Boost sales this year with a Black Friday eCommerce strategy. We’ve rounded up the latest tips, tools, and examples to help get you started. Fortunately, you’ve got time to plan for success with a Black Friday eCommerce strategy— and we have all the tips you need below!
What is a Black Friday eCommerce strategy?
Black Friday is the day after the American Thanksgiving holiday and is one of the biggest shopping days of the year. Customers expect deals and promotions from their favorite retailers. In turn, they reward businesses with big spending. In 2022, an estimated 140 million Americans plan to shop the pre-holiday sales (such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday) 2022.
10 Black Friday eCommerce tactics you should try
1. Optimize your website for SEO
Analyze the data for specific patterns. Referral sources can tell you a lot about your audience. How are people finding your site? Look for pages that get more traffic and more conversions than others. Reverse-engineer that page’s success to replicate it across your site.
2. Make sure your site is mobile-friendly
A responsive layout allows a website to rescale itself according to the device being used to view it. This makes the website adapt to different screen sizes without any rendering issues. Responsive web design works well for both mobile and desktop platforms as the website realigns its appearance accordingly.
3. Start your campaign early
Remember, every other retailer is also going to be running a Black Friday campaign. You don’t want to leave yours until the last minute, you should be nurturing your followers on social media and email months in advance.
4. Make sure all stock information is accurate
This is a good time to restock your most popular items, and plan special deals or offers to get slower-moving products off your shelves. You can expect to see an influx of new customers on Black Friday. That means the shopping experience should be easy and intuitive, to avoid causing confusion or hesitation. Product pages should include all the important specs, like size, weight, and materials.
5. Have customer support at the ready
Ever wandered around a department store, growing increasingly desperate to find an employee who can help you? Then you know how annoying it is to have to wait for help. And if your customers get frustrated, they’ll split!
6. Work with influencers
Influencer marketing is a powerful tool. One recent survey found that 8% of shoppers had bought something in the past 6 months because an influencer promoted it. That figure increases to almost 15% for 18- to 24-year-old shoppers. Collaborating with an influencer on your Black Friday strategy can help you reach new customers and boost your sales.
7. Create BFCM promo codes
Offering promotional codes and coupons for Black Friday Cyber Monday creates urgency. These encourage your customers to take advantage of the big discounts you’re offering.
8. Run an email discount campaign
Promote your Black Friday Cyber Monday sales through email. This is an effective way to reach your already-engaged customers. It’s also the perfect way to build a buzz in advance of Black Friday. Tease upcoming offers and get your customers excited about the deals to come.
9. Create a holiday gift guide
Black Friday is often considered the beginning of the holiday shopping season. For many people, it’s the time for crossing as many names off their gift list as they can. Creating a holiday gift guide makes their work a lot easier.
10. Promote your BFCM deals with social media ads
One of the biggest challenges for businesses on social media is the decline of organic reach. It doesn’t matter how good your content is. If you want to reach your prospective customers, you need to have a paid strategy.