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Corey Kogan
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 – 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 – 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 – 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 Offers
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 
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
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
Abandoned Cart Rescue 
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.
