Welcome to The Make it Huge Podcast, a bi-weekly audio sequence about all issues ecommerce by BigCommerce.

On this episode, be part of consultants from BigCommerce as they analyze retail developments from Cyber Week and the 2021 vacation buying season.

BigCommerce’s VP of Product Advertising Meghan Stabler and Director of Content material Advertising Melissa Dixon focus on the distinctive world financial components impacting the broader ecommerce panorama this season.

How did retailers overcome these challenges for a report Cyber Week? Learn on for important takeaways on what this implies for ecommerce in 2022 and past. 

All episodes of The Make it Huge Podcast are actually out there on Spotify, Apple and Google.  

The Make it Huge Podcast: Episode 12

Melissa Dixon: I wish to set the stage with among the challenges that retailers have been seeing this vacation season. What have been a few of these largest challenges out of your perspective, and the way did these play out throughout Cyber Week?

Meghan Stabler: “Let’s discuss a little bit bit about Cyber Week, as a result of I feel Cyber Week goes to develop into a misnomer. There was actually going to be the Black Friday offers and the Cyber Mondays, however technically, in the event you’re a service provider watching this, you most likely did it your self — you began selling in October.

We began to see promotions occurring from retailers to their buyer base in October, so it’s, I feel, altering from Cyber Week to form of a cyber hybrid, month-to-month, weekly factor that’s going to be occurring going ahead, so it’s a little bit little bit of a misnomer.

However you’re proper, there have been some challenges, and I feel everyone actually is aware of what these challenges have been.

The provision chain might be the most important one for me, past the pandemic….however, the truth is — the pandemic impacted provide chain, so there have been shortages.

However I do assume retailers pivoted on that. Whether or not they have been together with drop-shipping or amplifying the inventory that that they had, they then used that to go forward and begin promotions early. And so they additionally began to make use of the thought round promotions so far as ‘FOMO’ — the concern of lacking out.

Then there’s been the provider surcharges on transport. There’s loads of totally different transport strategies, so it’s ensuring, ‘Am I paying a good value for that product? Is it going to reach at my doorstep in a time that’s handy for me?’. And if I’m buying forward, hopefully it’s going to go forward and try this.

So I feel these are issues that we’re getting used to both as retailers or as buyers on the finish of the day.”

MD: What do you assume will occur so far as gross sales spreading out increasingly over the longer vacation season? Ought to retailers nonetheless be banking on Cyber Week shifting ahead?

MS: “I feel so, as a result of that may carry you the hype that you just want. Folks prefer to have a agency date when one thing goes to occur, so working towards a Cyber Monday or a Black Friday or Cyber Week usually is one thing that buyers have develop into accustomed to. So I don’t assume it’s going to go away, I simply assume that it’s going to unfold out.

This can be a new world. We don’t know what to anticipate. However button up your provide chain, be sure that your distributors and suppliers have stock or functionality to offer you some so you possibly can proceed to develop. 

Begin to plan for what’s within the psyche of the shopper. Final yr I talked about hyper-personalization. Know every thing you possibly can about Melissa Dixon — what she likes, what she loves, her dimension, what issues she tends to purchase extra of. Possibly there are issues on a cycle, so add a subscription mannequin to it.

Begin to consider how Melissa likes to buy. Is it by means of different issues like SMS and retail and one-click contact checkout and stuff like that? In order that was the hyper-personalization.

MD: What’s your recommendation for a way retailers can actually ramp up their omnichannel methods for 2022 to higher meet clients and buyers the place they’re?

MS: “Definitely it’s really easy these days to connect with any individual and promote to them on TikTok or Instagram or Fb or any myriad of different buying experiences which can be on the market, as a result of the target that you just and I’ve as a service provider — and that is what we allow with the BigCommerce platform — is so that you can connect with Melissa the place she is within the second proper now. In that psyche that I talked about. The place she’s bought the FOMO of lacking out.”

MD: We all know throughout Cyber Week for BigCommerce, our retailers noticed a 39% improve in Purchase Now, Pay Later (BNPL) options. It’s only one extra method of how retailers can reply to modifications in shopper buying habits. Shoppers need that comfort.

MS: “I feel it’s additionally past comfort. It’s the truth that we’re residing in a really unusual financial world proper now, proper?

So I feel a part of it’s individuals wish to really feel good and have the ability to buy presents. And if they’ll stagger their very own cost, and handle their bills over a time frame — that’s when BNPL can come into it, proper?

It’s going to assist them get that momentary thrive of getting that good after which having to pay for it in three or 4 installments.

So there’s a ton of advantages — probably not popping out of Cyber 5, however actually popping out of how ecommerce has advanced over the previous 22 months since COVID technically hit and shut down loads of locations in March of 2020. There’s loads of cool know-how that’s come alongside that has actually been tailored for, after which tailored by, the patrons on the finish of the day.”

MD: Should you needed to distill it right down to these key takeaways for retailers, what do you actually assume they need to give attention to? What are you anticipating for 2022?

MS: “Should you’re not mobile-ready, be mobile-ready. In case you are not providing comfort, do it.

Whether or not it’s one-click checkout, BNPL. Whether or not it’s how will you greatest present what you promote in several codecs, which means AR/VR. I feel it’s adapting to make use of issues like social commerce channels, as nicely. It’s understanding the psyche of the patron and the place they’re.

However I feel the cool factor about BigCommerce for me is what we’re constructing for 2022. It’s a platform that’s constructed for progress whatever the dimension of the service provider. It’s a platform that’s constructed for integration.

We talked about BNPL and funds and transport and AR/VR and all these different issues. It’s constructed to assist you to snap and join a few of these different companions that we have now in our ecosystem with the intention to start experimenting.

That’s one of many issues the BigCommerce platform is constructed for. It’s constructed for flexibility, it’s constructed for constructing out distinctive experiences to your buyers. And also you’ve bought actually a toolbox of all of the issues that you have to make your self profitable.”

For extra insights, uncover BigCommerce’s full 2021 Cyber Week Traits Report and stream full episodes of The Make it Huge Podcast on Spotify, Apple and Google.