In 2024, two out of three holiday shoppers will opt for the convenience of online shopping over a trip to their local shopping center — especially during BFCM season. 

Consumer expectations have fundamentally evolved to prioritize convenience, personalization, and intuitive experiences like never before. That said, mobile apps are uniquely positioned to deliver on these expectations (even more than websites). 

Now more than ever, companies must prioritize mobile-friendly interfaces and personalized user experiences to stay competitive. 

81% of consumers plan to do BFCM shopping in-app this year

The truth is that mobile shopping apps are overwhelmingly the top choice for holiday shoppers. 81% of consumers plan to use mobile shopping apps during BFCM 2024, compared to 68% just last year. 

Why? This mobile shopping app is built for convenience and personalization. 

Centralized and immediately accessible content encourages customers to shop more frequently. Customers can create profiles and wishlists, monitor rewards and exclusive offers, and get personalized recommendations to make them feel like VIPs.

Last year’s post-BFCM insights revealed that the largest driver of online BFCM sales came through mobile devices, accounting for $5.3 billion of all sales — a 10% increase from 2022. What does that mean for this year? As we approach the BFCM season, all eyes will be on your mobile offerings. 

In other words, customers expect you to deliver top-notch mobile CX and mobile marketing strategy. Without it, you're leaving revenue on the table.

Now is the perfect time to launch an app—before BFCM

Now is the perfect time to take your mobile strategy to the next level with your own app, especially as BFCM approaches. No need for a massive dev team anymore — launching an app is quicker and easier than ever.

But, why? Nosto’s analysis of Cyber Weekend in 2023 found that shoppers took considerably longer to make purchasing decisions last year, viewing 22% more pages per visit and spending 10% longer on each page.

‍Ecommerce brands should ensure they can support shoppers' more thoughtful purchasing decisions. By this, we mean putting things in place to help shoppers discover products and find relevant items. Mobile apps are one of the best ways to offer these experiences. 

You’ll unlock a direct line to engage with your best customers just before the holiday rush. Shoppers are actively seeking deals and getting excited about brands, making this the perfect chance to drive app downloads and grow your list of subscribers. App users tend to deliver higher AOV, CVR, and LTV, which means long-term revenue gains.

Sunday Swagger saw this firsthand when they introduced an app-exclusive offer just 10 days before Black Friday, leading to a big boost in downloads.

The results didn’t stop with sales. They saw daily active users jump by 82%, sessions increase by 107%, and a 25% rise in conversion rates within the app. These users have stayed engaged, laying the foundation for even more growth in the future.

Mobile apps combat BFCM's high-pressure and volume traffic

Traffic spikes are what we want to see…but heavy traffic can lead to poor load time and website malfunctions. The load time benchmark for an ecommerce website is two seconds. Any higher, and you risk losing a sale rises to 87%. Here is where a mobile app steps in.

Shopify brands like Obvi kept sales moving when their website unexpectedly crashed. Ron Shah, CEO of Obvi, told us they “diverted everyone to the mobile app because it was our only sales channel that was still up and running. This shows the sustainability of having two platforms during BFCM.”

Key takeaway? A mobile app can deliver against the inevitable BFCM volume traffic and be a backup to continue driving sales in case your website crashes.

6 Ways to craft personalized mobile campaigns for holiday success

Creating a mobile app is one piece of the puzzle. The second is driving shoppers to use it. Here are six ways you can do that:

Drive mobile app downloads now

Current innovative brands use their mobile app as an integral part of their BFCM strategies by driving app downloads to maximize LTV beyond the revenue spike.

With this in mind, focusing on delivering a VIP experience through your app is essential. Take Naked Harvest, for example: they made their app a central channel for engaging their most loyal customers. As a result, they saw a 25% higher AOV on the app versus their website, a 142% boost in conversion rates, and a 272% increase in revenue per session.

What do these numbers tell us? App users are significantly more valuable. They spend more, convert at higher rates, and engage more frequently, directly strengthening customer retention, loyalty, and community-building efforts. This personalized, app-driven experience makes customers feel special, encouraging them to stay connected with the brand for the long haul.

