The Black Friday Race 2019: Promotion – that’s how you tackle it
One of the busiest times of the year in retail is almost here: the holiday season. The race starts with the US-originated, but now very familiar to those in Belgium, France, Germany, and the Netherlands, Black Friday. Fun fact: at Mollie, Black Friday is our busiest day, when we process more transactions than on any other day of the year; hence, we sell more on Black Friday than we do for Sinterklaas (a Dutch Santa Claus type-celebration) and Christmas. Cyber Monday is also a pretty big deal around here, too. As consumers not only expect deals during the Black Friday-Cyber Monday weekend but during the holiday period in general, you, the merchant, are presented with a fantastic opportunity: to attract clients to your webshop and ensure they don’t go looking for better deals at your competitors by improving your e-commerce strategy. But how should you go about making sure that when Black Friday and the holiday season come around, everyone is directing their attention, and clicks, to your webshop?
And that’s what it’s about in the end: everyone heads to your webshop. How this all happens, though, depends on your promotion strategy.
Tip 1: Be clear: customers get discounts
In order to guarantee that you’ll sell as much as possible, your clients have to know what’s in store for them. This means that they shouldn’t have any hesitation as to where they want to do their shopping: they should know without a shadow of a doubt that they’ll get an attractive discount in your webshop. So, you should clearly communicate that your customers are going to get discounts and that the discounts are worth the effort. Here, you can leave the discounts a surprise or tease them with, for example, “get a 70% discount off this television/vase/ dress/ ring on Black Friday (amongst other major discounts)” or “Can’t wait?! On which of these five products will you get a huge discount on Cyber Monday?”
Tip 2: Focus on your regular customers
Everyone loves getting discounts. This truth also holds for your regular customers. For many merchants out there this is a contentious issue: “Why should I give them a discount when they can afford to pay the full price?” If this is more your line of reasoning, then try viewing discounts as something extra that will make customers even more satisfied with you. Discounts also have a psychological effect. For example, people think, “If I save €40 on this item, then I can spend that money I just saved on something else.” If you ensure this happens in your webshop, then everybody wins.
Tip 3: Attract new shoppers
One of the major advantages of the biggest sales season is that it serves as the perfect moment to attract new clients. Once customers have experienced your high-quality offerings and or services, they’ll have a pretty big incentive to come back and buy from you in the future, so you should take advantage of this opportunity!
What channels should I focus on?
Every channel where you can reach customers for the biggest sales period is fair game. Have customer email addresses? Then send them a few emails on your deals and a special reminder email on big days like Black Friday and Cyber Monday. It’s imperative that you start your campaign on time, for example, from four weeks out from Black Friday, sending them an email per week leading up to the big day.
Next to email, you can also take advantage of social media to further encourage your clients. Here, getting your message shared is important. Are your regular customers showing interest in your posts? Then they’ll most likely share the information with their friends, and that brings more attention to your offers.
Have you ever considered doing paid advertisements on Facebook? If you have, then this is the time to do it and get more traffic to your website.
If you’re wondering what the content of all these emails and posts should be, it should first and foremost communicate that you’re giving discounts and gradually go deeper into what products are being discounted and what type of discounts your clients can expect.
Want to be prepared for the Black Friday-Cyber Monday weekend and the holiday season rush?