10 Tips From the Rebuy BFCM Playbook

The National Baseball Association has the World Series. FIFA has the World Cup. And in the ecommerce industry, every product roadmap and every content calendar revolves around one mega event each year. 

Some call it Cyber Weekend. Others call it the Cyber 5. 

We call it Black Friday Cyber Monday. (BFCM for short.) 

BFCM casts a long shadow on the event calendars of every merchant in every timezone.

That’s why we created the Smooth Sailing BFCM 2023 Playbook—to help you prepare your shops and get the most out of BFCM this year.

Table of Contents

• Rebuy BFCM 2023 Smooth Sailin' Playbook
• Tip #1: Focus on Lead Generation
• Tip #2: Mobile Shopping & Page Speed
• Tip #3: Start Early
• Tip #4: Lock In Your Customizations
• Tip #5: Prep Your Inventory
• Tip #6: Think About Retention
• Tip #7: Offer Dynamic Bundles
• Tip #8: Post-Purchase Offers
• Tip #9: Don’t Adjust Discounts
• Tip #10: Personalization

Smooth Sailin’ BFCM 2023 Playbook

If you’re looking for top-tier tactics and insights from the best and brightest in the ecommerce industry, look no further than the Rebuy BFCM 2023 Smooth Sailin’ Playbook.

You’ll get hot tips from Rebuy partners including Brandon Amoroso (Electriq), Dan Caldwell (Klaviyo), Noah Rahimzadeh (Malomo), and many more. You’ll get data-driven insights from last year’s BFCM, and predictions for how to use them this time around. Plus, you’ll learn how to prepare your brand for BFCM and optimize your entire shop for the holiday season, from the home page to the checkout page and beyond. 

To give you a taste of what’s inside, we’ve listed 10 of the dozens of tips and tricks from the playbook below. If you find yourself nodding along or having an “ah-ha” moment as you peruse this article, download the BFCM 2023 playbook and start personalizing your shopping experience today.

With that, let’s set sail and dive into the 10 hot tips from the playbook. 

Tip #1: Focus on Lead Generation

According to HubSpot, lead generation is, "the process of increasing audience interest in your business offerings through nurturing, with the end goal of converting people into customers after convincing them that what you offer will help them meet their needs." 

A great lead-generation tactic is to grow your list of leads with your online shopping cart. So, here's our first tip: Display exclusive time-boxed promotions and discounts in the shopping cart in exchange for SMS sign-up. 

Gfuel Smart Cart featuring SMS capture by Attentive.

You can use Rebuy Smart Cart™ to capture mobile numbers with our integration with Attentive. Learn more about Rebuy's integrations with top tech partners.

Tip #2: Prioritize Mobile Shopping & Page Speed

In 2022, Shopify reported that 73% of all BFCM purchases were made on mobile devices. But that’s not the only reason you should dial in your mobile experience. 

An optimized mobile experience offers superior user experience and ensures a consistent experience across devices. Plus, Google considers mobile-friendliness as a ranking factor, so shops optimized for mobile have an advantage when it comes to SEO rankings. 

And don’t forget to prioritize page speed optimization. Your customers will thank you with more sales. Consider this: Every second of improvement equates to a 17% boost in the overall conversation rate. You can use a tool like Pagespeed Insights to measure the user experience of a page and gather suggestions on how to improve load times. 

Source: Bidnamic

It’s clear: those first few seconds a customer spends on your online store can determine the success or failure of your online business. 

Tip #3: Start Early 

The BFCM holiday used to include only the four days after American Thanksgiving. Now, many brands are embracing the entire week, running sales from the Sunday before Thanksgiving all the way to Cyber Monday—a full eight days later. 

The logic is this: attract shoppers to your store before they spend elsewhere. 

So tip #3 is: Start your BFCM promotions early. With Rebuy’s data sources, you can easily set up date-specific rules and schedule your BFCM promotions days or even months in advance. After all, the early bird gets the worm!

Tip #4: Lock In Your Customizations

Savvy ecommerce managers implement a code freeze around November 1st each year. Why? Horror stories abound of brands making a change to their store theme the week of BFCM, which

inadvertently takes down the entire site. Others have attempted last-minute customizations or app installations, resulting in glitchy checkouts due to buggy, too-hard-to-fix code. Sound like a nightmare? It is. 

Take it from us: do not experiment with your online store in the weeks leading up to BFCM! 

Instead, consider running a flash sale in early October to test your shop’s BFCM readiness. This will give you time to make any last-minute adjustments before November 1st.

If you use Rebuy Smart Cart, you have the option to build up to 10 shopping carts in advance. So, you could have a BFCM-themed shopping cart built, tested, and ready to go live with your first BFCM promotion. When BFCM is over, simply switch back to your original cart. This level of customization takes the stress out of holiday promotions so you can focus on more important matters. 

Tip #5: Prep Your Inventory

Managing inventory is a delicate dance. Too much inventory can result in a surplus you may need to sell at a discounted price. Too little, and you end up out of stock with missed sales opportunities and disappointed customers. 

