As you may already know, Black Friday and Cyber Monday or BFCM are the highest volume days of sales for almost every eCommerce business. During the November peak business month of 2021, consumers spent more than 135 billion, up 9% from the previous year. These eCommerce Black Friday tips will help you ensure your eCommerce site is ready to maximize sales and scale up smoothly for a faster, more substantial return on investment.
You may be reading this article and thinking it is too early to prepare for BFCM, but now is the perfect time to start strategizing for the peak season for most online shops. Incorporate our eCommerce Black Friday tips into your strategy, and you will be ready for a profitable November. We will discuss the top tips to ensure you have smooth sales, highly-effective advertisements, and increased sales. You can also ensure you have funds with a cash flow solution that empowers eCommerce businesses and works with some of the most well-known selling platforms.
Five eCommerce Black Friday Tips for a Successful BFCM
Show Your Affiliation With a Community
Showing your affiliation with a community by joining or building a presence can attract like-minded individuals and be a powerful solution for boosting your social media engagement and overall marketing. These eCommerce Black Friday tips can encourage buyers who belong to a community to support your store and can help your business be featured in blogs, local news, and chamber of commerce campaigns. You may already be affiliated with groups that can support your efforts, including local or small business organizations, and veteran, female, or minority-owned business communities.
Your community affiliation can also be part of your marketing strategy. If you sell on social media, hashtags can boost your online engagement and help shoppers find your store. Keywords like "#supportsmallbusiness" and "#shoplocal" are some of the most popular hashtags on Instagram for small businesses.
You can also use local hashtags like your zip code or city and state and participate in events like Small Business Saturday, a day that falls between Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Its purpose is to promote shopping with small businesses, and it can also be a high-volume day for small business stores. Incorporating the hashtags that best suit your business and some BFCM or seasonal hashtags like "#stockingstuffer" or "#blackfriday2022" can boost your social media presence during the peak season.
Revamp Your Creative Marketing and Advertising
Be ready to drive business to your eCommerce site by creating promotional materials and deals that will encourage shoppers to visit your site and make purchases. Promotions can be an excellent alternative if a discount is not profitable for your business. A buy-one-get-one-free deal, giveaway, or mystery box can encourage customers to choose your store over competitors. Planning your strategy will help you prepare your inventory in time for BFCM. You can get a flexible solution to ensure your cash flow is adequate for purchasing the new product and shipping options.
Your promotional items and discounts should be advertised using unique visuals and indicate that customers can only get your special deal by shopping on Black Friday or Cyber Monday. You can encourage customers to visit your store and make their purchase or fear missing out on the deal entirely.
Convert Shoppers to Buyers
While attracting shoppers can improve traffic to your site or shop, sales are what will give you a higher return on investment. Some eCommerce Black Friday tips for converting buyers include activating your base and creating a sense of urgency in your advertising. As mentioned above, fear of missing out (FOMO) can encourage customers to buy when they visit your store. Still, your store must be ready to handle the influx of purchases and inquiries via social media, email, and phone. Ensure you have the cash flow to make the most of each shopper interaction.
Loyalty and rewards programs or email list subscribers can help you re-engage previously satisfied customers and invite them to shop with you again during BFCM. Customers that have already shopped with you or subscribed to your mailing list are more likely to shop with you again if they had a great previous experience. You can drive sales by inviting reward members and return customers to a VIP shopping event or provide other incentives like double rewards, punch cards, or a gift when they shop with you on Black Friday.
A VIP event can be an excellent time to launch a virtual showroom for a curated video shopping experience on your website or platform. Your highly qualified leads, rewards members, and return customers will be happy to receive an exclusive invitation to your event or launch promotion. Surveys show consumers still want virtual and augmented reality experiences after the pandemic and appreciate the more personal and dynamic online shopping experience. Live selling events can also attract buyers and consumers who follow your brand on social media. Some products are difficult to sell without a demonstration, so live selling can work to your advantage if your product requires a demo to fully understand why the customer would want to buy this BFCM.
Prepare Your Website or Shop for BFCM
Now that you are ready to drive shoppers to your store and convert them to buyers, these eCommerce Black Friday tips will help you prepare your website or shop to handle the traffic smoothly. Start by clearly defining your BFCM-specific policies, such as quantity limits. It can also be an excellent time to check your other store policies. Your returns, cancellations, shipping, and accepted payment forms may need to be updated or clarified. You can also adjust for the peak season by adding flexible gift exchange, return options, and in-store pickup to accommodate more customers.
Your website or shop should be ready to take advantage of the increased traffic, promoting the value of add-ons and upsells for more profitable transactions. Optimize your cart and checkout by including suggestions like items frequently purchased together with the customer's cart items, a countdown for shipping to receive the item in time for Christmas Eve, and recommending gift cards to customers.
Reminding your customers that they have items waiting in their cart can prevent them from abandoning their cart and buying from a competitor. You can send a reminder by email or include a pop-up that encourages customers not to close their tab or browser. Interactive scratch cards, slot machines, and wheels that offer customers a chance to win or a discount can make customers stop and think before they abandon the cart. It also helps to know your customers and their preferences.
Related: How to Choose a Shipping Solution for Your Ecommerce Store
Ensure You Have Cash Flow With a Financing Partner
Cash flow is vital to procuring enough inventory to satisfy your customers and maximize sales. It is also necessary for creating advertisements and implementing changes to your website or shop. One of the most vital eCommerce Black Friday tips to ensure a successful BFCM is preparing enough cash flow to provide flexibility leading up to the peak season.
A flexible cash flow solution can help your eCommerce business purchase enough products to ensure the items your customers want on BFCM are in stock and ready to be shipped. Procuring extra funds can ensure you have enough cash flow for the following:
- Maintain essential business services
- Pay employees
- Hire temporary staffers and freelancers for content and website creation
- Expand customer communication and outreach
- Prepare and enhance your website and advertisements
- Ensure smooth shipments and return processing
- Enhance the buyer experience with a virtual showroom and live selling events
Find a financing partner to help you have enough cash inflow to carry you through the peak season when you should be able to make a substantial return.
Related: Everything You Need to Know about ECommerce Cash Flow
Maximize Your Black Friday Sales With an Early Strategy and an eCommerce Financing Partner
The day after Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday are two critical days for most retailers. Be prepared for a smooth sale this BFCM using our five Black Friday tips for eCommerce retailers. Starting early preparations for the peak season will ensure you are ahead of the competition and ready to increase the volume of shoppers that visit your store and convert them to buyers.
It can take significant funds to ensure you can make the most of BFCM, and relying on a traditional bank loan can mean paying interest long after November. Ensure you have cash flow without high-interest and a monthly commitment to make payments with a financial solution for eCommerce stores.
Onramp specializes in cash flow solutions for eCommerce. We can help you with flexible funding solutions for sustaining day-to-day essential business services, hiring, inventory, and preparing for Black Friday and the peak season. A financing solution from Onramp comes with no interest, and we only take a small fee from your inventory sales to pay back your balance.
On average, eCommerce stores pay only half of what they would with traditional loans, and you won't have to worry about making minimum payments every month. We can also integrate with some of the largest eCommerce platforms. Schedule a call today to finance your store for Black Friday.
