How Can You Enhance the Customer Journey During BFCM 2024 to Make the Most of the Season?

The eCommerce customer journey is more than just a series of steps leading to a purchase – it’s the experience that shapes how customers feel about your brand and whether they’ll return for more. This journey becomes even more crucial during peak shopping seasons like Black Friday and Cyber Monday, when competition is fierce and customers are ready to spend.

By understanding and optimizing each stage of the customer journey, especially during these high-traffic periods, businesses can stand out, increase sales, and foster long-term loyalty. In this article, we’ll explore what an ideal customer journey looks like in eCommerce, highlighting strategies to ensure that your customers have a seamless and enjoyable experience from start to finish, even during the busiest shopping days of the year. Plus, we've got some special app deals to help you gear up for Black Friday!

Special app offers for BFCM 2024

PageFly: 25% discount on all paid plans, just in time for Black Friday and Cyber Monday! To grab this deal, simply use the coupon code: BFCMPF25. But don’t wait too long – the coupon is only good until December 31, 2024!

Sell The Trend: extended trial. You can try out the app for a full 21 days, absolutely free.

MBC Bundles: 

• An additional 7 days on the FREE plan, giving you extra time to test the app (starting from the day you install it).
• 20% off any plan for the first three months. Discount applies to the plan, not commissions, and starts when you activate the promo code and pay for the plan.
• 30 days of free integration and setup support, where we’ll help sync your data and move your existing offers from another app (also starts from the day you activate the promo code and pay for the plan).

Just reach out to support with the promo code: BFCM24 and you’re all set!

Judge.me: a 45-day free trial of their Awesome plan, so you can start collecting reviews ahead of the holiday rush!

You'll find more tips on improving the e-commerce customer journey as you read through the article, and we'll wrap it all up with key takeaways at the end. Let’s go!

Customer Journey

The customer journey in eCommerce is the path a potential buyer takes from first hearing about your brand all the way to making a purchase – and beyond. When designed well, this journey not only helps guide the customer smoothly through each step but also builds trust, makes their shopping experience more enjoyable, and encourages them to come back for more. So, let’s dive into what an ideal eCommerce customer journey should look like:

Awareness

During the Awareness stage, potential customers first encounter your brand. Optimizing this phase is crucial for attracting attention, especially during high-traffic periods like Black Friday. Learn more about improving the Awareness stage here.

Consideration

In the Consideration stage, customers are evaluating whether your products fit their needs. Ensuring you provide relevant information can make all the difference. Explore strategies for the Consideration stage in this article.

How can you stand out and grab more attention at this stage? Just use page builders.

App

For a page builder, we’d recommend PageFly. They offer ready-made templates designed to create high-converting, customizable store pages that boost sales and enhance the customer journey. With its drag-and-drop feature, PageFly removes the technical hassle many merchants face, making it easy to build effective sales funnels, spotlight key promotions, and adapt to seasonal campaigns like Black Friday or Cyber Monday.

Plus, PageFly comes with advanced analytics integration, so you can track visitor behavior and tweak your pages to maximize conversion rates

How to start work with PageFly

Before diving into page creation, outline the goal of each page. Whether you're designing a product page, landing page, or promotional campaign, focus on what action you want customers to take. Is it to make a purchase, sign up for a newsletter, or learn more about a product? PageFly’s flexibility allows you to tailor each page to drive these actions.

PageFly offers a range of pre-built templates optimized for conversion, such as landing pages for seasonal promotions (like BFCM), product detail pages, or collection pages. Use these templates as a starting point, then customize them to match your brand’s look and feel. Highlight key selling points like product benefits, customer reviews, or limited-time offers to increase engagement.

PageFly’s drag-and-drop builder makes it easy for merchants of any technical level to create stunning pages. Use the intuitive interface to add product images, testimonials, countdown timers, and more. For campaigns like Black Friday and Cyber Monday, use urgency elements like countdowns and dynamic banners to encourage immediate action.

Option swatches are visual elements that allow customers to easily select product variants, such as color or size, directly on the product page. Instead of just seeing text descriptions for different options, customers can view small images, colored boxes, or labels that represent each variant.

