…I’m always amazed when I find rookie yet costly mistakes made amongst some of the most popular and respected retailers during such an essential period of sales and commerce…
It goes without saying, Black Friday is a huge deal for retailers. In fact, during the Christmas period, retailer’s revenue increased by 50-100% when compared to shopping days throughout the rest of the calendar.
What’s even more impactful is that this year’s Black Friday lands on pay day for millions of Black Friday shoppers and it’s closer to Christmas than any Black Friday prior. It’s a big one.
Google trends can be used to track internal search trends too
As you can see, we’re at the peak of demand for the keyword ‘Black Friday’, which means many savvy shoppers are proactively spending their hard-earned both online and on the high street.
What this also tells us is that online shoppers are searching for the keyword ‘Black Friday’ on millions of different websites, or at the very least, close variants of.
So I’m always amazed when I find rookie yet costly mistakes made amongst some of the most popular and respected retailers during such an essential period of sales and commerce. Without further ado, let’s get in to it!
1] The Perfume Shop
Fragrance is amongst one of the top selling items during BF, so I was shocked to see one of the veterans within the fragrance market space miss the mark on optimising for the ‘black Friday’ keyword on their site search. Apparently they online have three items in their Black Friday sale..
2] Next
Another big player both on the high street and online. Next failed to capitalise on the keyword, Black Friday too with no results whatsoever being returned when customers search for ‘black friday’
3] The White Company
Oh the irony! But, joking aside, brands that sell luxury items and participate in Black Friday often do well, so it’s a shame that The White Company have missed a pretty massive trick here.
Again, keeping with the theme of internal search optimisation, searching for ‘black friday’ on their website doesn’t redirect to a merchandised page or fail to show products.
Arguably, this is much worse; showing products that technically match one or more of the words within the query ‘black friday’ but contextually, the results are nothing at all to do with it nor are any of the results included in the Black Friday deal.
4] Graham & Brown
Depending on whether you love decorating or not may depend on whether you recognise the brand Graham & Brown. They’re a large online retailer specialising in wallpaper and home furnishings.
Similar to the results seen on The White Company, there are indeed results returned, but they have nothing at all to do with their Black Friday event. They’re just items that loosely match the query in question.
This can easily cause confusion for customers and depending on how they perceive the results, may believe that your Black Friday offerings are lack lustre and aren’t worth looking at in any greater detail.
They’re potentially losing a lot of sales and customers here.
5] Homebase
Another retail giant that needs no introduction However, their problem is a little different than the others in that Homebase hasn’t participated in this year’s BF.
However, just because you’re not marketing it or offering deals doesn’t mean you can afford to ignore those searching for ‘black friday’
Instead of showing no results, why not introduce visitors to other areas of savings across the website including 3 for 2 on paint for example?
Looking at the bigger picture, up to 30% of eCom visitors use site search
Missing out on opportunities to optimise for Black Friday is just one such example of how many retailers are missing the mark when it comes to delivering a great customer experience and improving conversion online.
These five handpicked retailers aren’t the only retailers making mistakes and Black Friday isn’t the only area of concern.
In fact, according to a case study, conversion rates increased by 43% when brands invested in internal search optimisation.
Up to 30% of eCommerce visitors are using your site search to find what they’re looking for.
More importantly, those that use site search on eCommerce are more interesting in purchasing than those that don’t.
Optimising internal search is essential for eCommerce growth, CRO and ensuring you’ve a distinct competitive edge.
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