopify and Shopify Plus differ from each other, and what these differences mean for your business.
1) Shopify Plus gives you access to merchant success managers
One of the benefits of Shopify Plus is that users have access to the merchant success program. This exclusive program lets Plus users connect with merchant success managers (MSMs) to optimize their Shopify Plus experience.
Here are a handful of ways MSMs support merchants:
- Assist you through the setup process, including domain setup, building product collections, redirects, and more
- Suggest industry best practices and tools to streamline your operations
- Quickly redirect technical issues to other Shopify teams
- Provide ongoing support
Note: Plus users do not get a dedicated account manager, but they have direct access to a team of MSMs who are available to solve their business needs.
2) Shopify Plus unlocks access to Shopify Plus Academy
Shopify Academy is an educational resource hub full of advanced resources — like courses and webinars — that helps merchants improve their store’s design, marketing, operations, and more.
For merchants interested in self-guided education, the information on Shopify Academy’s information serves as a supplement to your merchant success manager to gain the knowledge you need to grow your store.
Here are a few titles you’ll find in Shopify Academy:
- How to Drive Sales with your Customer Support Team with Gorgias: Explore strategies for enhancing conversion rates by using the ecommerce helpdesk Gorgias.
- Sell in China with Social Media: Great for merchants pursuing internationalization
- How to Optimize your Page and Site Speed: Great for merchants who want to improve load speeds through backend optimization
- Shopify Tools to Accelerate Your Social Commerce: Great for merchants looking to drive sales and reduce shopping cart abandonment while selling on social media
Related: Our list of the best customer service courses and certifications
3) Shopify Plus gives you in-depth control over your checkout
Between Shopify and Shopify Plus, there is one major difference concerning checkout: The checkout page is customizable on Shopify Plus via checkout extensibility, while the checkout page on core Shopify plans are limited to their selected Shopify theme with no additional customization options.
Exclusive to Shopify Plus merchants, checkout extensibility is a code-free feature that allows checkout pages to have completely custom UI and content. This ability to personalize the checkout experience gives online businesses the power to greatly reduce cart abandonment and transform hesitant shoppers into customers.
On core Shopify plans except Shopify Starter, merchants can use Shopify apps to give their checkout page minor modifications to the backend logic and post-purchase experience.
Related: Our Shopify SEO guide to standing out amongst the competition
4) Shopify Plus offers unlimited staff accounts
Depending on which pricing option you choose, you can add between two and 15 users to your standard Shopify dashboard (in addition to your owner profile). Stores on the Starter plan are allowed two staff accounts.
On the other hand, Shopify Plus offers unlimited staff accounts, allowing large teams access to their online store dashboard. This inclusivity allows effortless collaboration within the team when integrating order management and helpdesk tools like Gorgias. When teams combine Shopify Plus with Gorgias, they get:
- Streamlined customer interactions: Gorgias helps Shopify Plus users enhance customer service by consolidating all support requests, order details, and customer data in one platform.
- Improved order management: Shopify Plus users can efficiently find all relevant order information in the Customer Sidebar, automate responses with Macros, and speed up workflows with Rules.
- Scalability: Shopify Plus's unlimited user accounts combined with Gorgias's robust automation features make this combination ideal for rapidly growing businesses.
5) Shopify Plus allows more API integrations
The App Store is one of Shopify’s most enticing features. There are well over 8,000 paid and free Shopify apps in the new app store. Shopify itself is responsible for creating only 34 of them to date, but there are hundreds of other third-party app solutions from everything including marketing, order management, store design and customer support.
Notably, this enables easy integration with ecommerce apps like Gorgias, an excellent Shopify app for customer service and order management. You can elevate customer support with Macros, streamline order processes, and enhance the overall efficiency of your store on both a standard Shopify plan or a Shopify Plus plan.
However, Shopify Plus merchants have much more flexibility when it comes to API integrations. These users can integrate their ecommerce store with their existing ERP or CRM systems, which standard Shopify stores cannot.
A few examples of Shopify Plus API solutions include:
- Gift Card: Create unique gift cards that work in the Shopify POS
- Multipass: Unite customer logins for your forum, website, and online store
- User: Retrieve information about staff permissions on Shopify
Related: The best 40+ Shopify apps to optimize your ecommerce store
6) Shopify Plus has lower transaction fees
Shopify payments are straightforward. Transaction fees are laid out as percentages of the total order volume. The Shopify POS includes a free credit card reader, which conveniently integrates your online and offline sales, no matter which plan you are on. But, what are the differences between Shopify and Shopify Plus’ payment processing and transaction fees?
