An-Hacking : episode 8 #BFCM š
The Blog as the New Goldmine, a WhatsApp Flow for BFCM, Kleep to Reduce Return and Abandoned Cart Rates, 3 Shopify Apps to Maximize Conversion, & the BFCM2024 Report by Tapcart
Hello Everyone!
I hope you're doing well and I'm thrilled to have you here for Episode 8 š„
This episode is particularly special because itās dedicated to BFCM and its challenges, and it also allows me to unveil the brand-new visual identity of An-Hacking, designed by my great friend Ćlie PesquĆ©, aka Ricky_mocky, who I believe is one of the most talented graphic designers of his generation š
Ćlie hand-drew each letter, making it a truly unique logotype that blends modernity (bold) with a vintage/sci-fi vibe, perfectly reflecting the inspiration behind the name An-Hacking. I hope you love this new identity as much as I do!
Iāll wrap up this intro and let you dive into this eighth episodeācanāt wait to hear your feedback!
Enjoy š
On the Agenda Today:
The Blog: the new Goldmine?! š„µ
My guest talks WhatsApp in the era of BFCM š¬
Kleep: sizing 2.0 š
Musical Interlude
Shopify Apps to maximize conversion š«¶
BFCM2024 Customer Trends Report, by Tapcart š¤
Bonus: the ideal checkout š”
Letās dive in š
1. Blog is the new goldmine !
Weāre Kicking Off Episode 8 with a Topic Iām Passionate About: The Duel Between Paid and Unpaid - this is a theme we tackled in the previous episode, with data from Contentsquare and Capterra, focusing on the balance between mobile and desktop.
In the complexābut fascinatingāworld of SEO (Search Engine Optimization), the blog holds a special place for several reasons.
First, because the word āblogā evokes an outdated imageāa term unearthed from the past, associated with the idea of a website where an editor shares personal content about a specific theme (this is a definition I came across during my research).
Then, the blog in its original form has practically disappeared, replaced by:
Social media accounts (Instagram, Facebook, etc.), and
A dedicated space on an e-commerce site.
Itās point 2 that interests us here.
When optimized, a blog offers:
Freedom of writing and the use of keywords that enhance search rankings.
It also eases the cost of acquiring new customers by becoming an āindirectā acquisition channel, but only if the brand implements conversion hacks within its articles, along with creating relevant and distinctive content.
Whatās the Connection to BFCM?
The link seems obvious to me: BFCM is the second time of the year when Paid costs skyrocket (the first being the holiday season). For some industries like apparel or cosmetics, costs can increase by 10 to 15 times over a 10-day period spanning 7 days before and 2 days after Black Friday š¤Æ.
No, the blog isnāt a solution to this surge, but finding an acquisition balance between Paid and Unpaid is essential (and not just during BFCM!).
Here are 3 tips to optimize your blog before BFCM :
š Publish your articles in multiple languages: BFCM is a global event (unlike, for example, the French Days), so your future customers might be in Germany, Spain, or the US. There are solutions like Essential SEO, a Shopify app developed by the Essential Apps lab and powered by AI, which allows brands to easily publish in 13 different languages.
š Include products in your articles: This is arguably the best piece of advice we can offer, but also the one that requires the most precisionāa poorly placed CTA can disrupt the conversion flow.
Your blog articles attract readers seeking answers to specific questions: For example, to the question āHow can I protect my curly hair?ā, your article could provide plenty of tips. A tool like Bloggle allows you to insert a CTA at the right moment, linking to the product page for a serum designed specifically for curly hair.
Itās worth noting that Bloggle also tracks the SEO performance of each article published through the app and recommends limiting the number of CTAs to two per page.
š Use the right keywords with Google Keywords analysis: A tool like BlogSEO (also available on Shopify) allows you to leverage Googleās data and search-related insights. The goal is to evaluate which keywords perform well in a specific market, understand search trends, identify the keywords used by your competitors, and craft your blog articles accordingly.
For even more tips and advice, I encourage you to explore the Bloggle blog (#thematrixhasyou)āitās a true goldmine š°.
Hereās a quick introduction video to the tool š
2. WhatsApp in the Era of BFCM with WAX
Once Again, Letās Talk About WhatsApp on An-Hacking.
Not because Iām already convinced of the power and relevance of WhatsApp in a broader marketing automation strategy (you already know that), but because, with less than a month to go before BFCM, WhatsApp can become a massive growth and conversion lever.
To illustrate this, I invited Guillaume, co-founder of WAX, a solution that enables brands to unlock WhatsAppās full potential. Think 90%+ open rates, vast country coverage with 45M users in France, including 85%+ of the working population, and an average message open time of just 7 minutes.
