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Get your Shopify Store ready for the Holiday Selling Season
- MM Team
Black Friday and Cyber Monday are amazing opportunities for an ecommerce store owner. And it’s not just about making loads of extra sales for a couple of days. There’s actually far more to it.
Within this article, we’ll look at the main aspects that you should take into consideration when planning for the holiday selling season. We’ll also provide some really useful and exhaustive guides we’ve found if you want to dig a little deeper.
THE OBVIOUS REASONS FOR A BLACK FRIDAY SALE
Increase your sales
According to this Shopify article, on Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2020, sales reached $5.1 billion globally, up 76% on the previous year.
So it’s clear to see that Black Friday and Cyber Monday offer a huge opportunity to push sales through your Shopify store before the end of the year.
Gain new customers
A Black Friday sale is also a great opportunity for new and established businesses to raise awareness of their brand. By promoting your product deals, you can attract new customers, who can then be converted into loyal, returning customers.
AND THE LESS OBVIOUS ONES…
Build customer loyalty by rewarding existing clients
All too often, store owners forget about their existing customers and focus purely on acquiring new ones. This is a huge mistake! Your existing customers are known as your warm audience – they are more likely to buy again than a totally new, cold audience.
With Shopify, you can easily identify who your best customers are, so why not create a premium option for them as a way to say thank you?
When holding your Black Friday and Cyber Monday sale, you can make your existing clients feel like VIPs by giving them early access to your promotions. This will help enhance long-term relationships and build trust with your customers which, in turn, will help increase sales all year round.
Gather Data
For eCommerce business, data is pure gold.
A Black Friday sale allows you to gather data that can be extremely useful for future promotions or marketing plans.
If you’re offering the chance to get early access to great discounts, lots of people will be more than willing to hand over their data. And that can be really useful further down the road. How?
Think about it. If I try to sell you a blue shirt, without realising you hate blue, I’m wasting my time, as well as yours. But, if you tell me that you love red shirts, I can sell you something that I know you’ll be interested in checking out. In other words, it allows you to deliver more effective, less expensive, scalable marketing campaigns.
WHEN SHOULD I START PROMOTING MY BLACK FRIDAY AND CYBER MONDAY DEALS?
It can be difficult to know when to start advertising your Black Friday deals. We’d suggest promoting them around the start of November. However, it’s important not to be too explicit about what you’ll be offering – you don’t want to lose out on early November sales after all!
The day before Black Friday, start a countdown on your homepage and also promote your offers via your social media platforms. Lots of companies also choose to close their store until midnight to keep customers waiting for the arrival of their deals.
HOW TO PREPARE MY SHOPIFY STORE DESIGN FOR BLACK FRIDAY?
We always advise our clients to plan in advance and make sure they book any design changes in with their Shopify Developers as early as possible. If you leave it until the last minute, you might find they are too busy to deliver.
Here are some design changes that can help your customers recognise that you’re offering Black Friday and Cyber Monday promotions:
Homepage changes
You may need to replace the images on your homepage, add a call to action, add countdown timers, etc. Make sure your BFCM promotions are the first thing your customers see when they land on your site from your email campaigns, social media, or advertising banners.
Marketing landing pages
If you are running a marketing campaign, you may want your clients to land on a page that they can’t normally access on the store. If this is the case, you’ll need a landing page.
Advertising banner
Spread the word about your Black Friday discounts on your website and your external platforms by using advertising banners that promote the size of the discounts, as well as some of the most lucrative offers or bundle deals.
Change branding elements
Change the logo, header, and footer of your store, and retouch your website’s colour palette to make it stand out.
A flawless User Experience
This means making navigating the website as easy and smooth as possible and eliminating any issues that may interfere with your user experience.
USEFUL RESOURCES
Here are some useful resources when planning for the holiday season sales:
- A long, in-depth guide from Shopify with 15 ideas, tips, and strategies
- A detailed guide into data and technique by Sale Cycle
Who can help you?
Need some help implementing your ideas?
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