Black Friday is a huge event for businesses across the globe. There's plenty of money to be made during this season, but to get the most out of it, you must be well prepared.
In this blog post, we'll be looking at some of the mistakes retailers made during last year's Black Friday and what you can do you can do to ready yourself for this year's sale.
What mistakes did retailers make last year during Black Friday?
1. Waiting too late to launch
One of the biggest mistakes retailers make is waiting until the day of Black Friday to launch. Launching too late could mean you lose to your competition, so ensure that you start a few days before the big weekend.
2. Only offering discounts
While offering big discounts is a sure way to incentivise customers to buy from your shop, avoid getting into a discount race with your competitors. Lowering your prices too much reduces your profit margins, therefore hurting your business's bottom line.
3. Not preparing for increased traffic
A lot of customers opted to shop online last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, many eCommerce retailers were bombarded with more traffic than expected. Because they hadn't planned and prepared for the influx in online traffic, their websites suffered significant slowdowns, preventing customers from checking out online.
So with the above in mind how can retailers prepare for this year's Black Friday sale?
1. Prepare early and train your sales assistants
Early preparation is key during black Friday. Have the right deals ready and inventory stocked.
Importantly, brief your employees about the deals being offered, so they can knowledgeably speak to your in-store customers about what’s available, where to find their chosen items and promote your Black Friday offers to exceed customer expectations and maximise your Black Friday sales.
2. Make sure your online shop is ready
Whether you run a bricks-and-mortar store or an eCommerce website, you will receive increased traffic to your shop during the Black Friday sale.
For your online shop, check your product photos, product pages, landing pages, website navigation, and checkout process to get your online store ready.
Ensure that you stress-test your ecommerce website early in advance to ensure that it can handle increased traffic without any problems.
3. Build suspense through marketing
Run targeted social media and email campaigns with teasers of what customers can expect will help build customer intrigue and loyalty.
In the week preceding Black Friday, drop teaser emails and social media posts to let your customers know that you have a big promotion coming up.
4. Offer various incentives and be clever with discounting options
You can offer customers many types of different promotions during Black Friday. Be SMART about what you want to achieve from your promotions so as not to limit yourself to just discounts.
For example, offering ‘bundles’ or ‘collections’ are a great way of offering a deal whilst increasing your basket sales and order values, providing a win-win for both you and your customers.
Other great Black Friday promotion ideas include:
• Buy One Get One Free BOGOF: This promotion allows you to clear old or slow inventory and promote and sell new inventory.
• Free gift with purchase: Gifts are an easy way to get your customers' attention. Adding a small gift to every purchase can lead to the successful conversion of an abandoned cart.
• Spend over an amount and get a discount: is another great way of encouraging larger sales baskets.
By following these simple tips, your business can thrive this Black Friday.
Offering the right Black Friday offers for your customers this year with ShopTill-e
So depending on what you want to promote and achieve this Black Friday, ShopTill-e has you covered.
It's easy to set up, run and track your promotions through your point of sale and online shop , whether they buy in-store or online.
Multi-channel retailing the smart way
Save time, reduce costs and grow. ShopTill-e is a cutting-edge all-in-one retail system which combines an intuitive in-store ePOS till system with a fully featured ecommerce platform. Our complete multi-channel selling solution also enables you to easily make sales on popular internet marketplaces, such as Amazon, eBay, Wayfair and Etsy, as well as Instagram and Facebook.
If you wish to discuss any of this further feel free to get in touch.
