Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BF/CM) are upon us—and with them comes the most chaotic time of the year for ecommerce businesses. Remember that scene in “Jingle All the Way” where Arnold Schwarzenegger loses his mind because he missed the Turbo-Man train? That’s how many brands feel on Black Friday: “I have no idea what just happened!”

But you don’t need to feel complete despair. Microsoft Clarity gives you the tools to navigate and optimize your website for BF/CM, helping you make sense of the madness.

Why Clarity is Essential for BF/CM

During BF/CM, your website will likely experience:

• Increased Traffic: More visitors means more potential issues
• Higher Stakes: Small UX problems can lead to significant revenue loss
• Increased demand: This traffic is not the normal traffic that your site gets the rest of the year…these users are ready to buy!. 

Microsoft Clarity equips you with the tools to navigate these challenges and opportunities effectively.

Key E-commerce Features to Leverage

1. Leverage Real-Time Data 

The most important thing you can have on BF/CM is real-time monitoring so you can catch site issues immediately. Clarity provides a complete picture of what’s happening on your site in real-time, making it much quicker to find and fix issues.

Clarity highlights critical issues like:

• Dead Clicks:: Users clicking on non-interactive elements
• Rage Clicks: The digital equivalent of someone punching your website in the face. 
• Quick backs: Pages where people click to and then immediately go back. 

Use these insights to find a way to fix issues as they are occurring instead of in hindsight. 

2. Use Heatmaps to Optimize Landing Pages Before the Big Weekend

Identify where users are clicking and how far they’re scrolling on key landing pages:

• Optimize Call-to-Actions: Ensure your CTAs are placed where they’re most likely to be seen and clicked.
• Enhance Product Listings: See which items are attracting the most attention adjust promotions accordingly
• Filter by smart purchases: Track what successful shoppers are interacting with and highlight those features

Address these promptly and proactively to enhance user satisfaction and boost sales.

3. Build Funnels to understand drop off.

Track the user journey from entry to purchase:

• Identify Drop-offs: Pinpoint where users are abandoning before purchase
• Study these pages to determine areas for improvement

4.Use Include/Exclude Smart Events to Define Key Segments

• Define a key segment: Create an “add-to-cart but no purchase” segment to identify conversion roadblocks
• Find additional info about type of user:  Let Copilot summarize trends or provide insight via chat about these users (device preferences, traffic sources, etc.) to understand if certain types of users are having particular issues

5. Monitor Campaign Performance:

• Leverage UTM filters & smart events to get a quick glance at how campaigns are performing on the big days
• Use real-time campaign data to quickly pivot marketing efforts

Conclusion

Black Friday and Cyber Monday are critical for e-commerce success. By leveraging Microsoft Clarity, you gain actionable insights that can significantly enhance user experience and conversion rates during a critical time of year. You got this! See you on the other side!