Is Your Shopping Cart Software Ready for Black Friday Sales 2022?

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There’s much to be thankful for this weekend as Black Friday sales 2022 begin.

Based on a press release from the National Retail Foundation (NRF), an estimated 166.3 million people are planning to shop from Thanksgiving Day through Cyber Monday. The figure is almost 8 million more than the previous year’s estimate and is the highest since the NRF began tracking this data in 2017. That means businesses can expect healthy sales despite rising inflation.

Black Friday, the traditional day of discounted shopping, continues to be the most popular day to shop, with 69% (114.9 million) planning to shop then. Fifty-nine percent of consumers still preferred to shop during this day because deals are too good to pass. Meanwhile, 27% said it’s because of tradition and 22% said it’s something to do over the holiday.

NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay said that they’re optimistic that retail sales will remain strong in the weeks ahead. This is due to a lot of consumers doing the bulk of their holiday shopping in November and December. The foundation estimates retail sales during these months to reach between $942.6 billion and $960.4 billion.

Moreover, ecommerce will also contribute to robust Black Friday sales online. The NRF estimates online and other non-store sales to make up between $262.8 billion and $267.6 billion of the total retail sales.

Shopping Cart Software to Maximize Black Friday Sales

With consumers ready to spend on Black Friday, businesses would not want to miss out on online sales because of a lack of preparation. On top of a fast and well-functioning website, businesses would also benefit from their shopping cart software. Not only does shopping cart software enable customers to store and manage their orders, but it also streamlines checkout; thus, enhancing the online buying experience and driving revenue.

Multiple Payment Options

Moreover, businesses can also use their shopping cart software to reduce cart abandonment. This is an important issue to consider since shopping cart abandonment during Black Friday 2021 was at 76%. One of the features that can help is the payment method options.

Sites that don’t offer different payment options could easily turn off shoppers. While credit cards are popular, more and more customers are getting comfortable with using digital wallets like PayPal. With shopping cart software, e-commerce stores can collect payments from multiple sources. They can process credit cards, connect to bank accounts, work with payment gateways, and process invoices at the same time. Additionally, ecommerce stores can cater to shoppers outside of the country as the software can display prices in different currencies.

Online Payment Security

Connected to online payments is security. Shopping cart software provides features to protect customer information and purchases. Examples of security features include an SSL certificate, 256-bit encryption, and PCI Compliance Level 1. Businesses need to have the tools to protect their online shoppers since cybercrime statistics show that more than 50% of all cyberattacks target small- to medium-sized enterprises.

Marketing Functionalities

Shopping cart software also comes with marketing functionalities. Aside from enabling shoppers to use promotional and discount coupons, it can also upsell items on the online store before the customer proceeds to pay.

If customers do end up not completing their checkout, businesses can still rely on shopping cart software to win back some of those sales. That’s through form abandonment features that enable the software to capture partial entries on order forms. Online stores can use the information to send automatic form abandonment emails. Since there could be many reasons why a customer suddenly abandons their cart, having a way to invite them back to the website is a valuable strategy for maximizing sales.

Mobile Optimization

Businesses must not forget to optimize their shopping cart software for mobile users. That’s because ecommerce statistics indicate that 68% of American online shoppers make their purchases on their smartphones. If tabs, text, or buttons become tiny on mobile devices, or if customers need to scroll horizontally, chances are they’ll not continue with their purchase, resulting in a loss of sales for the business.