The holiday season is arguably one of the most anticipated periods of the year for retailers. People are looking to shop and are generous with spending their disposable income around Christmas.
The Black Friday Sales signify the beginning of this period and are major retail events for store owners. In fact, Black Friday 2023 surpassed the performance of every other sale in that year and the previous one.
Let us understand the basics of Black Friday, why this shopping period is so hyped, and how you can maximise the sales of your online store during this sales event.
What are the Black Friday Sales?
Black Friday is a sale event hosted by offline and online retailers across the world on the last Friday of November. Although originating in the US, this shopping event is now popular around the world. The Black Friday sale marks the official beginning of the Christmas shopping season when people look to shop for their loved ones — both online and offline.
Over the years, Black Friday sales have become such a big deal around the world that it is synonymous with unbeatable deals and an important day for retailers. In November 2023, the Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales were responsible for lifting the Australian retail turnover by 2%.
Black Friday may not mean much to the uninitiated but for retailers who have been around for the past decade, it is the most important sales event and has the potential to impact a store’s annual revenue.
A successful Black Friday sales event can offer the following benefits to online retailers:
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You can expect some of the highest sales volume of the year during the Black Friday sale.
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Black Friday promotions have the potential to bring new customers who have no idea or prior interaction with your online store
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You can boost the brand awareness of your online store in the market and expand its reach to a wider audience
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Black Friday marketing campaigns and sales can give your online that necessary edge over competitors
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You can even launch or test out new products on your online store during the Black Friday sale and get immediate feedback on them
With Black Friday 2024 right around the corner, online retailers are already gearing up for what is expected to be the biggest commercial event globally. Online stores are strengthening their procurement strategies, and inventory control measures while ensuring that their supply chain operations can facilitate quick deliveries to customers.
6 Tips to Prepare Your Business for Black Friday
Now that we have got the basics of Black Friday out of the way, here are a few things you should keep in mind when preparing your online store. The most successful Black Friday marketing campaigns and sales are those that get their timing right.
1. Start Preparations in Advance
Hosting a sale of the scale at which the Black Friday sales generally happen is not easy. You must take care of myriad things in advance so that everything goes smoothly and seamlessly during the sale event.
Start researching your audience a few months in advance and figure out what makes them abandon their carts or complete a purchase. You can then use these insights to understand how you can position your Black Friday campaign even better in order to generate results.
Ensure that you set the goals you want to achieve through your Black Friday sale, secure the budget for it and initiate your market research at least a few months prior to the actual sale.
You can then start choosing the items you should offer discounts and offers on, and enable better inventory control to balance offering lucrative deals with ensuring the profitability of your business. You can then start rolling out your teaser campaigns and start building hype for the actual Black Friday sales shopping event.
2. Optimise Your Website
The next aspect you must address when preparing your online store for the Black Friday sale is ensuring your website is ready for the event. Your website should be optimised so that it can handle the increased footfall, and deliver a seamless and memorable user experience to customers.
To ensure that your website can actually handle a traffic surge during the big Black Friday sales, have your developers conduct load testing and eliminate potential issues that can arise during heavy traffic. Your next focus area should be mobile optimisation, wherein you must adapt to mobile navigation, reduce load times on mobile devices and ensure that all the features and elements are accessible to mobile users.
Lastly, you must simplify the checkout processes to minimise the friction customers face while purchasing products on your online store and use relevant pop-ups to capture the attention of your shoppers.
3. Create/Optimise Landing Pages
The better the web page quality on your site, the higher the likelihood of customers finishing their purchases. When levelling up and preparing the website for your store’s Black Friday sales, your landing and product pages should be at the top of your checklist for optimisation.
Your landing pages should be designed properly and contain high-quality images and detailed product descriptions. You can also add customer reviews to enhance the quality and effectiveness of your product pages and make them more conversion-worthy.
The right combination of all these factors and adopting a persuasive tone for your key pages will encourage your customers to purchase from you.
4. Ramp Up Your Customer Service
You may end up losing the customers you have won over with your promotional campaigns if you are unable to deliver the expected customer service quality. After all, one of the biggest fears that customers have during these major sales events is that the brands may not offer the usual quality in products or customer service.
Additionally, when dealing with such a high volume of patrons, you are likely to encounter more questions and concerns. You will need additional resources to deal with the increased traffic or prepare materials that would help your existing resources handle those additional requests.
You can increase the channels through which you offer assistance to customers and update your store FAQs to address different customer queries more easily. You can use channels such as social media, telephone support, live chat and email.
5. Double Down on Marketing and Promotions
A major part of preparing for the early Black Friday sales online is to run relevant marketing and promotions to attract more customers and maximise your reach. If you already run marketing campaigns regularly for your online store, Black Friday is the kind of sales event you’d want to double down on your efforts for.
