What is Black Friday Sales?
Black Friday Sales, a highly anticipated retail phenomenon, mark the beginning of the biggest holiday shopping frenzy of the year. This annual event grabs all global consumers’ attention since it offers them real big deals and discounts. As a vital chance for businesses to boost revenue, hence, it’s crucial to embark on meticulous preparations. So, how to prepare for Black Friday?
This guide unveils effective eCommerce strategies best practices to navigate you through the Black Friday chaos. We’ll cover:
- Black Friday planning: How to prepare your business for Black Friday?
- How to implement Black Friday marketing strategies?
- How to prepare Black Friday customer service and drive repeated sales?
Just spend some moments carefully following these steps, and you’ll be well-equipped to harness the potential of Black Friday sales. What are you waiting for? Let’s dive right into this article to learn how to prepare for Black Friday ecommerce and start preparing for your BFCM sales this year!
Black Friday Planning: How to Prepare Your Business for Black Friday?
Black Friday is undoubtedly the biggest sale event of the year. So if you want to know how to prepare for Black Friday to get the most of this occasion, this guide is made for your reference. Check the details of this Black Friday planning guide to learn more about how you can get started from now on.
#1. Prepare inventory and shipment for a longer sales period
To make the most of your profits during BFCM, it’s important to select and order the products you plan to promote well in advance, especially if you rely on suppliers for inventory. That ensures you have enough stock available to meet the sales demand and maximize your earnings.
When deciding which products to order, there are various Black Friday best practices retailers can use to forecast demand and identify merchandise that will perform well during BFCM. One approach is to analyze the sales by product report to determine the recent high-demand items. Alternatively, filtering the report by last year’s BFCM dates can help you make a Black Friday trends prediction about the products that typically sell well during the BFCM season specifically.
Shipping also plays a crucial role in your Black Friday planning. During critical sales times like BFCM and holidays, take a look at how you handle shipping:
- Offer fast shipping choices to match different customer expectations;
- Offer free shipping to encourage higher spending;
- Clearly communicate your shipping approach in-store policies, emails, and at checkout;
- Being open about any delays shows customers you’re trustworthy.
#2. Optimize order fulfillment workflows
During the busy BFCM period, efficiently fulfilling and delivering orders becomes more challenging. Here are some ways that this guide on how to prepare for Black Friday suggests to help you optimize your fulfillment workflows:
- Organize your fulfillment area: Make sure your workspace is well-stocked and organized, with popular products easily accessible for faster picking and packing.
- Seek assistance: You can seek help from friends or hire more staff to deal with the increased order volume, ensuring quicker fulfillment and shipping.
- Communicate effectively: You should maintain clear and regular communication with your fulfillment and delivery teams to prevent errors and save time. Utilizing order timelines and internal instructions can be a good way to streamline the process.
- Group orders: Some customers might have special requirements for their orders. You can group these orders by customer demands, shipping requirements, or product type to streamline fulfillment.
By preparing for Black Friday with these strategies, you can enhance the efficiency of your fulfillment process and ensure a smooth BFCM experience for both you and your customers.
#3. Sell on multiple platforms – Go international
With the increase in online shopping, it’s a good idea to sell your products on different platforms and marketplaces. Multichannel selling benefits businesses by:
- Expanding reach to global customers;
- Maximizing sales opportunities;
- Enhancing customer convenience;
- Boosting brand visibility;
- And providing valuable data insights for optimization.
If you’re already selling on multiple channels, identify the best selling platforms that have brought the most success and focus on maximizing your efforts during the holiday season. If you’ve just started, LitCommerce is here to help you out. By using our tool, you can easily sync your products and centralize everything in your admin.
#4. Apply the right BFCM discounts
Offering the right discounts can greatly influence buyer decisions when it comes to highly anticipated shopping events like Black Friday. Buyers tend to compare discounts’ value and prices across different sellers before placing orders. Hence, you must effectively plan the deals and discounts to get ready for Black Friday. Take the following steps if you need a Black Friday guide for setting any discount:
- Plan ahead: Instead of last-minute sales, carefully review your products, margins, and inventory to determine suitable discounts.
- Create a sales map: Use Google Sheets or Excel to create a planned sales map, clearly outlining all your upcoming sales.
- Offer competitive discounts: Customers typically look for at least a 20% discount during Black Friday and Cyber Monday. You can stand out by considering additional incentives like offering a free gift with purchases.
