Customer Expectations Have Risen. Are You Ready For Black Friday 2023?

The digital landscape has revolutionized how customers engage with brands, especially during the holiday season. Recent statistics reveal a significant shift towards online shopping, with nearly two-thirds of shoppers leveraging digital platforms—both online and in-app—for holiday purchases. As the digital shopping ecosystem evolves, so do customers’ expectations, placing a premium on seamless experiences, secure transactions, and efficient services. Understanding and addressing these new demands is pivotal for retailers hoping to thrive in the competitive market.

To better understand customer shopping experience expectations for Black Friday 2023 and how failures impact their perspective, Perforce conducted an annual 1,000-person consumer survey through Dynata to understand year-over-year trends and sentiment. 

Black Friday 2023 Customer Expectations

Expectation: Uninterrupted Experiences 

A considerable 46% of customers find slow website and app loading times to be the most frustrating aspect of online shopping. 59% now emphasize the importance of quick page and image load times, reflecting an increased need for efficiency and convenience. In a fast-paced digital world, every second counts. Retailers must optimize load speeds, which has become integral to retaining customer interest and loyalty.

Expectation: Secure Touchpoints

The significance of secure checkout processes cannot be overstated, with 65% of customers expecting a safe and protected transaction environment—a 10% lift in expectations year-over-year, making investing in backend gateway functionality to ensure a secure checkout experience even more critical this Black Friday. Ignoring these concerns not only risks customer trust but also compromises the brand's integrity in the competitive marketplace.

Expectation: Prioritized Tech Upkeep

The detrimental impact of technical issues on customer behavior is evident, with 72% of shoppers admitting to abandoning purchases due to website or app problems. Notably, 33% of customers will head to a competitor's retail site if faced with an unstable shopping cart or a poor digital shopping experience. Recognizing the financial implications of these issues underscores the urgency for retailers to prioritize seamless technical functionality and a crash-free user experience.

What Can Retailers Do to Make Black Friday 2023 the Best Yet?  

Navigating testing doesn’t need to be complicated—the key is to test early and often to catch any issues before customers do. Here are the top five areas retailers can focus on today. 

1. Confirm Consistency Across Platforms: 54% of customers expect consistency across platforms. Ensure that item content, prices and devices are thoroughly tested to maintain consistency and accuracy.
    
2. Don't Abandon the 'Add to Cart' Experience: One-third of customers will leave your website and shop elsewhere if their shopping cart disappears before checkout. Especially during Black Friday, guaranteeing the seamless operation of this process becomes significantly more crucial—a single misstep can redirect your potential customers toward your competition. 
    
3. Double-Check Discount Codes: 52% of customers expect coupon codes to be accurate and working—especially for Black Friday, where deal hunting is the name of the game. Ensuring a smooth and effortless redemption process for discount codes during Black Friday is pivotal for seizing the best deals. Retailers must run tests for code accuracy, case insensitivity, post-purchase referral code emails, gift card redemption integration and code exclusions.
    
4. Check Out Your Checkout Process: One-third of customers will leave your website and shop elsewhere if their shopping cart disappears before checkout. Simplify the checkout process. It should be effortless to enter personal information like addresses and contact details—an expected feature for nearly half of customers (48%)—and auto-populate existing account information. 
    
5. Put Your App Under Pressure: 84% of customers are likely or very likely to take their business elsewhere if a mobile app crashes or is slow when shopping, which is greater than the previous year's findings (78%)—yet another signal that expectations have grown. Anticipate a surge in online traffic during Black Friday as in-person shopping falls to the wayside as the number one avenue for shopping and test response and page load times, load times under various network conditions, performance with background apps, screen size load times and performance across different refresh rates.

Testing Tips for the Best Black Friday 2023

Ensure your app is ready for anything with a report containing in-depth Black Friday 2023 trends and testing tips for the biggest holiday shopping event of the year.

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Unlock Your the Best Black Friday 2023

As customer preferences evolve in digital shopping, retailers must adapt strategies to meet these growing expectations. From prioritizing website and app speed to ensuring secure payment gateways and minimizing technical glitches, every aspect of the digital shopping journey holds the key to retaining customer loyalty and maximizing sales. 

Investing in robust backend technologies and proactive measures to enhance user experiences will be pivotal in securing a competitive edge in the dynamic e-commerce landscape. By embracing these principles, retailers can establish themselves as trustworthy and customer-centric, fostering long-term relationships with their digital customer base.

To ensure your apps are ready for peak performance this holiday season and beyond – join leading companies like the Gap, Ulta, Chanel, Rolex, DSW, eBay and more and test with the best.

See how Perfecto and BlazeMeter can help your team get Black Friday ready today with a custom demo!

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