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Campaigns, AI

Do this now for BFCM, while it's still quiet

Your busiest weekend of the year is also your CX team's worst. Last BFCM weekend, Shopper conversations more than doubled compared to October. Conversion rate rose 37%, earnings per message rose 77%, and Shopper resolved 91% of conversations without a human stepping in.

[VIDEO: Shopper, Laura]

To get that this year, set it up by early November. That means now.

  1. Sync your offers. Add every BFCM offer in Offer Management and turn on "Available for AI." Shopper can only talk about offers it knows exist.

  2. Set your BFCM tone. Raise urgency and offer frequency in Brand Center. Then put a reminder on your calendar for Tuesday, Dec 1 to dial them back, because these settings don't reset automatically.

  3. Pre-build and test. Load your Infinity Testing generations ahead of time, and run your key offers through Shopper Playground.

Then decide how your messages will travel. BFCM weekend is rush hour for text messages, and MMS is the guy towing a boat.

[VIDEO: SMS Only, Laura]

From Nov 24 to Dec 1, send SMS instead of MMS so your messages get through faster, and keep time-sensitive language out of your copy in case carriers run behind. If you want visuals, use RCS: it runs over data rather than carrier paths, and last BFCM weekend it beat SMS by 22% on unique click-through and 10% on EPM. Activate it in the app by Nov 20, with SMS set as your fallback.

tl;dr Set up Shopper and your delivery settings by early November. Last BFCM weekend, Shopper conversations more than doubled, conversion rate rose 37%, and 91% of conversations resolved without a human. From Nov 24 to Dec 1, send SMS instead of MMS, and activate RCS by Nov 20 with SMS as the fallback.

  • FAQ:

    • Should I send SMS or MMS during BFCM?

      SMS. It gets through faster and more reliably when every brand is sending at once. Use RCS for visuals, with SMS as the fallback.

    • Does RCS perform better than SMS?

      Last BFCM weekend, RCS beat SMS by 22% on unique click-through rate and 10% on earnings per message.

    • How did AI shopping assistants perform during BFCM?

      Shopper conversations rose 127% per day versus October, conversion rate rose 37%, and earnings per message rose 77%.

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