- Be bold with discounts: To attract attention, consider offering larger discounts. While many retailers offer a minimum of 20% off, think about offering 50% off for first-time buyers or 30% off when purchasing five or more items. Get creative with your discount strategies.
Additional tips for Back Friday planning deals:
- Display discounts prominently: Clearly showcasing your discounts on the homepage helps customers easily see the savings they’ll enjoy during Black Friday
- Utilize countdown banners: Countdown banners help generate urgency and excitement from the customers.
For more ideas, you can check our Black Friday promotion ideas list.
#5. Check and optimize your website and product landing pages
In the fast-paced world of online shopping, patience is a rare virtue among customers. A slow-loading website can quickly translate into lost sales since approximately 40% of customers abandon a site that loads longer than 3 seconds. As one of the busiest weekends of the year approaches, you should know how to prepare for Black Friday websites to prioritize optimizing their speed to handle the anticipated surge in customers. You can start by identifying the pages that attract the most visitors and focus on optimizing those first.
Besides optimizing website speed, updating your product pages is a good strategy if you wonder how to prepare for Black Friday. You can refer to this Black Friday guide to optimize your product pages:
- Refresh product descriptions: Include keywords related to Black Friday to improve search engine rankings and attract relevant traffic.
- Update product images: Incorporate Black Friday elements and color themes into your product images to create a visually appealing and festive atmosphere.
- Highlight limited-time offers: Clearly showcase your time-sensitive deals to create urgency and encourage immediate purchases.
- Ease the transaction process: Streamline the checkout process, minimize form fields, and offer guest checkout options to simplify and expedite the buying experience.
#6. Employ cross-selling techniques
Black Friday stands a great chance for sellers to use the cross-selling strategy to maximize their earnings. However, don’t assume customers will only buy what they initially wanted and then leave your site.
When a customer is making a purchase, you can take the chance to suggest complementary items that naturally go together. For example, when do Black Friday planning, consider combinations like socks and shoes, shirts and pants, or yoga mats and yoga straps. Moreover, when someone is about to make a purchase, let’s think about what else they might need besides it.
Proactively offering related products can help you considerably increase sales volumes in this shopping event.
How to Implement Black Friday Marketing Strategies?
#1. Run email marketing campaigns early
Last year’s Black Friday saw impressive conversion rates from email marketing campaigns. So, every business owner ought to plan and execute effective email campaigns to drive customers back to their website and capitalize on holiday sale offers.
To ensure a winning BFCM email marketing strategy, here are some tips this guide on how to prepare for Black Friday recommend you:
- Generate anticipation and excitement: Place email collection fields and sign-up pop-ups on your store’s various pages to capture the email addresses of site visitors.
- Personalize your campaigns: Customize Black Friday email subject lines, preview text, and body content to stand out in crowded inboxes.
- Send “warm-up” emails: Start teasing your BFCM offers early to subscribers, whether it’s discounts, exclusive products, or free shipping. That helps create a sense of anticipation and intrigue among your subscribers.
- Express gratitude after the sale: Follow up with a thank-you email to keep subscribers engaged and show appreciation for their purchases.
- Recover abandoned carts: Prioritize sending emails to visitors who abandon their carts before BFCM. This will be more common during the event, and triggering automated emails can help recover some of those lost conversions.
You can learn more about email marketing for BFCM in the guide on how to create Black Friday email marketing strategy.
#2. Use social media
Social media can be an effective means for your eCommerce business. With its large customer base, you can easily reach potential buyers. Here are the Black Friday marketing strategy to help you get ready for Black Friday with social media:
- Use hashtags: As Black Friday approaches, customers will use popular hashtags to search for the best deal. Hence, you can incorporate relevant hashtags like #BlackFriday or #BlackFridayshopping into your boosted posts to increase visibility and engagement.
- Run advertisements: Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, or Tiktok offer targeted advertisements for sellers to reach a wider audience. You can customize your ads with compelling visuals, enticing copy, and clear calls-to-action to drive traffic to your online store.
- Utilize shop features: You can also take advantage of social media’s shop features, such as Instagram Shopping or Facebook Shops, to create a seamless customer shopping experience.
There are more ways you can ultimately employ social media on Black Friday, read our article about Black Friday social media campaign for more helpful guides.
