Today more than ever, retailers need modern technology to support digital commerce sales and growth. There’s no reason you should have to struggle in order to deliver to customer expectations during pre-planned events like Black Friday and Cyber Monday, nor have to risk losing out on sales during unplanned spikes. However, if you’re still running your eCommerce operations on legacy technology, this is an unfortunate reality. The good news is that there is a better option. By embracing the flexibility and scalability of composable commerce, you can sail through Black Friday and every other day without a hitch. Here, we explain the key reasons why and share the 2023 BFCM results commercetools Composable Commerce enabled for its customers.
Every year, consumers await Black Friday and Cyber Monday with eager anticipation. Many make specific plans to purchase big-ticket items and begin comparing deals as soon as retailers start promoting these annual sales events. Others dive in with only their holiday gift list in hand, gleefully scooping up great bargains on everything from pajamas and perfume to sweaters, slippers, toys and tablets. On the other hand, for the majority of retailers — especially those that sell online — both of these days represent huge challenges, both in terms of planning and execution.
Black Friday and Cyber Monday have proven to be the biggest shopping days of the year, contributing a significant amount of sales to a retailer’s total annual revenue. As a result, it’s critical that they do everything they can to capture every sale.
Retrospectively, the Black Friday period for Emma Sleep accounts for approximately 20% of our yearly revenue and order volume.
Chief Technology Officer, Emma Sleep
An online mattress company launched in 2013, Emma Sleep grew faster than predicted. By 2020, its commerce system could no longer support its growth or ambitions. Switching to commercetools Composable Commerce has enabled them to introduce innovative features, add new markets and handle continually increasing traffic to the site. Today, they are delivering omnichannel experiences to customers in 30 countries.
Legacy platforms weren’t built to adapt to technology advances, and thus simply can’t meet consumer expectations today. A recent study by Contentsquare, a digital experience analytics platform, that put a spotlight on the top frustrations consumers have with online holiday shopping, reinforces this fact. The number one issue? Slow loading times — with 20% of consumers saying they’ve abandoned their cart because the checkout page was either too slow or crashed. 17% pointed to sites that don’t offer quick-purchase checkout options such as PayPal or Apple Pay. Poor search results, non-mobile friendly sites and promotions that didn’t work correctly were also all cited as things that make some online shopping experiences less than appealing.
Composable commerce lets you treat any day like Black Friday
The beauty of composable commerce is that it provides the flexibility, scalability and performance you need to continually meet the expectations and influx of consumers. Integrating new channels, adding new payment methods and launching new promotions becomes quick and easy. Adjusting to traffic spikes happens automatically so you no longer have to worry about crashes, glitches or downtime. Basically, it empowers you to adapt to change at any time, while consistently delivering frictionless, omnichannel experiences.
Ulta, Express, The Sharper Image and Bang & Olufsen are just a few of the retailers reaping the rewards of composable commerce. Since becoming customers of commercetools, their leaders and IT teams can sit back and relax while watching sales increase on Black Friday — as well as on every other day of the year.
We had our biggest BFCM period ever this year, breaking records for sales, traffic and concurrent users — all without a hitch on commercetools.
Chief Technology Officer, Kitchen Warehouse
commercetools is incredibly proud of the 100% uptime we delivered to our customers during Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2023. This ensured that none of our customers missed any sales opportunities. Here, we offer up a few additional, yet equally impressive statistics that reinforce the value of running your commerce operations on a platform that delivers exceptionally high performance, incredibly fast speed and infinite scalability.
Total combined orders processed from Black Friday through Cyber Monday
Peak API calls per minute on Black Friday, a 5x increase from 2022
Peak number of orders processed per minute on Black Friday
Kelly Goetsch, our Chief Strategy Officer, is adamant that now that composable commerce is a viable, proven alternative to legacy platforms, there’s no reason a retailer should have to go into lockdown mode before every holiday event. “In a world where retailers have to expect the unexpected, any day, any moment, could be Black Friday,” he stressed. “It’s time to evolve, that’s just the world we live in.”
To explore how composable commerce is unwrapping a new normal for eCommerce retailers, watch our video-on-demand, Treat Any Day like Black Friday.
Anita J. Temple is the Corporate Journalist at commercetools. She was a fashion editor at Women’s Wear Daily (WWD) and W Magazine before launching a career as a freelance writer and creative producer. She has written content and worked on a wide range of marketing projects for companies including Dreamworks, Walmart, Coca-Cola, Verizon, and Adidas.