Black Friday is the Super Bowl for marketers! Prepare well off-season to score big during the season. Oh! You didn’t get that reference. Let’s lay it down in Indian terms, it’s like an IPL, a once-in-a-year where your brand talent meets sale opportunity. It’s a massive occasion for sellers to cash in on the global sale phenomenon.
The global brands on this day offer exclusive offers and massive discounts ranging from apparel, and fashion, to trendy electronic items. It’s time for sellers to entice the shoppers with attractive offers and push their products on an eCommerce marketplace as Indian Millennials and Gen Zs are well aware of the day and prep their wish lists in advance.
Black Friday 2021, Share of total offline and online expenditure – Generation Z and millennial consumers in the U. S.
Just rolling out exciting offers and deals to swiftly attract the customer might not be enough for your product needs to move up the ladder, increase online traffic and visibility. A Well-thought of strategies are needed to make the most of this occasion.
Here are some strategies that could help your brand do so.
1. Promote Shoppable Content
Over the years, Shopping as an idea and practice has gone through transitions, intending to make shopping more exciting, engaging, and seamless for the shoppers. One such transit is the promotion of shoppable content.
Integration of the new-age shopping venue with social media helps find consumers who are persistently browsing, exploring, sharing, and engaging with different forms of content to fulfil their shopping needs. Content or posts that features products with checkout link, price, details, etc., for users to purchase directly from the posts.
Shoppable content makes their purchasing efforts minimal like whenever they come across any content product images, or videos, etc., Shoppers can instantly buy the product at that spot rather than going to that another website, app, or eCommerce platform. The idea is to merge the point of inspiration with the point of sale through content.
87% of people say social media helps shoppers decide what to buy. Shoppers want inspiration, information and shoppability at their fingertips in one frame. It is an excellent strategy for eCommerce & online brands to boost sales, increase user engagement, build brand awareness, grow trust, and much more with minimum investments.
Average Anticipated Consumer Spend by Country on Black Friday 2022
Consumers spend on Black Friday – The Indian holiday season is quite different from the western world where Thanksgiving weekend with shopping extravaganza like Black Friday drags on for the entire weekend ending with Cyber Monday. As most Indian shoppers exhaust their yearly send during Diwali Sale the sales figures on Black Friday are comparatively lower as compared to the global sales but still, they are still extremely impressive.
2. Create a Pre-Sale Brand Curiosity
The perfect way to make more sales is to prompt Shoppers to involve in the sale as the timer beside the product provokes the customer to stimulate and magnetize your customers towards the Friday sale, entice to make the immediate purchase without giving any thought of abandoning the product. Pre-Black Friday Sale fosters the customer’s interest to plan their purchase even before the sale starts.
Offer pre-order to skip waiting & stock Issues: Provide the same offers as Black Friday in advance. It will help manage stock accordingly and skip the hassle-free purchase.
Nykaa, turning the Black Friday into Pink Friday Sale for their biggest beauty sale | Source: Nykaa
Offer 24 Hours exclusive Black Friday deals
Every hour surprise shoppers with attractive and interesting Black Friday deals and offers. Cheer them up and encourages them to revisit your online store frequently to avail of the offers. Don’t forget to create an attractive homepage banner for displaying the smashing deals and offers every hour.
Stay free from chaotic and hectic promotions and stay organized this weekend. Promote deals of an hour on social media networks using the scheduling app. Attract shoppers with free shipping, easy returns, cash backs, bonus points, rewards, gift cards, etc. Run last-chance or extended Black Friday deals. The long Black Friday weekend doesn’t have to end with Cyber Monday sales.
All this comes with this festive sale to make the customers feel overwhelmed about the brand. It is an effective way to gain your customer reach and amplify the number of loyal customers.
3. Personalized Black Friday marketing campaigns
The best way to engage customers is personalization, adding a touch of personalization to your Black Friday marketing campaigns. Boosts open rates and help your campaigns stand out!
Target different customer groups using segmentation. Grab your subscribers’ attention by putting first names in your Black Friday email subject lines.
For Black Friday marketing, or any other Exclusive Sale Day update your email list. It is the most important tools in your arsenal. Target the customers demographics who are most interested in your Black Friday promotions.
- Start a special Black Friday email marketing list
- Create an email signup form weeks ahead of your Black Friday sale or any upcoming sale
- QR codes can also be handy for lead generation, Link QR codes to a signup form for your Black Friday email list
Use SMS marketing
The fast and direct way to engage customers during the busy holiday season is SMS. Utilize an SMS campaign to engage customers as part of the Black Friday marketing strategy.
- In addition to social media marketing and email campaigns Send targeted Black Friday texts
- SMS campaigns have high open rates and near instant opening times
- Remind customers about Black Friday promos and share discount codes via SMS
4. Frictionless Customer’s Journey
One of the biggest problems for an online retailer is abandoned products in shopping carts. Creating a frictionless shopper’s journey is crucial during big sales days like Black Friday.
Shoppers often traverse through adding products to their carts but abandon them due to complex purchase barriers like hefty shipping charges, additional charges, or taxes. Customers have proved their interest in the brands by adding products to their carts. Most of these customers are your potential customers from the past. Brands need to create a smooth pathway to make a purchase and offer free shipping or reduced additional charges to convert interest into purchase.
This is the perfect time to remarket products with exciting offers to those customers, who looked for products earlier but did not buy. Entice them with attractive & valuable discounts and try to influence their purchase decision.
Also, remember to add a buffer period to your Black Friday marketing strategies to capture early birds or late-wakers.
5. Audit Product Pages
Shoppers spend a lot of time browsing product pages, looking for the items they want. Brands need to ensure a pleasant and efficient shopping experience and entice them enough to make a purchase decision.
Conduct product page audit, and make sure to:
- Update product descriptions with a client-oriented approach to describe the product and utilize SEO keywords to boost it in SERPs
- Group products based on the target recipient and purpose like “Home Decor” Or “Gifts for Kids”
- Include high-quality 6-8 product pictures from different angles to provide customers a clear view of what the product will look like
Content Auditing product pages help you find ways to improve your customers’ experiences. These changes are essential all year round.
What does the future hold?
The Indian e-commerce market is expected to reach US$ 350 billion by 2030 and will experience 21.5% growth in 2022 to reach US$ 74.8 billion. The future holds great prospects for eCommerce business across platforms and categories. The result-driven marketing strategies play a crucial role in cashing in on this exponential market growth.
Black Friday deals help acquire new customers as first-time buyers make up for a big portion of Black Friday shoppers. This online shopping carnival is the key to the sustainable future growth of the eCommerce business. The brands need to get their hands on proven strategies to boost their sales and the whopping response of the buyers needs to be tapped into with quick responses from the brands.
Final Thoughts
Mega Sale events like Black Friday Sale could turn things around for the brand. Implementing these strategies at the right time is the key but a step taken as late as a day before Black Friday will help brands in the long run. Brands should stay on their toes with month-on-month trends & insights and make decisions based on actionable indicators and in-depth analysis.
Switch to mScanIt eCommerce Competitive Intelligence solution for actionable insights and analytics track own vis-à-vis product pricing, discount, availability, and a lot more across platforms. Take up the ideas beyond just Black Friday specials and Cyber Monday. Gear up for the upcoming Christmas and New Year specials sales – 2023 is expected to be a revolutionary year for eCommerce businesses.
