by: Ernesto Comodo
Early coverage of Black Friday, included dramatic headlines about the biggest shopping day of the year being “dead” or “canceled.” And it’s true that the (in)famous in-store Black Friday events that have people crowding stores and lining up in the dark may not happen this year.
But that doesn’t mean Black Friday is canceled. Black Friday or Cyber Monday has been an online event for years. And the sales data reflects that. In fact, last year, with no pandemic, more Americans shopped online during Thanksgiving weekend than in physical stores, according to the National Retail Federation. And the online Black Friday sales numbers have been trending upward since 2016.
The countdown has started, but as a small businesses owners there’s still time to optimize your 2020 Black Friday ecommerce sales strategy.
We have put together 9 tips that will help you strategize and prepare your business for a successful Black Friday, Cyber Monday and an overall holiday shopping season.
You can’t go into Black Friday and put 15% off, 20% off and expect to do well. Everything comes down to your offer—it’s the one time out of the year you can lower your prices without feeling like you’re losing brand integrity. Make sure your offer is compelling!
But no need to feel obligated in discounting the entire store. You can do offerings to category-specific sales. Using category-specific sales accomplishes several things:
Go all-in on VIP customers
Don’t be afraid to go even bigger with discounts and offers to your best customers. The email below, offering 70% off a hair densifying collection, was one of several offers sent to the VIP customer segment of MONAT beauty brand’s 2018 Black Friday sales event.
Kill the coupons and codes
Coupons and special Black Friday codes will be everywhere this year. However, they can be a hassle for customers who might use the wrong code, or forget the code and abandon their checkout.
Discounting products with specific tags to running promotions can give you much better results. Such as “buy 2, get 1 free,” or a free gift with purchase.
Brooklinen’s Cyber Monday tiered strategy drove on-site conversions and increased average order values through spending thresholds:
Thanks to a custom Script, customers saw an overlay appear over their screen, offering a free gift choice as soon as their cart exceeded the first threshold of $150.
Leading up to Black Friday and Cyber Monday, you can make an emotional connection with customers using inspiring imagery and highlighting positive testimonials on social platforms.
Hello, hashtags! Provide specific discounts through Facebook ads that upsell customers or a certain product that isn’t selling as much. Offering a free gift specifically to social media users or a countdown on the online sale also provides a sense of urgency, leading to more sales.
Ten days away from Black Friday, share an Instagram giveaway. Two days before the giveaway, built hype around “the biggest Black Friday Sale. EVER.” using #blackfriday.
Always retarget customers that have previously purchased from your business. Existing customers are easier and more affordable to reach and market to than brand new ones because they’ve already bought something from you. They’re more likely to recognize and trust your brand and are more receptive to your specific sales.
Email is still a staple of Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales. Segment your audiences as much as possible, the more segmented and targeted your emails, the higher revenue per recipient you’ll generate. You’ll also see higher open rates, and higher click through rates—helping you build and maintain a strong sender reputation. Email flows from user activity and repeat emails will always increase your conversion rate.
U.S. consumers now spend more time on their mobile phones than watching TV. If your mobile site experience isn’t up to par with your competitors, they’ll be spending that time elsewhere.
While most customers still check out on their desktop and use mobile to browse, last year during Black Friday and Cyber Monday, Shopify merchants saw mobile transactions account for 66% of all sales, compared to 39% for the rest of the U.S. industry.
You can boost your likelihood for mobile shopping success by improving your site navigation, website speed, and offering one-click purchases to mobile-first customers:
Improving your on-site search functionality will help customers to navigate your site quickly to find holiday gifts. Likewise, 80% of visitors will abandon a site because of a poor on-site search experience.
Before the holiday rush, find a predictive search tool
Simplify the checkout experience
CNBC reports that consumers spend $5,400 a year on impulse purchases. While food was identified as their biggest splurge, 53% claim to spend it on clothing, 33% also bought household items, and 28% bought shoes.
To boost impulse purchases on Black Friday, reduce the on-site barriers to buy. ‘One-click’ buying enables customers to purchase items with a single click, with the customer’s payment information stored in a secure mobile wallet.
Can your store handle the increased demand? Are you working with a supplier for your inventory or a product manufacturer? Make sure they’re prepared to handle your projected sales for the holiday season.
You don’t want to sell out faster than expected and end up not meeting the demand of your customers. Is there anything worse than your black friday marketing ideas totally flopping?
If you sell food make sure to have a backup supplier for your ingredients, if a product make sure your suppliers have a backup plan, if you assemble, produce a product or have a retail store make sure to have enough staff ready on call.
You need to be easy to reach by customers during Black Friday & Cyber Monday. You don’t want to lose a sale because they couldn’t get an answer from you quickly enough.
Set up a live chat
If you aren’t able or ready to commit to having a live chat monitored 24/7 during the holiday season, there are still ways you can use live chat strategically as a small business during the big Black Friday sales weekend.
To get the most out of your live chat, consider enabling it:
Offer easy and hassle-free returns
The holidays aren’t just stressful for business owners. It’s a frantic time for shoppers too. Be the business that cares and goes above and beyond for their customers. They just might come back or tell their friends and family about how nice you were.
Make sure your return policy is clear, fair, and well-communicated on your website and store (if applicable). It could convince customers who are on the fence to click purchase since you’re showing confidence in your product and removing potential risk.
When Black Friday/Cyber Monday is over, you want to be able to say “This sale was better than last year’s and here’s why,” or, if things didn’t go as planned, you can examine what went wrong and adjust for future sales.
You’re putting a lot of effort into your marketing to make sure this sale is a success. When you track everything you do, you can see what worked and what didn’t.
Set up Google Analytics
If you haven’t already, set up Google Analytics for your store and your email campaigns. It’s a powerful and free traffic tracking tool that every business owner should be using.
Keep an eye on the competition
Pay attention to your competition’s marketing efforts. It can help you gather ideas for your own Black Friday Sale deals. The easiest way to sleuth on your competitors is to subscribe to their email list.
Study the types of emails they send and how frequently they send them. It probably goes without saying, but you shouldn’t copy them. It’s always a good idea to know what the other guy is doing and see if you can offer something better than they can.
Study the types of emails they send and how frequently they send them. It probably goes without saying, but you shouldn’t copy them. It’s always a good idea to know what the other guy is doing and see if you can offer something better than they can.
Article Written by Ernesto Comodo
Creative Director of 907K Marketing , Co-Owner of eBiz Marketing Academy and Marketing Director of LA South Chamber of Commerce.
15+ years of experience working in Marketing, is a Shopify Partner and Google Ads Partner.
ernesto@907k.com
Original Article: https://members.ebizmarketingacademy.com/9-black-friday-sale-strategies-that-work/
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