Black Friday and Cyber Monday Customer Communications Become More Conversational

• Infobip sees year-on-year growth for both Black Friday and Cyber Monday recording 2.36 billion and 2.12 billion interactions respectively on its platform

• Data from Infobip’s communications platform highlights the growing importance of conversational experiences on both days

• US market is key driver of increased traffic

Research from global cloud communications platform Infobip shows that Black Friday and Cyber Monday interactions on its platform reached new highs this year, as rich conversational channels become important for customer communications. Black Friday interactions increased to 2.36 billion this year. Cyber Monday interactions to 2.12 billion.

Infobip’s analysis shows a 112% increase in multimedia messaging (MMS) and a 10% increase in WhatsApp interactions on Black Friday compared to a typical November Friday this year. Meanwhile, MMS and WhatsApp interactions increased by 120% and 13%, respectively on Cyber Monday compared to a typical Monday in November.

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“Our insights demonstrate that sectors worldwide now want to offer their customers more conversational experiences when it matters. But to offer such experiences, businesses and brands must first embed global real-time omnichannel communications to create meaningful relationships that boost loyalty and drive sales.”

Interactions on both days reached new highs this year as businesses and brands messaged their customers earlier to drive sales. Highlighting the continued popularity of the promotional days, Black Friday interactions were up 48% compared to an average Friday in November. Cyber Monday interactions increased by 44% compared to an average Monday in the same month.

The U.S. was the main driver of growth, where interactions increased 66% on Black Friday and 65% on Cyber Monday compared to 2021.

Ivan Ostojić, Chief Business Officer at Infobip, said: “Our data shows that businesses and brands increasingly favor rich and more conversational communications channels to communicate with their customers across Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Conversational experiences and same-day sales offers drove an increase in multimedia, chat app, and mobile app interactions. Meanwhile, in the year of its 30^th anniversary, SMS continues to remain a critical channel, especially on Black Friday itself.

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“This year, we focused on increasing our presence in the U.S., which is visible in the uplift Black Friday and Cyber Monday interactions in the region. We made growth possible by understanding customer needs and enabling enterprise customers to drive meaningful communication through our platform, supported by U.S. operators providing on-time delivery capacity.”

Infobip’s research also shows brands can achieve conversion rates as high as 39% through marketing automation across multiple channels. This can be attributed to messaging channels which have much higher open rates than some others. For instance, consumers open some 98% of all SMS messages.

Infobip’s analysis also highlights the trend towards conversational experiences across a range of sectors:

• Chat apps increased 101% year-on-year on Black Friday and 192% on Cyber Monday in the media and entertainment industry in India
• Chat apps increased 123% year-on-year on Cyber Monday in the finance sector in Asia Pacific
• Mobile app messaging increased 91% year-on-year on Black Friday in the finance sector globally
• In North America, multimedia messaging increased by 113% compared to 2021 on Black Friday and 141% on Cyber Monday in the marketing and advertising services sector

Goran Juršić, Vice-President of Business Intelligence at Infobip, continued: “Our insights demonstrate that sectors worldwide now want to offer their customers more conversational experiences when it matters. But to offer such experiences, businesses and brands must first embed global real-time omnichannel communications to create meaningful relationships that boost loyalty and drive sales.”