How would you describe Black Friday to someone who has never heard of it?
Would you say it’s a time to get great deals at retailers? Or perhaps a time to shop early to beat crowds? If you didn’t know what Black Friday was, then chances are you haven’t shopped much in recent years.
For decades, retail stores have held huge sales events over Thanksgiving weekend to lure shoppers into their shops. Retailers aim to attract customers with amazing discounts to entice them to spend. Over time, they have evolved from simple doorbusters to full-blown mega shopping events that span multiple days, weeks, or even months.
You can also cash in on Black Friday in a completely new way. Take advantage of this opportunity to promote your ecommerce store during the holidays. By combining Ads, marketing, website optimization, and following some Black Friday Marketing Strategies you'll see tremendous results.
What is Black Friday & When is Black Friday 2022?
There’s no exact definition, but generally speaking, it’s the day after Thanksgiving and is considered to be the single largest shopping day of the year. According to statistics, Black Friday sales account for nearly 25% of total retail sales during the holiday season. In 2022 the Black Friday on 25 November.
Black Friday originated in Canada in the late 1950s as a way to celebrate Thanksgiving, but over time became synonymous with shopping. Stores would open at midnight on Thanksgiving night and close on Christmas Eve, and re-opened again after New Year for the following year.
Many people would spend the entire holiday weekend visiting stores and buying gifts. As Black Friday was celebrated in Canada, shoppers began celebrating Black Friday in the United States.
As we mentioned above, Black Friday has become synonymous with big discounts and deals across the board. However, there’s much more to Black Friday than just bargains. In fact, there are various strategies you can employ in order to increase traffic and boost conversions for your site. Let’s take a look at some of them.
To maximize your chances of success, you should optimize website performance, promote products, start planning earlier, and invest in advertising campaigns before, during, and after the Black Friday period. This way, you'll be seen in a relevant audience when they're searching for the goods/services you offer.
In this article, we'll have mentioned some Black Friday Marketing Strategies, tips, ideas, and the latest black Friday ecommerce stats & trends that will help you to drive traffic, increase sales, and boost revenue.
Why is Black Friday important for eCommerce businesses?
Black Friday is an opportunity for any business to make money, and eCommerce businesses especially stand to benefit from the massive traffic surge they receive. Black Friday isn't just for big box retailers anymore. Today, shoppers from across the country flock to online stores to grab the best bargains.
Shoppers search for the sales events like Black Friday & Cyber Monday for an All-day or longer period as they are more effective than other discounts, and flash sales.
More than 70% of the customers spend their money on online shopping on Black Friday at the retailers that offer free shipping. To gain more from this season, the five-day shopping program is ideal for an eCommerce business to clear their stock and earn more profits.
Black Friday Trends
Here is the list of some Black Friday eCommerce trends:
AR and VR bring products to life
More than ever, tools like AR and VR will help customers to view and check the products virtually and test them on their person or in their space to make informed buying decisions.
Mobile Commerce
The biggest trend we have seen recently is the rise of mobile shopping. Mobile shoppers make up 65% of all online traffic in the United States, according to Adobe Analytics. Smartphones and tablets have become our primary devices for shopping in recent years.
However, as more people rely on their smartphones to do everything they need, more people are now using their phones to browse retail websites while standing in line at store checkout counters. Black Friday is a great time to increase mobile traffic.
Read our detailed guide on Mobile Commerce (M-commerce).
Shopping is social
Black Friday is a social occasion where customers actually gather to visit stores and purchase products and be available physically to other shoppers. Even when shopping online, customers will look for a strong social experience in 2022.
That means brands need to focus and find ways to build bonds between shoppers, both online and in person.
Customers seek out sustainability
Brands that sell sustainable and environmentally friendly products or reuse materials will see a boost on Black Friday 2022. In many cases, customers are willing to spend more or see a smaller discount to buy responsibly and handmade products they can feel good about.
Gen-Z is getting in on the fun
Black Friday shoppers will be younger, with the biggest chunk of customers coming from the age group of 18-44 years. Brands need to double down on marketing and digital shopping to reach younger customers.
Black Friday Statistics
- According to the National Retailers Foundation, 2021’s holiday season retail sales grew 14.1% over 2020 to $886.7 billion.
- Sensormatic Solutions performed the six weeks analysis spanning November 21, 2021, through January 1, 2022, and tracked that foot traffic in the US increased 18.9% over the prior year.
- Omnisend Research Shows Email is Still King of Black Friday & Cyber Monday, SMS Gains Ground With 2000% + ROI. The SMS global market has experienced steady growth over the past decade and is expected to reach $78 billion by 2022.
- With all the discounts, the holiday season is a great time to try new brands. Thus, first-time buyers make up for a big portion of Black Friday shoppers. As per Bluecore data, 52% of buyers were first-time in 2021.
- While in-store shopping was up in 2021 compared to 2020 (which we will touch on later), online shopping channels still dominated the BFCM shopping period.
The Black Friday holiday season is always a big time for retailers. The day after Thanksgiving is one of the biggest shopping days in history, and many people take advantage of deals and discounts on items they want to buy over the holidays.
Retailers do their best to give people what they’re looking for at a discounted price. But if you’re running a business, how should you make sure everything goes smoothly? So, here are some tips to prepare Your Ecommerce Store for Black Friday:
After going through all the stats, trends, importance, and checklist, here comes an answer to “How do you market a Black Friday sale?” or “How Should You Prepare Your Ecommerce Store for Black Friday?” Check out the below listed Black Friday marketing ideas for eCommerce to get the most out of it.
10 Black Friday eCommerce Marketing Strategies, Tips & Ideas to Follow
Below are the few black friday eCommerce and tips to prepare your eCommerce store for this holiday season and increase traffic.
