What is a Black Friday eCommerce Strategy?
A Black Friday eCommerce strategy is very similar to a universal eCommerce strategy that many businesses maintain. The key difference is that Black Friday eCommerce strategies are specific to winter holiday sales. The purpose of these sorts of eCommerce strategies is to give online retailers a detailed plan to follow as they navigate the winter holidays. Many companies decide to create specialized strategies for Black Friday and Cyber Monday because of how important they are. Black Friday and Cyber Monday are consistently two of the largest annual sales. Follow our Black Friday sale tactics to take full advantage of these winter holiday sales.
Two Common Types of Black Friday Sales
Bundles
Bundles are a style of sale where related products are grouped together and sold under a single discounted price. Bundles are effective because they encourage customers to make larger purchases than they normally would. This raises the company’s average order value (AOV) and leads to higher revenue. These kinds of sales work best for eCommerce companies that commonly deal in larger orders. For instance, fashion brands could benefit from selling seasonal bundles of clothing. The total volume of products sold will generally outweigh the cost of selling the bundles at a discounted rate.
Sitewide Sales
There are two different ways to run a sitewide sale. Either a flat discount is applied to every product available on the site, or the entire final purchase is discounted by a certain percentage at checkout. The key component of a sitewide sale is that every product the company offers can have the discount applied to it. These kinds of sales are effective at encouraging customers to purchase more products in a single instance. Sitewide sales are best-suited for eCommerce businesses that sell more expensive products. This is because customers are more likely to splurge on a premium product when a discount is available.
5 Black Friday eCommerce Tactics You Should Consider
Offer Free Shipping
One of the most prominent recent trends in online shopping is the consumer’s preference for the cheapest shipping services possible. In fact, studies have shown that online shoppers will pay more for a product if it includes free shipping. Take advantage of this trend by offering free shipping this holiday season. Smaller businesses might struggle to be able to offer free shipping because of their budget. In these cases, we recommend offering “free” shipping. This is a practice where the price of a product is raised just enough to offset the cost of delivery. This gives customers the satisfaction of not having to pay for shipping without changing a company’s operating costs.
Optimize Your Site for SEO
Search engine optimization, or SEO, is a collection of guidelines websites can follow to help them rank higher in search results. Ranking highly in Google’s algorithm is important because the first page of results receives consistently higher traffic than any other page. Some studies have shown that ranking in the highest position in Google can earn a company almost a third of all the traffic for that search query. SEO can earn your company organic traffic without investing in paid advertising.
The most important factor of SEO for eCommerce brands is the website’s load time. This is especially true during times when they expect a large influx of traffic, such as during holiday sales. Google has made it clear that websites that the faster a website loads, the more likely it is to rank highly. There are a few different ways to make your website faster. One of the easiest and most effective ways to speed up your website is to compress any images. Images are generally some of the largest elements of a website, meaning they can be difficult to load. Compressing these images to a smaller size will allow the website to load much faster.
Work With Influencers
As the winter holidays approach, many people will begin to brainstorm gift ideas for their loved ones. But sometimes, it can be difficult to land on the perfect present for everyone in your life. In these situations, many online shoppers turn to influencers to find gift ideas. This is because influencers spend a great deal of time engaging with their audience. As a result, influencers tend to earn the trust of their audiences. This trust is worth its weight in gold for companies that partner with them. Consider working with influencers that are relevant to your industry this holiday season. A simple, unboxing video or product review can help you grow your audience and make more sales.
Inventory Management Plan
As previously mentioned, the winter holidays are almost always the busiest point of the year for eCommerce companies. Though this is a fantastic opportunity for these companies, it is also incredibly stressful. One of the unique challenges facing eCommerce companies during the winter holidays is inventory management. Businesses need to land on the perfect amount of inventory to keep in a warehouse, which can be difficult. Order too much of a product and you’ll be unable to sell it all. Order too little of a product and you could end up missing out on sales. This is why we recommend creating an inventory management plan. Analyze your sales from the winter holidays in previous years to get an idea of how much inventory you should keep. You should also consider having a point during the season when you restock your inventory to keep up with demand.