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Corey Kogan
Successful Black Friday with Ecommerce: Tips & Tricks
Last year companies crushed it selling online on Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Companies that had migrated to new, better platforms, as well as those that had large Black Friday specific campaigns, utterly killed it, outselling and breaking records of years prior. Going off of that, it will be no surprise to see the 2019 Thanksgiving season doing the same, and more than likely, even better. The projected year to year increase for Black Friday is estimated at 15.31%, to a staggering 5.80 billion U.S dollars.
Black Friday Strategies
Creating an Ecommerce Plan
Having a successful blowout for Black Friday requires something very important. Creating a plan. That’s right, it is absolutely contingent on being prepared. Somewhere around 40% of holiday shopping starts before October. That’s why companies in the know start planning for the following year immediately. The strategy your business creates should follow these basic principles.
- Deals and Fun Events –Â the lead-up to Black Friday should absolutely include small deals to attract customers to what’s coming, as well as contests and events catering to your products.
- Social Media Campaign –Â spread the Black Friday hype through social media, emails, ads, and more. Countdown to the date and make it known.
- Sneak Peaks – excite customers with early teasers of what is yet to come. Hook them in with excitement and anticipation, so that your site will be their first destination.
- Deals after Cyber Monday –Â just because the holidays are over, doesn’t mean the sales should be. Some shoppers will be late, but that’s ok. Keep the deals going, with an emphasis on shipping out before Christmas.
Compelling OffersÂ
This is Black Friday, not just some spur-of-the-moment deal. That means go big, or go home. Those deals need to be compelling to hook customers in, otherwise why even bother? Sure, 10%-20% or whatever deals are cool, but we’re talking Black Friday. This is not the time to be cheap, because it WILL pay off. Companies like Blenders Eyewear (a glasses company based out of San Diego), offered 55% sales on products. Subsequently, they’re sales increased by up to 10x over the year.
VIP Treatment 
The discounts on your website are one thing, VIP’s are another. Now’s time to think about the “sharks”. VIP’s are usually more likely to spend a greater amount of money. For that reasoning, it is wise to target them through your business’s campaigns. For example, consider sending out an email that offers greater deals – specifically to VIP’s. Research shows that just the potential 3-5% of your customer base that are VIP’s will outspend all the rest.
Black November
This is the season of savings. Black Friday and Cyber Monday shouldn’t be your only concerns when planning around this time. People don’t only start shopping the day of Black Friday. The days leading up to the holiday are similarly lucrative. Create small deals here and there that get the pot boiling. In the meantime, look towards increasing brand recognition, to be truly ready for the big day. Focus the month on advertisement, through methods such as videos, and word of mouth. Shoppers who have seen a video are more likely to purchase, so make sure to take advantage. Spread videos through social media platforms, and appropriately tag them. Speaking of word of mouth, increase savings for referrals. Referred buyers are more likely to complete a purchase than random ones.
Prioritize Performance
An important thing for businesses to consider – is your e-commerce platform reliable? Failing to keep up with the resource demanding flow of traffic during Black Friday could cost your business thousands in lost revenue. Replatforming is a serious concern that should be looked into before the holiday season. If things are to go wrong, it is very probable that the issue is in the platform.
Mobile Optimization
From year to year, the mobile shopping sphere expands and expands. The rate of people switching their primary shopping device to mobile is huge. Out of the activities done on phones, mobile shopping is at the top, as well as the fastest growing out of them all. All the data points to phones becoming the new kings for E-commerce shopping. That means that being successful on Black Friday demands having an optimized mobile experience. Business owners should look to improving website speeds, offering options such as one-click purchases, and making sure navigation menus are up to standard.
Site Speed
Loading time of your site can mean the difference between a completed purchase and an impatient potential customer who closed the tab. Shopify reports that a one second site speed improvement can increase a $100,000 a day site’s profits up by $7,000. Meanwhile, the slower the site is, the considerably less the profit is. Just a measly one second drop in load time results in a staggering 11% loss of page-views, and 7% drop in conversions. Prioritize getting site speed up to the fastest it can possibly be, to ensure a successful holiday season.
Device Based Shopping
This might not seem so obvious, but different device users spend different amounts of money. During Black Friday, Apple iOS users spent on average $105, while Android users spent about $85. With this information, it is possible to curate to the different markets based on their device. Detecting an Android user, your site can prompt a coupon that will apply to more money spent, getting them above the threshold. Meanwhile, knowing that iOS users spend somewhat more, they can have the same coupon be suggested at a higher benchmark of shopping cart value.
Abandoned Cart Rescue 
One thing that all the tips and tricks in the world won’t completely rid you of is cart abandonment. Unfortunately, such is life, cart abandonment remains high at 76% worldwide and will likely stay that way. However, you can take advantage of certain things that can lower that number for your site. In the past, email marketing techniques were the go-to strategy for bringing back abandoned carts.
However, there are now new, more modern methods that can revive a dead purchase. ShopMessage is a modern day solution. Through Facebook messenger, it employs a bot like service that interacts with customers. You can engage your audience with promotions, events, and more, through its services. Using custom ques you define in its panel, it will communicate with customers. This is extremely valuable in not only saving abandoned cards,but also in increasing social media subscribers, who are more likely to positively respond to such interaction.
Conclusion
Black Friday as well as just the holiday season in general is approaching. Make sure your business is ready to conquer the challenge that it is. Employing these tips and more creative strategies that there might be, will ensure success. Think outside of the box and engage your audience in ways that let them save money, and you make it. By preparing as soon as possible, your business will prevail through the challenge that is the holidays.
