The Technology Behind Black Friday Deals

As our inboxes start to bulge with the deluge of marketing messages, many are already beginning to experience Black Friday fatigue. While marketers and business leaders pat themselves on the back for another successful campaign, tech-savvy consumers are creating mail rules to send any message containing “Black Friday” directly to their junk folder. The problem is that customers now expect a little more than a generic email with Black Friday in the subject. The big question shoppers are asking is, what's in it for me? If Netflix and Spotify know how entertainment preferences and Amazon knows what items we might want to buy, why are we still getting a marketing message containing products that we have little interest in? Technology is now at the heart of every customer touch point. While consumers prepare to satisfy their insatiable desire for a bargain, the reputation of the world's biggest brands is heavily reliant on technology. For the busiest shopping day of the year to be a success, a website must work quickly and seamlessly without interruption. Digital audiences have little regard for how complex systems will work when faced with ten times more visitors. They just expect it to work. Any break in connectivity or change in the speed of a transaction on an already overloaded website is catastrophic. Essentially, its the modern equivalent of bringing the shutters down of your store on the busiest day of the year. Behind the scenes, many have invested in content delivery networks (CDN) to reduce load times. But this is only one example of how technology is the real day of the day. IBM AI Powered Ads These rises in expectations from consumers are forcing marketers to think a little differently and embrace new technologies. For example, IBM recently announced that its latest AI-powered interactive ads will be used by LEGO Systems. The ads are aiming to recommend the right gift set to the right holiday shoppers using technology. Many brands will be watching from the sidelines to see if hyper-personalization and actionable insights can deliver tangible results rather than just more hype. Lego is joining a long list of household names such as Lufthansa, Best Western, and TruGreen that are all bravely navigating unchartered digital waters to secure an early competitive advantage. Only time will tell if this emerging technology impacted their Black Friday sales. 71% of brands are still relying on generic marketing messages. But there is a realization in the industry that they need to do something different to stand out from the advertising clutter online. The problem is that we are only just learning how these new technologies can make the dream of personalized, targeted messaging across every touchpoint a reality. Eye Level Is Buy Level Every marketer or web designer knows that a website has under three seconds to grab a users attention. Any form of friction will result in your target and audience going elsewhere. But, once again there is an increasing number of tools that are helping brands test the user experience of their digital products and services. H&M turned to Tobii Pro Sprint's eye tracking platform to create a clear path of purchase for online shoppers and to validate design decisions on their site. The company are also using similar eye-tracking technology on online banking portals, music, and video streaming services, work portals, and believe it can transform any digital product or service By tracking eye movements when testing websites, businesses can discover how users visually navigate the digital interface. The platform not only highlights what our eyes notice or what they ignore, but also areas where users encounter friction points as well as the things they see or ignore, the areas they get stuck on, and where they naturally gravitate to. The eye tracking company are on a mission to ensure that technology works in harmony alongside natural human behavior. The technology enables companies to pinpoint potential causes or indicators of usability issues when working on software applications and websites. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZvLDWPjGg0 The use of smartphones to make purchases online in the holiday season is unsurprisingly up 44% compared to last year. Welcome to a new digital age of the always-on mobile shopper. Digital natives are increasingly checking their mobile devices for bargains throughout the day. Shoppers are increasingly attracted by discounts, sales, personalization and the convenience of doing it all from their mobile device in any location. How marketers leverage technology to create unique mobile experiences that deliver these minimum requirements is paramount. Delivering the wow factor and remaining online will determine how successful retailers are during the holiday season. Meanwhile, marketers are faced with both challenges and opportunities of how to engage with the always-on customer without being creepy.

Software/Technology

The Technology Behind Black Friday Deals

Neil Hughes

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Neil Hughes