Black Friday is one of the most important sales events in the year. It’s a great opportunity to increase your ecommerce sales. It’s estimated that in 2020, the US ecommerce sales on Black Friday and Cyber Monday will be $10.3 billion. That’s an increase of 39% from 2019.
To get your piece of the pie, you must start preparing now. Here are 15 tips on how to get your ecommerce ready for Black Friday.
Getting your Ecommerce Ready for Black Friday
Black Friday and Cyber Monday are the biggest shopping days of the year and they are coming up quickly. This year, Black Friday falls on November 26th and Cyber Monday is on November 29th.
With the holiday season quickly approaching, it’s time to start preparing your ecommerce business for the Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping frenzy. These 15 tips will help you get your online store ready for the biggest sales days of the year.
1. Start preparing early
The key to a successful Black Friday is to start preparing early. This will give you the time you need to get your ecommerce store in order, plan your sales and marketing campaigns, and make sure you have enough inventory on hand.
If you wait until the last minute to start preparing for Black Friday, you’ll find yourself in a mad rush to get everything done – and you’ll be more likely to make mistakes.
2. Optimize your site for mobile
If you’re not already aware, mobile commerce is on the rise. And with Black Friday fast approaching, it’s more important than ever to ensure your ecommerce site is optimized for mobile.
This means making sure your site is responsive and loads quickly on mobile devices. You should also consider implementing mobile-specific features, such as click-to-call buttons and mobile-friendly checkout.
By optimizing your site for mobile, you can ensure that you’re not missing out on potential sales from mobile shoppers.
3. Create a sense of urgency
How many times have you seen the phrase “limited time offer” in your life? Probably too many to count.
But the fact of the matter is, it works. Creating a sense of urgency is one of the best ways to drive sales on Black Friday.
You can do this by offering limited-time discounts and promotions, or by creating a sense of scarcity around your products. For example, you could run a flash sale on some of your most popular items, or offer a limited number of products at a steep discount.
The key is to make sure that your customers know that they need to act fast in order to take advantage of your Black Friday offers.
4. Offer free shipping
Shipping costs are one of the main reasons why people abandon their carts. In fact, 63% of shoppers say they are more likely to buy from an online store that offers free shipping.
If you don’t already offer free shipping, consider adding it to your Black Friday promotion. You can offer free shipping on all orders, or you can set a minimum order amount to qualify for free shipping.
Just be sure to factor the cost of shipping into your promotion. You don’t want to end up losing money on orders because you offered free shipping.
5. Personalize the customer experience
Personalization is a great way to improve customer loyalty and increase sales. It can help you stand out from the competition and show customers that you care about their individual needs.
You can personalize the customer experience by offering product recommendations, creating targeted Black Friday marketing campaigns and more.
Take advantage of the data you collect about your customers to create a more personalized shopping experience.
6. Prepare for online traffic
Black Friday is the busiest online shopping day of the year. That means your ecommerce store could see a huge spike in traffic.
If you’re not prepared, all that traffic can slow down your website and lead to a poor shopping experience for your customers.
Whether you run a general ecommerce site or a laptop store in Nepal, it’s crucial to ensure your website is ready for the traffic spike by optimizing your site’s speed and performance.
Make sure your website is ready for the traffic spike by optimizing your site’s speed and performance. This can include things like compressing images, using a content delivery network (CDN), and minimizing the number of HTTP requests.
You should also consider using a tool like LoadView to test your website’s performance under heavy traffic loads. This can help you identify any potential issues and ensure your website can handle the increased traffic on Black Friday.
This issue becomes more important depending on how you distribute your product. It’s vital if you have your own ecommerce store on a platform like Shopify, vs. selling products on Amazon which already has the infrastructure to deal with large amounts of traffic.
7. Create a gift guide
Gift guides are a great way to simplify the shopping process for your customers. Rather than having to browse your entire store to find the perfect gift, you can create a guide that’s tailored to a specific audience or interest.
For example, you could create a gift guide for “tech lovers,” “home cooks,” or “outdoor enthusiasts.” You could also create guides based on price, such as “gifts under $50” or “luxury gifts.”
