Black Friday is just around the corner. Are your apps up to the task?

In 2021, over 165 million customers shopped online during Black Friday and Cyber Monday, with the weeks leading up to Black Friday also showing record high online sales. In fact, 63% of shoppers reportedly take advantage of pre-Thanksgiving sales leading up to Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

The numbers show that it is more important than ever for retailers to prepare for these periods of exceptionally high traffic and sales by ensuring their customers enjoy a user-friendly shopping experience free from site outages, slow loading times, or glitches.

In partnership with Dynata, we surveyed a group of users to determine what they most valued in their online and mobile shopping experience to identify Black Friday trends. Here is what they had to say about shopping during the busiest online retail season of the year.

Holiday Shopping Online Still Integral to Black Friday & Cyber Monday

According to the survey, at least 59% of customers shop for holiday gifts online and from mobile apps, with just 1% of respondents relying on paper catalogs. 

Respondents were 51% male and 49% female, with a relatively even distribution among age groups, ranging from 18-24 through 65+. With this continued focus on online holiday shopping, testers must ensure that their applications are ready for this peak event season.  

How customers shop for holiday gifts

Black Friday Trends: Convenience is Key to Online Shopping 

When asked why they prefer to shop online or through mobile apps, convenience beat out other reasons hands down.   

41% of respondents also noted that they are employed full time, so convenience is a major factor in their shopping habits. 

If you shop online or on mobile apps, what are the reasons you do so?  

Black Friday Trends: Fast Load Times Essential to Black Friday Success 

Customers report that the most frustrating experience when shopping online or through a mobile app is slow load time. 

Top factors that frustrate Black Friday customers

Other factors that frustrate customers include images not loading properly and items in their shopping cart disappearing. 

Load Test Your App Prior to Black Friday

Every year, retailers that are not prepared for increased Black Friday traffic experience crashes or slow load times, which drives customers to their competition. To alleviate this issue while enjoying a lucrative Black Friday, start load testing your app today.

Load testing helps you catch bottlenecks early on while simulating real-world scenarios, such as high Black Friday traffic, and ensures that your customers have a high-quality shopping experience.

Black Friday Trends: 31% of customers believe that a website or mobile app should never crash

Seamless shopping is not just a lofty wish for customers during Black Friday – it is an absolute must. 86% of customers believe a site should never crash, but if a crash does occur, it should be resolved within minutes or even seconds. 

28% of shoppers also reported that it would take two site crashes to make them throw their phone against a wall. 

Slow Applications Lead to Loss in Revenue 

78% of customers are very or somewhat likely to take their business elsewhere if a mobile app crashes or is too slow.  

Approximately 72% of customers are most frustrated by product images not loading and items in their cart disappearing prior to checkout, second only to slow load time. 

If items in their shopping cart disappear prior to checkout, 31% reported that they would take their business elsewhere. 

Security & Availability Important to Black Friday Shoppers

The most important features for customers in their online or mobile shopping experience are a safe and secure checkout process and that items in their cart are fully stocked.  

What customers value in their shopping experience

In addition, shoppers highly value a seamless user experience with fast load times, accurate coupon codes, easy address entry, and consistency across platforms.