Importance of Creating an Ecommerce Sales Strategy for Black Friday

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1. Largest Retail Sales Day

Black Friday is perhaps one of the largest sale days for business in the year, and this is not just in the US.
Several countries have adopted the sales theme and have been able to push many products off the shelves.
Regardless of your niche, this is an important day for you to optimize sales as a business.
There are also huge numbers that support this claim. Black Friday sales can increase from 173% to 380% for brands.
This means if you can take advantage of this - you will have 4x the sales numbers of any previous month.
For brands, this is a huge boost to revenue. It is also the reason why most eCommerce stores optimize their website for Black Friday sales.

2. Increased Online Traffic

From a purely analytical standpoint, traffic numbers also increase rapidly before and during the sale day.
In fact, some retailers report 10x the amount of traffic as opposed to regular times.
As a business owner, this is something you want to take advantage of. The huge influx of people can significantly improve website metrics. But it needs to be well executed.
This also opens up the possibilities of sharing your website deals online through social media.
Make sure that you have competitive deals compared to your competitors.
Since everyone is on the lookout for great deals, a good advert is more likely to grab buyer attention.
Something that you need to pay attention to is your website internals. While having high traffic numbers is a good thing, you also need to be able to service them.

3. People Are More Likely To Buy

There is also an emotional part of this sales day. Since this marks the start of the holiday season, people are much more open to buying things.
And this is an important consideration when you’re planning on getting better sales numbers during this time.
The selection of what product to sell and which ones go on sale becomes important.
This is also a period when things that don’t sell well have a chance to be bought off the store.
It’s one reason why you see some products marked down heavily on online stores.
Black Fridays are when vendors can sell everything. Most stores take advantage of this buyer sentiment and end up with better sales.

4. Most Customers Shop Online

A trend that has been emerging is improved online sales during the festive season.
As time goes on, people are going to use technologically superior means to get their shopping done.
An advantage for them is that they don’t have to rush or wait at brick-and-mortar stores for their shopping.
Online sales have been steadily increasing over the years. It has even outperformed physical stores and has made them irrelevant.
More brands have opted to have online platforms where people can shop.
There are a lot of brands available on eCommerce giants like Amazon. Also, several of them run their own online portals.

5. Sets The Tone For Holiday Shopping

Black Friday is the first sales day before the holidays, which plays a huge part in the buyer's psyche.
A good reason why Black Friday is more successful than other sales days is the Christmas holidays.
Most of the world tapers down on work and is looking to shop and relax. The emotional part of the Black Friday sale is a huge part of its success.
And the best part is that this is not only prevalent in the US; Etailers all over the world make sure that they coordinate their sales on this day.
This means that many businesses can optimize their sales and get higher profit margins.

Ecommerce Sales Strategy Tips for Black Friday

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1. Plan In Advance

This is perhaps one of the most important parts of the entire Black Friday sales funnel.
As a business owner, it helps to be prepared early when it comes to high sales days. And this is the biggest sales day of the year.
Most companies start more than six months earlier on their Black Friday campaigns.
The reason is that there is a lot of ground to cover both conceptually and technically.
There are several things to figure out, including which of the products or services go on sale.
All of these have to be planned and executed before the sale goes online. The more effort brands put in here, the better are chances the sale will be successful.

2. Start Campaigning For Prospects

Similar to building advertising campaigns, you also need to start on customer-centric campaigns for your eCommerce brand.
Make sure that you have the right campaigns set up that can attract clients to your eCommerce website.
For creating a high-quality campaign, the first step is to research your clients and your niche.
Some customers are more open to spending money during sales. Focus on them to get the best results.
The easiest way to find prospects is to look at their purchase history on your website.
It can give you an idea of what type of clients you should be advertising to. You can use this data to work with clients on the web as well.

3. Identify Your High Sale Products

Product and sales trends vary wildly year to year, and this is something you need to keep track of.
As a business owner, you need to develop analytics and statistics about what kind of products are mostly sold every year.
Tracking this can help you predict which products will be the most successful during this year's Black Friday sale.
It also helps to have consolidated data about annual sales of popular products in your niche.
This is another way to get a bird’s eye view of the products you should be selling.

