Mobile shopping was the dominant trend for the 2017 Black Friday shopping season. But how can retailers make the best of this brave new world of ecommerce? Sage, the UK’s largest tech company, explore how retailers can ride this trend to ecommerce success.
Time to make sure your payment processes are running smoothly – the Black Friday 2018 shopping season is upon us. Since Amazon first introduced Black Friday offers to UK customers in 2010, businesses of all sizes and types have enticed bargain hunters with special pricing and offers.
For UK businesses that want to double-down on high-volume sales opportunities, it’s about more than just deep discounts. It’s about understanding shopping behaviour and modern expectations for a dynamic shopping experience.
Businesses need to be prepared to accept a variety of payment methods to win in this year’s Black Friday season. Sage predicts a 13% growth increase of online transaction volume over the course of the Black Friday 2018 trading period, based on Sage customers’ transaction volume history during the holiday selling seasons from 2016-17 and the volume trajectory in 2018 so far.
Seamus Smith, EVP, Payments and Banking, said: “Retailers can benefit from this seasonal spike in traffic, but it’s those that go the extra mile for customers by offering a range of payment options, that are set to attract a wider customer base than in previous years.
“To do this, retailers need to ensure slick, frictionless shopping cart check out & payment processes for online shopping. By factoring-in the changing trends in consumer shopping and optimising systems to make the payment process seamless, sellers can attract more customers, increase spend and make the most of this period.”
As the path to purchase continues to evolve through technology, fintech and payments technology are also evolving in sophisticated ways to help businesses better serve their customers. This article explains how technology can help small and medium businesses make the most of the biggest selling season of the year with practical advice from some of the payments and marketing industry’s key influencers.
Ecommerce prep for Black Friday 2018
In 2017, the BBC estimated more than £10bn would be spent over the Black Friday period, with £2.5bn being splurged in a single day. Stats from the National Office for Statistics also show there has been a 15.9% rise in online retail sales for the month of November, compared to an annual growth of 2.4% in-store.
Meanwhile, Argos reported in 2017 that its website had welcomed a record number of shoppers within the first four hours of its Black Friday sale.
If your website isn’t prepared for a surge of visitors during that period, you could experience an online store crash like retailer John Lewis admitted to in 2015, therefore damaging the customer experience.
Sage research shows the busiest window for Black Friday online shopping is from 9am to 3pm, peaking around 10am. Businesses that reap the most during seasonal selling peaks are those who pad their payments processes with extra layers of support to handle elevated traffic at crucial moments.
Test and optimise your online payments pages
Today’s payment technology uses user experience (UX) for online shopping from multiple angles to facilitate increased sales and fewer abandoned carts. Functionality such as customisable payments pages allows you to easily make small tweaks that often make a big difference for the customer. The important thing is to continually test and optimise.
Navigate your website as if you were a customer attempting to make a purchase, or have someone go through the process for you. And take note of anything that gets in the way of the final sale.
Here are a few areas that can help you to improve your conversion rates:
- Minimise the number of fields customers have to complete
- Place the label of each field at the top-left of the box for easy readability
- Choose field types that reduce the number of clicks required to complete the form
- Don’t divide fields when asking for credit card numbers
- Ensure your entire form can be navigated using the “tab” key
- Check your form works on all major web browsers and devices (a responsive layout doesn’t necessarily mean it has been optimised for mobile)
Create a simple and effective payments process
Functionality for your payments page will vary by provider. Ian Moyse, sales director at Natterbox, advises businesses to use online payment methods such as invoice pay and digital direct debit to their advantage on their payment pages.
He says: “My advice is to make sure the payments page allows as many payments options as possible and remove barriers of the user needing to get their card out and enter details. Make sure you account for any issues in the process.
“Having visited pages where I wanted to buy and the payment was failing and there was no easy way to call the business to place the business – if you make me hunt for it, it’s likely I will go elsewhere. It’s ideal to have live chat and phone options for any help at that critical closing transaction stage.”
James Gurd, owner of Digital Juggler, agrees the focus should be on getting the customer through checkout as quickly and seamlessly as possible.
He says: “When a user is ready to part with their money, your sole focus should be on getting them through the payment process with minimal friction. Too many checkouts slow users down, or even worse, confuses them.”
Your gateway provider should offer additional resources for design and usability best practices.
Source: Sage