Updated for 2022
Continuing the tradition of recent years in Greece, we will ‘’celebrate’’ Black Friday on November 25th and Cyber Monday on November 28th.
If you are an e-shop owner and, while you are reading this article, you are wondering ‘’Do I have to start thinking what I will do on November 25th’’? I would say that you are probably already late (and I am probably late in writing this article).
And that’s because the competition is already preparing for one of the biggest commercial days on the planet.
So, keep on reading to find out what you have to do and you will understand why you had to start doing it…yesterday.
Get prepared for Black Friday
Have you checked the functionality of your e-shop? The slightest mistake will reduce your credibility in the eyes of your visitors whom you brought at a cost but you will never see again.
Have you checked the bandwidth consumed by your e-shop? Has your hosting package reached its limits and you will need something larger? Ask you hosting company to tell you how much you are using up your existing bandwidth.
Have you checked the security and speed of your e-shop? If it doesn’t load in 3’’ or at least 5’’ you will definitely lose customers because they’ll leave before they even enter the e-shop.
Have you done an evaluation of the mix product that you offer? Which products are you going to put on sale? All of them? Isn’t it an opportunity to enrich your product range with new products that your customers might be interested in?
Have you planned for at least one extra ‘’shift’’ for the support of your customers via Viber, Messenger, email and phone?
Bring them in
Will you create E-mail & Viber messaging to reach out your existing customers so as to give them something more than you will offer to new visitors?
Have you set up the necessary ‘’scripts’’ for email marketing or are you just sending out a newsletter?
Will you run Google & Social Media ads to make your offers known to the general public? Have you considered all the possible campaigns you can set up or do you believe that just Boost Post is enough? (read why it’s not enough here).
If you also have a store, will you do local online & offline advertising actions to bring them to your door?
Have you prepared the ad visuals for Black Friday?
Sell
Have you thought about the offers and discounts you’re going to give? What exactly will you offer? Giveaways?, Promotions? Discount prices? Free shipping? When you decide you should:
- Create the corresponding banners which you will put in the slider or pop ups
- Create the corresponding offers in the e-shop’s admin panel
- Check if the mechanism of the offers is working and does not affect or combine with any other discounts.
Have you considered that maybe you should give extra motivation to your e-shop visitors to buy from you and not from the hundreds of other e-shops that will bombard them with advertisements during this period, such as a loyalty scheme?
Have you thought about the mechanisms your e-shop should have like product suggestions, smart search, emergency ordering techniques, notification mechanisms, upselling & cross-selling mechanisms so as to increase the value of your average ‘’basket’’?
Besides the standard payment methods (card, bank deposit, Paypal, POD-Pay on Delivery) do you also use one-click checkout and BNPL (buy now pay later) methods?
Sell more after Black Friday
Have you predicted to set up a “forgotten in cart” scenario via email?
Have you set up remarketing & dynamic remarketing campaigns?
Do you have an alert mechanism for products you don’t have in stock?
Do you offer a customer loyalty program?
Do you have a customer experience rating program?
Deliver
Have you talked to your suppliers about the increased stock they need to be ready to supply?
Have you talked to your courier company about the increased traffic and if they are prepared to handle it?
Have you discovered the new click & collect delivery formats that allow you to reduce your costs and increase your delivery speed?
And finally, have you set up enhanced e-commerce tracking in Google Analytics to measure which promotion and advertising channel brought you how many sales (in terms of turnover and items) and for which products?
After reading the above list, are you sure you want to wait a week or two before Black Friday?
Start scheduling your Black Friday activities now!
If you want help with the evaluation of your e-shop and your Black Friday plan, let us know