Ideally, you want to leverage different types of marketing channels and platforms such as social media, emails and even SEO to get the most out of your Black Friday marketing campaigns. You must actively seek opportunities to find and eliminate mistakes on your landing pages and even run paid ads across platforms.
Additionally, run your marketing and teaser campaigns across platforms and consider partnering up with relevant influencers to build interest and traction for your online store.
6. Prepare Your Inventory
One of the most crucial parts of preparing your online store for the Black Friday sale is managing your inventory and implementing the necessary control measures in advance for seamless order fulfilment. When preparing your inventory for the sale, you want to ensure that you avoid stocking out and overstocking, as both scenarios can lead to a loss of revenue.
Instead, conduct a detailed inventory and derive valuable and objective insights from your online store’s performance during the previous years’ Black Friday sales online. Stock up your inventory with high-demand and popular items, and have appropriate restocking strategies in place so that you can manage stockout scenarios quickly.
Work on your inventory turnover ratio so that while you ensure you do not run out of products during the sale, you do not finish it with excess stock either.
13 Tips to Boost Black Friday Sales For Your Online Store
Now that you know the steps you must take to prepare your online store for the Black Friday sale, here are a few tactics you can apply to boost your sales during this period.
1. Understand Black Friday Consumers
The customers you deal with on your online store during Black Friday sales now are slightly different from the ones that you usually target. They may end up on your website for a one-time purchase, but it is your marketing that can convert them into loyal customers.
For instance, if you are a luxury brand selling leather goods, your target audience will consist of high-net-worth individuals or at the very least individuals with a certain level of income or wealth. However during Black Friday, if your online store sells products at heavily discounted prices, your customer base can include individuals with a slightly lower budget and income bracket.
You should also gain a deeper understanding of the kind of products that your existing customers are likely to buy from your online store and their order fulfilment expectations. All these insights will help you come up with the most lucrative deals during your Black Friday sales happening now.
2. Conduct Competitor Analysis
If you want your online store to generate more sales than ever, it won’t be right to go ahead with the Black Friday sales and deals without doing your due diligence. This involves observing and analysing what your competitors are doing for the Black Friday sale and drawing up a Black Friday sales list to monitor.
When you are targeting similar goals as your competitor, keeping an eye on their marketing and sales strategy will help you innovate your own and position it well.
3. Outsource Your Production and Fulfillment
As an online store, you may have already defined your strengths and weaknesses in regards to making customers happy. However, true wisdom lies in being able to outsource business areas and functions you aren’t fully equipped to handle on your own.
Some online stores are simply retailers putting together and selling a product catalogue consisting of products from various brands. For such stores, manufacturing/production parts of their business are completely outsourced. Also, other online stores prefer to outsource the logistics function of their operations to a capable and experienced 3PL service provider.
Regardless of the business function, a growing online store must be open to outsourcing certain parts of its operations so that its performance remains consistent, runs without issues during sale events, and boosts sales during your Black Friday sales event.
4. Implement ‘Deal of the Hour’ Discounts
Nothing boosts sales during events like Black Friday than generating a sense of urgency and scarcity in customers. When customers feel like they are getting access to a limited-time deal or discount, they are more motivated to complete their purchase as soon as possible.
“Deal of the Hour” discounts are highly specific offers or deals that customers are motivated to leverage before it's too late. For Black Friday sales this year, you can tap into the potential of such deals by tailoring a deal of the hour for every hour during the sales event. This deal can be in the form of a discounted price, a free gift or even a VIP discount.
Use Black Friday pop-ups to highlight these deals while your customers are shopping, and customise offers based on what you think your customers would like to buy.
5. Implement Tiered Discounts
Offering tiered discounts is not a new strategy, and can help your online store maximise its sales and revenue during the Thanksgiving Black Friday sales. For the uninitiated, a tiered discount strategy involves offering discounts to customers by motivating them to increase their average order value.
Essentially, the more your customers spend on your online store, the bigger the discount they will get on their orders. As a result, it is the perfect way to sell out and clear your inventory. As an online retailer, you may offer discounts like “Spend $100 and get 10% off in Black Friday Sales on Saturday” and “Spend $200 and get 20% off” which can get customers to add more products to their cart and increase the cart value.
By offering tiered discounts, you can increase the average order value of shopping carts on your online store.
6. Showcase Social Proof
Social proof and customer testimonials are perhaps the best marketing tools you have at your disposal. Before and during the Black Friday sales in store, customers and testimonials from your customers can factor into customers’ purchase decisions.
Especially for high-value items, customers may often find themselves on the fence, unable to complete the purchase or abandon it. In such cases, positive reviews and ratings from other customers can motivate them to go through the purchase.
As a result, more often than not, showcasing social proof is a great strategy to boost sales during the online Black Friday sales.
7. Utilise Personalisation and Targeted Marketing
With the help of AI and other emerging technologies, online stores that are having Black Friday sales like yours can take personalisation to the next level. After all, personalised and targeted marketing messages tend to perform better and are more likely to generate results than generic ones.