4. Stock Your Inventory

Something critical, but what most eCommerce brands don't get right is stocking inventory.
When it comes to Black Friday, the more products you can sell, the better it is for you.
The number one reason for a bad experience during this time is product non-availability.
There's nothing the customers don’t like more than a product not being available. And this can be damaging to your brand.
To avoid this, you need to stock a surplus. Based on previous years, you can draw up predictive algorithms that can estimate the sales of a product.
If you run out of a product, make sure that the customer is updated as soon as possible.
Letting them add an item into the cart and then not deliver it can be bad for your brand.

5. Include Early Access Promotions

Promotions and discounts are something that can get more attention for your eCommerce website.
Early access promotions are important for your business.
They can help get your message out to the public more effectively than simple advertising.
This makes them much more cost-effective, and you can offer better discounts on your products.
Make sure that you advertise your promotions all over the web. Don’t forget to include social media channels as well.
The more people know about your promotions, the more success your Black Friday campaign will have.
Another reason why promotions are powerful is mouth-to-mouth marketing.
Rather than invest time and money to get the message across, let people do it for you.

6. Email Frequent Customers

When it comes to sales and promotions, the biggest reason companies do not perform well is communication.
You need to make sure that you let all your customers know well in advance of your plans for the holiday season.
This can build up anticipation, which also means they will let people close to them know.
Sending out curated and personalized emails can have a profound effect on your customer base.
They inform people of your intentions, and they are also able to plan better for their holiday shopping.
History has proven that the better the communication from eCommerce stores, the more people they attract.

7. Advertise On All Channels

Like we said before, getting the word out about your Black Friday campaign is going to be important.
This leads many eCommerce business owners to believe that advertising only applies to the digital domain.
This is simply not true. Black Friday is a global event, and you need to advertise your website on all channels.
This means using mediums other than digital like television, radio, and even print media.
As an example, Amazon is perhaps one of the largest global eCommerce businesses today.
They take out huge one-page newspaper print ads despite spending millions on digital advertising.
This is how powerful other channels are when talking about advertising. You need to utilize them all to their fullest.

8. Monitor Website Metrics

Ecommerce businesses have become hyper-competitive today. There are a lot of players in the market.
And because of the progress of digital marketing, there are a lot more metrics that need to be monitored for success.
It is critical for brands to monitor their website metrics, especially when it is close to a sales day.
Keeping track of your website metrics can help you get important insights about your business.
And because most metrics are in real-time, you can immediately assess the situation and make appropriate amends.
Website metrics have proven to be a powerful ally for improving sales and getting more leads.
It allows business owners to rework their process pipelines and tailor them to their exact needs.

9. Stress-test Your Website

During most sales days over the years, something has happened consistently is a huge influx of traffic.
This can sometimes overwhelm your hardware or your website, which can lead to failures.
Such episodes during sales can be disastrous for your brand - people might not want to shop with you again.
The solution would be to stress test your website using simulations to ensure consistency and performance.
It also helps you to identify problem areas and work on them before the sale goes live.
Another thing to mention here is that you need to do this well in advance. Otherwise, you just won’t have enough time to fix the problems.

10. Audit And Optimize Your Checkout Page

For an eCommerce website and business, one of the most important pages is the checkout page.
A lot of eCommerce brands fail to recognize this and, as a result, have bad conversion rates.
The key to success with checkout pages is to keep them as simple and effective as possible.
Learn to work with your audience rather than against them.
Also, have several payment options open to them to choose what they’re most comfortable with.
It is also important to audit your checkout page for unexpected results or failed payments.
These can be really bad for conversions as customers quickly click away from websites, especially during sale days.

