A few sneaky ways you can get ahead on Black Friday & Cyber Monday

Are you ready for Black Friday? 

Trick question. Are we ever really ready? For anything?

Just kidding. We can at least be prepared for this one.

As we ramp up to the biggest week of the year in eCommerce (Cyber Monday being the biggest spending day of the year in 2024), it can be easy to let overwhelm creep in:

Are we ready? Are the team prepared? Will we reach our targets? Did we actually forecast right? What if we sell out?

These are all questions that are sure to be floating around your head, but worry not...

Black Friday & Cyber Monday are a huge opportunity not only for sales, but to connect with your customers and to bring their attention back to all of the ways you're helping them to live the lives they really want.

You’re likely considering the obvious: products, suppliers, shipping, marketing. But, there’s some last minute details that most people overlook when heading into a big sales week.

Here are some things to think about to nail Black Friday & Cyber Monday.

What experience do customers have with your website?

How can you prepare for an influx in sales and traffic in terms of the experience shoppers have with your brand. Think about the details. What’s the message when they land in the shopping cart? How are you presenting add-on items? What happens after they purchase?

This is all key to getting customers to come back after the big weekend is over.

Think about the customers that don't buy anything

This one is an unusual one to consider. But what about the people who don’t buy? Higher traffic, ad spend and purchases also means you’ll have a higher influx of people who don’t buy. How can you create an environment that makes them want to come back?

Making you set up your website's meta ad targeting to target site visitors is key, as is getting emails to retarget the people who didn't buy anything but made it to the cart. ‍

Have a plan in place for if you sell out.

You may think it's the ideal scenario, but selling out - especially if you're a bigger brand - is going to have a knock on effect for your December and new years planning.

Consider what will happen if you sell out of something that people are likely to be looking for. If they don’t find what they need the first time, you need to make the experience memorable enough that they’ll still want to buy (and potentially pay full price) next time.

Ordering additional stock is one way to give yourself a buffer against potentially selling out, but having a strategy for stock ordering after the big weekend is just as key.

Don't be scared to take a risk.

Hey, if there was a weekend to do it...

Don’t be afraid to make big discounts and be bold in your marketing strategies (and make even better offers to your existing customers) . But be sure to make sure they’re in line with your margins - you don't want to be losing money after all.

Black Friday isn’t about a quick 10% off, Black Friday is about offering people something they won’t see in any other sales period.

It's not a case of just throwing some random discounts against the wall without a strategy. If you need help to work out what offers are viable for your brand, give us a shout. We can help you understand your numbers in intricate detail so that you can make the best decisions.

Don't neglect organic channels

Many brands place an increased emphasis on paid social and paid Search ads during the run up to Black Friday. that's all well and good, but you're certain to get a 1-2 punch by placing just as much weight in your organic strategy too.

Don’t throw all of your traditional, organic relationship building strategies out of the window just to get a quick cash injection from a frantic market. Continue to build relationships with your long-standing customers organically/on social media (and don’t make it all about sales!) Black Friday is an amazing opportunity to stand out, when you can pretty much guarantee that your competitors will all be talking about the same thing… discounts.

You’d be surprised how many shoppers intentionally don’t buy on Black Friday, so don’t lose their interest – actually, you can stand out and win the hearts of higher-paying, more discerning customers. At a time where not many other brands are even considering them.

An abandoned cart is not an abandoned customer

Finally, do not underestimate the power of abandoned cart.

Black Friday is fast and people are busy. They may have full intent to buy and just forget. According to Forrester, brands can lose up to $18 billion in revenue every single year from abandoned carts. A huge portion of that will be around big sale events like Black Friday.

By making it easy for people to come back and get the deals they really want before they miss their chance, you'll increase your revenue and potentially even win a few loyal customers along the way. All by introducing things like secondary and tertiary abandoned cart email sequences and simple, clever re-targeting.

Let's nail Black Friday!

Those have been our often-forgotten tips for nailing black friday.

If you're interested in working with us to get your ecommerce brand ready for the big day - contact us, We'd love to hear from you!