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Black Friday marks the launch of the single most important sales period on the calendar, and Black Friday sales can make or break your business’s profitability for the year. Customers are looking for the best deals, whether for gifts or for their own needs, and online sales only stand to grow this year. Marketing ideas that strengthen the user experience of your sales channels and offer the most attractive deals on in-demand products can drive traffic that will bring profits in the short-term and forge connections to new customers who will keep visiting in the future.
Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, has been a longtime source of retail revenue, but it’s equally important in eCommerce and mobile sales. From Black Friday to Cyber Monday, online shoppers are hunting for the best deals. According to the Button Mobile Commerce Report in 2019, mobile shoppers spent an average of $197, a 17% increase from 2018, and their average order value was $59, a 23% increase from 2018. Adobe Analytics called Black Friday “the biggest day ever for mobile,” revealing that it yielded $2.9 billion in sales from smartphones alone or 39% of all eCommerce sales. Here are some of the most effective approaches to a vibrant and successful Black Friday sales period.
Prepare your website, mobile app, and marketing materials
Setting up a site to receive Black Friday traffic is best done well in advance. Testing for high performance is crucial since you can expect a higher number of visitors who will have a negative browsing experience if the site doesn’t load quickly and efficiently.
Making full use of a mobile commerce app for your store, with a full inventory and Black Friday customization, is essential. In Cyber Week last year, Button’s report found that apps had 86% more conversions than mobile websites and had 27% more orders per customer. Customers during the 2019 holiday season also installed shopping apps at a 46% higher rate than the rest of the year.
Updating the layout of your website and app can get customers engaged and interested in browsing. Create a page where all deals can be browsed one after another, as well as links to multiple different types of sales and offers that may get their attention. Using a content calendar can help you organize when to take different promotional steps, such as posting reviews on social media, sending out marketing emails for each product category, and running push notifications on your eCommerce app.
Product-based Deals & Offers
Gifts for all
- Creating a Gift Guide
- Free gifts with a specific type of purchase
Fashion, Apparel & Accessories
- A Deal an Hour
- Sneak Peek Black Friday Deals
- Special Discounts and Offers to get Loyalty Points or Cash Back on Store E-wallet
Electronic Goods & Gadgets
- New Product Launch
- Extend Electronic and Gadget deals from Black Friday to Cyber Monday
Toys & Gift cards
- Bundle offers for Toys
- Free gift with every purchase
- Printable Gift cards
Food & Wine
- Deals from Third-party apps
- Deals for purchasing on the restaurant website
- Bundling Food and Wine deals, Combo meal deals
Tailor your selection for ideal gifts
In order to draw people to your products, having a selection of deals that make great gifts is essential. If possible, see if your store can support options like gift receipts and packaging to make products into better gifts.
Creating a gift guide
Make a gift guide as a landing page that’s promoted to new visitors, letting you introduce shoppers to a tailored selection of useful products from a wide variety of product categories, sizes, and price ranges. Provide an entry into your catalogue with ‘For him’ and ‘For her’ labels, plus engaging, personalized descriptions like “For those who hate staying indoors” or “For the ones who need the latest gadgets” so people can browse for whatever fits their loved ones best.
Free gifts with a specific type of purchase
Giving away free items can make purchases feel rewarding. Promote your giveaways for purchases of a certain amount, using popular, affordable, and useful items. Accessories that go with a category of products are a good pick: phone accessories for electronics, a scarf for apparel, or clips or pins for fashion.
Make fashion and apparel sales stand out
Apparel sales are a major Black Friday draw, and though in the past customers were reluctant to buy clothes online, online purchases now make up 38.6% of apparel sales and 100% of the growth in the industry. Make sure you’re highlighting deals meant for cooler weather while also having options for customers looking ahead toward spring. Test your store’s capability to select different colours, patterns, and sizes, and increase your inventory to prevent out-of-stock issues.
Many of the hottest sellers in online apparel are from digital-first brands that can’t be bought from many stores. It’s a good idea to research which brands are trending in popularity on social media and expanding rapidly from direct sales, and see if you can get their most popular products on your store. With pages optimized for search engine traffic, you can gain traffic from those searching for unique branded keywords.
A Deal An Hour
Flash sales increase the urgency of sales and drive customers toward purchasing now, and hourly updates can keep customers online and checking back on Black Friday, leading them to browse more sales overall and retaining them on your site.
