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 tendencies from Cyber Week and the 2021 vacation procuring 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 essential takeaways on what this implies for ecommerce in 2022 and past. 

All episodes of The Make it Huge Podcast at the moment are accessible on Spotify, Apple and Google.  

The Make it Huge Podcast: Episode 12

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

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

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

The availability chain might be the largest 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 had been together with drop-shipping or amplifying the inventory that that they had, they then used that to go forward and begin promotions early. They usually 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 delivery. There’s numerous totally different delivery strategies, so it’s ensuring, ‘Am I paying a good worth for that product? Is it going to reach at my doorstep in a time that’s handy for me?’. And if I’m procuring forward, hopefully it will go forward and do this.

So I feel these are issues that we’re getting used to both as retailers or as customers 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 simply want. Individuals 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 customers have turn into accustomed to. So I don’t assume it’s going to go away, I simply assume that it’s going to unfold out.

It is a new world. We don’t know what to anticipate. However button up your provide chain, guarantee that your distributors and suppliers have stock or functionality to offer you some so you may proceed to develop. 

Begin to plan for what’s within the psyche of the client. Final 12 months I talked about hyper-personalization. Know every thing you may about Melissa Dixon — what she likes, what she loves, her dimension, what issues she tends to purchase extra of. Perhaps there are issues on a cycle, so add a subscription mannequin to it.

Begin to consider how Melissa likes to buy. Is it by 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 the way retailers can actually ramp up their omnichannel methods for 2022 to higher meet prospects and customers the place they’re?

MS: “Actually it’s really easy these days to hook up with any individual and promote to them on TikTok or Instagram or Fb or any myriad of different procuring experiences which can be on the market, as a result of the target that you simply 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 obtained 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 manner of how retailers can reply to adjustments in client procuring habits. Customers need that comfort.

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

So I feel a part of it’s individuals need to really feel good and be capable of buy presents. And if they’ll stagger their very own cost, and handle their bills over a time period — 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 numerous locations in March of 2020. There’s numerous cool expertise that’s come alongside that has actually been tailored for, after which tailored by, the patrons on the finish of the day.”

MD: In the event you needed to distill it right down to these key takeaways for retailers, what do you actually assume they need to concentrate on? What are you anticipating for 2022?

MS: “In the event you’re not mobile-ready, be mobile-ready. If you’re not providing comfort, do it.

Whether or not it’s one-click checkout, BNPL. Whether or not it’s how are you going to finest present what you promote in numerous codecs, that means AR/VR. I feel it’s adapting to make use of issues like social commerce channels, as properly. It’s understanding the psyche of the consumer 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 delivery and AR/VR and all these different issues. It’s constructed to mean you can snap and join a few of these different companions that we’ve got in our ecosystem so that you could 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 on your customers. And also you’ve obtained actually a toolbox of all of the issues that you should 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.