9 e-commerce tips for Black Friday

Halloween is barely behind us or we may be preparing for the next event: Black Friday! Totally unknown in our regions until a few years ago, but today it has already become one of the top sales days in the e-commerce sector. Prepare your e-commerce optimally for this hectic period with our 9 tips.

Nine e-commerce tips for a successful Black Friday

► 1. Come up with real offers

Black Friday has now been around in Europe for several years. So European consumers know better and better what to expect. Consumers often start watching your website weeks in advance to find out if the discounts are real. In the past, some websites appeared to artificially inflate their prices just before the start of the bargains. Thus, it looked like they were giving nice discounts but actually the consumer did not benefit at all.

So avoid reputation damage and make sure your discounts are genuine. So what is a good strategy? For instance, you might consider giving an exceptionally large discount for a small selection of products (after which your visitors also discover other interesting products). Or to use stacking discounts: the more a consumer spends, the higher the discount percentage he/she benefits from.

► 2. Thoroughly check the mobile version of your website

Did you know that up to 60% of Black Friday purchases are made via a smartphone or tablet?¹ Moreover, towards the end of the year, the number of mobile searches on Google peaks. So it is crucial that your e-commerce website is mobile-friendly. Make sure all your forms of promotion and messages are adapted to display on a small smartphone screen.

► 3. Launch a Black Friday strategy in 3 phases

Consumers start skimming the web well before Black Friday effectively starts. So a Black Friday campaign is best spread out over several weeks:

• 1 to 16 November: get consumers excited about your offers. As soon as you know what your offers will be, start sharing them. A week before the start of Black Friday, you can already use social media and newsletters to give a hint of the mega deals coming up.
• 17 November to 2 December: during this week, your Black Friday campaign should be running at full speed. You might consider linking it to Cyber Monday (= the Monday after the Black Friday weekend).
• 3 to 18 December: thanks to Black Friday, you have probably been able to sign up a lot of new customers. Maintain their engagement and build a bridge to Christmas – the commercial highlight of the year.

► 4. Personalise your campaigns across all channels

Getting your webshop ready for Black Friday is one thing. However, there are plenty of other channels vying for your attention. Think of social media platforms, your physical shops, emails and newsletters. Always create a personalised message that makes it clear why a consumer should be with you on Black Friday. Identify your most popular products and emphasise them in your communications.

► 5. Don’t give dissatisfaction a chance

Black Friday is a hectic day! The buying frenzy starts as early as Thursday night at the stroke of midnight. Make sure you have enough hands to manage everything for 24 hours. Not just boosting your promotions plays a role, you also need to make sure your customers stay happy. So consider extra workers to get all the additional queries and complaints processed as quickly as possible. With excellent customer service, Black Friday is the perfect time to turn new website visitors into loyal customers.

► 6. Make returns child’s play

One of the biggest annoyances of e-shoppers is a complex return policy. Therefore, make it extra easy for your customers and opt for packaging with return closure, for example. Did you know that up to 96% of online shoppers will buy again if a return went smoothly?²

► 7. Adjust your shipping conditions

Most webshops make every effort to deliver ordered products within 1 working day. However, during a busy day like Black Friday, that promise is not so evident. Research shows that only 25% of e-shoppers are willing to pay more for fast delivery. The rest of your customers won’t make a big deal about their parcel taking a little longer to arrive – as long as you communicate it clearly, of course. Plus, it’s better for the environment: orders that have to go in the same direction can be bundled more efficiently, reducing the need for travel.³

► 8. Make a logistics analysis of your warehouse

During the end-of-year period, activity in your warehouse is likely to peak. So be sure to have enough staff or integrate the right machines and packaging systems in your warehouse. Moreover, think about your inventories. Based on last years’ sales figures, you can estimate how many products you need to stock. There is also something to be said about limited stock as a means of persuasion: as a consumer, you need to be quick if you want to take advantage of that super deal!

► 9. Choose customised packaging

This last point should not be forgotten! For an e-shop, packaging is often the only physical point of contact with the end customer. Therefore, think carefully about the kind of packaging your customer will get their hands on. Personalised, durable or easy to return: the choice is yours!

• Personalised boxes: get your boxes printed with your logo or slogan for extra visibility and brand awareness;
• Postal boxes with return closure: make it easy for yourself and your customers with a box that can be safely returned;
• Boxes with variable height: adapt your boxes perfectly to the size and height of your products;
• Box with automatic bottom: your boxes are assembled immediately;
• Isothermal boxes: ship your food safely with these;
• Bottle packaging;
• Book packaging;
• Etc.

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Why are we talking about Black Friday?

Since the 1960s, Black Friday has officially kicked off the Christmas shopping season in the US. It is the Friday following the popular American feast of Thanksgiving. The day after Thanksgiving, many Americans traditionally have a day off. So the ideal time, retailers thought, to lure shoppers to their shops with hefty discounts right at the start of the end-of-year season.

“Black Friday” literally means ‘black Friday’. But why black? You might think that that day is “black with people” in US shopping malls. That is certainly a fact… According to another theory, it also revolves around the shops’ sales figures. Black Friday is so successful that it is the first day of the year when retailers get out of the red and effectively start making a profit. So their red sales figures finally turn ‘black’ or positive.

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Sources:
1 www.cnbc.com/2017/11/24/smartphones-steal-black-friday-dollars-as-mobile-sales-break-records.html
² www.shopify.com/enterprise/ecommerce-returns
3www.retaildive.com/news/e-commerce-shoppers-expect-free-shipping-branded-giveaways/532349/
^{4 www.landing.partners/black-friday-statistieken-2019/
5} be.worldline.com/en/home/newsroom/general-press-releases/2019/pr-2019_12_02_01.html
^{6 www.black-friday.global/en-gb/}