For the rest, Iāll hand it over to Guillaume š
Some of the numbers mentioned earlier (among others) make WhatsApp a high-potential marketing channel.
But when you combine that with its conversational power š¬, it becomes the ultimate tool for customer retention š:
With its unlimited 24-hour exchange window (text, photo, video, voice note), WhatsApp provides brands with a rich toolbox to engage customers, achieving response rates that can exceed 50% š„µ.
A single WhatsApp conversation (that famous 24-hour unlimited window) generates an average of ā¬2.4, delivering an ROI of 14-15x.
āOk, it sounds powerful, but isnāt it too late for BFCM?ā
Not at all! The timing couldnāt be better! š
Year-end is the perfect opportunity to:
Collect as many opt-ins as possible in record time.
Convert them throughout BFCM.
Build loyalty beyond BFCM for the holiday season and January sales.
Here are 4 actionable steps to make the most of what WhatsApp can offer you during this critical time of year:
1ļøā£ Collect Your Opt-Ins in Time for BFCM ā
Install a phone number pop-up now (every second without an SMS/WhatsApp opt-in is a missed opportunity).
Convert up to 3% of your email base into WhatsApp opt-ins by sending an email announcing the launch of your WhatsApp Club.
Collect phone numbers on a BFCM VIP landing pageāat WAX, weāve developed a tool to quickly gather a maximum number of opt-ins.
2ļøā£ BFCM: Tease, Engage, Sell! šø
WhatsApp is undeniably powerful, but itās also more personal than email and SMS. You need to nurture your contacts here, providing them with a sense of exclusivity and privilege.
Share your best offers, give them early access, and gather feedback to reinforce their connection to your brand š
3ļøā£ Upsell Your Customers!
During BFCM and the holiday season, your acquisition costs will skyrocket. To address this, our tech team has designed a WhatsApp upsell flow to increase your AOV: the post-purchase upsell flow š¤Æ
How Does It Work?
The order is held for 30 minutes before being sent to the logistics team.
We leverage WhatsAppās unique advantage for upselling within this window: its fast open rate, with messages opened on average in 7 minutes.
The customer agrees to add the new product and is redirected to a new cart created for the occasion, which retains their contact and delivery information.
WhatsApp fills a critical gap in the market: neither email nor SMS can deliver a message effectively in such a short window, let alone with 90% open rates. This highlights the full power of WhatsApp to increase AOV
Results from launching this flow: 1 in 2 customers adds a second product to their initial order for your top-performing items
4ļøā£ Turn Your BFCM Customers Into Loyal Customers/Ambassadors šš
WhatsApp is the domain of Conversational Commerce š¬. It finally gives you a tool to automatically ask questions to your customers and prospects, helping you understand their preferences and satisfaction levels after purchase.
This conversational data is a goldmine for:
Directing satisfied customers to review platforms (+1 NPS point in just a few days).
Encouraging satisfied customers to refer friends or subscribe with one click š¤Æ (15% repeat rate).
Redirecting dissatisfied customers to a new formula or product.
Co-creating your next product or collection: bringing the power of Asphalte into your hands.
We donāt see WhatsApp as just a one-shot conversion tool but as a golden opportunity to bring your customers back and attract their friends through the most high-quality user experience on the market: the WhatsApp Experience.
The name WAX stands for WhatsApp eXperience š¬š!
This experience has been built and shared with 150 brands like Clarins, SĆ©zane, Dijo, Blissim, Smartbox, The Bradery, and Tediber. And weāve been doing this for over a year!
I strongly encourage everyone to follow the technological advancements of WAX with great interestāIāve been saying this for months: WhatsApp is the future of marketing automation.
A big thank you to Guillaume for his actionable tips! Donāt hesitate to reach out to him š¬
And during the episode, feel free to share it with your contacts š
3. Kleep, le sizing 2.0
Now weāre tackling a big one
Not just because I love the solution itself, but especially because of the critical problem it addresses: returns caused by sizing issues or errors!
This solution is Kleep š„µ
Iām sure most of you are already familiar with Kleepāitās a solution thatās well-known in the ecosystem and frequently mentioned on LinkedIn and other platforms.
However, itās worth revisiting why Kleep is a game-changer in how we think about e-commerce for the clothing vertical. Powered by AI, Kleep helps consumers select the right size for the item theyāre interested in. The goal is twofold:
Boost conversion: Consumers are guided toward the correct size, which reduces cart abandonment due to uncertainty about sizing. Weāve all hesitated over an item and decided not to purchase because we werenāt sure about the size.
