2021 was a record-breaking year for Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM): Shopify merchants alone sold nearly $6.3 billion USD! The pandemic environment had a lot to do with it.
Now that we are back to a more normal pace of life and physical sales are regaining popularity, how can we make the 2022 edition, which will take place from November 26 to 29, a success? Our team is here to guide you before, during and after BFCM.
Before
Prepare your BFCM strategy in advance, a winning choice!
Don’t wait until October to prepare your strategy, and don’t underestimate the workload required to implement all the elements that will make your strategy a success. We even recommend putting your offers and promotions into effect as early as the end of October, so develop and deploy your strategy well in advance.
Analyze the results of your 2021 strategy
Before you do anything, analyze the previous year’s BFCM results. Here are some questions to ask yourself to guide your analysis:
- Which ad placements were most effective?
- Did you have different offers than your competitors?
- What did your competitors do?
- Did you test different types of visuals for your ads?
- When did sales peak?
- What did your customers say after the BFCM?
Once you’ve made these observations, identify the elements that need to be replicated, those that need to be improved and those that need to be changed completely.
Prepare promotions that will attract your customers
Your clientele will be bombarded by different promotions during the months of October and November: stand out! Here are some examples of promotions that will make you unique:
- Create a B2GO or BOGO type promotion (when you buy two products, the third one is free, the second item at a percentage discount, etc.)
- Enhance your loyalty program points
- Increase the value of gift cards (e.g. a $100 gift card would be worth $150)
- Add a surprise or sample to the purchase
- Offer exclusive offers to your VIP customers to thank them for their loyalty.
You don’t have to put all your products on promotion. You can target only certain popular collections, products you want your customers to discover, or simply items you want to see sold out. For more tips on creating attractive offers, check out our article 5 tips for building your Black Friday & Cyber Monday promotion.
Run tests before BFCM
September and October are ideal months to test different elements of your strategy. Consumers start shopping again and think about what they want to buy for the holiday season. Here are some elements to test during this period:
- In terms of advertising, do lifestyle images perform better than product photos?
- Which banner gets the most clicks on your homepage?
- Do newsletter sign-up forms perform better with or without images?
Good to know: this is also the time to warm up your audience by sending them some advertising messages. Also, take the time to segment your audience. It will pay off when you launch your campaigns.
During
Work with different carriers for deliveries
Delivery times have a major influence on consumers’ purchasing decisions during the BFCM. Indeed, a large part of them take advantage of this period to buy their various gifts for the holiday season. You must therefore be prepared to meet the large number of orders you will receive during these few days. Avoid putting all your eggs in one basket during this busy period, and deal with different carriers to maintain reasonable delays.
Paying attention to your customers’ behaviour makes a lot of sense!
Your online store will receive a large number of visits in a short period of time, hence the importance of reacting quickly! Pay special attention to their behavior.
Be prepared to answer questions
Your competitors will be offering several attractive offers at the same time as you. Provide tools to facilitate customer service (automated email cascade, chatbot, etc.). It is important that you are very responsive!
Collect data from your buyers
Some people will discover your brand and products through BFCM, which is great! However, make sure you have a way to follow up with them once the promotions are over, as they could be part of your loyal customer base. Create automated lists and segments on your emailing platform, use pixels, cookies, etc.
Actively relaunch abandoned carts
Visiting a Web site, adding products to your cart, going to compare the competitor’s offers, adding other products to a new cart, getting distracted and forgetting to come back… It happens more often than you think!
A company that reminds its users about their abandoned cart has a better chance of completing the sale than a competitor in passive mode. Make sure you have effective email flows that will follow up with your distracted or undecided customers.
After
Post BFCM
What you do after BFCM is just as important as the actions that preceded it. There are three key things you absolutely must do to ensure that your BFCM efforts have an impact on your long-term sales:
- Develop a strategy to retain your new customers and clients
- Maintain the winning elements over time
- Identify your successes and mistakes.
To conclude :
- Plan ahead and prepare sooner rather than later to develop your strategy. Don’t hesitate to try out original ideas to stand out from the competition, and be aware of current trends.
- During the BFCM, make sure you are very responsive to the actions of your users and your competitors: you can adjust your strategy.
- Finally, highlight your successes and failures. E-commerce is a learning process that evolves over time. Some strategies work very well one year and not so well the next. Don’t forget to follow up with your new customers and make the necessary efforts to keep them coming back.
Want to learn more or discuss Black Friday and Cyber Monday strategies? Email us at [email protected]! Our eCommerce team will be happy to help
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