Standard Shopify Transaction Fees
For businesses using Shopify’s integrated payment system, Shopify Payments, there is no transaction fee as of May 2022. If your business uses an external payment gateway, transaction fees are as follows:
- Shopify Starter: 2%
- Shopify Basic: 2.9% + 30 cents
- Shopify: 2.6% + 30 cents
- Advanced Shopify: 2.4% + 30 cents
- Shopify Retail: 2.7% + 30 cents
Shopify Plus Transaction Fees
Like core Shopify plans, transaction fees are waived if your business uses Shopify Payments. However, for external payment gateways, transaction fees are as follows:
- Domestic: 2.15% + 30 cents
- International/Amex: 3.15% + 30 cents
7) Shopify and Shopify Plus have different promotional discounts
Shopify is designed to set ecommerce merchants up for success. During the checkout process, your page needs to be optimized for high conversion rates. Luckily, promotional discounts can help you achieve just that. Want to run flash sales and seasonal price reductions? Here’s how your ecommerce business can make it happen with Shopify and Shopify Plus.
Standard Shopify Plans’ promotional discount options
There are probably hundreds of apps in Shopify’s add-on marketplace that can help you create discounts to entice your shoppers. Standard plans include the ability to easily create discounts from inside your dashboard. In addition, you can enable shoppers to redeem in-store discounts if you use Shopify’s integrated POS system.
What type of discounts can you create with a standard Shopify plan?
- Fixed-Value: Enable customers to redeem coupons with purchases, such as $5 off an order of $25 or more.
- Percentage: Provide shoppers with discount codes that give them a percentage off of their purchase.
- Shipping: Offer free or reduced shipping on certain orders.
- Buy X Get Y: Give a bonus or gift with specific purchases (available for online sales only).
After you run a promotional discount campaign, you can track its progress using the “Sales by Discount” report. Regular reports provide you with insights about which campaigns are working and which ones aren’t. Use real data to power your marketing campaigns.
Children’s vitamins brand, Hiya, takes advantage of the discount options available with Shopify by doubling-down. First, they offer 50% off first order then follow it up with free shipping. Both promotion types are executable via the discount portal.
Shopify Plus’ advanced promotional discount options
Take your promotions a step further with Shopify Plus. You can increase your cart value with Launchpad, exclusive to the Plus platform. The system automates most aspects of promotional campaigns, discounts, flash sales, and product releases.
Planning and executing an online sale usually involves tedious manual processes. When running a campaign this way, it’s difficult to make real-time optimizations to your campaigns. The add-on makes it much easier, reducing the amount of time spent launching a campaign and the risk for human error.
Here’s what you can expect Launchpad to automate for you:
- Schedule new products and omnichannel campaigns to launch across multiple sales channels
- Generate predetermined discounts for specific products or entire collections
- Stack multiple discounts
- Create and update campaign themes
- Return pricing to normal on campaign end dates
Simba runs percentage discount campaigns for their online store. From a customer perspective, their campaign execution is comparable to that of Hiya above. But, as a Shopify Plus user, you can wager that they use Launchpad to automate the process rather than manually perform the tedious work.
Source: Simba
8) Shopify Plus offers more features for B2B selling
The regular Shopify plan comes with plenty of features that are sufficient for most small businesses and single-store organizations. But larger stores may find the following features and apps, which are only available for Shopify Plus subscribers, worth the higher price tag:
- Shopify organization admin: Manage multiple stores under one organization from a single login
- B2B on Shopify: Create a separate (but unified) Shopify storefront from wholesale customers
- Overview: Get top-level analytics for all the stores under your organization
- Users: Add additional users and manage login and editing permissions for your store
- Launchpad: Schedule and roll out events like promotions, restocks, and product drops
- Script Editor: Create personalized experiences with code that changes your store for certain customer segments
- Bulk Account Inviter: Ask large groups of users to activate accounts on your store (great after migration)
- Transporter app: Ingest customer, product, and other data into your store
- Shopify POS Pro: Sync your POS with your brick-and-mortar store and other stores under your organization
If you’re a Shopify store interested in expanding to B2B selling, you will need to contact a Shopify sales representative to upgrade your Shopify account.
9) Shopify Plus allows you to build custom storefronts with headless commerce
Shopify Plus offers access to headless commerce features not found in Shopify Core plans. With headless commerce, online stores can separate the frontend customer touchpoints from the backend, allowing custom storefronts and immersive shopping experiences. "Going headless" is an excellent choice for enterprise-level businesses aiming to scale, especially with dedicated developers on the team.
On the other hand, standard Shopify plans don't have access to headless commerce and rely on templates and themes for their online store designs. This limitation can be limiting for businesses in the midst of expansion as it restricts them from fully scaling their online presence.
Use Gorgias to grow your Shopify (Plus) store with great customer experience
Shopify and Shopify Plus both have tools to help you reach a bigger audience, scale your business, automate your processes, and stay competitive. If you're trying to decide which one will work best for you, think about the pricing structure that works best for your business, the customization and customer support you need, and the areas of the world you want to reach.
Regardless of your choice, consider how you’ll provide fast, helpful customer service to visitors of your store. Gorgias integrates with Shopify and Shopify Plus and is the only customer service platforms to receive the distinction of being a Shopify Plus Partner.
Want to know more about Gorgias’s centralized, automation-powered, and revenue-generating customer service solution? Yes, book my demo.
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