In the retail sales calendar, Black Friday and Cyber Monday are two of the busiest shopping days of the year. The potential savings to be had encourages big spending and it’s important to recognize the impact that Black Friday and Cyber Monday can have on your online business. Last year platform revenue increased by 128% on Black Friday vs. the next busiest day in November.
So, What is Black Friday?
Black Friday is the day following Thanksgiving and has historically been viewed as the start of the Christmas shopping period. To mark the occasion many retailers offer huge discounts limited to one day only!
Cyber Monday follows Black Friday and is one of the biggest days for eCommerce! Cyber Monday is an online event that online stores offer following the Black Friday event.
Why is Black Friday an important date in the Retail Sales Calendar?
With the increasing popularity of online stores, Black Friday and Cyber Monday are huge opportunities for all eCommerce website owners to make more sales and increase their customer base.
If you sell online, we have a few useful tips to help you get prepared for the two biggest sales of the year!
Black Friday
- It is a great idea to start promoting your Black Friday discounts early. Many potential customers will start to seek out the best potential deals ahead of time! Communicate with your customers and let them know that there are some awesome deals to be had. Build the hype and get your customers excited!
- Run a marketing campaign before the sale itself. Get the shoppers excited. You can give away little snippets of what you’re offering – without giving too much away. Promote your sale with some banners on your online store that can also be easily shared across social media platforms and via email. This would entice the curious customer out there to visit your site on sale day! Why not use one of our 70+ free Black Friday Banners.
- Make a plan of which products you’re discounting IN ADVANCE, instead of waiting until the last minute. Create a list of the products you’re discounting and at what time you’re planning the discount. Bear in mind that your promotion will only last a day, or perhaps the weekend, so keep it simple.
- If you’re not keen on reducing any of your product prices on your online store, consider offering free delivery for one day only. Customers see the word ‘free’ and are drawn to this. You can advertise this on social media and via email to get people excited!
- Think about stock! You want to ensure you have enough stock available before the big sale! Freewebstore users can also manage their stock by enabling stock management. You can go to our Help Site to find out How to Set up Stock Management on your online store.
Getting your store ready
A lot of new customers may choose to purchase from your online store for the first time. Make a good impression. Make an effort with packaging, and make sure you communicate efficiently at each stage of the buying process. This is your chance to retain new customers!
When it comes to Black Friday sales, it’s a perfect way to show your customers that your store is current and that you’re doing well. It’s also a good opportunity to get rid of old stock. You may want to avoid discounting products that you have no problem selling at full price.
To set discount codes up on your online store, go to our Help Site here.
Post-Black Friday Strategy
You may want to think about setting up Google Analytics, this will allow you to track your progress and see how well a sale or marketing campaign was.
Google Analytics allows you to see how your customers found your site and which keywords worked best.
You can monitor how successful your marketing campaign has been by analyzing how many users have been directed to your store via social media. You’ll be able to see what worked and what didn’t work – and learn for the next time. Additionally, you can see how many of your customers are returning customers and how many new customers you’ve gained.
To set Google Analytics up to track data from your online store read our Help Article, How to Add Google Analytics to your Store.
You may also consider setting up a newsletter form to enable you to collect customer email addresses. This will allow you to follow up with customers via targeted emails and email marketing. You can read how to set up a newsletter sign-up form in this Help article
If you would like to create a free ecommerce website you do so at freewebstore. Get a free online store here. You can also buy or transfer your domain to freewebstore very simply. Our dedicated Support team will be happy to assist you. You can reach them via the Support link in your freewebstore account.
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