11. Check Payment Gateways

Payment is the final step for all eCommerce websites. It signifies the culmination of your ecommerce marketing and outreach strategy.
The key is to make sure that you have as many payment methods as possible.
Giving your audience a large amount of choice is better for your business in the long run.
It reinforces the belief that you care about your customers. It also lets them choose an option that is convenient for them.
And this is critical during sales days when there are more chances of one payment failing on their end.
The simple rule is that the more payment gateways you have, the easier it is for people trying to buy a product off your website.

12. Upgrade For Increased Traffic

Assuming that you have done your work with your campaigns, you need to get your website ready for increased traffic.
Because Black Friday is a huge holiday, you might get a lot of traffic on the day. The importance of this cannot be understated.
There are examples of hundreds of thousands of products being sold out in under a minute.
This places a lot of strain on the architecture, which is something that you need to take a look at.
Contact your domain or web services provider and find out about your bandwidth and data limits.

List of Best Black Friday Campaigns

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Ubisoft

Ubisoft is one of the largest video game companies in the world. And they are known for their improved sales strategy, especially through email.
As you can see in the image, they offer up to 80% discounts on certain games during this period.
This can attract a lot of attention and results in a high number of sales during the holiday season.

Polk Audio

Polk Audio has been in the business of sound for decades now. They have one of the best products in the niche and are a highly sought-after brand.
Their Black Friday sales pitch is impressive, offering up to $200 off on a product - that is a lot of money saved.
They build up to Black Friday sales through emails to their regular clients months before the actual event.

The North Face

The North Face is a popular adventure wear and gear store. They’re known throughout the world for their durable and high-quality products.
They too have been able to gear up for a Black Friday sale through discounts and other incentives.
They also have a countdown timer on their website, which creates a fear of missing out on the discounts with their audience.

Booking.com

Booking.com is one of the biggest eCommerce spaces in the world for renting out properties. As you can see, they offer a huge discount for their services as well.
This can encourage people who like to travel to spend time on their properties. And this is important because a lot of people like to travel during the holiday season.

Old Navy

Old Navy is a clothing store that competes with other bigger retailers in the world.
They have been around for a long time now, and to them, these sales are part of their tradition. The first thing you notice is that they’ve renamed it to the Big Friday sale.
It sets them apart as a brand to bring a more socially conscious message to their audience.

Black Friday Sales Strategy for Ecommerce

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Q1. Why is Black Friday Important for Ecommerce websites?

Black Friday has grown to become the largest sales day in the world. Also, since it signals the start of the holiday season, people are much keener to spend their money.
This results in elevated sales numbers, engagement, and traffic. All these are important parts of the digital marketing ecosystem.
A business of any size, small or large, can profit from Black Friday sales. It is the reason why it forms one of the most important strategies for companies.

Q2. What Are Other Shopping Days I Should Focus On?

While Black Friday is the largest sales day of late, there is also another holiday that comes quite close to it.
We are talking about Cyber Monday and how online retailers are now focusing on that as well.
Cyber Monday is the Monday after Black Friday. Here too, online sales usually are pretty high.
Another holiday is Back to School from the 1st of August through Labor Day. This is also a period which competes with Black Friday and Cyber Monday for sales.

Q3. How Should I Promote My Brand’s Black Friday Sales?

The most important thing to do when it comes to Black Friday is to always stay in the news.
You can try several methods like promotions, flash sales, and VIP memberships, just to name a few.
Make sure that you have your promotions planned well before the start of the sales.

Q4. Do I Need a Huge Budget for the Black Friday Promotion?

A lot of your budget depends on the niche you are selling in as well as your strategy.
It also depends on the kind of targets you want to achieve. As a business, you can optimize your spending for Black Friday sales.
This can help you get more out of your campaign. But to achieve bigger targets, the budget also needs to be proportionally larger.

Q5. How Can I Get Better Sales Numbers During This Period?

A good start is to follow the tips we’ve highlighted in this article. It can help you with better results for your Black Friday sales.
You need to get the basics right when it comes to sales. This means the right infrastructure, marketing strategies, and product lineup.
Once all this is in place, you can work on the rest of the components of your sales plan.
Do you need any help to create a better ecommerce sales strategy for this black Friday? Get in touch with us now!