Reduce returns: The #1 reason for returns in e-commerce is sizing issues. During periods of exponential sales like BFCM, the number of returns increases mathematically along with the number of salesāor even more so with aggressive offers (some consumers are willing to take the risk of buying the wrong size to take advantage of a discount, as illustrated in the table below).
To illustrate the problem of returns related to sizing issues, An-Hacking partnered with Baback, whose CEO RaphaĆ«l contributed to the previous episode. The data below reflects the month of September for the āwomenās apparelā vertical, excluding lingerie š
From my analysis, one thing stands out: +64% of returns (nearly 2 out of 3) were made due to a sizing issueāwhether itās because the fit wasnāt right, the item was too small or too large, or the customer ordered multiple sizes.
In addressing the challenge of returns caused by sizing problems, Kleep leads the way, particularly through two major features:
š¹ Fit Finder: By entering their height, weight, age, and body shape, Kleep guides consumers to the size that seems most appropriate. If a product is out of stock, Kleep will even recommend a similar item from the brandās catalog. The idea is for the brand to enrich Kleepās database with product-specific details (e.g., whether the fit runs large or small)
š¹ Body Scan: Consumers upload a photo of themselves, allowing Kleep to refine its recommendations and suggest the perfect size for the individual. This is a proprietary technology of Kleep that personalizes the shopping journey and significantly reduces the number of returns
The goal isnāt to completely eliminate returns (which can actually be a great growth lever by incorporating upselling via a return portal), but rather to minimize their frequency š¦
For more information, feel free to check out Kleep here š
Interlude musical
For Episode 8, I Wanted to Share a Song That Has a Double Meaning for Me
Be warned, this musical interlude might leave more than a few of you in awe! š„µ
Youāve surely recognized the iconic album cover of Nevermind by Nirvana. No, itās not Smells Like Teen Spirit or Come As You Are (arguably the bandās most famous tracks), but rather the albumās 1991 outro: Something In The Way.
Why am I talking about this song?
In mid-September, while riding the Paris metro, my attention was drawn to a poster announcing the upcoming release of The Penguin, a spin-off from Matt Reevesā 2022 The Batman. To me, Reevesā version stands shoulder-to-shoulder with Nolanās Batmanāyes, I realize saying this might cost me a few subscribers!
Iāve always felt The Dark Knight relied too heavily on the Jokerās role and completely mishandled Baneās character in the final chapter. However, I must admit that the legendary Michael Caine delivered the best Alfred Pennyworth ever seen on the big screen.
Yes, this 2022 Batman, with Robert Pattinson donning the role of Bruce Wayne, is, in my eyes, one of the greatest Batman movies ever made. It reconnects with the original dark atmosphere of a tormented Batman in a gritty Gotham, all set against breathtaking cinematography.
Back to The Penguin
This series is simply the best thing Iāve seen in the past 12 months: the cinematography, the atmosphere, the soundtrack (Miles Davis, Dolly Parton, When In Rome ā¦), and of course, Colin Farrell delivering a career-defining performance, unrecognizable as The Penguin.
Yes, Iām a huge fan of the Batman universeāthe comics, the villains, and Batman himself. To me, heās the greatest superhero because he doesnāt actually have any powers. Imagine my surprise when, after 17 stunning minutes into The Batmanās 178-minute runtime, Something In The Way by Nirvana begins to playāeasily one of my favorite tracks.
Who wouldāve thought weād hear Nirvana in a Batman movie? And honestly, how could we ever imagine a better song for that scene?
Pure art.
4. Shopify apps to maximize conversion
For Those Whoāve Been Following Me on LinkedIn for a While ā¦ or have read previous episodes of An-Hacking, you know how much I love diving deep into Shopifyās app store. My goal is always to uncover the best applications for e-commerce businesses running on Shopify š¤.
For this episode, Iāve curated a medley of 3 applications that can be installed quickly and help improve the customer journey and consumer experience, ultimately boosting conversion rates (CVR):
š» Casper : with Casper, we're tackling Cross-Device Carts, this means enabling the ability to "lock" a cart for logged-in users. Customers who sign in to their account can access their cart on any device, preserving their additions throughout a multi-platform shopping journey for up to 30 days.
The result? A reduced cart abandonment rate!
In addition to that, Casper allows you to record a history of all cart movements, enabling the analysis of how many carts have been āsaved,ā as well as the number of cart synchronizations.