To ensure you have the right amount of inventory, use previous BFCM sales data to forecast which of your top sellers will be in high demand this season. If this is your first BFCM, err on the side of caution and keep a little extra stock on hand to meet potential demand. After BFCM, use any surplus inventory to re-engage customers who’ve purchased those products before.

With Rebuy’s Reorder Landing Pages, you can easily re-engage customers in this way. These customizable pages empower your customers to reorder their favorite products with ease. It’s also a great way for your customers to discover new products, upgrade subscriptions, and complete their purchases in seconds. Learn more about Reorder Landing Pages.

Another great way to follow up with your BFCM customers is with Rebuy Smart Links. These custom hyperlinks automatically add products to the shopping cart with pre-loaded discounts already applied. Learn more about Rebuy Smart Links.

Tip #6: Think About Retention

A big focus during BFCM season is this: how do you turn your new customers into brand advocates who return to your shop again and again? After all, you don’t want the BFCM weekend to be a flurry of one-time purchases without a plan to retain your customers. So how can you position yourself best to encourage repeat customers?

Here's comes tip #6: Think about retention. One of the best ways to boost retention (and customer lifetime value) is to optimize your subscription program. If you don’t have a subscription program, consider starting one if it makes sense for your business.

With Rebuy, it’s easy to display switch-to-subscription offers directly in the shopping cart. You can even show how much customers will save should they upgrade to a subscription. 

Vitamin company OLLY is a believer in subscription upsells. They saw a 63% uplift in subscription revenue and a 25% increase to AOV with Rebuy. Read the OLLY case study.

Tip #7: Offer Dynamic Bundles

Ah, yes. At #7, we have the ultimate ecommerce power move: the product bundle. While bundles are a solid play all year round, they can be especially effective during BFCM. Shoppers are looking for the best BFCM deals, and if they can get two or more products together at a discounted price, they’re more likely to buy the whole bundle. 

For example, if you know the chocolate and strawberry protein powders are often purchased together, consider bundling them together and offering them at a modest discount. Bundling new products with best sellers is a great way to help your customers discover your new offerings. Learn more about Dynamic Bundles. 

Primally Pure offering The Baby Kit bundle with Rebuy.

Tip #8: Post-Purchase Offers

The moment a shopper makes a purchase at your store is a thing of beauty. In that magic moment, you have 100% of your customer's attention. The question is, what do you do with it? 

Coming in hot at tip #8: Make an irresistible post-purchase offer. 

Purchase intent peaks when a customer completes their order. When you think about it, it’s the perfect time to offer a relevant last-minute add-on—when they’re most excited about your brand. 

Did your customer just buy your best-selling BFCM deal? Offer a related product as a post-purchase add-on and boost your AOV a little further. If you’re using Rebuy Post Purchase, you can use our A/B testing tool and in-depth analytics to see which offers are converting best. Learn more about Rebuy Post Purchase.

Tip #9: Don’t Adjust Discounts During the Event

Imagine this: your customer arrives at your store on Black Friday and picks up a new gizmo for 10% off. But then they return to your store on Cyber Monday and see a banner on your home page that reads, “Exclusive Cyber Monday Sale: 15% Off Everything!” 

Now, you’ve got a soured customer trying to cancel their original order and buy it at the deeper discount. But you’ve already shipped their order. So they have to wait for it to arrive before they can return it for a refund. Yikes.

You can avoid this headache with tip #9: Set one discounted price that remains consistent throughout your BFCM campaigns. 

Tip #10: Personalization as Your North Star

Customers want personalized shopping experiences. 71% of consumers expect companies to deliver personalized interactions and 76% get frustrated when this doesn’t happen (McKinsey & Company).

Rounding out our list of BFCM tips is tip #10: Personalize your customer journey.

But how do you get started? 

Here are two quick ways to get started.

Smart Cart

Rebuy’s Smart Cart is a completely customizable all-in-one shopping cart replacement for your Shopify Store. With a single click, you can add features to the cart that personalize the experience and improve conversions. For example, you can add personalized upsells and cross-sells, tiered progress bars, accelerated checkout buttons, and more. Learn more about Smart Cart. 

Checkout Extensions

Rebuy Checkout Extensions are personalized upsells and cross-sell offers that appear on the checkout page. They're an excellent way to get started with personalization. Learn more about Rebuy Checkout Extensions.

All Aboard! Enjoy Smooth Sailing This BFCM

BFCM is an exciting (and stressful) time of year for both consumers and businesses. Planning for the big event in advance can yield record-breaking sales for your brand. Take the stress out of BFCM with the Rebuy Smooth Sailin’ BFCM Playbook. The tips above are just the beginning! You’ll find even more top-tier strategies and tactics to personalize the customer journey, plus insights from the ecommerce industry's best and brightest. Download the Smooth Sailin’ BFCM Playbook here.

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