It's that time of year again, the holiday season is upon us and with that comes one of the biggest shopping times of the year: Black Friday and Cyber Monday. As an online store this is your chance to score a big chunk of your revenue for the year. In order to capitalize on BF and CM there are some things you can do to your store to set yourself up for success. Prepare your store to be Black Friday themed either the week before or the week of Black Friday depending on how long you are running your sale. I don't recommend promoting BF deals for longer than 14 days. Check out these 5 tips to get your store Black Friday/Cyber Monday ready!
1. Update Your Homepage: Make sure all your images and banners are up to date. Product images should be cohesive and the same size. Banners should represent your current product selection and can be festive and themed for Black Friday and the Holidays (ie: Christmas/NYE). Make your discounts front and center.
2. Use Automatic Discounts: Sure it can be fun to use a code like: SAVE40 at checkout, but you will get more sales conversions if you give your discount automatically at checkout. Shopify makes it very easy to set this up as it gives you the option to set up automatic discounts.
3. Don't Discount Your Entire Store: With major retailers and other online brands offering discounts beginning at the start of November, you may feel the pressure to start offering deals early. This is why instead of offering your entire store at a discount, you should break your discounts up over the course of the month. Give discounts on specific collections and products. Start by creating a buzz building campaign early. Build your email list and increase traffic to your website before the actual day of Black Friday. Stay top of mind with customers by emailing and posting to your social channels frequently as well as using paid advertising. Some of you may frown at the thought of "paid advertising" but you must be willing to invest in your marketing. You are going to pay in some way for getting the right eyes on your content whether it's with your time or money. Paid advertising will allow you to not burn yourself out trying to keep eyes on your content daily.
4. Simplify Checkout: Enable one click buying options to reduce the barriers for customers following through with checkout. You can enable one click buying on Shopify by using any of the following payment processors: PayPal, Apple Pay, Shop Pay, Google Pay. These processors have online wallets that have customer's info already stored so all they have to do is click one button to buy and their information auto fills.
Bonus TIP: Segment customers on your email list who purchase from you frequently and who have purchased the most. Create a VIP list for these people and offer them earlier or deeper discounts. Don't have a email list set up yet? Learn all about how to build one for an online store with Money Making Email Templates.
5. Optimize for Mobile Buying: Be sure your site is fully optimized for mobile purchasing. Most people shop directly from their cell phones and you don't want them to land on your website if it isn't up to par with the mobile sites of your competitors. Improve your mobile experience by making sure your images are the right size for mobile, your navigation is easy to find, and that your site isn't loading slowly.
More tips and strategies for Black Friday are coming! Follow @beautybosslab on Instagram to stay up to date!