Each year ‘Black Friday’ average sales increase. In 2019, total retail spending in the UK equated to £8.6 billion and increased again in 2020. It is now a key date on the calendar for UK shoppers, so we’ve compiled a Black Friday Shopify Checklist for ambitious ecommerce retailers.
‘Black Friday’ historically has marked the start of the Christmas shopping seasons, with consumers eager to bag Christmas presents at great prices. Black Friday is a great opportunity to increase sales and brand awareness, and attract new customers. In order for businesses to excel during this time, operation Black Friday needs to be put in place.
Here’s our Black Friday Shopify Checklist and 8 tips to make ‘Operation Black Friday’ a success:
Tip 1: Analyse historical data
Our first tip is to analyse your historical data. This is important as this helps identify what is most profitable within your business. It enables you to pinpoint what successfully sells, what doesn’t, so you can focus more on the money making products.
The best way of doing this is by analysing consumer behaviour from previous Black Friday sales and understand the pattern of customer buying habits. This includes what a business did to convert the Black Friday deal seeker into a returning customer. Whether this be through deals, or one off sale purchases, identifying what made a customer convert is crucial.
Another effective way of using historical data is through analysing your company’s social media accounts and website to see what worked well, so that you can generate more clicks and further sales. You should also be analysing and closely keeping an eye on your competitors to see what worked well for them.
Tip 2: Check out your competitors performance
Black Friday sales are very competitive. Being aware of the competition, and their past activity, could provide insights to make your products fly off the virtual shelves. Look back in your email inbox to see what your competitors’ campaigns looked like a year ago. Browse the social profiles of your competition to see their messaging from Black Friday 2020. Research historical advertising activity.
This information is readily available and can give you unique insights that will help you plan an effective campaign.
Tip 3: Ensure tracking code and retargeting strategy is in place
It is a known fact that the majority of customers don’t buy on their first visit and need persuading to return and finish a purchase. As Black Friday may attract a larger audience than normal, the rate of customers who leave the site without purchase will increase. Therefore, tracking and retargeting audiences need to be put into place to higher conversion rates.
Tracking and retargeting audiences enable retailers to efficiently target ads or email messages at those who have left the site and abandoned their basket without purchase.
Set-up email campaigns in advance to send out promotions or reminders in order to pull the customers’ attention back onto the site. Set-up ad campaigns through Google Ads, Facebook, Instagram and Bing to show ads to those who’ve not completed a purchase.
Tip 4: Set up promotions and voucher codes
Using promotions or voucher codes is a great way to attract new customers and can catch the eye of those who have left the site without purchasing. Consumers love a good deal and this is why Black Friday is so popular.
Taking advantage of promotions and voucher codes where possible is a marketing strategy that has the potential to build up your list of returning customers and increase profit.
Display your codes prominently in email marketing, Google Ads and Shopping campaigns. This will make your inventory stand out in the market and help you beat competitors to the sale.
Tip 5: Optimise your feeds to shopping channels
Optimising products so they’re available on shopping channels and not just your website is a step that many businesses miss out on. This furthers more clicks and more chances of increasing noticeably within a wider range of channels.
You need to take advantage of third party channels such as:
o Google Shopping
o Bing Shopping
o Facebook
o Instagram
o Amazon
o Ebay
When customers are searching on these different channels, you have that extra chance to project your brand to a wider audience and be noticed, all done from Shopify.
Tip 6: Get your ad campaigns ready to go
As Black Friday looms the stress of not being in control of your ad campaigns may seem daunting. Getting your ad campaigns set and ready to go takes weight off your shoulders and adds time to focus on other things. It is important to prepare your PPC campaigns and your remarketing ads to allow spare time to focus on other aspects of the business.
Use tools to find out the advertising messages and bidding strategies used by competitors a year ago. This means you can make your ad targeting more effective and ad creative more compelling so you win the Black Friday battle in your sector.
Tip 7: Plan and write social media marketing posts in advance
Tip 7 is a no brainer and not just for Black Friday. Planning and writing your social posts in advance makes the process of posting on your social media marketing a whole lot easier. Having the time to plan out your posts carefully and tactically allows for more effective content. Wouldn’t it be a relief to know time pressure does not exist for you? Being prepared and ahead of time gives you that advantage and is a clever tactic that should be put into place.
Tip 8: Get email marketing campaign ready
The final tip we offer is write and draft your email marketing campaigns. This is an excellent strategy to have as email marketing campaigns can take up a lot of business time. By writing in advance (especially for Black Friday), it allows you to send your emails fast and easily when you need to. When busy times of the year approach, having email campaigns ready allow your business to focus on other aspects of your business that may need more attention. Furthering a higher success rate for your business and a more effective outcome that has been thought out and not rushed.
Black Friday can be both rewarding and stressful. It is one of the busiest times of the year for retailers. Precise planning needs to be put into place in order to achieve a successful outcome. If a business wants to thrive during this busy time, the tips above need to be addressed.
Get last minute help implementing the Black Friday Shopify checklist
Do you need help with Black Friday planning? ‘Our Digital Team’ are a Shopify Partner with 26 years ecommerce marketing experience. We can implement these tips for you.
Although we work with clients across the UK, Europe and North America we’re a local agency, based in Manchester. We’re partners with Shopify and Google. We help organisations get the most from their investment in Shopify by getting your products in front of the right audiences in Google, Bing, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and other channels.
If you’re interested in our assistance for ‘Operation Black Friday’ fill in the form below.