Black Friday and Cyber Monday are an amazing opportunity for your ecommerce business to make money!
If you want to get in on the years biggest shopping event, then you need to plan now.
The goal is simple; more sales, happier customers and less problems… But it can be a stressful time as you prepare your business for an increase in traffic, sales, orders to be fulfilled and customer support requests.
By Failing To Prepare You Are Preparing To Fail - Benjamin Franklin
You need to prepare your sales as early as possible and let your customers and website visitors know about your upcoming sales event well in advance. You need to make sure people in your niche who are looking for product find you.
Plan your deals and discounts ahead of time. Look at the products in your store and organise your upcoming sales. Don’t wait until the last minute, plan in advance!
Do you have backups in place should anything go wrong?
How fast can you get extra stock if a hot selling product sells out? Can you switch shipping channels if your current provides becomes overloaded in the sales frenzy?
You need to think about the worst case scenarios for your business and create contingency plans for the toughest situations. Then you will be prepared and ready to react should the worst happen during you busiest sales period of the year.
Make sure that your website host can handle the spike in traffic to your store. Check this by using free online tools to test your servers load capacity.
Can your store handle increased product demand? You
need to work with your suppliers to make sure they can handle your increase in
sales volume. One of the worst things that can happen during a sale is not
meeting customer demand for your products. You only have one chance to make a
sale this visitor, so make the most of it… Ensure there is enough inventory in
your fulfillment warehouse well in advance or the Black Friday/Cyber Monday
weekend.
You need to have your suppliers or manufacturers ready
to send you extra inventory if needed.
Its a good idea to plan your ads and sales copy for
your promotions ahead of time too. Also remember that advertising can get more
expensive during Q4, so plan out your budget and bid prices too.
Making The Most Of Your Traffic
Boost your conversions by setting up targeted abandon
cart emails. Use compelling copy and offers to bring the customer back to your
store to complete their purchase. Make your order process and checkout as
simple and hassle free as possible. Especially for mobile sales. Having to fill
in too many detail fields, especially on mobile can kill your conversion rate.
Sharable discount links are a great way to leverage
your sales, making it easier for your customers to redeem your offer codes and
also boosting your conversions.
Another way to encourage visitors to buy is by using
scarcity. Offer shopper last second deals by using countdown timers and limited
stock alerts.
You should also be retargeting your previous customers
and website visitors. People who bought from you in the past should be
especially receptive to your black Friday - cyber Monday offers. Email
marketing campaigns should be used to target previous buyers and get them back
to your store.
Incentivise visitors to give you their email before
leaving your site by offering exclusive deals for being a subscriber.
Marketing should play and important role in the
success of your holiday sales. Make sure your tracking pixels are set up
correctly for remarketing to your increased holiday traffic. Click-through
rates are known to double on Black Friday, so be prepared and make the most of
this traffic.
Once you’ve attracted visitors to your store, your
next task is to increase your Average Order Value (AOV). You can do this by offering
product bundles or offering free shipping or a free gift on orders above a
specified value. That way you can nudge people to add more to their carts.
TEST, TEST, TEST
Get someone ramdom to usertest your store and listen
to their feedback. Try this a few times and look for common areas where users
are getting confused or frustrated. Don’t make changes on a single source of
negative feedback, but alway keep testing and finding solutions to the problems
your encounter.
Communication Is Key!
Don’t lose sales by not answering quickly. Do this by
using an integrated “live chat” app on your website or connecting via Facebook
messanger app. Create standard replies in advance to some of the most common
questions you receive. Always be courteous and never argue with or insult your
customers.
Ensure your returns policy and guarantee are clear,
fair and well-communicated on your store. This creates confidence in your
product and removes potential risks, making it easier for the customer to buy.
Track Everything - What Gets Measured, Gets Done
Every ecommerce business should be using Google
Analytics. The powerful, free traffic tracking tool from Google can measure and
improve your marketing campaigns and help gain insights into how your visitors
are interacting with your store.
Always pay attention to what your competition is
doing. The easiest way to do this is by signing up to their email subscriber
list. You can also track them on social media and by setting up Google Alerts.
Finally, learn from your mistakes as well as your
successes, which is why it is so important to track everything. That way you
know what has worked and what didn’t. You then implement new tactics and
strategies to improve from what you have learned.
Treat everything as a learning experience, stay
motivated and be ambitious, but set realistic goals.
And remember to have fun and enjoy the ride!
Noel Murphy
Co-Founder
PFC Express & ParcelfromChina
PFC Express is a dedicated order fulfillment company
headquartered in the economic hub or Shenzhen, China. With over 10 years
experience in providing top-quality fulfillment services to e-commerce sellers
from around the world.
Having worked with Internationally renowned brands,
Kickstarter and other Crowdfunded projects, Incubation Hubs, Amazon/eBay
sellers and e-commerce businesses of all sizes over the last decade, PFC
Express have unmatched experience in the Chinese logistics and fulfillment
industry.
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