9 tips for a successful BLACK FRIDAY!

We’ve put together 9 tips for you and your webshop. 9 tips to help you prepare and optimise the hectic day of BLACK FRIDAY!!!!

1. Make a real offer to your customers

Black Friday has been around in Europe for several years. European consumers are therefore fully aware of what to expect. They often start checking your website weeks in advance. Unfortunately, in the past, some shops were found to artificially inflate their prices just before the sale started and were therefore able to offer some incredibly attractive discounts. This is not a good strategy – generally avoid creating mistrust and communicate your offers and discounts genuinely and in good time. Black Friday gives us every opportunity to create loyal customers.

But what is a good strategy? For example, you could consider offering an exceptionally large discount but for a small range of products (after which your visitors can discover other interesting products, this could be via improved re-targeting. You could also use discount brackets: the more a consumer buys for, the higher the percentage discount he/she benefits from. Many stores have also chosen to do Black Weekend or Black Week, so the options are many – find a strategy that makes sense for your products, your business and your customers.

2. Check the mobile version of the site thoroughly

A report by CNBC1 shows that up to 60% of Black Friday purchases are made via a smartphone or tablet? ¹ Moreover, mobile searches on Google peak towards the end of the year. It is therefore crucial that your e-commerce website is mobile-friendly. Make sure that all your promotions and shopping are adapted to different screens.

3. Plan a 3-phase strategy

Consumers are already scouring the web for great deals before Black Friday starts, so it’s a good idea to create a strategy for Black Friday that lasts over several weeks:

Start of November: get consumers excited about your deals. Once you’ve decided what the deals will be, start sharing the message on your media. A week before Black Friday, they can already get a glimpse of the mega deals that await them via social media and newsletters.
The week leading up to: during this week, your Black Friday campaign should be running at full speed. You might consider linking it with Cyber Monday (the Monday after Black Friday).
The time after Black Friday: thanks to Black Friday, you’ve probably been able to pick up a lot of new customers and a lot of new data. Keep their engagement and build a bridge to this year’s holiday sales. All the new members in your customer database or your member club, you now have the opportunity to offer favourable member benefits, thus maintaining the good relationship and building the bridge to the Christmas sales.

4. Customise your campaigns across all channels

When getting your webshop ready for Black Friday – remember to include all your other channels. Include your social media platforms, your physical stores, emails, newsletters, etc. Always provide a personal message explaining why a consumer should be with you on Black Friday. Identify your most popular products and highlight them in your communications. Take advantage of all your ‘owned media’!

5. Don’t give dissatisfaction a chance

Black Friday is a hectic day! The shopping madness starts as early as Thursday night at the stroke of midnight and chaos can quickly ensue. Make sure you have enough hands to keep everything running for the 24 hours. It’s not just the promotions that matter, you also need to ensure your customers remain satisfied and have a satisfying experience throughout.Think through all the procedures and get all those extra questions and complaints dealt with as quickly as possible. With excellent customer service, Black Friday is the perfect time to convert new website visitors into loyal customers.

6. Make returns a breeze

One of the biggest annoyances for e-shoppers is an overly complex returns policy. Make it extra easy for your customers and choose, for example,Packaging with return sealsDid you know that up to 96% of online shoppers will buy again if a return goes smoothly ^?

7. Adjust and consider your delivery terms

Many webshops make every effort to deliver within just one working day – but on a busy day like Black Friday, this promise isn’t so realistic. Communicate clearly and set realistic delivery terms for days like Black Friday. A free, transparent and easy return policy creates loyal customers and gives you less work in customer service.

8. Clarify and analyse the logistics of your warehouse

Based on last year’s sales figures, estimate how many products you need to stock and how many hands it will take to make sure everything is handled on time. Here it makes sense to look at your packing systems and machines and consider your packing process in relation to the size of your warehouse. time – there are several ways to optimise the packing process – read more about it in this post.

9. Personalised and customised packaging

For an e-shop, packaging is one of the most important parameters. It’s often the only physical point of contact you have with the customer, so it needs to be right. So think carefully about the type of packaging your customer will receive. Personalised, sustainable or easy to return: the choice is yours!

Here are some considerations you can make:

Personal boxes: having your boxes printed with your logo or slogan provides extra visibility – and depending on creativity, can give the customer a unique experience.
Packaging with return shipping: Packaging where the customer can send back in the same packaging makes it easy for you and for your customers.
Variable height boxes: Instead of having 10 different sizes of boxes, it is possible to have boxes that can be adjusted in height – which optimises the stock considerably.
Box with automatic bottom: Boxes that are assembled by a light touch on the side are 2.5 times faster than an ordinary cardboard box.
Isothermal boxes: use this to safely ship your food;
Bottle packaging;
Book packaging;
Etc.

You’re probably familiar with the phenomenon of ‘Unboxing’ – a trend that looks set to continue. Here, packaging plays another key role, as it’s no longer just about whether the packaging protects products during transport – it also has to look good. Among other things, this helps to increase customer satisfaction.

Why do we do Black Friday?

Since the 1960s, Black Friday in the US has officially kicked off the Christmas sales.Thanksgiving holiday. The day after Thanksgiving is traditionally a day off for many Americans. The ideal moment, merchants thought, to attract shoppers to their stores with steep discounts immediately at the start of the annual season.

“Black Friday” literally means “Black Friday”. But why black? It could be because people were blacking out in the American ‘shopping malls’ – but yes, that is certainly a fact. According to another theory, it’s all about the sales figures of the stores. Black Friday is so successful that it’s the first day of the year that retailers come out of the red and start generating effective profits. So their red sales figures finally become ‘black’ or in other words positive.

¹ www.cnbc.com/2017/11/24/smartphones-steal-black-friday-dollars-as-mobile-sales-break-records.html

²www.shopify.com/enterprise/ecommerce-returns