The rush of Black Friday and Cyber Monday often brings a surge of new ecommerce customers eager to take advantage of deep discounts and limited time offers. While this influx of traffic can boost revenue and brand awareness, the challenge begins after the holiday dust (or glitter) settles: how do you turn these one-time deal hunters into loyal, repeat customers?
Retaining existing customers is not only 15 times more cost-effective than acquiring new ones but repeat customers also spend 67% more on average, making them invaluable to long-term business growth.
Despite these benefits, many brands struggle to maintain engagement once the holiday excitement fades. Customers lured in by discounts often return to their price-driven habits, seeking the next great deal elsewhere. Brands that fail to retain these shoppers miss a critical opportunity to build meaningful, profitable relationships.
So, how can you bridge the gap between seasonal sales and sustainable loyalty? Read on to learn more.
Black Friday and Cyber Monday bring a surge of traffic and purchases, creating a valuable opportunity for ecommerce brands to boost revenue and attract new customers.
This year alone, shoppers spent a record $10.8 billion online on Black Friday, a 10% increase from last year and more than double what consumers spent in 2017. This explosive growth underscores the immense potential of the holiday shopping season but also highlights the fierce competition among brands.
While the record-breaking sales numbers are promising, they also introduce unique challenges for brands striving to turn seasonal buyers into loyal, repeat customers. The holiday rush often attracts deal-hunters who are motivated by discounts rather than brand allegiance, making retention an uphill battle.
Beyond acquisition, brands face the complexities of standing out in oversaturated inboxes, engaging without overwhelming, and building meaningful connections in a price-driven market.
Without a clear strategy for post-holiday engagement, these fleeting customers can slip away, leaving brands with missed opportunities and higher future acquisition costs. To truly capitalize on the holiday shopping season, businesses must balance short-term gains with long-term retention strategies that foster loyalty and sustainable growth.
With shoppers bombarded by endless sales emails, it’s harder than ever for brands to stand out. Meghan Houston, Managing Partner at Agital, captured the frustration perfectly: “I can’t even count how many emails I got over the weekend. I spent so much time just clicking delete, delete, delete… just being on sale doesn’t cut it anymore.” To break through the noise, brands need to craft meaningful, relevant messages that resonate with their audience.
In a price-driven market, customers are more likely to chase the best deal than to stay loyal to a brand. “Customers have consistently said they’re less brand loyal and are looking for the best price and value,” Houston said. Brands must go beyond discounts to build trust and a sense of connection with their audience.
Too many emails or SMS messages can quickly overwhelm customers, leading to frustration and unsubscribes. Balancing frequency and relevance is key to ensuring your outreach is effective without being intrusive.
Holiday shoppers often take advantage of discounts and one-time deals, but the real challenge lies in converting these deal-hunters into repeat buyers. Brands need strategic incentives—like personalized offers or loyalty rewards—to keep these customers coming back.
Irrelevant or excessive messaging can be a dealbreaker for customers, leading them to hit the unsubscribe button. Keeping your communications targeted and meaningful is essential to retaining your hard-earned audience.
By addressing these challenges with thoughtful strategies, brands can turn the holiday shopping frenzy into a powerful opportunity for long-term customer engagement and loyalty.
Start your post-Black Friday strategy with these easy-to-implement tactics:
Set Campaign Triggers
Pause email campaigns for customers who haven’t engaged with three emails in a row. This strategy helps maintain your email deliverability and focuses your resources on the most engaged segments.
Send “We Miss You” Emails
Re-engage past customers with targeted messages. Offer small discounts, free shipping, or new product highlights to entice them back.
Segment by Engagement
Divide your email list into tiers based on customer activity. By sending fewer, more relevant messages, you’ll see higher engagement and avoid alienating your audience.
