Black Friday is a golden opportunity for sales, but not all buyer types are beneficial for your eCommerce business in the long run. Some behaviours during this shopping frenzy can create challenges that impact your future growth.  

Deal Chasers and One-Time Shoppers

These buyers are attracted solely by discounts and rarely turn into repeat customers. While they boost short-term sales, they don’t contribute to building a loyal customer base.  

Discount Dependency

Offering steep discounts repeatedly can train buyers to wait for sales, making it harder to sell at regular prices. This can erode profit margins and impact your brand value.  

High Returns and Operational Costs

Impulse buying during Black Friday often results in elevated return rates, creating logistical burdens and diminishing overall profits. 

Looking Beyond BFCM 

To ensure your business thrives long after Black Friday, it’s crucial to prioritise your core audience — the customers who value your products and brand beyond just discounts.  

Focusing on nurturing loyalty, offering tailored promotions, and delivering an exceptional customer experience will help you build sustainable growth. Remember, the long-term health of your eCommerce business depends on the quality of your relationships, not just the quantity of your sales.

We’ve put together some of our best tips on adopting a retention-centred strategy that can yield unparalleled profitability and a more enduring influence on your business landscape.

Tips for a Retention-Focused Black Friday and Cyber Monday

1. Future Purchase Incentives  

Provide credit applicable to future orders withsubtly nudging repeat transactions and bolstering customer lifetime value without the immediate financial drawbacks of cash refunds. Gift cards are the perfect way to achieve this.

2. Subscriber-Centric Rewards

Extend carefully crafted perks, such as exclusive upsell opportunities, subscriber-only discounts, or unexpected tokens of appreciation. These gestures help captivate their loyalty while curbing churn.

3. Subscription-Focused Deals

Develop tiered subscription benefits, offering incremental rewards over multiple purchases—whether it’s an enticing welcome gift, heightened discounts on repeat buys, or other value-rich incentives tailored to attract and retain premium customers.

4. Exclusive Email and SMS Campaigns

Segment your audience intelligently, crafting personalised offers. Amplify your email and SMS cadence with time-sensitive promotions, sparking urgency and engagement.

5. Data-driven Bundling

Run an analysis on your past sales history to identify which products lead to the highest 2nd purchase rate. Creating bundles using these products is a great way to increase product exposure and drastically increase the chances of a second purchase while also boosting average order value and providing a memorable experience.

As a company, we always encourage our clients to think beyond sales when it comes to running there e-commerce business. That’s no different at this time of year. Despite BFCM being an incredible opportunity to bag some extra sales it’s not worth sacrificing your profits or your ethics to target a Black Friday Cyber Monday deal-shopper.

When you’re creating your offers, speak to your ideal customer and think about what value you can offer them with their purchase. Everybody likes to feel special, and BFCM is the perfect time to make your loyal customer feel special. But just think, does 20% off sitewide make you feel special and rewarded for your loyalty?

Can’t decide on what offer your store should give customers this Black Friday?

Time’s running out! But don’t panic, send us and email with your Top 3 Offers and we’ll recommend which to promote by Friday, entirely for FREE!

Simplify your BFCM with a little help from your Būshy friends! Email hello@bushylab.com →