Table of Contents
How to prepare your website to be a lean mean money making machine
Read our three piece article!
The only toolbox you’ll need to boost your revenue for the BIG weekend this year.
FIRST CHAPTER.
Planning ahead is half the battle! And make no mistake this is all out WAR!
Black Friday is the Hunger Games for shoppers. People assault the shops, looking for discounted merchandise. For years now, Black Friday holds the title of the biggest shopping day of the year. According to official sources, in 2015 companies forecasted around $630 billion of the total retail spending in the U.S. alone. However, Cyber Monday – the first monday after Black Friday, which focuses on online shopping only – has tuned in with a similar tease recently.
In our series of articles, we’ll tell you the basic ins and outs of the preparation for these two business holidays; furthermore, we give in-depth pointers about proper website optimization and the perfect design. So grab a pen and paper ’cause we’ll aim for profit!
1. Have a Strategy
First and foremost, you need to think ahead and decide which products should be discounted. There are two options in your hand: you either knock down the price of an already popular item, or push the cart of a dwindling one. The first option helps you ride the current trends even higher. The second one allows you to get rid of the old stock catching dust in the corner. Maybe combine the two: release the old stuck on Friday while keeping the hot stuff for Monday.
2. Plan Your Discounts
In order to avoid confusion, make a list about the items you wish to discount. This can be done in a simple Excel page if you feel so. Preparing your stock for Black Friday and Cyber Monday in an organized manner helps avoiding confusion later on, and modifications can be easily added later on.
3. Stock Up
There is nothing more embarrassing than hanging out the “Out of Stock” panel while the shopping craze is still running. This is closely followed by a crashing website, though. Don’t underestimate the shopping power of Cyber Monday: Adobe’s Digital Index pointed out that last year the online sale revenue reached $3 billion! Be sure to pile up as many supplies as you can from the sale products. Take into account that there might be hiccups with your subcontractors as you aren’t the only one who orders larger quantities for Cyber Monday.
4. Black Friday Starts on Monday!
The sooner you start the promotion campaign the better your sales will be. So why not start Black Friday almost a week earlier? Being unique and unconventional is the key for success. Prepare some smaller sales for the days preceding Black Friday. You not only lure in customers who are more likely to return for the main event, but this gives you an opportunity to test your website’s functionality. Monitoring the visitor’s behavior allows you to fine-tune the layout before the big rush begins. Starting the sales earlier also provides a chance to get rid of the less attractive stocks and distribute customer attention evenly.
5. Don’t Promote Yourself, Promote the Prices!
Promotion plays a vital part in your marketing campaign. We have already established the importance of starting early and determining right products. Remember that the promotions should not concentrate on your webshop itself, but rather on the items on sale and their crazy-low prices. Come up with special bundle packs or offer free shipping. Posting huge discount figures, like “50% Off” which can catch the eyes as well; in other words, make sure that you communicate larger sales the most.
6. Hype It
The hype-campaign surrounding your Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales should start after you finished Step 2. Grab the attention of both new and returning visitors by putting a countdown on your homepage. Spread the world via email to every subscribed member. These messages should have thematic design and include photos of the hottest sale-items. Sending out periodic emails featuring different discounts is also a smart move. Maybe add a countdown there as well.
7. Study The Competition
Always keep an eye on the competition, don’t let them be the winners of Black Friday or Cyber Monday! Study their marketing strategy, special coupons and their prices! It also pays off if you come up with a unique, one-of-a kind offer. And take a look at what the industry veterans are doing. Borrow ideas from big-name retailers, because they know what they are doing.
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8. Personalize Your Offers
Create personalized offers with well-crafted Call To Action words that fit into the theme. Cater to different target demography with varying tastes and preferences. Analyze the data you have about the expectable audience, and turn the gap between the visitor’s age, gender and location to your side.
9. Don’t Leave Your Mobile Behind
Some of the customers may switch to online shopping while standing in a long line during Black Friday. But a poorly optimized site would just add to their already high frustration, and they would leave even before reaching the checkout. Synchronize the shopping cart between different devices, and the webpage should share the same design even on smaller screens. If you want to dive deeper into the topic, feel free to check out Mike Azevedo’s post on Entrepreneur.com.
10. Upsell, Upsell, UPSELL!
Maximize your profit during Black Friday and Cyber Monday by concentrating on selling the expensive merchandise. Offer free shipping for top-tier products, since customers recognize it as a discount. When they buy a specific item, recommend them the corresponding accessories, or another item that makes a good match with it. Keep visitors circulating in your webshop even after they purchased something by revealing ads for additional sales.
11. Nothing is Sadder Than an Abandoned Shopping Cart…
According to statistics, a large percentage of the visitors who receive abandoned cart alerts will return and finish their purchase. An effective alert should be personalized and quick. Studies show that the success of these alerts drops significantly with time. Make sure that your visitors receive a reminder after a brief amount of time, possibly within 30 minutes of abandonment. You can also emphasize urgency by revealing the dropping stock levels. This adds a „ticking clock” effect that plays on the customer’s fear of missing out something.
12. Design is King
We cannot emphasize enough the significance of good design. Make sure your webshop’s images mirror the holidays; put out eye candies that are centred around your top-selling items. It goes without saying that all design-related task should be prepared in advance. A dedicated landing page and a store front highlighting your best-sellers are also must-haves. These were just a few samples about adjusting your site to Black Friday and Cyber Monday, as the topic is way too important and extensive to be compressed into one tiny point.
If you are hungry for more, we’ll have a whole article in the series dedicated to the importance of design!
13. Optimize It!
Last, but definitely not least, website optimization. The sudden change in design and layout may yield unexpected glitches or poor performance, which lead to a drop in the conversion rates. Keep in mind that these two holidays produce the largest traffic in the whole year! Make sure that the website handles the increased traffic. Halting loading times and disconnections are worse than not having sales at all. It’s highly recommended to take a look at the post of how to prepare for cyber monday by Pamela Sanderson at infomedia.com.
Wondering about the right tool for website optimization? We created a separate article for your convenience, listing all the steps for maximized profit. So stay tuned for more!
STAY TUNED FOR OUR UPCOMING ARTICLES RELATED TO BLACK FRIDAY AND CYBER MONDAY FRENZY AND HOW TO MAKE THE MOST OF IT!
Interested in our upcoming articles to achieve high sales numbers (not only) on Black Friday and Cyber Monday? Or just wish to follow the footsteps of the pro websites? Then join our ranks! Make sure you won’t miss anything and subscribe to our newsletter so we can arm you with the knowledge needed to make the most out of this opportunity!