These targeted marketing campaigns can be aimed at customers through your emails or social media ads. Offering personalised deals and offers to customers on emails can amplify your sales and showing targeted ads on social media can help your customers make purchase decisions more easily.
Moreover, you can also offer discounts on specific products tailored to customers based on their preferences and order history.
8. Build Awareness Through Social Media
Even if you sell the best quality products and offer great discounts on them during the Black Friday sales, you may end up missing out on the kind of sales revenue you want to generate.
Considering the fierce competition in the e-commerce industry, you must focus on promoting your eCommerce brand and ensure you maximise your reach among your target audience. Social media is the perfect marketing tool to generate more awareness about your brand and attract more customers to your online store during the Black Friday sale.
Since it is the perfect time to attract new customers, you must consider promoting your brand on social media platforms — organically and through paid ads, and engaging with your target audience.
9. Up-sell and Cross-Sell Products
The Black Friday event you are putting together may not generate the kind of results you expect unless you utilise the right strategies to push your products out. You need to deploy good up-selling and cross-selling strategies to boost your sales even further.
For instance, if a customer buys a shampoo from your online store, you can promote the conditioner and hair mask that would complement the shampoo and accentuate its effectiveness.
You can promote upsell or cross-sell products through a “Customers Also Bought” section or simply suggest complementary products when they proceed to check out their order. These tactics go a long way in increasing the average order value associated with a customer and increasing your sales in the process.
10. Deploy Retargeting Campaigns
Cart abandonment can hit your business and sales hard, especially during your Black Friday event. If your online store experiences a lot of abandoned carts, you can deploy retargeting strategies and campaigns to drive sales from them.
Say, a customer adds five high-value products to their shopping cart but abandons their purchase midway. You can send them reminders through emails or social media posts so that they are prompted to complete their purchases.
Retargeting customers who have already shown interest in purchasing products from your online store is more likely to be successful than attracting new customers. Ensure that you simplify the checkout process when running your retargeting campaigns so that you can recover the lost sales and maximise your revenue.
11. Promote Customer Loyalty Programs
Your shop’s Black Friday sales present the perfect opportunity to double down on your loyalty programs and make the most out of them. Promote your loyalty programs through exclusive discounts and VIP benefits for your members and subscribers.
You can also double or triple the points that customers earn by purchasing through your online store during the Black Friday sale. This will motivate customers to spend more on their orders at present and to also come back later so that they can redeem their rewards.
By doing so, not only will you drive more sales from your existing customers but also motivate new customers to sign up for your loyalty programs. Loyalty programs make it easier to retain and market products to new customers even after the Black Friday sale.
12. Optimise Product Pages to Amplify Sales
For an online store, the product pages act as the most crucial web page containing all the information about the product’s features, benefits and even its sales pitch. A well-designed product page can secure sales for your online store, and a poorly designed one can lead to a loss of sales.
You must optimise your product pages with the right images and descriptions to optimise the shopping experience. Additionally, you must also ensure that your product pages load fast and look great so that they can drive sales consistently.
Ensure that your product pages are properly optimised for mobile devices and that you have enough customer reviews to build trust and credibility for your brand and products.
13. Create Post-Black Friday Rewards
One of the biggest challenges faced by online stores is their inability to retain the new customers they gain through their Black Friday deals and offers. To eliminate this challenge, many brands and marketers today offer post-Black Friday rewards so that customers will be motivated to come back to purchase from the store, even if it is to redeem their rewards.
Post-Black Friday rewards can include loyalty points, assured discounts on the customer’s next purchase, and even smaller benefits like exclusive deals and free shipping.
Concluding Remarks
Black Friday is arguably one of the biggest commercial events for retailers and shoppers alike. Whether you have a brick-and-mortar store or an online store, you must be looking for different ways to amplify your product sales and revenue during the sales event.
You must ensure that you prepare your online store so it can handle the additional pressure of hosting Black Friday seamlessly. Additionally, implement the tips suggested in this article to boost the sales and revenue of your online store.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
1. What month is Black Friday sale?
The Black Friday Sale’s on the last Friday of November, right after Thanksgiving, and marks the beginning of the Christmas shopping season.
2. How do I get the most out of my Black Friday sales?
Black Friday sales can be the most profitable event of the year for online retailers as long as they know how to leverage it effectively. Provide exclusive deals and discounts, optimise your website, and make the most of your loyalty programs to generate more sales and revenue through Black Friday.
3. What sells the most during Black Friday?
Black Friday sales are notorious for pushing sales of products from categories like Food & Beverages, Technology and Apparel.
4. How do you retain customers after Black Friday?
You can provide rewards like exclusive discounts and limited-time offers to customers, and even amplify your loyalty program by offering additional points to retain customers after the Black Friday sale.