Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving when apparently, “Americans trample over each other for sales, after being thankful for what they already have.”

This huge sale day has been on the rise all over the world for quite some time. According to NRF, the yearly retail sales occurring between Black Friday and Christmas are around 30%.

An interesting fact is that this holiday shopping season has also become an essential sales day in countries where they don’t even celebrate Thanksgiving – including Pakistan, where some of the brands refer it to as “Blessed Friday”. Though, the discounts are still good enough to make us empty our pockets with the lightning speed. Just last year, one of our biggest online shopping stores, Daraz had the record-breaking revenue generation of Rs. 3 billion at only Black Friday.

This year too, shoppers are expected to spend over $717.5 billion all over the globe, which is increased spending by 4.3% from last year. Now, this is some serious business! And if any of the e-commerce stores are willing to ignore these numbers, trust me that would be lunatic.

Black Friday Online Business Strategies

With the season just around the corner, we are here to share some business savvy marketing tips and strategies that can help you make the most of this sales day.

Sharpen Up Your Tools

To be ready for the big day, you have to sharpen up your tools and that is, in your case, the e-commerce website. For this,

• Early birds get all the good things. This is true here too. Customers start following up on discounts as soon as October, so start enticing them from the start.
• People stick to only those pages that take only a few seconds to load. Optimize your site to make it slick and swift.
• Keep a backup of everything, from product images to script coding on stand-by.
• Make sure your online store is working perfectly. Don’t release changes before the big day.
• Expect a lot of traffic and then prepare your infrastructure to handle the load accordingly. Too much traffic on peak times can cause your website to crash, and which in turn can cost you thousands of purchases.

Promotional Emails Can Be a Good Start

Emails are always a good approach to spread the word out. By sending out marketing emails timely, you can efficiently blast your way through your current and potential customers during this huge influx of opportunities.   

• Boost your subscriber lists for these holiday shopping sprees by improving your product offerings. For this, your sign up pages should also include sales day particulars.
• You need to strategize your target list according to the nature of buyers. For instance, some are seasonal shoppers and browsers, while others are only ignorers. Now, the essential thing is to consider them as potential customers and convert them.  
• Returning and new potential buyers are to be dealt with differently. Tailored emails should be sent, in which loyal customers should be offered freebies and gifts organically. For potential buyers, persuasion techniques can be used to tempt them into spilling their bills through free shipping and limited time offers.
• Customize your emails by having personalized and attractive subject lines and call-to-action buttons. Also, add sections that can create reminders and wishlists.

Make Social Media Your Immediate Friend

Social media is always an immaculate way to create anticipation that would lead to the main event. Starting the promotions, way before the time of event, can help build a connection with the customers. Attractive imagery and carefully crafted captions help create a buzz for whooping good sales. You can use social media in the following ways,

• Your profile should be the embodiment of the holiday spirit. Your display pictures, bio, and ads should correspond to your sale’s specifics.
• To ensure maximum engagement, always research and post only at the time of highest follower presence.
• You need to remind your followers that time is quickly passing. So your CTAs in the captions should prompt the users to take immediate action.
• Always respond to the comments, as ignoring them can lead to mistrust.
• The option of native shops is available on Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram, and can drive conversions by a great deal.

Start a Countdown to Create Urgency

When a person is not continuously being reminded about the lack of time, the completion of work can take hours. Customers, when buying any product, take time to compare products on several stores to find the cheapest one. However, by adding a countdown timer or scarcity, a sense of urgency is being created and the person is instigated to take immediate action.

The website Ernest Jones when used timers on their Mother’s Day sale, 28% increase than the usual in clicks was identified.

• A countdown banner to the sales day can be placed on the main landing page for days before to spread excitement, and also so that the shoppers can prepare for it.
• The timers can be used to show how much time is left of the sale, or how much time is left of the next day delivery.
• These timers should be present on the emails too, along with the call to actions.
• Never overdo the timers and scarcity, lest buyers become immune to it.

Whether you are going to have a Black Friday sale or Blessed Friday, the above-mentioned strategies can definitely help you to drive your sale conversions.