The ultimate guide to increase sales for Black Friday 2022
Are you all ready for Black Friday 2022? Shoppers are ready for the festive season like never before. They are planning to leverage the discounts and are willing to shop around for the best deals. The expectations are high because customers want fashion retailers to deliver convenient shopping experiences in exchange for their carefully budgeted purchases.
For this reason, many fashion companies are working hard finalizing the last details for the launch Black Friday 2022. And it is not for less. Black Friday is one of the biggest shopping events of the year.
But… How do you run a successful Black Friday 2022 sales campaign? Will the supply chain issues continue? Will inflation impact deals?
Then, we analyze what the predictions and trends are for Black Friday 2022 and which AI Solutions for Fashion we must look out for to increase sales and customer engagement.
Black Friday 2022: Predictions & Trends
On the back of Covid-19, last year saw supply chain issues – will it be the same again this year (with the soaring fuel prices)? What impact will the increase of cost of living have?
Here’s how experts predict the shopping event will shape up this year:
1# Inflation will impact deals
Inflation has driven up the cost of all goods. We are all affected by inflation: people and companies.
Retailers must have the best balance between discounts, costs and revenue. So they can’t afford to offer deep deals. It’s important to point out that the global average discount rate fell from to 24% in Black Friday 2021 according to Salesforce.
On the other hand if we talk about shoppers, this Black Friday 2022 is the best opportunity for much-needed relief and retail therapy. However shoppers are expected to spend less on gifts overall.
For this reason, many experts say that while retailers will still tout plenty of bargains, the savings may not live up to the hype.
2# Supply chain issues may resurface
While inflation will be the headline of this holiday season, supply concerns aren’t completely behind us. Let us not forget that product shortages and shipping backlogs were the great challenge of Black Friday 2021. According to Adobe analytics, last year out of stock messages were up 169%, with 70% of shippers abandoning carts.
The supply chain is affected today by the worldwide impact of the Ukraine War. The increase in the price of oil and gas, supply line complications from China… There are many factors that impact on the supply chain. However, for Black Friday this year retailers (specially Wide Eyes’ customers and partners) are better prepared to turn out-of-stock products into sales opportunities.
3# Sales will happen early and often
Traditionally, Black Friday started the day after Thanksgiving. But Black Friday sales have started earlier and earlier (and these are evermore extensive) over the last few years, and this year is no exception.
More and more fashion retailers have been running special promotions since October. But usually, the best deals always come on Black Friday.
Top 3 AI Fashion Solutions that will shape Black Friday Sales in 2022
We don’t have a crystal ball at Wide Eyes Technologies and even if we did we tend to trust the data more than magic! We are always focused on results as well as your customer success. For this reason, one year more, the main fashion players have once again trusted Wide Eyes Technologies to plan for a successful Black Friday 2022.
There are value-add opportunities that should be considered (yes or yes) along with traditional discounts to Black Friday. May be discounts are a great attraction strategy for Black Friday; but bringing customers an innovative and satisfying shopping experience is the best retention strategy.
Find here, the top 3 AI Fashion Solutions that will shape Black Friday 2022 and help you to increase sales and improve customer shopping experience:
1# Similar Recommendations to solve out-of-stock
Nothing makes Black Friday shopping more disappointing than getting excited about a product, only to discover it’s out of stock. Or, maybe it’s available, but your size or preferred colour is out-of-stock. To compensate for the missing product, display visually similar products. There is a good chance that another product with a slight difference might also be useful and purchased.
In fact, Wide Eyes’ customers and partners decreased the average shopping cart abandonment rate by more than 30% thanks to our AI-powered Similar Recommendation Solution. By suggesting similar (and available) products to shoppers, you are solving out-of-stock problems automatically and helping shoppers find alternative products that really match their needs seamlessly in real-time. Remember, your customer is ready for shopping – credit card in hand!
2# Smart Outfit Recommendations to drive sales
Personalization in fashion retail is increasingly important and always adds value to the customer experience. Embedding smart outfit recommendations is key to delivering the right products and matches at the right time. Also, Wide Eyes Technologies take outfit recommendations to another level adding different personalization possibilities (style, contextual and situational behaviour).
Personalized Outfit Recommendation is a value add opportunity that must be considered along with traditional discounts. Although shoppers are expected to spend less on Black Friday 2022, there is an opportunity where shoppers will be looking to bundle their purchases in one store. It’s the best way to bring an instant, intuitive and visual discovery expandable to the entire catalogue and increase the average purchase rate, too.
3# Product Discovery Experiences to deliver value
Improve your searchandising strategy can help you get the most out of your Black Friday sales campaign. Now, more than ever, must get your products in front of invested shoppers hunting for deals.
Make your products more searchables with AI-enriched tags. An efficient automated product tagging system is a must to respond to shoppers’ intuitive (or not most intuitive) queries. The more relevant tags a product image has, the greater probability it has to appear in specific search results from shoppers. This is one of the main uses of Wide Eyes’ Autotagging API.
Also, you can optimize your search bar by adding a visual search tool. This is extremely helpful for people who don’t know exactly how to describe what they’re looking for or type the wrong search terms into the search bar. In cases like these, search by image API helps to simplify the search process. Connecting inspirational images (from Instagram, from a gallery or taken from devices) directly to products in just one click. In short, visual search (or search by image) is a one-click discovery.
In conclusion, for a successful Black Friday 2022 it is extremely necessary to enhance value to discount strategies. If you want to stay competitive, you need to incorporate AI Solutions into the omnichannel experience. Wanna talk?