Since most eCommerce traffic now comes from mobile, ensure every page is optimized for mobile devices. PageFly’s builder allows you to preview and fine-tune how each page looks on smartphones and tablets. This can help you avoid cart abandonment and improve the user experience for mobile shoppers.

To enhance functionality, integrate PageFly with your favorite Shopify apps like product review tools, upsell/cross-sell apps, or email marketing platforms. This helps create a seamless user journey that drives sales. 

PageFly’s 24/7 live chat support is always available to help troubleshoot any issues or offer guidance on best practices. Whether you're building a new page or optimizing an existing one, don’t hesitate to reach out for assistance.

By using these steps, you can make the most of PageFly to enhance the design, functionality, and performance of your Shopify store, leading to more conversions and higher sales.

Also, for dropshipping stores, there’s one more strategy we'd recommend to really stand out to buyers when they’re weighing their options: Selling trending products.

App

For this strategy, we recommend the Sell The Trend app. It’s designed around AI-powered product discovery and full store automation to help sellers increase sales, reduce costs, and grow their businesses. The platform offers tools to help you find winning products from a database of over 7 million items, keeping you ahead of trends and customer demands.

Sell The Trend also takes care of key tasks like inventory syncing and order fulfillment. On top of that, its marketing tools—like the Facebook Audience Builder and Video Ads Creator – help you reach the right audience with highly engaging content that drives more traffic and boosts conversions.

How to start work with Sell The Trend

Start by using NEXUS Product Research to dive into trending products in your niche. The AI takes care of the heavy lifting by analyzing sales data, competition, and social media trends, helping you spot high-demand, low-competition items. You can even filter products based on price, supplier location, and shipping speed, so you’ll find the perfect options for your store.

Once you’ve found the products you like, use the 1-Click Push to Store feature to instantly add them to your eCommerce shop. Sell The Trend also helps you out by generating optimized AI descriptions, pricing, and images, so your products are ready to sell in no time.

With Sell The Trend’s automated order fulfillment, your inventory stays synced with your supplier in real-time, so stock levels are always accurate. When an order comes in, the system automatically forwards it to your supplier and sends tracking info to your customer, making the entire process smooth and effortless.

You can also take advantage of the Facebook Audience Builder to create highly targeted ad campaigns. This tool helps you zero in on the right audience based on their interests, behaviors, and location, giving your ads a better chance to perform. Pair it with the Video Ads Creator to design professional-looking ads that captivate and convert.

Finally, use Store Intelligence to track how your competitors are doing and see what their best-selling products are. With real-time data, you can fine-tune your pricing, product selection, and marketing strategies to stay ahead of the game and maximize your profits.

Decision

The Decision stage is when customers are ready to make a purchase but might need a final push. Black Friday is the perfect time to fine-tune your approach here. Dive deeper into optimizing the Decision stage.

How can you push customers to the next step at this stage? Bundles!

App

We recommend using the MBC Bundles app for this strategy. Why? It supports 90% of all possible bundle configurations.

Beyond simple two-product bundles, MBC Bundles lets you offer mix-and-match options, giving customers the flexibility to choose what they want in their bundle. You can also create 'buy one, get one' deals, volume discounts, and more.

With customizable widgets and AI-powered recommendations, you’ll be able to launch your sales campaigns quickly and effectively.

How to start work with MBC Bundles:

