It's not too late to cash in on Black Friday deals
Black Friday 2021 will soon be upon us. It all kicks off on Friday 26th November, which doesn’t give you much time to plan your marketing, stock and sales strategy, but it’s a key retail event you don’t want to miss
In 2020 Black Friday was the second-largest online spending day in US history, with consumers spending a whopping $9 billion. In the UK, Black Friday 2020 online sales hit record levels especially as so many retail stores were closed during lockdown.
With so many consumers now shopping online, Black Friday 2021 is set to be huge. So here’s how your online retail business can still cash in on Black Friday discounts and grow its year-round audience in the process.
Remember it’s more than just a day
Black Friday is no longer a one-day high street bonanza. With online sales swiftly overtaking bricks-and-mortar, Black Friday has now evolved to become an international online shopping festival, running for the five days up to Black Friday and wrapping up on Cyber Monday. So as you plan for Friday 26th November 2021, make sure you’re also accounting for the days around it to maximise your takings during this whole sales period.
Choose a marketplace
As the player responsible for transforming Black Friday into an international event, Amazon remains one of the more apparent marketplaces for merchants to focus on. Despite now having its own shopping festival – Amazon Prime Day – Amazon continues to take Black Friday very seriously. The wider Amazon storefront offers a huge opportunity for third-party merchants to capitalise on the demand around Black Friday discounts, so you should get your deals and listings ready.
Amazon may be a favourite for many merchants – in 2020 independent sellers took $4.8 billion in worldwide sales between Black Friday and Cyber Monday – but it’s certainly not the only option for eCommerce sellers. Most western marketplaces are offer Black Friday and Cyber Monday promotions. In the US, other key players include Walmart, eBay and NewEgg, creating ample choice for merchants looking to benefit from the substantial demand Black Friday brings.
Plan your deals
Decide well in advance what offers you’re going to make and ensure you have the necessary stock and manpower in place. Use the year’s sales figures and analytics to better hypothesise which of your products will sell best and focus your efforts on best sellers or items you want to showcase. It’s also important to understand regional variances – product categories popular in one country may be overlooked elsewhere.
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Get ready for a surge in customers
Be ready for a spike in traffic and sales and have a plan in place to cope with any technical issues. Make sure you’re entering the holiday shopping period with an intuitive user interface, a seamless checkout experience offering multiple payment methods, and a high level of mobile functionality. This is solid advice for the entire year – a great user experience will bring shoppers back, so make it as easy as possible for them to interact with your site.
Nail down your FX strategy
When selling into a fast-paced global market with multiple currencies, you must work with an FX provider who can guarantee platform stability and full pricing transparency so you don’t get any nasty surprises or glitches during the sales. WorldFirst partners with major marketplaces and eCommerce service providers on a global scale, helping you solve problems with cross-border payments and supporting your trading needs.
Get your marketing prepared in advance
Customers start researching their Black Friday deals early so you need to get your brand out there and on their ‘wanted’ list as soon as possible. It’s a highly competitive arena, and if you want to stand out, here’s what you can do:
- Apply for promoted placements in any BFCM (Black Friday Cyber Monday) deals with Amazon and other marketplaces.
- Make your Google ads Black Friday-themed and offer-specific and increase buyer urgency by linking these deals to limited inventory, or by offering them for a set time only.
- Don’t bid on ‘Black Friday’ as a keyword. Instead, bid on ‘Black Friday + product name’ as this will get you better visibility and a better return on your advertising spend thanks to improved relevancy scores and lower competition.
- Pause any spending on keywords for products that aren’t included in your Black Friday promotions until after the shopping festival, both on Amazon and Google.
- Get the adverts written up and approved at least a week in advance – longer if possible, to allow time for the build-up and cement your place at the top of search engine results pages.
Track your success
Use Google Analytics and heatmaps from sites like Hotjar to monitor performance throughout Black Friday 2021 to understand where you’re succeeding and where you need to improve. You can use this data to be even better prepared for next year.
Beyond Black Friday 2021
Many of the tactics and strategies that apply to Black Friday can be extended to your overall eCommerce strategy, especially for major shopping events like Christmas and Valentine’s Day. There’s no better time to implement everything you’ve learnt about leveraging Black Friday deals than Christmas, for example by creating last-minute offers the week before Christmas and even offering free priority shipping to seal the deal.
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