Not all shoppers are created equal, and segmentation is the key to ensuring your messaging resonates with the right audience. As Eli Weiss, VP of Retention & Advocacy at Yotpo, noted, “We always say, send the right message to the right person—it’s easier said than done, but it’s critical for success.” Effective segmentation not only improves engagement rates but also helps your brand avoid landing in spam folders, a growing concern with platforms like Google and Yahoo cracking down on excessive or irrelevant emails.
Segmentation allows you to tailor your communication to different customer behaviors and preferences. Without it, you risk overwhelming your audience with irrelevant messaging. Eli highlighted this challenge with a real-world example: “My mom, who’s the furthest thing from a marketer, complains to me about all the emails she gets. It’s ironic, because marketers often forget that we, too, hate getting flooded with irrelevant emails.”
Platforms like Shopify, Klaviyo, and Yotpo offer tools to help brands segment their audiences based on engagement, purchase history, or preferences. Without this thoughtful approach, brands run the risk of alienating their audience and damaging their deliverability. “Segmentation isn’t just a nice-to-have anymore—it’s essential,” Eli emphasized.
Shoppers who only buy during sales have different motivations than those who pay full price. Weiss pointed out the importance of avoiding a “slippery slope of discounting” and instead offering alternatives like gift-with-purchase, bundling, or double loyalty points to maintain perceived value.
Tracking behaviors like frequent purchases and loyalty program activity can reveal valuable insights. As Weiss explained, “If someone keeps buying the same mascara, stop cross-selling products they don’t want. Just get them on a subscription and leave them alone.”
Recency, frequency, and monetary (RFM) analysis is a tried-and-true method for identifying high-value customers and crafting targeted campaigns. It helps brands differentiate between loyal repeat buyers, occasional shoppers, and those at risk of disengaging.
Segmentation goes beyond theory—it’s about finding practical, actionable ways to engage with your customers. “You don’t need a $10,000 CDP or a team of analysts to start segmenting,” Weiss reassured. “Just take the first step. Even small efforts, like separating engaged and unengaged customers, can yield huge benefits.”
Segmentation isn’t just a tool; it’s a strategy that drives engagement, builds trust, and ensures your messaging reaches the right audience at the right time. By tailoring your communications to your customers’ behaviors and preferences, you can turn one-time shoppers into long-term loyalists.
Personalization is no longer a luxury in ecommerce—it’s a necessity. Customers want to feel valued, not like another name on a generic email list. Personal touches such as thank-you notes, tailored product recommendations, and birthday discounts can create deeper emotional connections, fostering loyalty and repeat business. “When you can make your customers feel like they’re part of a community, that’s when you’ll really see loyalty start to grow,” noted Houston.
A personalized shopping experience goes beyond addressing customers by name—it’s about anticipating their needs and providing value at every touchpoint. By leveraging purchase history and behavioral data, brands can craft individualized campaigns that resonate.
Quick Personalization Tips:
The customer journey doesn’t end at checkout—it’s just beginning. Post-purchase engagement is a powerful opportunity to build trust and keep customers coming back.
The period between purchase and delivery is a critical window for retaining customer interest. Brands can use this time to maintain excitement and reassure buyers about their purchase decision. “The most slept-on part of the customer journey is between place-order and order-received. Brands that communicate during this time with thoughtful updates win every time,” explained Weiss, VP of Retention at Yotpo.
Effective Pre-Delivery Strategies:
Post-purchase surveys and reviews provide invaluable insights into customer satisfaction and future opportunities. Example questions include:
Gathering and acting on feedback not only strengthens relationships but also helps refine your overall strategy.
Black Friday shoppers don’t have to be one-time buyers. By implementing strategies like segmentation, personalization, and post-purchase engagement, you can transform seasonal deal-hunters into lifelong brand advocates. “If you’re thoughtful, intentional, and use your customer data wisely, you’ll create a brand experience that not only drives revenue but builds lasting relationships,” Houston emphasized.
Book a free ecommerce audit with our team to uncover hidden opportunities and optimize your approach for loyalty and long-term growth.
Let’s turn this year’s Black Friday shoppers into next year’s repeat customers!