1. Start by deciding which products you'd like to bundle together. Your customers often buy certain items together, so analyze those patterns and create ready-made bundles based on that. Alternatively, you can use tools like MBC Bundles' AI recommendations to find the best product combinations automatically. The AI works by analyzing frequently bought-together items, so you can rely on it to suggest great bundles.
2. When setting up your bundles, consider using the Mix & Match option. This bundle type allows customers to choose their preferred products within the bundle, offering them flexibility with sizes, colors, and shapes – all on one page. This not only makes the bundle more appealing but also enhances the shopping experience by keeping everything conveniently in one place.
3. Use a dedicated bundle page: Look for a bundle template that allows you to create a separate page just for the bundle. This way, the bundle appears as its own product, complete with a photo and a customized description. From our experience, this approach can boost bundle sales by up to 37%. However, not all patterns offer this feature, so be sure to check on the selection page to see which ones do.
4. Once you've picked your bundle type and arranged the products, it’s time to decide on the discount. The type of discount you choose will depend on the bundle type you’re using. Based on last year's Black Friday sales, discounts ranged from 5% to nearly 40%, depending on pricing strategies. You can apply the discount to the entire bundle or specific items within it. If your bundle includes two or more products, consider offering one item for free while charging full price for the others. This tactic works especially well for stores with a core product and add-ons. Check out our case study for more insights on this strategy.
5. You can increase your sales by using an upsell popup. This popup will appear if a customer has at least one product from an active bundle in their cart. It highlights the benefits they're missing out on by not buying the complete bundle. If they have multiple items in their cart, the popup will show them bundles that include those products.
6. Don’t miss the chance to suggest more products after a purchase is made. With AI-driven post-purchase features, you can offer customers 1-3 personalized product recommendations on the post-purchase page. These suggestions exclude items they’ve already bought and are based on popular combinations, similar to the AI bundle recommendations.

Let's keep moving forward!

Purchase

Once the customer has decided to buy, a seamless Purchase experience is essential to close the deal. Learn how to optimize this crucial moment during the Black Friday rush. Read more about improving the Purchase stage here.

Here’s the approach that can boost customer loyalty, keep them coming back, and save you time and resources too: Clear pricing and shipping information.

App

Here we'd like to recommend Zapiet - Pickup + Delivery, a Shopify app that lets you offer flexible fulfillment options like local delivery, in-store pickup, and shipping. With this app, you can easily set up custom delivery zones, schedule time slots, and manage product availability based on location or product type. 

Plus, with real-time updates and seamless Shopify integration, your order management is simplified, giving your customers a smoother experience. Whether you run a single shop or multiple locations, Zapiet helps streamline your operations and keeps your customers happy.

How to start work with Zapiet

Customise fulfillment options to suit your customers' needs: Start by identifying what your customers prefer. Do they want local delivery, quick in-store pickup, or standard shipping? Use Zapiet to set up these options, adjusting them according to your business hours and peak shopping periods. This flexibility will help reduce cart abandonment, as customers will have the freedom to choose the fulfillment method that works best for them.

Use delivery zones and time slots to optimize efficiency: For local deliveries, defining delivery zones by postal code or radius is key to managing expectations. Time-slot scheduling allows customers to pick delivery windows that suit them, while also ensuring your team isn’t overwhelmed during peak times. This approach ensures a better-managed workflow, especially during busy periods like Black Friday.

Tailor product fulfillment: Not all products are suitable for delivery, so it’s important to tailor options accordingly. Use the app’s ability to set product-specific availability for pickup or delivery to maintain stock levels and avoid overselling. By aligning product fulfillment with customer demand, you can keep operations running smoothly.

Leverage delivery validation: Ensure a seamless experience by using the app’s delivery validation feature. This avoids the risk of failed deliveries by verifying the customer’s address or postal code upfront, preventing them from placing orders outside of your service area. When paired with delivery zones, this functionality helps maintain both customer satisfaction and logistical efficiency.

POS integration for in-store orders: If you offer in-store orders through Shopify POS, Zapiet integrates seamlessly with it. This allows you to manage in-store pickups, local deliveries, and online orders all in one place, making it easy to keep track of fulfillment across all sales channels.

Monitor and adapt: Zapiet offers real-time tracking and reporting, which is valuable for analyzing how different fulfillment options perform. By reviewing these insights regularly, you can adapt to customer trends, adjust service areas, or fine-tune pickup and delivery times, ensuring continuous operational improvement and a strong customer experience.

By adopting these strategies, you can not only manage order fulfillment more efficiently but also offer a tailored and reliable service that drives long-term customer loyalty. Let's move on!

