10 Black Friday Tips for eCommerce Success 2020
November 27th, 2020, otherwise known as Black Friday, is one of the biggest shopping days of the year. This year, it will be unlike ever before due to COVID-19 and the 7% increase of eCommerce sales since the pandemic lockdowns from April to May. COVID-19 has shifted customer behaviour permanently and because of this, we are expecting eCommerce sales this Black Friday to reach an all-time high.
Here are 10 strategies for captialising on Black Friday this year (during COVID):
Watch Out for Increased Competition
Ecommerce businesses are continually faced with mounting competition from multiple sources, especially in light of the pandemic. Before COVID-19, eCommerce companies had to compete against existing competitors, new startups with a unique approach to the same niche, and eCommerce giants such as Amazon and eBay. Now, eCommerce businesses are also faced with competitors in the form of physical stores that had to enter the eCommerce space to survive. To compete with all of the above, companies need to ensure that they have a flawless, streamlined customer experience. When your business pushes the boundaries and takes the time to test new functionality and design, as well as explore fresh ways to connect with your customer, you will be ahead of the competition in your ability to adapt, innovate, and overcome.
Send Sneak Peeks
Start sending out your Black Friday emails two weeks before the event, not the day before or the day of. Sending your loyal customers a ‘sneak preview’ of your Black Friday offering is an excellent way of grabbing their attention and making them feel valued. If you have segmented lists, you could use the sneak peek email as a way of personalising your offering further by sending out individual sneak peek emails to customers interested in different products/categories. To make your customer experience as specific and personable as possible make sure you:
- Personalise your emails (subject, header, signature)
- Include a CTA in your emails
Use Smart Discounting
Don’t blanket discount 50% just because it’s Black Friday. Segment your customers and send them offers on products that they are interested in, not products that simply cost less. Just because an item is cheap, or cheaper than it used to be, does not guarantee that your customers will buy it. We highly recommend that you invest in an email marketing automation tool to segment your customers based on their purchasing history and interests, to send them specific emails targeted to their individual preferences. This creates a massive opportunity for personalising your marketing efforts and your brand by sending your prospects offers on items you already know they like and have a higher chance of purchasing.
Focus on Mobile
Sales driven by mobile has continued to increase, despite many people staying at and working from home due to COVID, all while having access to a desktop. This means that optimising your site for mobile is a necessity for eCommerce success, especially when considering that over 39% of the $7.4 billion of Black Friday sales in 2019 happened on smartphones. One simple yet overlooked way to make the mobile experience better is by turning on mobile payments, like Apple Pay for WooCommerce.
Buy Online Pick Up In-Store
Offering customers the option to pick up the item they purchased from you online, when you have one or more physical stores, is a great option for customers who prefer it to parcel delivery; and according to the Digital Insight Report by Adobe, 30% of customers do. Not only will you have less shipping orders to go out, but you will also keep customers used to returning to your store(s).
Seasonal Offers
Consider the types of offers you can give customers throughout the holiday season, not just in an isolated event. While Black Friday is a one-day event, it can limit you to think of it as one. In fact, customers now expect offers to be available for a longer duration during the holiday shopping season. Keep your customers engaged with seed emails, ahead of your special offers, to keep them returning to your site and creating hype around the products they marked on their wishlist.
Create Distinct Landing Pages
You should consider creating landing pages for both your Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals and offers. Your landing pages should be clear, concise, and should stick to one major offer. Your customers should instantly understand what they gain if they make a purchase on your site. Just because it’s Black Friday, it doesn’t mean you have to overload customers with all of your offers. Simply tell your customers what they get when they proceed to purchase, and how they benefit.
Give Free Gifts
A little gift-giving incentive never hurt, right? Giving gifts to customers who make a purchase while the deal/sale is ongoing is a great way of bringing more value to your customers, and another way of delighting them. Make sure that your gifts are relevant to your brand, useful, and that they matter with regards to the customer’s purchase. For instance, if you’re selling sneakers, throw in a pair of free socks for each pair sold. Surprises are a solid way of building up your brand’s memorability while building customer loyalty.
Display Best Offers On Home Page
Your home page is often the first page most site visitors see when they visit your website. Successful eCommerce operations will capitalise on this prime space to better promote their best Black Friday offers; considering only 50% of store owners do. You should aim to make effective use out of this space and this statistic, as this tactic is still only implemented by half of the eCommerce businesses, giving you a bigger chance of converting site visitors into customers.
Create a Facebook + Instagram Event
A great way of creating buzz outside of email campaigns and landing pages is to use social media to connect with your customers since Facebook is the primary content distribution channel for marketers today, while Instagram is the social channel with the second-highest ROI among marketers. By utilising Facebook and Instagram for events, people can get a better understanding of when your offers go live, get exclusive “behind the scenes access” of your warehouse or operation, watch your live streams, and more. Once the event is created, use Facebook Ads to promote it among your target audience.