š¦ Maple : It is without a doubt one of the most useful apps when it comes to enhancing the delivery experience (and it's French, developed by the Bigblue team). Maple centralizes all pick-up points from your various shipping providers (Mondial Relay, Colissimo, Shop2Shop, Chronopost, and DHL), all built on an in-house search engine, making it much faster than carrier APIs.En plus de cela, la carte est personnalisable dans ses couleurs, pour coller aux mieux Ć lāidentitĆ© de marque, et les points relais sāintĆØgrent facilement depuis lāadmin.
š„· Zoorix - sticky add to cart bar : too often, e-commerce stores on Shopify (and elsewhere!) overlook optimizing add-to-cart CTAsāsomething that can have a significant impact during a mobile shopping journey, no matter where theyāre placed.
Zoorix adds an extra layer of agility by making the add-to-cart button ultra-sticky, either from the beginning to the end of a product page view or in a more "moderate" wayāonly appearing when the visitor scrolls far enough that the standard "add to basket" CTA disappears from their screen, as seen on ZÄta's site (go ahead and scroll through it yourself!).
Whatās particularly noteworthy here is that the consumer can access product variations (color, size, etc.) directly from the sticky windowāalways sticky, of course š
5. BFCM Consumer Trends 2024 by Tapcart š„
A year ago, I dedicated a LinkedIn post to Tapcart's report on upcoming consumer trends for BFCM 2023āundoubtedly one of my favorite apps in the Shopify ecosystem, helping brands transform their e-commerce sites into iOS and Android apps.
The team is back at it again with new, equally insightful content. This time, itās created in partnership with a dozen other solutions like Nosto, Rebuy, Gorgias, and Triple Whaleāa study with input from 1,161 respondents š
And with just one month to go before BFCM, I decided to read it (almost) in its entirety and took the liberty of highlighting 3 insights that seemed particularly relevant:
ChatGPT
š¤¬ The Risk of Spam: This is one of the key issues of our timeāhow to deliver the right messages without "flooding" your customersā or prospectsā inboxes. During a high-intensity period like BFCM, brands may be tempted to multiply their messaging, often at the expense of quality. Keep in mind that two-thirds of respondents unsubscribe from email campaigns due to receiving too many messages.*
This is especially "easy" for brands to address, as BFCM is no longer as "last-minute" as it used to be: 60% of e-consumers do their holiday shopping during October-November, primarily to avoid the BFCM-December rush. Could this signal the end of the traditional BFCM model as we knew it?!
My take: BFCM has already started! š
*Iāve personally experienced this with a home segment brand (which shall remain unnamed) that sent me 39 emails in 22 days (I unsubscribed on the 22nd day). Thatās roughly 1.8 emails per day ā¦ and without a shred of personalization.
š Mobile Apps Have Never Been More Powerful: If youāve been following this newsletter since episode one, you already know my strong attachment to the mobile app model (weāve talked about Makappi several times, and this study was spearheaded by Tapcart). So, I couldnāt summarize this report without highlighting apps as a growth engine for brands and, in the context of BFCM, as a major consumption channel for e-consumers.
81% of them plan to use at least one mobile app for their BFCM shopping (vs. 68% in 2023), compared to 57% via a mobile browser (vs. 71% in 2023). The reasons? A smoother and faster shopping experience, enhanced personalization, more features, and access to VIP offers.
š„µ Shipping Costs as the #1 Cause of Cart Abandonment: While BFCM is the perfect opportunity for brands to offer a seamless shopping experience to loyal customers and new consumers, one detail often dampens the excitement of an "impulse" purchase: high shipping costs. For two-thirds of respondents, excessive shipping fees are the primary reason for cart abandonment, even more so than slower purchase processes.
This is particularly true in the French market, where free shipping has become the norm (unlike returns, which are increasingly being charged again by many brands), especially for pick-up points. In France, Shopify also found that 78% of consumers are willing to buy more to qualify for free shipping!
This is, once again, a summary of some key points covered in the study. To read it in full or explore the sections that interest you, feel free to click below (fair warning: you might spend a lot of time there!). š
Bonus : ideal checkout !
In the era of constant optimization, one piece of content has especially caught my attention as the year comes to a close: a checklist for the ideal checkout, created by Payplug and 11 other teams, including Loyoly, Axome, Wisepops, and Socloz.
This is a little goldmine packed with (almost) immediately actionable advice on key topics like:
Shipping options (CO2-neutral, express, or pick-up points)
Shopping experience tied to stock availability
Page load speed (FYI: 53% of users leave a page if it takes more than 3 seconds to load)
Cross-selling and upselling in the age of ultra-personalization
In short, itās a real masterclass! And you can find it right here š (content in FR)