Post-purchase

The customer journey doesn’t end at checkout. The Post-Purchase stage is where you can turn a one-time buyer into a loyal customer. See how to enhance the Post-Purchase stage.

Advocacy

In the Advocacy stage, your happy customers can become brand ambassadors, helping drive new traffic and sales. Find out how to improve the Advocacy stage.

Reviews are really helpful at this stage. They’re great during the consideration stage too, since customers get to know your products not just from your descriptions but also from the experiences of others. It’s kind of a win-win: when potential buyers see reviews from loyal customers, they feel confident about their purchase and often leave their own positive feedback afterward. So, be sure to keep an eye on how you’re gathering those reviews! Read more here.

App

For adding reviews to your store, we recommend using Judge.me. It makes it super easy to collect unlimited photo and video reviews with automatic emails. You can showcase these reviews with stylish widgets, share customer content, and even promote your ratings on social media.

What really sets Judge.me apart is the variety of display options and collecting review methods. Plus, it’s packed with useful features like SEO tools, performance analytics, tracking, and A/B testing.

On top of that, Judge.me has loads of glowing reviews from long-time users :)

How to start work with Judge.me

Start by downloading the app and install it in seconds. Then use their easy to follow step-by-step getting started guide.

Do you have reviews from different sources? Start by importing those reviews into Judge.me. Immediately start with a collection of reviews previously collected.

Next – Configure your email templates for sending review invitations. Decide when and how to send these requests to get the best response rates. You may wish to connect with one of their email partners such as Klaviyo and send out review invitations using existing templates.

Next invite previous customers to leave you a review. We suggest going back 3-6 months of previous orders to ask for a review.

Start customizing your review widgets. Decide which reviews you wish to display and which one of their suite of widgets you wish to publish to your website. 

Analyse and respond to reviews. We recommend you respond to all negative reviews and also the odd positive review. These responses show prospective customers that you care about your customers and can offer insight into how you might respond should something not go as planned. 

As well, set up a video and photo collection with your reviews. These are perfect for you to share on your social channels by a quick push of a button due to our integrations with Facebook and Instagram.

Well, we’ve reached the end of our path through the e-commerce customer journey. To wrap things up, it’s important to remember that these strategies aren’t just for Black Friday or Cyber Monday. They work just as well during the quieter times of the year, though you’ll need to adjust a bit depending on your business niche, seasonality, and pricing strategy.

To make things easier, you can dive into this e-commerce growth playbook. In addition to the strategies we've covered, you’ll find tips on keeping your store running at top speed, figuring out the right approach to email marketing, boosting customer loyalty, and safeguarding your store from any unexpected issues (like a tricky update going wrong). Plus, it’s packed with real-world case studies, a list of recommended apps, and a handy checklist to put everything into action.

Special offers for Black Friday and Cyber Monday

PageFly: 25% discount on all paid plans, just in time for Black Friday and Cyber Monday! To grab this deal, simply use the coupon code: BFCMPF25. But don’t wait too long – the coupon is only good until December 31, 2024!

Sell The Trend: extended trial. You can try out the app for a full 21 days, absolutely free.

MBC Bundles: 

• An additional 7 days on the FREE plan, giving you extra time to test the app (starting from the day you install it).
• 20% off any plan for the first three months. Discount applies to the plan, not commissions, and starts when you activate the promo code and pay for the plan.
• 30 days of free integration and setup support, where we’ll help sync your data and move your existing offers from another app (also starts from the day you activate the promo code and pay for the plan).

Just reach out to support with the promo code: BFCM24 and you’re all set!

Judge.me: a 45-day free trial of their Awesome plan, so you can start collecting reviews ahead of the holiday rush!

Conclusion

By guiding your customers through the stages of awareness, consideration, decision, purchase, post-purchase, and ultimately advocacy, you can create a relationship that goes beyond just a BFCM seasonal sale. The key to success lies in understanding your customers' needs at each step, offering value, and ensuring a smooth shopping experience, even in the midst of holiday rushes. When done right, the customer journey turns first-time shoppers into loyal, repeat buyers and brand advocates, long after the holiday sales are over.