You can also create similar offers to drive app downloads like Naked Harvest did. Here are some ideas: 

• Offer early access to your top-selling items. With push notifications, you can easily notify these VIP customers about the early-access deals. Since 40% of shoppers have purchased directly from a push notification for a mobile app, this method works well to drive app downloads and purchases closely afterward.
• Drop app-exclusive products and collections. You can make these offers even more enticing by announcing limited stock. This is a great way to build FOMO, especially with loyal customers who want to download your app to access those products before they sell out. 
• Post flash sales, promotions, and discounts — especially for BFCM. These drive sales and increase app downloads when you promote them across other channels like email, SMS, and social media.
• Provide unique branded content on your app, like videos, lookbooks, how-to guides, recipes, and editorial content. These content plays make buying the app more seamless for shoppers, which is a good reason to download your app versus purchasing from a mobile browser. 
• Host app-exclusive sweepstakes and giveaways for bigger prizes (like LSKD’s Car Giveaway, which helped drive 40% of their total BFCM sales in 2023 from their mobile app alone). 

Tap into your customer’s psychology and buying intent

48% of shoppers say they feel primarily excited about  BFCM. Fundamentally, the thrill of finding a great deal during BFCM inspires emotional and sentimental responses in shoppers, significantly impacting their shopping behaviors. 

We found that roughly 63% of respondents are more likely to pay attention to marketing messages during Black Friday, a trend consistent across generations. This calls for the need to tap into the consumer’s mind. So, how do you tap in? 

Step one: Create the right offers

Discounts are shoppers’ favorite promotional offers, followed by BOGO deals. About two-thirds of respondents state they would need a discount in the 20%-35% range to consider making a purchase, with older generations more likely to be swayed by a discount on the lower end of this range.

But if deep discounts aren't feasible for your brand, no worries. There are plenty of other effective incentives you can experiment with, such as buy-one-get-one-free offers, tiered discounts (where the savings increase as the customer spends more), or earning store credit on purchases. 

You can also create excitement by offering early access to new product launches or rewarding customers with extra loyalty points for every purchase. These strategies help drive purchases while fostering loyalty, creating a win-win for you and your customers.

Step two: Find your customers’ BFCM trigger events

People make purchases based on emotion — a life event typically triggers these. Sarah Levinger, an ads consultant for consumer brands, explains how she calls these “Trigger Events.” Every journey with a customer starts with a reason, which could be life transitions (like getting married), seasonal changes (like BFCM), pain points (like skincare issues), or reminder ads (like retargeting strategies). 

Step three: Send intentional, value-packed messages

According to Yotpo, nearly 40% of customers are unhappy with impersonal text messages. Crafting targeted messages based on customer data allows you to identify the products they will most likely purchase based on their past behavior. Sending tailored product recommendations encourages customers to explore new product drops and makes them feel valued.

Take advantage of any opportunity to send push notifications

Simple push notifications outperform other channels in driving purchases and converting more efficiently than SMS and social and online ads. 

In fact, our research shows that customers are more likely to make a purchase when offered a deal through a mobile app compared to other channels. 

Our research highlights that push notifications are particularly effective, outperforming other methods like SMS, social media, and online ads when it comes to driving conversions.

On average, 40% of shoppers have purchased directly from a push notification on a mobile app. In particular, 52% of Gen Z respondents are motivated by push notifications, beating out print, SMS, and influencer content.

Shoppers also report that mobile app push notifications are 127.2% more likely to result in a purchase compared to paid ads, 20.7% more likely than SMS, and 124.8% more likely than email. These stats clearly show the power of push notifications in reaching and motivating customers, making them a key tool for boosting sales through your app.

You can send pushes at every point in the conversion funnel, including

• Leading up to the promotion as a reminder
• Before the sale ends to drive urgency
• After purchasing, to act as a thank you 
• When a customer abandons their cart
• After a customer spends time browsing but leaves without purchasing

That’s the great thing about push marketing: it’s quite easy to deploy so that you can react quickly to your customer’s behavior.