1. Plan Ahead
This may sound obvious, but planning ahead is an effective Black Friday ecommerce strategy that helps ensure that your store runs smoothly and efficiently. You don’t want to have to deal with last-minute shoppers who just happen to show up on the day after Thanksgiving.
When customers start showing up early in preparation for Black Friday, you should already have set up your stockroom, put together your displays, and printed your advertisements.
This way, you won’t have any trouble getting ready right before the doors open. You should follow some e-commerce marketing strategies and prepare your online store for the holiday season before the big day arrives!
Source:- Amazon
2. Use Social Media To Your Advantage
Social media is a great place to reach out to potential customers. Post your deals on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Instagram, Snapchat, Reddit, Pinterest, Tumblr, and LinkedIn. All of these platforms allow users to share information, engage with others and spread awareness of your brand.
Social media platforms are perfect ways to build excitement around your brand. Use these tools to interact with customers and create buzz about your products. By posting your promotions on social media, you are able to target specific audiences based on location, age, gender, interests, and more.
You could even use social media to give away free product promotions on Black Friday!
3. Optimize Website Speed
When someone visits your website, they should feel confident that they're ready to buy from you. Think about what they want to know before they even get close to making a purchase.
Does your website landing page have a clear call to action? Do you provide useful information or ask questions? Are your products displayed well on the front page? Do you offer any incentives to purchase?
All of these factors influence whether or not someone makes a purchase. Also, make your e-commerce checkout flow smooth and fast. eCommerce store owners should implement checkout page best practices for their store.
Website speed is also a major factor in how users perceive your site's quality. As Google states, “If your web page takes longer than three seconds to load, people will click away”. If your website does not load properly, visitors may simply leave without ever purchasing anything. A slow website can irritate visitors, and reduce customer engagement and customer retention in retail. While there are many things you can do to improve your website's performance, focusing first on optimizing images, CSS files, and text file formats can make a huge difference. With the help of some tools like Google Page Speed Insights and improving the site’s efficiency and speed.
4. Promote Black Friday Sale & Offers
One way to increase sales in the initial days following Black Friday is to offer promotional discounts. People tend to spend more money in the first few days after a sale. If you are offering a discount of any size (even just 5% off), then people will naturally want to purchase more than before.
Source:- puma
Let your customers know that if they make a large order now, they'll save some money. Whether you discount heavily or just slightly, your customers will appreciate knowing they'll save money. Another effective promotion strategy involves introducing a product with unique packaging. Packaging design is one of the most influential factors in purchasing decisions, as consumers often judge a package by the contents inside.
5. Offer Free Shipping
Free shipping is one of the easiest ways to attract customers to your business and that too if it is offered during the holiday season, then customers just get so impressed that they end up purchasing from your store. But did you know if you're not taking advantage of this option, you're losing money? By offering this benefit to your customers, they have already expressed interest in your product, making them likely to buy more than if no free shipping was offered.
6. Giveaways
Another strategy to include in Black Friday ideas for ecommerce list is to provide free samples. Include giveaways in your marketing strategy. Giveaways are fun and engaging for both you and your audience. Giveaways encourage people to visit your website, follow you on social media, subscribe to your emails, download your app, etc. Giveaways add value to your marketing efforts. Customers who win free stuff tend to spend more money.
Source:- walmart
Giveaway promotions are a great way to increase sales between Thanksgiving and Christmas. You do not want to give away products at the end of Black Friday only to have everyone wait until after the holidays to buy them. Instead, consider giving out free samples or coupons right before the holiday weekend.
7. Online Advertisements
Market your products online through advertising. Advertising is what we commonly think about when we talk about marketing strategy. Advertisements are simply those spots where companies advertise their product or service. Many times these advertisements promote certain events like holidays or big sales. These advertisements are often promoted through TV commercials, magazine ads, billboards, product packaging, etc.
You can advertise your products online in various ways. Consider using social media sites like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to promote your product. Other forms of advertising include email marketing and Google Adwords. The best way to use Black Friday ads is to plan ahead. Planning your strategy early on ensures you don’t miss any major opportunities.
8. Reviews & Testimonials to gain customers' trust
One of the easiest ways to gain trust is to show your clients the proof that your product works. People rely heavily on testimonials and reviews to determine whether to purchase a particular product. Take pictures of happy customers using your products and post them on social media sites. You can also ask your current customers to review your products on your website & social media platforms.
9. Create a Sense Of Urgency
Drive urgency in sales by adding a deadline to your sale, using powerful titles, and using the fear of missing out to make them buy. With all these tactics, customers will feel like time is running out and products might get out of stock, so they end up buying products from you.
Source:- kohls
10. Re-marketing via Email
Email is still one of the most powerful tools for re-marketing. Sending email blasts is simple and affordable. People love receiving offers of things they want. Make sure to create compelling messages, as well as track results. You can send email blasts for specific purposes such as holiday promotions, special discounts, and new products. Do not forget to keep recipients informed!
For More, you can go through our “Ultimate Guide on Ecommerce Holiday Planning 2021”
Conclusion: Be Ready for Black Friday eCommerce!
So you've planned out your entire marketing strategy for Black Friday, knowing exactly how you want to promote and market your company. Now comes the tough part: actually executing the plan. The key to success lies in the details, and that's where this guide comes in. From social media campaigns to email blasts, these Black Friday ecommerce tips will give you the edge needed to get ahead of the competition. After all, no one wants to miss out on the biggest shopping day of the year because they didn't put their best foot forward. It’s important to understand what makes your business different from competitors, so you can take advantage of unique opportunities during this holiday season.
All the best for your holiday season sale!!
