The biggest shopping weekend of the year is fast approaching, which means it’s time for ecommerce businesses to prepare for a surge in traffic and, hopefully, sales. The 2023 schedule calls for Black Friday to fall on November 24, Small Business Saturday on November 25, and Cyber Monday on November 27.
Recent growth trends in online shopping, combined with a multi-year upward trajectory in Black Friday e-commerce activity, mean that online sales this holiday sales weekend are poised to break records. Online store owners can maximize their profits by planning their sales strategy in advance. However, when it comes to timing, implementing last-minute strategies before the big shopping weekend can also prove beneficial. Below, we review four last-minute tips to ensure your ecommerce business enjoys a successful Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
1. Plan sales and discounts strategically
While it’s tempting to implement blanket discounts at high prices to attract as many buyers as possible, it’s much more beneficial to plan your discounts in a targeted manner. Consider implementing a separate discount strategy for each of these holidays to differentiate them from one another. For example, Black Friday could offer hourly discount codes valid for the first 10 shoppers, Saturday could offer bulk discounts, and Cyber Monday could offer tiered discounts based on the amount spent. You can also offer a separate benefit available throughout the sales weekend to unify it, like free shipping over a certain amount.
Offering a variety of discount types spaced throughout the weekend will bring shoppers back again and again as they become excited about the variety of savings opportunities. This will also give you the opportunity to analyze the effectiveness of each sales strategy separately so you can easily see which types of sales should be reused in the future and which should be removed or reworked.
2. Get Email Marketing Permissions
The more qualified visitors you can attract to your website before Black Friday, the wider the audience you can target with your personalized Black Friday and Cyber Monday content during peak times.
Increased traffic to your site, driven by people searching for the best deals, inevitably leads to a higher number of abandoned carts. By obtaining permission to market to these potential customers in advance, through incentivized signups on your website and social media platforms, you are able to recoup abandoned sales. This involves using targeted emails to encourage those who left items in their cart to return to your site.
All you need to do is offer them a compelling reason to provide their email address, in order to make them reachable throughout the Black Friday period. You can attract registrations by offering valuable gifts, trial subscriptions, exclusive content and much more. These serve as lead magnets that users receive in exchange for their email address and consent to receive marketing emails.
3. Let buyers know you’re participating
Organizing a sales event is a futile endeavor if buyers are not aware of what is happening. Be sure to advertise that you are participating in these sales events on as many available channels as possible. Social media campaigns and email campaigns are the easiest ways to convey information about your sales to fans and existing customers.
To attract online shoppers who aren’t yet familiar with your store, step up your SEO strategy and implement pay-per-click ads in the weeks leading up to sales. As a finishing touch, place a countdown widget on your online store so that site visitors who discover it before the holiday weekend are enticed to come back.
4. Tell Customers What to Buy
While some buyers prefer to search an online store for an item they already have in mind, others will want suggestions on what to purchase at your sales event. To help them find the perfect products, create a gift guide in advance that highlights the items that are among your most popular, seem most relevant to the season, or will be featured in your sales.
Additionally, if you don’t already have it set up, create a prominent “Suggested Items” category or carousel in your online store that includes the product types mentioned above. This will give site visitors who have never viewed your gift guide a set of relevant products to choose from and help site visitors who have previously viewed your gift guide find featured items more quickly.
In conclusion
By taking the time to implement these last-minute strategies, your store is more likely to exceed your holiday sales goals. Happy selling!