With Black Friday and Cyber Monday just around the corner, the retail industry is gearing up for one of the most anticipated shopping seasons of the year. 

Social media has become one of the best channels for brand discovery and deal hunting. Our surveys show that almost 50% of consumers find new brands and exciting offers through platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok and others. 

However, the path from social media discovery to successful sales during the BFCM time is not as straightforward as it sounds. 

As brands flood these channels with promotions, standing out in the crowd and turning those engagements into conversions becomes challenging. 

Let's explore the dynamics of "edge shopping" on social media during BFCM and discover strategies that can shorten the purchase journeys of social shoppers during this period. 

Challenges brands face during BFCM  

As the Black Friday Cyber Monday season approaches, brands encounter dynamic challenges. Here are some of the challenges the businesses must navigate to have a successful BFCM:  

1. Higher competition 

The internet is inundated with content. During BFCM, the competition shot up to unprecedented levels due to an overwhelming amount of promotional content being posted online. 

On an average day, people are exposed to around 10,000 ads per day. During BFCM, this number skyrockets as brands intensify their promotional efforts. 

If you want to capture the attention of your target consumer, you must stand out in the sea of advertisements. 

2. Higher customer acquisition cost 

With the digital marketplace becoming more saturated, the cost of acquiring a new customer rises. 

During BFCM, the competition for visibility also amplifies. This too leads to an increase in customer acquisition cost. According to a study, the CAC of paid search is 13% higher during the cyber week compared to other times of the year. 

Our survey on the State of Advertising has also found that while 91% of brands are advertising on social media, only 44% of the revenue is measurable. This is making it harder for the brands to calculate their customer acquisition costs. 

Brands must carefully strategize their marketing budgets to ensure optimal reach without compromising profitability. 

3. Higher bounce rates 

During the BFCM week, customers are in a hurry to get the best deals and discounts. If the transition from social media to the brand's official site isn't seamless, potential customers may quickly lose interest. 

Let’s say customers see a product on social media. And when they click the link, it redirects them to a landing page or the website’s home page. If the customer doesn’t find the product immediately, they are most likely to drop off. This leads to a higher bounce rate. 

And our research has found that a bounce rate does more damage than brands can measure. Brands are losing almost $5 of their revenue to every bounce that occurs. 

The urgency of BFCM deals makes it essential for brands to optimize the user journey to prevent potential customers from dropping off due to delays or friction in the shopping process. 

4. Cart abandonment 

Despite the allure of BFCM discounts, cart abandonment remains a considerable challenge for brands. 

The excitement generated on social media doesn't always translate into completed purchases. 

Statistics show that 70% of the online shopping carts are abandoned during BFCM. This increases the importance of strategies to recover potentially lost sales. 

The trouble with the current approach - broken shopping experiences 

In the traditional approach to BFCM marketing, brands often guide shoppers from social media directly to landing pages, category pages, or the home page of their official website. 

While this method aims to transition potential customers seamlessly from the edge (social media) to the brand site, it introduces a critical challenge: broken shopping experiences. 

Our State of Advertising report has found that product pages are the number one choice for brands to drive social traffic. But the product page is also the one landing that leads to the most amount of bounces too. 

Shoppers who discover a brand on social media are motivated by a specific product or deal that caught their attention. 

However, upon reaching the brand's website, they may find it difficult to find the exact product that initially piqued their interest. 

As the BFCM sale progresses, certain products might go out of stock, pages may become unavailable (resulting in 404 errors), or the promotions can lead to inconsistencies, creating fractured and frustrating shopping experiences for the consumer. 

This disconnect between the enticing social media promotion and the actual online shopping experience comes with a risk of lost opportunities and potential customer disengagement. 

Brands must reevaluate their approach to ensure a smoother transition for customers from discovery to purchase during the bustling BFCM period. 

How to double your sales from social media edges this BFCM? 

When it comes to social commerce, the challenge lies not in the availability of sales features but in the ability to create a holistic shopping experience for customers. 

This is where AI-powered Social Campaign Stores by SimplicityDX come in. They seamlessly blend edge content with robust e-commerce services for an immersive and frictionless shopping journey. 

The beauty of this approach lies in its simplicity. With just a few clicks, brands can use user-generated content to create compelling Campaign Stores for each post - be it an image or a video. 

These AI-powered Campaign Stores go beyond the traditional model, offering a fully shoppable social homepage where customers can explore content seamlessly, accompanied by strategically placed merchandising banners and featured videos. 

A common challenge for e-commerce brands during BFCM is the high bounce rate from product detail pages. AI-powered Social Campaign Stores by SimplicityDX, use auto-generated product hooks to captivate customer attention, creating a continual shopping experience. 

SimplicityDX's AI ensures that storefronts are tailored to individual preferences, presenting customers with content they are more likely to engage with and convert on. 

Consider ModCloth, a brand that uses the power of AI Social Campaign Stores by SimplicityDX for their paid marketing campaigns. The result? A 17% reduction in social media bounce rates and a staggering 50% decrease in customer acquisition costs. This success story highlights the impact of integrating AI to transform social commerce. 

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Read their case study here. 

AI-powered Social Campaign Stores not only provide a personalized and immersive shopping experience but also significantly impact the bottom line. For Shopify Plus businesses, this translates into a reduction in customer acquisition costs and an optimization of Return On Investment (ROI) from social media traffic. 

SimplicityDX's AI-driven and self-learning Campaign Stores are designed to cater to diverse customer intents, guiding them seamlessly from product discovery to purchase. The positive outcomes for brands like ModCloth highlight the potential for maximizing BFCM sales through the strategic integration of AI-powered campaign stores. 

Double your BFCM sales with SimplicityDX 

SimplicityDX's AI-powered Campaign Stores emerge as the key to get success during the upcoming Black Friday Cyber Monday (BFCM) season. 

Despite the ticking clock, the simplicity of integrating campaign stores ensures that your brand can be up and running before BFCM hits. All you need to do is install the SimplicityDX app or book a demo with us.  

Don't let the perceived time crunch discourage you; the power to enhance your BFCM strategy lies at your fingertips!