Sneak Peeks for Black Friday Deals
Customers want to know where to find the best deals, especially if supplies are limited. Post sneak previews of your upcoming deals to get them excited. A sneak peek can use gif, slideshow, or video of product images so customers can figure out which products will be discounted. This is also a good way to get customers to subscribe to email notifications or follow your social media.
Special Discounts and Offers to get Loyalty Points or Cash Back on Store E-wallet
Remember that Black Friday brings in new customers who can become year-round shoppers. Loyalty programs play a major role in converting website visitors into regular customers. Offering loyalty points for purchases on Black Friday gets new and lapsed customers to sign up for membership programs so they can save money on future purchases. Cash-back offers that can be redeemed in the store’s e-wallet also bring customers back. For existing members, offer special exclusive bonuses like mystery savings, where customers get a code they can enter and find out how much they’ve saved at checkout.
Read also : Increase Customer Loyalty Through Mobile Apps!
Keep electronics fresh and interesting
Consumer electronics represent a major opportunity for Black Friday sales. People are now on the lookout for affordable products for upgrading their home media experience, staying connected virtually, and improving their personal school and school technology.
Launch new products in your store
Customers love the opportunity to browse new products and it will make your store experience feel fresh, so having the latest releases in consumer electronics, appliances, and accessories for purchase just as Black Friday comes around will make shoppers take a second look.
Extend Electronic and Gadget deals from Black Friday to Cyber Monday
Having sales exclusive to Black Friday can create urgency to buy now, but extending sales across to Cyber Monday and the next week gives time for customers to sort their priorities and circle back to deals they may have missed. eCommerce has an advantage over brick and mortar retail on Cyber Monday when shoppers are back at work but are still looking for deals online.
Offer variety in toys and games
Finding the right toy or game that will be a perfect gift for kids is a challenge, so variety and options are key when creating Black Friday deals. With dedicated toy stores fading and few ‘must-have’ items selling, online stores are the one area of toy sales growth, for example, Target’s 12% online growth in Q4 last year.
Bundle Offers for Toys
Bundles and packages combining different offerings from a toy brand or multiple items like stuffed animals can be a good way to cover your bases and guarantee that customers have something to buy for the kids in their lives. It also helps you offload merchandise with varying levels of popularity at the same time without having to anticipate which will be most successful, avoiding getting left with excess stock.
Free gift with every purchase
Small gifts that can be packaged with the order and shipped at no additional cost are a nice bonus that kids will enjoy, and many toy items are lightweight and low-cost, making them a fun add-on that can sway customers’ decision on whether to purchase from you.
Printable Gift Cards
Selling gift cards for toy and game brands can be a good supply of gifts that won’t get returned or go unused. Printable gift cards can be created in any denomination and can be bought and given to others over the holidays, so they can complete all their shopping on your site without having to worry about finding the right gift.
Food deals are also on the rise
With all the excitement and spending going on during Black Friday, food sellers can try to catch some of the atmospheres with their own deals. For restaurants, it’s a perfect opportunity after consumers are tired of cooking for themselves on Thanksgiving and customers are already looking for coupons and deals.
Deals from third-party apps
Third-party restaurant and grocery delivery apps frequently offer coupons off an initial order to get customers to buy through their platforms for the first time. Giving free delivery on Black Friday is another appealing deal for the day.
Deals for purchasing on the restaurant website
Restaurants themselves can give discounts on orders of a certain size or promote special Black Friday takeout packages for customers who order on their website or mobile app. Free sides or beverages in honour of Black Friday can also encourage more orders.
Bundling Food and Wine deals, Combo meal deals
Online stores can sell treats and luxuries like wine, chocolate, as holiday gifts or party necessities. Bundles of selected food and wines that are reduced from the individual prices can increase the amount of money spent in one order on Cyber Week. Restaurants can offer deals on special family meal packages meant for a relaxing, casual post-Thanksgiving cooldown dinner.
Final Thoughts
It’s important to get started early so you have your Black Friday inventory in stock and you can figure out what to discount. Then you can start reminding customers that they should sign up for your email list, follow your social media pages, and download your app for the latest news. Using urgency and fear of missing out can get them to check your site and keep refreshing on Black Friday. Remember the value of mobile app sales as the ideal source of sales where you don’t have to worry about shoppers jumping to another site. And take the opportunity to gather information about your customers so you can lay the groundwork to turn new customers into regular shoppers who will keep shopping year-round.
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