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How to Prepare Your Ecommerce Business for Black Friday & Cyber Monday

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By Emily Nelson - October 20, 2023- in Go-Getter Blog

Cyber Monday gets all the hype for all things ecommerce, but savvy shoppers are still looking for online deals when Black Friday rolls around. Research shows that global online sales during Black Friday & Cyber Monday (BFCM) reached $211 billion in 2022. Don’t miss out on the opportunity to rake in the sales & beat your revenue goals for Q4. 

Is your ecommerce business ready for Black Friday & Cyber Monday? Here’s how to plan.

When are Black Friday & Cyber Monday 2022?

Black Friday falls on November 24th, & Cyber Monday is on November 27th. But don’t wait until BFCM rolls around to offer a discount. Retailers know plenty of consumers are home the majority of Thanksgiving week & launch their sales early. 

Plan Ahead for a Sales Surge

Predicting what will happen with sales surges in your online store is challenging, but being unprepared is costly. You miss out on revenue, disappoint customers, & possibly miss out on future sales. At the same time, overstocking is also determined to ecommerce  businesses that get left holding onto inventory.

Pull your sales data & review your online traffic data from last year. You should get a sense of a bare minimum of what to expect. But you can also bolster your inventory with print-on-demand (POD). CusotmCat fuels your online store for success by providing the inventory you need when you need it. There are no minimum orders, & we serve both small businesses & enterprise-level corporations.

Upload your designs to our library, apply them to the products you want, & we’ll do the rest. When someone makes an order, we’ll produce, fulfill, & ship it out as behind-the-scenes support for your business. Learn more about how CustomCat works here.

Build Anticipation on Social Media

Start building up the anticipation on social media with a sneak peek at your sales inventory, tease specials, & ask for your customers’ input. Create countdown graphics for your big sale so people can follow along & know exactly when to save big. 

Taking your social media following on a behind-the-scenes tour is also a fun way to build excitement & build a know, like, & trust factor with your business. They’ll see what you’re working on & get a sense of how you run your business.

Customize Your Products

Customers love customization options, whether adding their name or choosing between colors & sizes. POD simplifies the customization process on just one product or your entire inventory. Customizing also takes into account the season & what your customers want most right now with some holiday-themed items:

  • Holiday ornaments – Our print-on-demand ornaments come in circles, hearts, ovals, & stars & can be customized the way you want. Or turn it into a design collection where your customers can collect all four.
  • Color-changing mug Color-changing mugs delight anyone who receives it. The graphic is revealed for some holiday magic when hot water is added.
  • HoodiesHoodies are always a crowd-pleaser with options from traditional to athletic. You’ll also stand out from your competition with DIGISOFT® printing technology that enhances the color & detail of your design.

Offer BFCM Promo Codes

Strengthen your email list early by offering Black Friday & Cyber Monday promo codes. You can make them time-sensitive for the actual shopping days or allow early shopping access. More importantly, you’re building your email list to continue marketing to a valuable customer base. Even if they turn out to be customers who only want a quick deal, you know who’s likely to buy during your next big sale season.

Create a Sense of Urgency with Flash Sales

Just because Black Friday & Cyber Monday pave the way for holiday shopping doesn’t mean you can’t start early. Build a sense of urgency with flash sales leading up to the big week. Tease out product offerings & offer them at a discount, but only until supplies run out. You can also set a time limit on your sale, for an hour or even ten minutes, to spark excitement & FOMO.

Tease out your sale on all of your channels & update your following afterward. Congratulate your shoppers who snagged the savings & turned it into a reason to celebrate.

Launch a Holiday Gift Guide

Content marketing is a powerful way to raise brand awareness for your ecommerce business & engage with your customers. Blog posts, email newsletters, text message campaigns, & video tutorials are just a few examples of content marketing. But quality matters. Research shows that 55% of successful content marketing strategies focused on improving the quality of content.

Start with a holiday gift guide focused on high-quality photos & product copy. You can also work with a graphic designer to turn the guide into the look & feel of an electronic holiday catalog to delight your customers. 

Remember Your VIPs

Remember, it’s not just about finding new customers & generating a sales surge. You also want to treat your VIPs like royalty. Consider giving them early shopping access, give them a secret sales coupon, & angle your marketing message accordingly. 

Segment your email list & thank them for being your loyal VIPs & offer freebies & giveaways in exchange for spreading the word online or over their social media channels.

Expand Your Sales Channel

Sometimes the best way to generate more sales is by expanding your reach. Get seen everywhere you can & sell on your own online store, Etsy, Shopify, social media, & more. The extra work could pay off when you attract a new customer base & see what’s working (and what’s not) on different platforms.

Fortunately, we free up your time & resources so you can focus on sales while we do the rest. Our CustomCat plugin integrates into multiple websites easily, so you can quickly generate sales & automate the process. We also offer your developer an API or the ability to simply upload a formatted spreadsheet with your orders for any platform we don’t integrate with. 

Document the Process for Next Year

Take a proactive approach to Black Friday & Cyber Monday ecommerce  sales by documenting everything. Collect data on:

  • What sold & what fell flat
  • Which audiences reacted to which marketing messages
  • Which areas of the process took up the most of your time
  • What customers asked for, praised, or complained about over your social media channels
  • Which campaigns were the most successful & why
  • Where the majority of your online traffic came from

When you pull together your data, insights, & documentation early, you have a BFCM playbook for next year to fuel your success. Your big wins & ideas could also help shape your future sales, like Easter or Mother’s Day.

 

How are you getting your online store ready for BFCM? Let us know by leaving a comment below!

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