5 Things to Boost Your Store’s Sales on Black Friday
Black Friday shopping this year is bound to be quite different from last year. The pandemic pushed retailers to adjust their approach drastically, and it’s not over yet!
First, we called it the “new normal”, but soon we realized that there is no “normal” anymore and that we’ll simply have to adapt strategies on the fly. Luckily, digital retailers are used to a rapidly evolving landscape and can quickly tailor their responses accordingly.
In this article, we’ll explore the current trends and delve into five things you can do to up your conversion rate over Black Friday.
What’s Trending Right Now?
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It’s becoming Black/Cyber Week - With the pandemic, came massive growth for online shopping. The traditional line between Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales has blurred with so much shopping happening online. Retailers are offering deals well before Thanksgiving, and even Cyber Monday deals are popping up early.
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Consumers want to shop locally - Climate change awareness is making consumers more conscious of their carbon footprint, so they prefer shopping locally. This level of local support makes the digital retail space friendlier and online store owners are putting faces behind the brands, making it a more human experience than ever before.
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Shoppers want payment options - Whether it is more payment gateways or buy now, pay later options like Klarna and Affirm, savvy shoppers want a variety of options to pay. It’s all about convenience.
- Shipping is still critical - Shoppers are used to getting free shipping options, so this remains crucial. Just bear in mind that USPS plans to add a surcharge to packages during the holiday season, ranging from an extra quarter to around $5 from October through to December.
To use these trends to your advantage, and make sure your Shopify store is holiday-ready, here are some tips to prepare for Black Friday.
You Don’t Need to Code to do These 5 Things
- Do Your Homework
Begin by analyzing your historical data. It will help you identify what’s most profitable in your shop, what is selling, and what’s not selling. It’s essential to focus on money-maker products in this important upcoming sales period.
Then, take a close look at previous Black Friday sales to understand buying habits, and as a reminder of what you did in previous years to convert Black Friday deal seekers into regular customers. This information may not be 100% relevant to your next Black Friday strategy because of the rapidly shifting commerce landscape, but shopping patterns and human nature persist and prevail, even during challenging times.
Analyze your social media channels to see what worked well to generate clicks and sales. Then check out your competitors’ strategies during the same time. Knowing your competition and what they did in the past will give you valuable insights and help you plan a more effective campaign.
2. Ensure stock, fulfillment, and support are all ready
Before you even think of sending out your irresistible offers, make sure your back-of-house processes are ready for a (hopefully!) strong stream of sales rolling in. If your marketing strategy hits the spot, and you don’t have the infrastructure to fulfill your orders, you’re losing dollars.
Check that the following are robust enough to deal with an influx of orders:
- Your inventory.
- Fulfillment processes.
- Customer support.
- Returns processes.
Tip: If you run the risk of running out of products, use an out-of-stock notification app that will allow customers to leave their details if the product is not available. It will grow your contact database and give your customer a better experience!
3. Check Your Shopper Journey, and Streamline it
Is your store quick to load and easy to navigate? Speed directly affects your conversion rate. The faster your store loads, the more sales you could make. Optimize your site with these steps:
- Identify your key pages and focus on optimizing them.
- Optimize your site’s visuals. If you’re not sure how to do that, use this handy guide from Shopify. You’ll want great-looking images that load quickly.
- Remove all unessential apps from your shop to improve site speed.
The next step in streamlining the shopper journey is to ensure it is easy for customers to find the product they want and then buy it. There are so many online options; you want your shop to give consumers the best possible buyer journey. Focus on these two areas:
- Product discoverability. If you use personalization, you’ll put the right products in front of the right customers. Your goal is for them to shift from browser to buyer in as few as possible clicks. Try a personalization app from the Shopify App Store to target shoppers as they navigate through your site. Make sure you give it a test run long before the sales start!
- Remove friction between the buyer and the products they want by structuring your site, so it’s straightforward and quick to navigate. The cleaner the buyer journey is, the higher your conversion rate will be. For help with this, check out the Conversion category in the Shopify App Store.
Emails play an important role in Black Friday sales in more than one way. You could use them as a marketing tool and for boosting conversions.
As a marketing tool, you can use your email database to build anticipation for your offers. Let subscribers and past customers know when your sale is launching, and send some teaser emails and sneak previews of deals. If you need help with this, get an expert email marketer who can craft emails that convert.
To push conversions, implement abandoned cart emails and use discount codes. Use Klaviyo or another app from the Shopify store with your email service provider to set your automation emails easily. If you don’t have an email service provider, you can still send a follow-up cart abandonment email through your Shopify store.
Abandoned cart emails are invaluable! With cart abandonment sitting at a whopping 69.57%, abandoned cart emails are a must. They help entice shoppers back and make it easy to return to their basket and complete the transaction. You could also incorporate discount codes or free shipping as incentives in your emails.
5. Delight Your Customers
The world is strange right now, and people are stressed. Most of us need connection, engagement, and inspiration, and it’s not that difficult for retailers to do this. Show shoppers that they are dealing with a person, not just a faceless brand and that you are grateful for their business. Here are some tips for doing this:
- Show gratitude in all your order confirmation emails.
- Include samples of other products; small gifts, handwritten thank you notes, or post-purchase discounts in each order sent.
- Include meaningful copy around your Shopify storefront, taking time to consider we’re still in a pandemic, so it’s essential to create a sense of camaraderie.
How you portray your brand depends on your business and products. The idea of delighting your customers is to instill loyalty in your store and trust in what you offer. The most direct route to that is authenticity - just be you!
What About Cyber Monday?
Cyber Monday 2021 could bring in more than $11.8 billion, which means around a million up from 2020’s sales. Black Friday is projected to bring in approximately $17 billion. Although more shoppers spend their dollars on Black Friday, Cyber Monday is rapidly rising through the ranks and could even overtake Black Friday in the coming years. Or the two events could continue merging and eventually be hardly distinguishable.
Irrespective of whether shoppers choose to spend their dollars on a Friday, Monday, or the days before, after, or in between, it all happens online for Shopify retailers. Therefore, the trends are the same so your strategy should be similar.
Unsure? Talk to an Expert
Although commerce is ever-changing, the past couple of years has seen it changing faster than ever. If you need help preparing for Black Friday or Cyber Monday, talk to a Shopify expert like TVP.
