Black Friday - the fourth Friday in November - is one of the biggest annual sales events in e-commerce. Originally a tradition that originated in the United States, its purpose is to kick off the holiday season: many companies take full advantage of the event, extending the promotion to last an entire week. In Finland, too, Black Friday has become a major sales event for online retailers, and sitting it out can pose a reputational risk for an online store. Special offers signal that an online store is active and cares about its customers. Many customers also hold off on purchases until Black Friday, waiting for the big sale event.
In this article, we’ll tell you how you, as an online retailer, can prepare for the biggest sales day of the year. Check out our 5 tips and give your end-of-year sales a real boost!
Plan Your Online Store's Black Friday Deals in Advance
A well-planned Black Friday campaign is half the battle. Think ahead about your campaign’s featured products, clearance items, and the products that will generate profit. Also, plan your Black Friday deals carefully. To attract customers, the discounts need to be substantial enough. Also, keep in mind that customers are aware of the regular prices of products and that comparing prices across different stores is easier than ever these days.
From a search engine optimization perspective, it’s important that your online store has a Black Friday campaign page available year-round, even if the actual discounted products aren’t added until the day of the event. This allows the term “Black Friday” to be indexed by search engines, such as Google. You can hide the Black Friday page from your online store’s product navigation and make it visible in early November. When your online store is professionally built, it will naturally ensure that the right customers find your Black Friday deals.
Read more about product navigation design on our blog.
Make sure your online store can handle the traffic spikes on Black Friday
Black Friday is an opportunity to generate a month’s worth of revenue for your online store in a single day. That’s why it’s important to ensure that your store can handle the heavy traffic and spikes in visitor numbers. Promoting a specific time is a balanced and effective marketing strategy, but it draws all your customers to your online store at the same time. You can even out the load from traffic spikes by spreading out and scheduling your offers and advertising throughout the day or over several days.
It matters what kind of server your online store runs on. The worst-case scenario is that your online store’s servers can’t handle a surge in traffic and slow down or crash. If your online store runs on a single server, it may not be able to handle traffic spikes like those on Black Friday. When your online store crashes, you lose not only sales but also the money you’ve invested in marketing.
When an online store runs on scalable servers, server capacity is increased as needed. This ensures that the online store runs smoothly even during the peak traffic of Black Friday. Our Flowvy online store uses reliable servers like these, which scale according to traffic to ensure a seamless customer experience.
Stand Out from Your Competitors in Your E-Commerce Black Friday Campaigns
During Black Friday, competition among online retailers for customers is fierce. It’s easy to compare products and switch from one store to another online: people shop where they find the best promotional prices.
Keep in mind, however, that profit margins ultimately come from purchases, and larger orders generally have a lower purchase price. To ensure successful product purchases, it’s a good idea to start preparing for Black Friday well in advance: with good order sizes and your own shipping, you can increase your profit margins.
It’s important to stand out from your competitors. Wholesalers often have a wide variety of great special offers, so it’s worth keeping an eye out to ensure you’re not just selling the same products with the same deals as your competitors. Also, focus on having a few clear “loss leaders” to attract customers to your online store. You don’t necessarily need a wide selection or hundreds of inexpensive products - just a few interesting ones will suffice. You can achieve good results both during the actual event and later through new customer relationships, as long as you remember to plan and prepare carefully.
So, how should you prepare for Black Friday at the store?
The hustle and bustle of Black Friday often reveals potential weaknesses in a point-of-sale system—for example, in promotions, inventory management, checkout, or reporting. Read our blog to find out the four things you should check and get in order before the sales season begins.
Focus on social media and marketing on Black Friday
Black Friday is a well-established event that consumers eagerly anticipate. That’s why it’s a great opportunity not only to boost your company’s sales but also to strengthen its brand.
Build anticipation and interest - or“hype” - through social media and marketing. For example, you can post teasers about upcoming offers well in advance of the actual campaign launch. Another effective strategy is to post a few offers each day - say, for a week—which will keep your customers engaged throughout the campaign. We offer comprehensive e-commerce marketing services that boost your online visibility and support the success of your campaign.
Even though Black Friday is a busy time, it’s important not to overlook the importance of customer service in an online store. Successful marketing and attractive offers will bring plenty of new visitors to your online store, which also means more questions about products and shipping. Social media has become a widely used, low-barrier channel for contacting businesses, and a quick response can be the deciding factor in a purchase, especially on sale days when consumers have many options. Active and friendly customer service can turn Black Friday purchases into long-term customer relationships.
Encourage customers to return to your online store after Black Friday
Remember that Black Friday is an excellent opportunity to reach new target audiences and expand your online store’s customer base. However, make sure your efforts aren’t limited to just this one day. With follow-up marketing, you can encourage your customers to return to your online store - there are many ways to do this!
For example, offer your customers a discount code for their next purchase, invite them to join your loyalty program, or share tips on how to use the products they’ve purchased - for instance, in the form of a blog post or video. You can also send them targeted recommendations or reminders about new promotions, for example, with an eye toward the upcoming holiday season. With successful post-sale marketing, you can ensure that the interest generated by Black Friday turns into customer relationships that support your business in the long term.