Gift guides are also a great way to showcase the variety of products you offer. You can include a mix of different products from your store, and you can even include products from other brands or suppliers that you don’t normally carry.
When you create a gift guide, be sure to include high-quality images, detailed product descriptions, and links to the product pages on your website. You should also promote your gift guides on social media and in your Black Friday email marketing campaigns.
8. Offer a gift with purchase
One way to drive up order values on your ecommerce site is to offer a free gift with purchase. This is an especially powerful tactic during the holiday season.
The key to making this strategy work is to offer gifts that are highly desirable, but don’t cost your business a lot. Some great options include:
• A free sample of a high-ticket item
• A free piece of clothing, such as custom t-shirts with your brand’s logo, or accessory
• A free gift card
• A free product from another brand that you partner with
When you offer a gift with purchase, make sure to include the gift in the customer’s order. Don’t ask them to add it to their cart.
9. Use upselling and cross-selling
Upselling and cross-selling are great ways to increase your average order value and get more sales from your existing customers.
Upselling is when you encourage customers to buy a more expensive version of a product they’re interested in. Cross-selling is when you encourage customers to buy additional products that complement the one they’re interested in.
You can use upselling and cross-selling to increase your Black Friday sales by offering special deals and promotions on your upsell and cross-sell products.
You can also use upselling and cross-selling to increase your average order value by offering discounts on additional products when customers reach a certain spending threshold.
10. Write compelling product descriptions
Product descriptions are an important part of your product pages. They give you an opportunity to tell your customers more about your products and why they should buy them.
When writing product descriptions, be sure to include important details like size, color, and material. You should also explain how your products work and what makes them unique.
Most importantly, you should write in a way that’s compelling and persuasive. Tell your customers why they should buy your products and what makes them so great.
11. Create a Black Friday landing page
If you plan to run a variety of promotions, you may want to create a dedicated landing page where your customers can view all of your Black Friday deals.
This is a great way to keep all of your promotions organized and easy to find. It’s also a great way to increase your website traffic and sales.
12. Use social media to promote your deals
Social media is a great way to promote your Black Friday deals and get the word out about your sale. You can use platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to create ads and posts that promote your sale. To ensure your campaigns are performing at their best, try optimizing your ads for maximum reach and effectiveness
You can also use social media to share behind-the-scenes looks at your sale, announce any new deals, and more. Be sure to use relevant hashtags and to tag any influencers and other brands that are participating in your sale.
You can also use social media to run contests and giveaways that promote your sale. For example, you could ask your followers to share a post about your sale for a chance to win a prize.
13. Send reminder emails
Email marketing is a powerful tool for ecommerce businesses. It’s a great way to keep in touch with your customers and let them know about any promotions or sales you have going on.
In the weeks leading up to Black Friday, it’s a good idea to send out reminder emails to your customers. Let them know that your Black Friday sale is coming up soon and that they should keep an eye out for any special deals you have to offer.
You can even send out reminder emails on the day of your sale to make sure that your customers don’t miss out. Just be sure to keep your email list up to date so that you’re not sending emails to people who have already made a purchase.
14. Prepare for returns
Returns are a normal part of ecommerce, but the holiday season can lead to a surge in returns as people exchange gifts or return items they bought for themselves.
Make sure you have a clear returns policy on your website and that your customer service team is ready to handle returns. Make it easy for people to return items and get a refund or exchange.
You might also want to consider offering an extended returns period for items bought during the holiday season. This can help to build trust with your customers and encourage people to buy from you.
15. Create a post-Black Friday strategy
Phew! You made it through Black Friday. Now what?
The holiday shopping season is just getting started, and that means it’s time to start planning your post-Black Friday strategy.
This is a great time to follow up with customers who made a purchase, and to re-engage with customers who visited your site but didn’t buy anything. You can also use this time to promote any leftover Black Friday deals, or to start promoting new sales and offers.
The key is to keep the momentum going after Black Friday, and to keep driving traffic and sales to your ecommerce store.
Conclusion
These are some of the most important tips for you to get your ecommerce ready for Black Friday. Work hard and take advantage of this special date to increase your sales and, who knows, to make your customers happy and loyal to your brand.
What is your strategy for Black Friday? Tell us in the comments!