Use push notifications for on-brand, experimental touchpoints (don’t just sell)

Keep your brand top of mind by using a blend of transactional and non-transactional push notifications to keep your content rich and engaging.

Here’s a quick breakdown:

• Transactional push notifications are centered around promoting your BFCM offers and instilling urgency, nudging users to seize these time-sensitive deals. 
• Non-transactional pushes are more about amplifying your brand's voice—whether it's sharing an inspiring message, highlighting your brand's ethos, or simply sending a friendly “hey.”

During the holidays, customers get an overwhelming amount of transactional messages across push, SMS, and email. That’s why using a blend offers relief to all the messages about sales and gives shoppers something interesting to engage with. 

Encourage using wishlists because shoppers browse well in advance

Shoppers are eager to start their holiday shopping in October and November, and 44% of shoppers plan their Black Friday purchases more than a week in advance. Promoting wishlists a few days to two weeks before the holiday rush can help customers plan ahead.

We found that running an app-exclusive “win your wishlist” campaign is a cost-effective way to engage shoppers to plan and drive app downloads simultaneously. Here’s how:

• Push an app-exclusive giveaway where users get certain perks by using the wishlist feature. 
• Have app users screenshot their wishlist and tag you on social to pick a winner — and announce that winner via push. 
• Continue to engage with these new customers after the holiday shopping season. 

With all this done, you’ve built a ton of acquisition through word-of-mouth from social shares and directed buyers to a new channel.

Get your mobile design BFCM-ready

To make your app design stand out during the shopping season, update your branding with a BFCM theme to excite customers. These branded experiences can easily be created in Tapcart via Custom Blocks.

Custom Blocks is a low-code tool for building custom app experiences via HTML, CSS, and Javascript. A few popular BFCM app experiences include 

• Adding a free shipping progress bar
• Showcasing shipping protection
• Sharing how-to guides directly
• Placing a countdown timer to create urgency around your offers

Take a look at ASRV, who used Custom Blocks to strategically create a branded countdown time on the PDP and PLP. 

When the sale was about to launch, they promoted the app exclusives with push notifications — one early access push saw a 30% open rate, $163k in sales, 3.7% CVR, and 691 orders.

Similarly, Brown Sugar Babe used a personalized "Build a Box" Custom Block and a gift-with-purchase strategy to exceed customer’s expectations. They used the Gorgias in-app help desk to improve customer satisfaction. 

In total, this campaign resulted in $73,000 in-app sales on the first day and $275,000 in new-app sales over the week.

Bonus: Implement an AI agent like Gorgias in your mobile app for extra conversions

Stemming from live chat features, on-site campaigns allow customer success teams to be more proactive about helping buyers discover the best products and promote products and offers at key times in the buyer’s journey. 

These campaigns typically include:

• Recommending complementary products or upgrades based on the customer's current cart selection.
• Capitalizing on the excitement of new product launches to capture the attention of browsers.
• Sending targeted holiday campaigns around seasonal trends and shopper preferences to drive conversions.

This strategy can be especially impactful when applied to mobile apps, where shoppers tend to have higher intent and LTV. Brands using an AI agent saw email automation rates rise by 30%, freeing CX teams to focus on more personalized support, leading to happier customers and faster resolution times.

Want to learn more? read more 😉

This holiday season, sentiments are high, and so are consumers' budgets. 

What else is in store for BFCM 2024? We don’t have a list of predictions, we have insights given to us directly from shoppers themselves on how they plan to engage with brands this holiday season.

Check out the full 2024 BFCM report here. 

Launch an app in time for BFCM

Now is the perfect time to perfect your mobile strategy with your app and engage with your top customers right in time for the holiday season. Not to mention, tap into a new community of app users that you can effectively engage for 2025

Check out Volcom’s recent strategy, for instance. After promoting its app for only a few weeks with tailored BFCM push notifications, it increased its total in-app sales by 1,290%. 

The TLDR? Your consumers are on mobile and expect an elevated shopping experience that makes staying close to your brand convenient. And you still have tons of time to get started. With Tapcart, you can launch an app in under 10 days. Get started here.