BFCM – What is different and what should you do?

On BFCM customers are like kids in a candy store - help them choose

The biggest treat for grownups is coming up. The BFCM offering in eCommerce is like letting kids loose in a candy store. However with all the offering, you need to help the customer make the purchase decision.

Black Friday & Cyber Monday is going to be a lot different than in the past years because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Everyone, including the big retailers like Walmart and Best Buy, are pushing sales online and trying to clear away from in-store sales. This means a lot more competition online and everyone needs to try their best to stand out from the crowd. 

Here’s some key points which to focus on with your advertising and online store and hopefully they’ll help to conquer the problems you might face during November. 

Instead of Friday & Monday – it’s a month

Start early. This year the competition will be harder than before, and you need to be the early adapter and start promoting your sales campaigns early. Start building and improving your customer relationship, especially with the customers who already are either members or frequent on your eCommerce site. 

There is no point to focus on just new customers. Having loads of traffic on your site from new customer acquisition campaigns is great, but getting the desired result from such campaigns might take some time. All the traffic on your site doesn’t convert to transactions. This is the reason why you should focus on already existing customers, especially the ones making high-value transactions. Offering exclusivity to these customers increases brand loyalty and usually converts into higher-value transactions.

Focus on brand loyalty

Brand loyalty and customer relationship is extremely important this year. SMS and Messenger marketing are the main tools to choose when increasing brand loyalty. SMS marketing especially has a very high click through rate (CTR). This type of marketing focuses on existing customers or the ones who’ve given you permission by becoming a member or by subscribing to a newsletter for example. 

Welcome pop-ups when a new member follows your Facebook page are a good idea, as well as promoting member exclusive codes for Black Friday. Focus on generally building up the hype inside the community you’ve already grown for your brand. 

Bundling and tiered thresholds

There is no rocket science involved with this oldie but goodie. Bundling and tiered thresholds are an easy way to increase your sales volume. 

Bundling is when you offer the customer a bundle of products. For example in cosmetic business you bundle different products that work well together and sell them at a discounted price in a bundle.

Tiered thresholds is another way to easily increase your sales volume. Finnish company Fitnesstukku has done this in the past a lot. If the customer order value goes over a desired price limit, a free gift is added to the order. Such as a shaker cup or wristband in Fitnesstukku’s case. You can also have discounted or free shipping prices with this method. On Black Friday free shipping methods are generally recommended. 

Pop-ups

Last but not least: POP-UPS! Offer a discount code or exclusive opportunity to access your store’s discounted products a day early for example. Possibilities for this are limitless, you can choose what is the best option for your store. This is a great way to bring back customers who’ve been on your website before and possibly motivate them to make a purchase on Black Friday even a month after seeing the pop-up. Having a opt-in email option is recommended if you start very early because customers might forget they’ve seen your ad when visiting the website especially if they are not familiar with your brand.

Lassi Hakkarainen, growth hacker / Woolman

We can help with your Black Friday madness and find the best strategy for your eCommerce store. Contact our growth team:

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