Navigating Black Friday and Cyber Monday with inai Observe: Real-Time Insights for a Seamless Holiday Sales Season

As the holiday season nears, the annual excitement for Black Friday and Cyber Monday is building. Shoppers eagerly await discounts, while businesses brace for one of the busiest—and most challenging—shopping weekends of the year. These events kick off the festive season with a surge in online transactions that can be a game-changer for retailers, often comprising a substantial portion of annual revenue. Yet, they also bring a unique set of operational demands, especially around payments.

In 2023, Stripe processed over $18.6 billion in transactions during the Black Friday-Cyber Monday period alone, handling 300 million transactions and a peak of 93,304 transactions per minute, demonstrating the intense traffic these events generate. Mobile shopping continues to dominate, making up nearly 80% of e-commerce traffic, with over 90 million U.S. shoppers taking part online on Black Friday alone.

However, the complexity doesn’t stop at transaction volume. As Black Friday and Cyber Monday have grown into global events, businesses must handle high cross-border purchasing volumes, manage various payment methods from credit cards to buy-now-pay-later options, and navigate fluctuating fraud risks. Real-time insights and optimization tools like inai’s Observe platform can empower businesses to manage these surges, prevent payment failures, and ensure a smooth customer experience by delivering actionable data on transaction patterns, payment method trends, and regional variations. Here’s how retailers can leverage this data-driven tool to turn potential holiday hurdles into successful outcomes.

The Joy and Strain of Black Friday and Cyber Monday: How Data Can Maximize Profitability

The holiday season starts with a bang, and for retailers, Black Friday and Cyber Monday are major revenue drivers. In fact, Shopify reported record sales from Thanksgiving Day through Cyber Monday, with 52 million consumers globally spending $7.5 billion on Shopify merchants, a 19% increase over last year, as mentioned in Forbes. While spending this year is anticipated to be record-breaking, estimated at over $20 billion on Black Friday alone—this period brings unique operational challenges, particularly in payments and fraud prevention. In 2023 alone, a record-setting $9.12 billion was spent online in the US, indicating the continued dominance of e-commerce in driving sales during the event.

The holiday season starts with a bang, and for retailers, Black Friday and Cyber Monday are major revenue drivers. In fact, Shopify reported record sales from Thanksgiving Day through Cyber Monday, with 52 million consumers globally spending $7.5 billion on Shopify merchants, a 19% increase over last year, as mentioned in Forbes. While spending this year is anticipated to be record-breaking, estimated at over $20 billion on Black Friday alone—this period brings unique operational challenges, particularly in payments and fraud prevention. In 2023 alone, a record-setting $9.12 billion was spent online in the US, indicating the continued dominance of e-commerce in driving sales during the event.

Key Challenges During High-Volume Sales Events

• Skyrocketing Volumes: Transaction volumes surge, and for many retailers, the increase can reach 500% or more, often overwhelming payment systems with more consumers opting for Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) options due to economic constraints.
• Failed Transactions: On average, 10% of online transactions fail, leading to abandoned carts and significant revenue loss, according to PYMNTS Intelligence and up to 80% of merchants struggle to identify the reasons behind these issues.
• Fraud Spikes: During high-traffic days, fraud attempts increase by up to 30%, especially for cross-border payments, which see 72% higher failure rates than domestic transactions.
• False Declines: Overly rigid fraud filters contribute to lost sales by incorrectly flagging legitimate transactions—each false decline potentially costing retailers 5% of their total revenue.
• Payment Downtime and Processing Issues: Even slight system downtimes can have costly impacts. In fact, some reports estimate that IT downtime can cost businesses up to $700 billion annually. 
  
  

How Observe Can Help: Real-Time Alerts, Insights, and Data-Driven Strategies

This is where Observe comes into play. Observe is a powerful tool that provides retailers with real-time data, actionable insights, and the flexibility to adjust to the unique demands of high-traffic sales events. With Observe, merchants can monitor and manage transaction trends, detect anomalies, and respond to surges in payment volumes without the fear of tripping over rigid fraud rules.

Key Features of Observe for Black Friday

Here’s how inai Observe helps retailers during Black Friday:

1. Real-Time Anomaly Detection: Observe provides instant alerts on unusual transaction activity. When volumes surge or patterns change, retailers are immediately informed, enabling them to respond to issues such as sudden payment delays or high failure rates. With real-time insights, they can take prompt action to minimize customer frustration and prevent potential sales loss.
2. Seasonal and Volume Trends Insights: Observe enables retailers to analyze historical data and identify key seasonal trends. By comparing performance across past years, businesses can be better prepared for surges in volume and ensure volume based fraud rules are configured correctly.
3. Enhanced Customer Understanding: Observe helps retailers identify which payment methods customers prefer across various brands and regions. This insight allows businesses to adjust checkout processes and payment options, such as buy-now-pay-later (BNPL), in alignment with customer preferences, transforming operational insights into strategic advantages.
4. Optimized Payment Routing and Load Balancing: Observe enables retailers to monitor and analyze key payment KPIs, including authorization rates, order-level success, and 3D Secure performance. With detailed insights into how each Payment Service Provider (PSP) performs under high-volume conditions, retailers can dynamically balance their load, enhancing payment reliability during peak times.
5. Granular Error Pattern Analysis: Observe not only detects payment failures but also reveals root causes—be it customer input errors, gateway issues, or technical issues at merchant level. With actionable insights based on your errors, merchants can take pro-active steps to reduce payment failures.
6. Refined Retry Strategies for Declines: With soft declines accounting for roughly 80% of payment failures typically caused by minor issues such as insufficient account balances, card limits, and network problems, a well-optimized retry strategy can significantly improve revenue. Observe allows retailers to analyze the frequency and type of declines, making it easier to implement targeted retry strategies and recover sales that would otherwise be lost.
7. 3D Secure (3DS) Authentication Failures: With around 35-45% of online transactions involving 3DS authentication during Black Friday, failure rates spiked due to network timeouts or authentication errors. By tracking these patterns over multiple seasons, Observe can highlight where and when 3DS failure rates peak, enabling merchants to implement adaptive authentication strategies and minimize friction during the payment process.
   
   

Why Choose Observe: The Essential Edge in Payment Performance for Black Friday Success

In the crowded field of payment monitoring solutions, Observe by inai offers unique benefits that make it invaluable during high-stakes sales events like Black Friday:

• Comprehensive Real-Time Monitoring: With Observe, you’re never in the dark about what’s happening on your platform. You get real-time visibility into every transaction and can make quick adjustments to manage spikes and address issues.
• Detailed Data driven Insights: Observe’s robust reporting capabilities provide insights into transaction trends, fraud risks, and payment errors, enabling smarter, data-driven decisions.
• Proactive Issue Resolution: The ability to identify and resolve transaction issues before they impact customer experience or profitability is a game-changer. Observing patterns and setting up alerts helps teams stay ahead.

In conclusion, the Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales events bring unparalleled opportunities and challenges for businesses. As payment complexities and fraud risks escalate, having a tool like inai Observe in your arsenal can make a world of difference. From real-time alerts and actionable insights to improving payment acceptance rates, Observe equips retailers to handle high traffic and ensure customer satisfaction. By staying agile and data-informed, businesses can navigate the holiday season successfully and keep the festive spirit alive.

Book Your Demo and Unlock a Free 7-Day Trial for Unmatched Payment Insights!
Get Started with Observe