Online shopping has never been bigger with this year’s Black Friday sales on November 26, along with Cyber Monday, November 28, predicted to be a massive event for shoppers across the nation and globally.
Around 8.9 million Australians are expected to take part in the bonanza, with a predicted $3.8 billion spent on deals. Business consultant Olivia Jenkins, of Olivia Jenkins Consulting, who specialises in in advising female-led businesses in the beauty, fashion and lifestyle industries, says cut-through is vital.
“Consumers will be bombarded with texts and emails on this day and may feel overwhelmed. Therefore, it’s important to do whatever you can to capture attention. There’s still time to make a difference this year, but if you’ve left it too late, then make a point next year to strategise for Black Friday early on.”
Here are Olivia’s top 10 tips to making Black Friday a business success.
1. Start your advertising early
I recommend brands start advertising early and invest in campaigns to collect potential customers’ email addresses and phone numbers ahead of Black Friday. This will give you a larger audience to launch your campaign for the cyber weekend event.
2. Spoil your VIPs
Make sure there are added benefits for being on the VIP list so customers can clearly see the value of being subscribed. This helps to alleviate any drop off after the sale as they know they need to be on the list to unlock priority access to deals!
3. Build anticipation through social media
Be active on social media promoting the lead up to the event and during the event by sharing exclusive behind the scenes content with your community. They love seeing you share information about your promotions, pack orders in the warehouse and will empathise with any chaos happening on your side.
4. Make it easy for customers to find what they want
Customers have a lot of online options so it’s important to make the process of shopping on your store as easy as possible. Create a custom landing page to clearly advertise your promotions and all of the relevant products that can be purchased as part of the sale.
5. Increase your site speed
If your website is a on the slower side, invest in a web developer so it loads lightning fast. Customers are very impatient and even a few seconds delay can be enough to deter them from converting.
6. Optimise for mobile buying
The majority of consumers are now shopping on mobile devices so it’s really important to make sure your website is optimised for mobile shopping experiences. Check it out on a few different devices to make sure everything looks perfect ahead of the weekend!
7. Simplify the checkout process
Check to see if you have any pop ups or buttons prohibiting checkout from taking place. Often when you add apps to a store, they can sit in unfortunate places and can even block the checkout button from being tapped.
8. Go after abandoned carts
Doggedly pursue any abandoned carts through email marketing software like Klaviyo to deploy emails and texts to customers who have abandoned checkouts, or through an app on Shopify.
9. Activate LiveChat and have customer service team on standby
Customers will have questions at time of purchase so make sure your website is “staffed” to answer. This helps improve conversion rates and ensures customers have the confidence to place orders right away.
10. Closely monitor stock on hand
Closely monitor stock to ensure products don’t sell out. If they do have a strategy in place to capture email addresses or phone numbers for customers to be contacted when it’s back in stock. Avoid pre-orders as they often leave customers frustrated unless you offer split shipping which can be relatively expensive for the vendor.
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