Wednesday 21 November 2012

How to achieve success on Black Friday and beyond

With only two days until the start of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, traditionally the beginning of the Christmas shopping season in the US the day after Thanks Giving, many stores are looking ahead to the anticipated day as they look to achieve a high number of sales and in turn, plenty of profit. According to figures published by software developers Adobe, Cyber Monday alone will bring in around $2 billion to both bricks and mortar and online stores.

However, with these stores all vying for a customer's business, how can you improve your ecommerce store to ensure you give yourself the best chance of achieving success?


Be up early

As you run an online store, it's going to be open 24/7 so you don't need to worry about customers being unable to buy. However, need to plan for it being as busy as possible, which means you need to get up as early as possible. A busy day means plenty of traffic, plenty of questions and of course plenty of sales. You don't want to wake up late and be facing a backlog of orders and queries, this will diminish your overall customer service and make the day extremely difficult for you.

Monitor your competitors

While it's impossible to monitor everyone, you should pay close attention to those stores that you consider your closest rivals. Look at the products they have on offer and any promotions they may be running for this special occasion. If you don't pay attention and your competitor changes their prices lower than yours. it is going to result in you getting fewer sales than you expected as your customers go to your rivals for their purchases.

Advertise everywhere

Although it may be difficult to launch a full on marketing campaign now with only two days to go, you should still look to publicise your products, offers and anything else to do with your store everywhere you can. This means placing information on your social media pages, forums, through emails pretty much anywhere and everywhere you can think of. Advertising your store is going to not only result in a great brand awareness, but once Friday roll around you will begin to see an increase in traffic. 

Offer free shipping

You will be surprised the difference free shipping can make in enticing a customer to purchase from your store. Not only does it encourage them to visit your ecommerce or eBay store and make that initial purchase, the fact that shipping is free often tempts them into making multiple purchases. Yes you may be losing a small amount of your usual profit as you will have to pay for the shipping, but if the promotion results in many more orders, you 

Create a landing page

Whether you are running a promotion for Black Friday, Cyber Monday or for Christmas, creating a seasonal based landing page can play a pivotal role in drawing traffic to your site. Its appealing design, when combined with information regarding any products or services you offer will enforce a positive brand image within the customer and make them more likely to visit your store in order to make a purchase. Just remember to remove the landing page once the seasonal event has ended.

Optimise your site for mobile

On Black Friday, around 25 percent of all sales will be make through mobile devices, meaning if your business doesn't have a mobile store that is fully optimised, you are going to be missing out on a significant amount of sales. Read our guide "How to make your mobile store a success" for an in depth look on how you can develop your mobile ecommerce platform.

While this article may be geared towards Black Friday in the states, there is nothing to stop you from employing these techniques on your own ecommerce store no matter where you may be in the world, in order to give you the best chance of achieving success this Christmas.

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