#3. Make gift guides for Black Friday planning
Creating gift guides for the holiday season is excellent for preparing for Black Friday to boost sales. That makes you stay ahead of the competition and showcase your products early. You can see holiday gift guides are often created by bloggers. So, collaborating with influential bloggers and sponsoring their gift guide posts can be a fantastic starting point.
You can also make gift guides and publish them in your own store. Remember those gift guides should specifically include your products and highlight your unique offerings.
How to Prepare for Black Friday to Enhance Customer Service and Drive Repeated Sales
#1. Provide personal support with a chatbot
In your Black Friday checklist, you should not miss out on using external tools to improve the customer experience, such as a chatbot. A chatbot can offer immediate support to visitors, addressing their inquiries and concerns promptly. Plus, during Black Friday time, it can help you send SMS alerts to subscribers automatically to inform them about the latest deals, discounts, and time-limited offers. Do you search for how to craft the best messages for BFCM sales? Have a look at our guide on how to create Black Friday SMS marketing strategy for more ideas.
With the chatbot, you can rest assured that your customers will receive support 24/7. That possibly leads to higher satisfaction levels. What is more? When using automated assistance, your human staff members can have more time to focus on other tasks, maximizing productivity and efficiency.
#2. Reward loyal buyers
BFCM sales time presents a great time for merchants to strengthen connections with past customers and inspire their return. One effective approach is sending personalized emails featuring exclusive sales and special offers unavailable to the general public. This gesture of appreciation makes customers feel valued and encourages them to purchase during Black Friday.
What is more, you can consider granting loyal customers early access to your Black Friday sales. Doing so can make your customer browse and purchase items before the general public, significantly boosting their chances of placing orders. This strategy not only makes customers feel special but also enhances their overall shopping experience.
#3. Offer simple return processes
When people shop at physical stores, they have the advantage of trying on and experiencing products firsthand. Therefore, a customer-centric return policy becomes even more crucial in eCommerce to bridge that gap. Offering hassle-free and pre-paid returns can influence buyers’ decisions. Notably, it gives them the confidence to purchase your goods since they know they can easily return it if it doesn’t meet their expectations.
Additionally, consider implementing an extended return policy during the holiday season. This allows gift recipients to return items that may fit them better.
Black Friday Checklist – FAQs
- How do businesses benefit from Black Friday?
Black Friday tremendously benefits businesses of all sizes. It marks the exciting kickoff of the holiday shopping season.
During this shopping event, businesses can seize the opportunity to:
- Cash in on the skyrocketing consumer demand;
- Expand their reach, even going global;
- Connect deeply with customers;
- Offload existing stock;
- Boost profits.
- How to prepare for Black Friday sales?
Before any big event of the year, you need to prepare for it, and the same goes for Black Friday sales. So, how to prepare for Black Friday? When preparing for Black Friday, there are several important factors to consider:
- Make a Black Friday plan in advance;
- Implement various Black Friday marketing strategies;
- Prepare customer service.
All the details of each key point were explained in the previous part. Check it again to learn more.
- When is the best time to start my Black Friday sales?
To make the most of Black Friday, it’s important to start planning now. According to a survey, many consumers begin their holiday shopping or research as early as October. Take advantage of this by enticing them with coupon codes and special offers.
- Does Black Friday benefit small businesses?
We all know that attractive deals drive Black Friday, but heavy discounts can harm small stores more than they help. However, there are other ways to grab attention than price reduction. Customers genuinely value getting the most for their money. A successful Black Friday promotion convinces customers they’re getting tremendous value. So, how to prepare for Black Friday if you are just a small retailer?
Consider these cost-effective ideas for small business Black Friday campaign:
- Flash sales or hourly deals;
- Bundle discounts;
- Second chance offers;
- Advance social media and email campaigns;
Learn more details about a small business like you can thrive in a big sale event with the article about Black Friday for small business.
Get Ready for Black Friday
Are you ready for the upcoming Black Friday? We do hope that the strategies and tips we’ve shared on how to prepare for Black Friday are helpful to you. The competition during this big event can be tough. However, with careful planning and skillful execution of the strategies, you can create a Black Friday campaign with a large number of customers eagerly awaiting your offers. Best of luck to you!
Should you require further guidelines for Black Friday sales, feel free to peruse our Retailer Blog or become a part of our Facebook community for more insights. Beyond that, we are at your service round the clock; don’t hesitate to contact us whenever needed. LitCommerce is dedicated to providing support throughout your journey.