Anyone who’s been to a physical store on Black Friday will know that customer experience is highly impacted, usually in a negative way. So, it’s no surprise that Black Friday 2021 failed to boost footfall. However, just because shoppers weren’t tempted back to physical stores doesn’t mean it was a complete loss for retailers.

Brands who came prepared with video-powered retail, like M&S, Currys and The White Company, this Black Friday saw 23,415 customer calls (that’s 1780 hours’ worth of video shopping) in one day, according to Go Instore customer data.

While online enjoys the highest rates of traffic, nothing traditionally compares to the conversion rates generated in-store (up to 50%). This year however, retailers have been able to achieve in-store conversion rates, and then some, with one-to-one video shopping. This year, retailers using Go Instore saw a 74% average order uplift on Black Friday and this even reached 100% on Cyber Monday.

This is because in-store staff were empowered to advise and convert online customers in ways that isn’t possible in a busy store, or through common digital channels like email and chatbots.