Black Friday (BF) marks the official start of the festive shopping season. Businesses have been preparing for this pivotal season for months, well aware that their sales from the period often dictate the overall success of the year. 

It reminds me of a great chess opening: when played well, it sets the tone for victory. 

As an ecommerce agency, our responsibility is to deliver our clients top-notch service and support, enabling them to reach their goals. To do so effectively, we need to understand who our clients are and what they truly need.

This is exactly why, this year, we have committed to take our Black Friday offering to the next level, offering Black Friday special support.

Our Past Black Friday Support Offering

While we have always provided support during the BF weekend, it was pretty basic. We would set up a team of BF guardians who were on hand to address issues as and when they arose. The service was more reactive than proactive, covering the essentials for all our clients. 

Since joining the interactiv4 team, I’ve been wanting to transform our BF offering into something more. I vividly remember a conversation with my teammates last year in which we decided to plan properly for next year, given that this year we were short on time. 

Oftentimes “next year” sounds like a distant promise, a time in which our ideas will probably never come to life. In this case, however, we rose to the challenge and have fully embraced it. 

Core Service Principles

Before I get into the service itself, I’d like to give you a brief overview of some of the key principles underpinning the service we’ve created. 

1) A service in line with company culture 

Every company’s culture is unique. What works for us might not work for you. Prioritize ensuring that the service aligns seamlessly with your company culture, otherwise, you may face more challenges than rewards. If your team is resistant to working weekends, and your clients are medium to small businesses, it might be wise to reconsider.

2) A deal (service) that benefits all parties involved (the agency, the merchant, and the employee):

If you’ve read Steven R. Covey’s “7 Habits of Highly Effective People,” you’ll recognize one of his principles: that a good deal is truly good only if it benefits all parties involved.

Bearing this principle in mind, make sure the deal is not only favorable for you, but also everyone else involved.

3) The initiative to proactively reach out to clients to offer the service (rather than wait for them to ask)

We’ve all felt hesitant when presenting something new to clients before. But if you’ve built a quality service, there’s no need to be so.

4) Creative at core

When introducing a new service, fresh ideas result in incredible outcomes. We’ve seen remarkable creativity from our design team (shout-out to Araceli!) and our architects (hello Oscar!) as we brought this together.

5) Big ideas that shoot for the stars

Don’t be afraid to set lofty goals. Remind yourself to dream big and avoid settling for a service that’s just mediocre. Go all out – sometimes, the result will exceed your wildest dreams.

Our Black Friday Special Support

Now, with all this in mind, let’s get into the details of our service, namely Black Friday Special Support, a one-off, special service that prepares your online shop for Black Friday. 

We strategically focused on testing the market exclusively with big clients.

Anticipating what high-earning merchants need, our special Black Friday special support includes:

  • A dedicated team: We offer a special team that works exclusively for our big clients on Black Friday weekends. 
  • A team familiar with the project: We understand just how important it is to analyze and resolve issues fast during peak season. So your team is exactly that – yours – comprising people familiar with the project. 
  • KPI monitoring: We set up robust, project-specific KPIs in collaboration with the client. These metrics include payment statuses, cron jobs, indexers, various alerts, and error monitoring. While automation is important, having a human touch is crucial.
  • Creative reporting: We dedicate time to creating visually appealing, easy-to-read, and insightful reports, demonstrating our commitment to effective communication.
  • Proactive approach reporting: We’ve set up a straightforward schedule for brief status updates and detailed reports, promoting transparency in incident reporting.
  • Support period timeline: By tracking when our clients start their Black Friday sales, we create opportunities for upselling  (we sold double weekend, instead of single weekend support)
  • Pricing: Setting a thoughtful pricing strategy is essential. A dedicated team supporting merchants during the busiest sales weekends undoubtedly deserves a fair and competitive price.

Interactiv4 Campaign Results

60% of our merchants loved our special offer.

  • Out of this group:
    • 67% said yes to everything we proposed.
    • 33% wanted to talk about prices and conditions.
    • And 67% of them chose the double weekend support instead of a single BF weekend.

Client Results During the Black Friday Campaign

During the Black Friday campaign and our special support period for clients, buyers made over 50,000 orders, resulting in more than €4,500,000.00 in revenue over the course of just a few days. 

Our team had a few small incidents during this time: they were resolved pretty fast. 

On Monday morning (Cyber Monday), we awoke feeling grateful for the numbers our clients are experiencing. However, there is no time to rest as we will be extra busy supporting our clients until the annual January sales (which marks the end of the festive shopping season).

Conclusion

The experience of creating a new service so our clients can get their ecommerce ready for Black Friday has been a source of immense joy. 

We have learned that good service design requires time, experience, maturity, and people to make it happen.

While the journey unveiled some areas to improve for next year, these I won’t be sharing. Some insights are best kept secret, just as chess masters never reveal their next move 😉