eCommerce brands see an average of 79% increase in support tickets in the first week of December.
We looked at support ticket data from 10 eCommerce brands to identify how much of a ticket spike companies can expect during the holiday shopping period, both across all industries and then for three industries in particular: fashion, consumer tech, and home furnishings.
Here are some of the highlights from the first week in December:
- Brands on average see a 79% weekly increase in support tickets
- Fashion brands see a 182% weekly increase in support tickets
- Consumer tech brands see a 178% weekly increase in support tickets
- Home furnishing brands see almost NO CHANGE
Whenever a surge is recorded in the first week in December, these surges typically sustain until the last week in December.
So, if you’re planning a burst team, make sure you roster for the entire month of December. Calculating your headcount will be different depending on the marketing calendar and what you’re selling. Or use our easy calculator that our Client Success Team has prepared for you in our previous article.
Here are some data and graphs:
eCommerce support tickets per week - 15 September to 15 Feb - 2019
On average, eCommerce brands see a 79% increase in support tickets in the week following Black Friday and Cyber Monday. These inbound ticket volumes continue until the last week of December (usually once customers can no longer make purchases in time for Christmas day).
There’s a small dip during the last week in December, but then usually, ticket volumes pick up again in early January. This is usually because customers are following up on gifts they have given, or received, or they’re buying the things they wanted but did not receive as gifts.
Two points in the statistics to consider:
- 79% weekly increase in support tickets, the week after Black Friday / Cyber Monday
- 34% decrease in the last week of January 2020 (compared to the highest peak).
eCommerce support tickets per week - fashion - 15 September to 15 Feb - 2019
eCommerce fashion brands see a particularly big increase in support tickets starting from the first week in December. Across multiple clients, we’ve seen a surge of 182% week on week, that stays high in the following week.
These inbound ticket numbers go down much more though in the new year, back to where they were in November, which is more of a drop than the eCommerce average.
Numbers to know:
- 182% weekly increase in the first week after Black Friday / Cyber Monday sales
- 65% weekly decrease in the last week of December 2019.
eCommerce support tickets per week - consumer tech - 1 September to 1 March - 2019
Consumer tech also sees a huge surge. Our clients in consumer tech on average see a 173% ticket spike in the first week of December. This is slightly lower than Fashion brands, but not by much!
Numbers to know:
- 173% weekly increase in the first week after Black Friday / Cyber Monday
- 61% weekly decrease in the last week of December 2019 (and stays down)
eCommerce support tickets per week - home furnishing - 1 September to 1 March - 2019
Home furnishings tell a slightly different story. Inbound volume stays steady through the holiday period, probably as people are gifting smaller items, or less personalized items.
Interested in building your own outsourced support team to manage ticket spikes for the upcoming holiday sales season? Check out eCommerce support by Influx. Influx works with high-growth eCommerce brands to deliver flexible, scalable support teams that match any brand exactly. Or read our Case Studies with eCommerce brands.
See how we helped Blenders Eyewear take back control of the inbox over on the Influx YouTube channel.
