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Are you prepared for BFCM 2023? Thoughts from our time at this year’s Klaviyo BFCM Roadshow Event

Words by ECOM DEPARTMENT

Key dates for 2023:
Black Friday - Friday, Nov. 24
Cyber Monday - Monday, Nov 27

Our email team was lucky enough to join the Klaviyo team and many other ecosystem partners during Klaviyo’s BFCM Roadshow events in August both in Los Angeles and New York where we spent an entire day learning about how best to prepare our clients for BFCM. The event was fantastic with lots of networking and presentations on best practices and tips for success for the  2023 holiday season. 

How is ECOM Department preparing for BFCM?

  • We are planning early - We started messaging our email and sms clients in the beginning of September to get them thinking about the holiday season and the promotions they’d like to run
  • We are analyzing strategy and email reports from the previous holiday season
  • We have started segmentation and calendar planning with our merchants 
  • We are planning additional A/B testing to learn more about how to best communicate with subscribers
    Examples of A/B testing:Send days/Send times
    • Content (Imagery / Layouts)
    • Subject Lines
  • Lastly, we are looking into additional flows that should be set up prior to the season, along with auditing current flows and seeing what could be improved and make the experience more appropriate for the biggest sales push of the year

Key takeaways from Klaviyo’s Roadshow:

  • All brands are starting early
  • It’s critical to look into deliverability so we can maximize and leverage the holiday season 
    • List cleaning, deadweight users, unsubscribe rates, overall health are all important to assess leading up to the event 
  • Create hype for the season - you can do this via updated popups prior to the sale, teasers, etc
  • We’ve seen great success in segmenting out VIP shoppers for “Early Access” and “VIP” themed messaging - loyal customers love having first access to huge events like this and it makes them feel really special

A few things to consider for post-BFCM:

  • Start thinking about ways to convert first-time customers who shop during the holiday season into long-term customers to increase LTV
    • Gather data on shoppers during the event and strategize on how to leverage that data moving forward
    • This is a great Klaviyo Academy resource if you’d like to learn more:
       https://academy.klaviyo.com/converting-black-friday-cyber-monday-signups-into-everyday-customers
    • Our recommendations:
      • Analyze BFCM Data
        • Campaigns, flows, forms, benchmarks
      • Identify your audience
        • Create meaningful segments to learn more about shoppers (new BFCM conversions, last year’s BFCM customers, window shoppers, VIP shoppers, product-specific customers)
      • Expand your acquisition tactics post-BFCM
        • New form strategies / offers
      • Automate your post-BFCM cadence
        • Focus on retaining subscribers over time with flows (Welcome, Abandoned Cart, Browse Abandon)
      • Maintain a strong sending strategy
        • Personalize your SMS and email copy, and target the segments of your audience who will be most interested in your content
        • Target based on BFCM engagement, build hype around winter holiday sales, act upon BFCM insights, and create a cross-channel approach

Additional Klaviyo BFCM resources:

Merchant Dinner Highlight: Pre-BFCM event with Recharge
Commonly Asked Questions When Launching a Shopify Store
STUDIO by ECOM DEPT
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