Black Friday is a great time for e-retailers to capitalize on customers’ hunger for deals. This means merchandising their best offers in premium spots, such as hero images and exit-intent popups.
It’s also a great time to promote apps to help shoppers compare prices online and in stores.
Check Your Email
Many brick-and-mortar and online stores offer heavy discounts to lure shoppers into their stores on Black Friday. But with the advent of e-commerce and the COVID-19 pandemic, shoppers are increasingly avoiding in-person purchases and opting for the convenience, efficiency and wide range of choices online shopping offers.
Many retailers email their customers with Black Friday deals to make their products more attractive to consumers. These emails typically contain links to discounted or free versions of a product. They also include information on shipping and store pickup options and return policies. Customers not receiving the download link to their purchased digital product can resend it by accessing their order history.
Most businesses obtain customers’ email addresses when they sign up for a newsletter or buy products through the website. But they may also acquire them when consumers give them to staff at a physical store or when they fill out applications for loyalty cards.
To avoid getting flooded with unwanted business emails, customers can limit the number of businesses to which they give their addresses and unsubscribe from mailing lists when they no longer need them. They can also use software to keep their inbox clean of spam by removing unwanted items.
Check Social Media
Aside from email marketing, social media is another effective way to announce Black Friday sales. Its unique feature of allowing direct audience engagement can be leveraged to ensure your campaign resonates with your target market. Using the platforms‘ tools and features, such as Instagram Reels or TikTok, you can easily create videos showcasing your products to boost engagement.
You can also nudge your followers to post images or offer product reviews to improve organic reach. This will assist you in developing a strong brand community and establishing your authority in the field. As a result, you may persuade potential customers to become brand advocates.
You can segment your target market using a data-driven CRM to make customized offers that appeal to them. Their prior purchases may determine this, the pages they have viewed on the website or their general email engagement levels. You may also utilize social media platforms to communicate with your audience effectively, such as Facebook advertising that is specifically targeted and has greater conversion rates than search ads.
In addition to these digital marketing strategies, you can optimize your website for a smoother shopping experience. This is especially important during busy sales events like Black Friday and Cyber Monday. A slow-loading website can result in frustrated customers who will likely abandon their purchase. The ideal loading time for eCommerce websites is zero to four seconds.
Check Your Website
Black Friday is a huge shopping event requiring special website care. Traffic is expected to be high, and if you need to prepare for this increase in web traffic, it can lead to various issues, including page errors and slow loading times.
To prevent these issues, checking your website before Black Friday is important. Start by testing your site’s speed and ensuring it can handle the influx of visitors. As many people will use their smartphones to search for bargains, you may also adapt your website’s font and button sizes to make it more user-friendly for mobile visitors.
In addition to making your website mobile-friendly, you may boost your SEO by incorporating keywords into the page titles, descriptions, and headings. This will encourage potential clients to click on your links and help your website rank higher in search results.
If you’re a retailer, it’s also a good idea to check your online store and include options like Kohls Black Friday ad scan to ensure you can handle the increased traffic volume on Black Friday and throughout the holiday season. This can be done by checking your Google Analytics account to see if you have eCommerce data available and ensuring that all necessary tracking is in place. This will allow you to compare data from the Black Friday campaign with your normal business metrics and identify any improvements that can be made for next year.
Check Your Inventory
Before the holiday season, businesses should review previous sales data and inventory reports to gauge how much product they need this year. It’s also a good idea to consider any possible outcomes resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, such as customers shopping online more this year as lockdowns continue.
In addition, companies need to be aware that a significant percentage of a store’s Black Friday inventory will not be regular products. Rather, these items will be specially made for the holiday season. So, businesses must estimate how many of these specialized items will be needed and accurately add them to their inventory management system.
Getting prepared for Black Friday doesn’t have to be stressful. By avoiding impulse purchases, staying informed about what’s on sale and comparing prices, shoppers can make smart and informed decisions to maximize their holiday savings.
In addition, if shoppers purchase something that turns out to be the wrong size or doesn’t fit correctly, there’s often a chance to return it within the allotted timeframe, which can help them avoid unnecessary expenses. To make returns easier for shoppers, retailers should communicate their return policies clearly and provide clear instructions on how to do so. This will give consumers peace of mind that they can shop confidently this holiday season.