Black Friday is approaching and shop owners as well as buyers are getting reading for the big night. Buyers are checking shops and already scouting for deals, shop owners, however, are devising their marketing strategy and the best ways how to give customers what they want and still make a profit. Here we have compiled a few tips on how to get ready for a Black Friday if you are a shop owner!
Make sure your website is ready
When Black Friday hits, and you have been doing your marketing right – you will get tons of traffic on your webpage. People will want to not only browse, but put things into the basket as well as use the checkout system. For all of it to go smoothly you need to be ready for the increase in traffic and all your systems need to be ready to take up the extra load. The last thing you want is for your e-commerce shop to crash during Black Friday, especially if you have been working hard to get all this traffic and customers.
To avoid system overload, start working with your webpage maintainers early. Ask them to run tests and determine how many people the webpage will be able to hold smoothly. Determine if that number is enough or if you need to make some changes to the server plan you currently have.
As with the checkout system, contact the developers and remind them that Black Friday is coming and ask if they can guarantee that their system is ready to take on more people than usual.
It is good to test out everything beforehand, so you are sure that you have done the best you can to ensure a smooth Black Friday evening, but the truth is that something always can go wrong anyway. Definitely have a backup plan and be ready to put out some fires. Inform all the people involved that they also need to be reachable and ready to fix any problems that might occur as fast as possible.
Choose the best items for Black Friday
Make it easy for your customer – don’t have a Black Friday offer on all of your items. Choose a few, maybe the ones that are most often in the basket, but never get purchased or the most bought items, or the opposite – choose the items that often don’t get to the people’s shopping bags. The strategy is yours, our recommendation is to not discount all of your items. Why? Because of decision fatigue.
Customers will feel overwhelmed if they see that all items in your shop are going for amazing discounted prices. It can make them confused and they may end up not buying anything because they cannot choose. Make it easy for them – choose for them by adding just a few items to your Black Friday sale. Give them some choice but not too much.
Also, you don’t know, a customer can come into your shop for the amazing Black Friday offer, but end up buying something they like more for full price.
Drive sales with a special offer
Give your customer something special as a gift for shopping on Black Friday with you. A gift with a Black Friday offer can also work well as an additional push to purchase something. The gift doesn’t have to be anything big – it can be free shipping, a coupon for their next purchase, or even a valuable e-book. Use your imagination and marketing skills to come up with an original and enticing special offer for your customers. It will also be perfect for catching a viewer’s eye on social media ads.
Start your Black Friday marketing early
If you are a merchant, Black Friday has already started for you. The marketing needs to start early to ensure the best outcome for this buying holiday. Your biggest shoppers on Black Friday will be people who already know your brand, are interested in your brand or have purchased before. Make sure you offer them something amazing, so they cannot say no to your Black Friday items.
The best place where to connect with recurring buyers is the e-mail. Those are loyal customers who are trusting you with their e-mail addresses, they definitely are fans of your brand and most likely are planning to buy something from you on Black Friday. To please them (and get extra benefits for yourself) create an e-mail campaign targeting just these people! You can even give them a head start, for example, start Black Friday early with a special code that you send out only to those who are subscribed to your e-mail list.
Even though the benefits are going out to the e-mail subscribers, make sure you let everyone else know that e-mail is the place where the magic happens and where is possible to score the best deals. That way you might get two birds with one stone – extra sales on Black Friday as well as a supplemented subscription list.
Just thinking of starting an online shop?
Are you almost an online shop owner meaning that you are interested in the business but haven’t started anything yet? It might be the right time to start out with a bang and create a pop-up Black Friday shop. The best way how to put it together in a short amount of time is to choose a print on demand dropshipping business.
This type of business you can create in a few weeks if not days and be ready for the Black Friday fun in no time! You just need to find a print on demand supplier, create fun designs, cook up a quick website and a marketing campaign. The best part – it asks for very few initial investments, so you can definitely try it out.
If you are looking for a print on demand supplier, we recommend Printseekers.com . They have high-quality products, great reviews, and amazing customer service. They are very responsive and will definitely help you get a print on demand e-commerce shop running by Black Friday.
Conclusion
Black Friday is an amazing opportunity for both buyers and sellers. Make sure you get the best out of it on both ends – either as a shop owner or a customer. And remember, after Black Friday comes Cyber Monday – a do-over for Black Friday, so make sure you are ready for that day too!
