How To Run Your Black Friday Ecommerce Store

The dawn of ecommerce birthed the sister event to Black Friday known as Cyber Monday; a second sales event which pushes online retailers to give up their best deals/offers. 

Though Cyber Monday doesn’t have the traditional backing that Black Friday does, its numbers are not to be underestimated. The huge sales figures in previous years translate into a lot of potential traffic for your ecommerce store this year, so you’ll want to prepare yourself with a solid Black Friday ecommerce strategy. 

Not sure where to begin? We’ve got you covered! 

Keep reading for the best tips and tricks for making your Black Friday ecommerce store and strategy bulletproof.

Prepare your store

The number of people expected to shop online for deals this Black Friday sits at 69%; a 37% increase from 2021. Whether you’re a large retailer or a small ecommerce store, you should expect to see a spike in traffic. While this is all well and good, a dramatic increase in traffic to your site can lead to poor site performance should you not have the right ecommerce platform – such as Shopify – to support your business. 

It’s crucial for businesses to have their sites prepared. Here’s what you can do to ensure that it is:

Plan early

Here are some of the things you should be planning ahead:

1. An intuitive user interface
2. A strategic plan centering around a user’s experience
3. A seamless checkout experience that offers multiple payment options
4. A high level of mobile functionality

Check your site speed

As you can probably imagine, the biggest sales events of the year can be pretty stressful. We’d like to avoid adding to that stress with a slow website, at all costs. Having slow site speed also runs the risk of ruining credibility with customers.

You can use Google PageSpeed Insights to help with this.

Audit your checkout process

The point we just mentioned about avoiding stress-inducing activities for customers…the same applies here. 

Customers are expecting a smooth, fast and efficient checkout process. 

Test your checkout process for yourself before the chaos ensues. 

Here are some ways you can improve your checkout process:

1. Whittle your checkout down to one page
2. Offer multiple payment options (Apple Wallet, Paypal etc)
3. Enable automated cart abandonment notifications

Get support on-deck

Customer service is an important part of running a successful Black Friday ecommerce store. 

Because so many online sales will be expected, you should prepare for an increase in customer service requests. 

Make sure the way in which your customers can reach you for queries is clearly identified throughout your website and have support on standby, to make this process as efficient as possible.

Black Friday ecommerce marketing strategy ideas

Black Friday boasts the perfect opportunity to experiment with new marketing and advertising tactics. To help you, here are some Black Friday ecommerce ideas you can use to boost traffic and sales through your store.

Start advertising early

Running ads earlier gives ad buyers time to test and learn to figure out which creative assets work best, before going full throttle on the four-day shopping weekend.

1. Buy traffic early to build social audiences
2. Remarket frequently
3. Narrow your Google Ads targeting to high purchase intent keywords such as “buy ___” and “best deal on ___”

Create a master plan for Black November

Going hand-in-hand with the aforementioned point, many retailers begin promoting their sales a month or so before Black Friday. To ensure that you’re ahead of the game you’ll need to pace your promos throughout what is now known as “Black November”. 

Your Black November plan should include:

1. A Black Friday buzz-building campaign – with a countdown, deals and specials using ads, email and social media leading up to the big day.
2. Sneak peeks on door crashers – and other sales that will go live.
3. A coordinated promotional strategy – across all websites, emails and socials to maximise impact on the day of the sales.
4. An influencer engagement strategy – to boost word of mouth.
5. Post-Cyber Monday deals – eg, extended sale offers, emphasising shipping dates and gift wrapping throughout December.

Segment your emails 

Email is still very much a staple for Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales.

The more segmented these are, the higher revenue per recipient you’ll generate, as well as higher open rates and click through rates.

Here are 10 email segments you can use to generate sales:

1. Seasonal shoppers
2. Recent openers
3. VIP customers
4. Product browsers
5. Product category buyers
6. Hasn’t purchased (but is engaged)
7. Email ignorers
8. Almost purchasers
9. Geographic targets
10. Gift givers

Launch new products

Black Friday is a great time to introduce a new product, however, to ensure its success, you will need to create excitement to engage new and existing customers.

To increase awareness, use your blog, store promotions or partner with influencers. 

New product launches draw attention to your brand and what better time to have the spotlight shining on you, than during the Black Friday sales!

Add a touch of personalisation in everything you do

Younger audiences in particular see right through emotionless advertising. They want to know they are valued by you. 

Sending out personalised messages to your customers as a Black Friday ecommerce strategy is a great way to boost sales and increase conversion rates.

Here are some ways you can offer a personalised experience:

1. Offer different deals to different customer groups (ie, VIPS)
2. On product pages, include recommendations based on what other customers bought

You can also create this experience by featuring your top-selling products on your Black Friday ecommerce landing page on your website.

Black Friday ecommerce round up

With a little preparation you can put yourself in perfect alignment to gain some new customers this holiday season. People will be turning out in full force, just as they have done year after year.

The only difference this year is one that benefits you. Customers are leaning towards online shopping more than ever before, making this the perfect time to run a Black Friday ecommerce store.

As long as your website is optimised for mobile and has been prepped to perfection, the customers will come rolling in thick and fast. 

Remember, stick to your plan, be there for your customers and don’t forget to breathe!

FAQs

How do I prepare my Black Friday ecommerce store?

1. Plan early
2. Check your site speed
3. Audit your checkout process
4. Optimise your website for mobile use

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