Black Friday Cyber Monday (BFCM) continues to be the year's largest shopping event. Because of this, whenever it comes, it also tends to signify a time when ecommerce businesses consider what they learned from prior BFCMs—what they did well, what they did poorly, what worked and what didn't—as well as their achievements and mistakes. And for good reason—understanding past challenges and performance can aid businesses in creating the most effective future strategy.
Now is the time to look back. So, here we go.
The economy may use the much-needed boost if the 2021 holiday shopping season is any indication of what to expect for this year's Black Friday Weekend. Last year:
· Online shopping was done by 88 million Americans.
· Year over year, in-store traffic increased by nearly 19%.
· Black Friday online shopping sales totaled $8.9 billion.
· And nearly 188 million people shopped during the busiest five-day period of the holiday season, from Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday. Overall retail sales were at an all-time high, increasing by 4.5% year on year to $887 billion.
With the potential to generate record-breaking sales, BFCM is a game-changer for many retailers. With our comprehensive Black Friday-Cyber Monday Checklist, you may read on to learn how to make the most of the sales extravaganza in 2022.
Goods’ shipping is difficult at all times, but it is never more difficult than around the holidays when carriers are overloaded with packages.
Knowing your package cut-off periods during the winter is essential because many Holiday shoppers don't have the patience (or the time) to wait for their orders to arrive.
To prevent last-minute scrambling, ask your chosen shipment partners about their cut-off dates and let your consumers know about them.
Opening up your revenue streams across different sales channels can assist you in capturing more consumer market share and increasing visibility across multiple platforms.
Consider tailoring your deals to what works best on each channel, such as offering one bundle on Amazon.com and another on your Shopify store.
To get customers excited and help them plan ahead for their shopping activities, your BFCM offers should also be advertised across sales channels well in advance of your sale's launch.
During any shopping event, a short glance at social media will instantly reveal what customers like and dislike. For your individual customers and sales channels, your BFCM should be personalized.
Some pointers for executing custom deals:
· Avoid using misleading marketing or communications about your deals. Provide the customer with all of the relevant info about the sale right away.
· Every customer is unique. Segment your customer base and tailor your messaging and promotions.
· Keep track of customers who have already made purchases so you don't flood them with the same offers. Try something different instead, or personalize your next pitch to what they ordered.
Show your existing customer base some love appreciate their loyalty by providing early access to newsletter subscribers.
This may be a unique discount code that's made available in the days before your major sale to reward devoted customers with a little extra.
For your newsletter subscribers to make purchases from, you may also design a unique landing page. To gain access, all they had to do was click a tracked link or confirm the email address they had used when signing up.
Customer wants options, and one of the most significant ones is how they can pay. Your customers can experience buying freedom thanks to a variety of options.
Apart from PayPal, credit cards, and debit cards, alternative payment methods are becoming more and more popular because of their simplicity and flexibility.
Because every brand is unique, it's critical to examine your past metrics before deciding how to proceed in 2022.
It can be difficult to decide which of the previous three years to examine in order to forecast 2022. 2019 was the last "normal" year before the pandemic. Ecommerce faced significant economic challenges in 2020.
The most recent sales year, 2021, should be used as a guide to understand what to anticipate in 2022.
Look back at your prior BFCM weekends to see which products did the best business, as well as which sales methods were most effective.
It's also important to consider what failed. Perhaps a certain sales channel didn't work as well as you'd anticipated, or your newsletter flopped.
You can uncover opportunities to grow and create your best BFCM yet in 2022 by learning from what didn't work.
A lot of in-depth planning and preparation are essential to a successful BFCM. Most of the information you need to know should be covered by the following checklist, which will help you have your best sales event ever.
Short BFCM sales are history. As previously stated, sales and promotions are now running weeks (if not months) before BFCM, particularly online. Because door-buster sales and long lines at stores are shrinking, you should be prepared for a longer sales period. This means that you should offer your deals both before and after BFCM.
When a large number of sales come in quickly, it can be difficult to fulfill and ship orders quickly. You can optimize your fulfillment workflows in advance of BFCM by doing the following:
· Prepare your fulfillment area.
· Hire more people.
· Communicate clearly and frequently with fulfillment and delivery partners.
· Orders should be prioritized and organized.
Shopping is amazing during BFCM. As a result, customers will likely visit several businesses, compare discounts, and abandon their carts.
An engaging BFCM offer that entices customers to buy from you is essential if you want to dominate this BFCM. If not, you must build up email sequences for abandoned carts to entice customers back after they've abandoned their shopping carts.
Retargeting allows you to connect with customers who may have forgotten all about you and would have missed your transaction otherwise.
Customers who have previously made purchases from your store can and ought to be retargeted as well. Existing clients should be a top focus because they are typically simpler to connect with and market to than entirely new ones. Additionally, they are more likely to purchase, which increases your chance of making a sale to them.
Long before the start of your Black Friday or Cyber Monday sales; start organizing your email campaigns.
They not only spread the news before the offers go live, but they also reduce the amount of things you need to handle just before your sales period starts.
To develop the most effective email marketing plan:
· Personalize your campaigns to offer a more personalized experience for your customers.
· Place sign-up pop-ups and email collection fields on pages so you may email visitors who have visited but aren't ready to buy and promote your future deal.
· Send teasers in the weeks before to the start of your BFCM sale so that your audience is aware to look out for your announcement.
· After the sale, express gratitude to your clients.
BFCM is an excellent time to establish connections with past clients and encourage them to shop at your business again. It's also an excellent chance to reward your loyal customer base by reaching out to them early and offering them your best discounts.
Lengthy checkouts can kill conversions, especially on mobile, so accelerated checkouts such as Shop Pay, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Amazon Pay, and others are a great way to boost conversions.
Customers can use these checkout methods to auto fill saved information, lowering the barriers to purchase.
Once you've acquired a customer, you must nurture that customer to increase the likelihood that they will return to your store to make another purchase.
Create nurture email campaigns to keep your BFCM customers engaged long after the sale has ended, in order to convert these one-time buyers into repeat customers with a higher lifetime value.
To stay top-of-mind with relevant products and enticing messaging, you can send post-sale emails to subscribers, engage with them on social media, or set up retargeting campaigns.
BFCM is right around the corner & you’ll be ready to launch your deals and tactics in the most efficient, effective way possible.
You'll also ensure that your assets are ready to go, your inventory is ready, and you don't lose sales due to a missed opportunity.
To ensure success, use the BFCM checklist we provided above. Good luck!