Black Friday Ecommerce: Do’s And Don’ts Of Getting More Sales

Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and other special shopping events traditionally mean that business owners cut the prices of their products and offer other generous deals. But is it really necessary for you to bear any kind of extra costs to enjoy better Black Friday ecommerce results in your store?

As you know, we in AliDropship run our own dropshipping stores to test new marketing strategies and improve the performance of our technical solutions.

Our previous Black Friday ecommerce results turned out to be really curious; we are sure you can benefit from these findings, too!

History of Black Friday

It is said that the term Black Friday (meaning a shopping frenzy between Thanksgiving and Christmas) originated in the 1950s or ’60s in Philadelphia. At that time, the term was used to describe the pedestrians’ crowds and traffic congestion typical for the start of the Christmas shopping season.

The thing is, in the United States, the day after Thanksgiving has been regarded as the official start of the Christmas shopping season since 1952. Historically, since the beginning of the 20th century, no store was starting Christmas advertising before the large-scale Thanksgiving festivities and parades were over!

The tradition lives on this days — so let’s see what you can do to boost your benefits from it!

Black Friday ecommerce rule #1: DON’T cut prices too much

Black Friday is the period when people are in general more likely to buy stuff. It doesn’t actually matter if ecommerce sites start online sales with huge discounts or not; it’s the time when purchasing activity is defined by several supporting factors apart from the item price.

It seems to be a good Black Friday marketing strategy to offer consumers discounts, but listen to this. One of our stores was offering a 15% discount coupon, while others were running with unchanged prices. With the same intensity of promotional activity and administrative work, all the stores had nearly the same performance.

In other words, it’s not only the product price that motivates people to buy something during Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Let’s find out what matters!

Rule #2: DON’T leave your ads unattended

There’s a curious tendency: the amount of people who prefer online shopping during Black Friday and other special events grows year on year. Numerous researches report lower retail stores traffic and note that the majority of sales happens online. In 2020, of course, this tendency got even more obvious as the global ecommerce market grew due to the post-pandemic effects.

As a dropshipping retailer, you can seize this opportunity and reach a bigger number of potential customers through digital Black Friday promotions.

Here’s an example.

To enhance the upcoming Black Friday ecommerce results in our stores, we focused on 3 types of paid advertising: regular Instagram posts, Instagram stories, and Instagram shoutouts.

Basic Instagram posts, as well as Instagram stories, cost us much less than usual. In October, the average cost per click was around $0.20, while the cost per website add to cart was about $1.

During Black Friday, the numbers were mind-blowing: cost per click was only $0.05, and cost per website add to cart was $0.20.

The difference is significant; a prompt and careful analysis of the ads’ performance gave us the chance to spend money on advertisement with much bigger efficiency.

As for the shoutouts, we kept the same intensity and spending as we normally have.

The results, however, were astonishing. In one particular customer segment (25-34 year-old buyers) we’ve registered a 250% increase of the sales volume!

The thing is, buyers’ behavior changes considerably during big shopping events. These periods are the chance to target and reach consumers who didn’t take an interest in these particular products before. If you plan your promotional campaigns carefully, it will be quite easy for you to increase the number of orders and average order value without extra costs.

That’s exactly what we did; read further to learn our Black Friday ecommerce strategy!

Black Friday ecommerce rule #3: DO think a lot about your marketing messages

The quality of promotional materials has paramount importance for all Black Friday strategies.

In our promotions, we kept the same posting frequency and even the same targeting as usual. The only thing we changed was the messages’ content.

We paid special attention to:

• Texts. The main idea of the communication was to motivate people to buy gifts for themselves and their loved ones. We didn’t speculate on any kind of Black Friday deal or the idea of ‘buying smart and saving money’; instead, we focused on the things that have a special meaning for our target audience.
• Designs. Social media require visually appealing content, which is why it was important for us to create catchy and bright images. The majority of our competitors were simply putting a ‘Black Friday’ banner that wasn’t explaining much. That’s why we tried a different approach: we posted colorful product collages to show our bestsellers and other popular goods. Normally, we show our products on a white background; this time, we tried making collages in contrasting colors that grab attention immediately. Plus, we wanted to make these posts understandable for people who never visited our store and just saw an ad. They don’t even know what exactly we’re selling, right? So it’s important to demonstrate as many items as possible.

The point is, if you know your target audience well enough, you should be able to easily find the right communication tone and the right words to motivate people to buy more. Your personal approach and attention to buyers’ needs and wants are not less important than discounts and super sales. This way, you can expect great Black Friday sale results.

Rule #4: DO make sure everything is mobile-friendly

During Black Friday, we’ve registered a 12% increase in the volume of sales placed through mobile devices.

On the global scale, the numbers were quite impressive, too: it’s estimated that 61% of online shoppers used their smartphones to place their online orders.

Obviously, it means that it’s a must for online retailers to look good and work properly on mobile devices.

Switching on well-tested mobile-friendly store themes won’t cost you much. At the same time, this move will boost your sales significantly because of the growing number of customers who prefer shopping on mobile devices. Plus, it’s not just a one-time benefit that only works during big sales: in the long run, a mobile-friendly online store will be a real blessing.

And remember: it’s not only about the store usability. Increasing the intensity of ads placement on mobile devices will be a great help, too!

Rule #5: DO provide a favorable shopping environment

Remember: during Black Friday and any other major sale, your customers are most likely stressed. They’re trying to make the best deal possible. And they are afraid of missing out on a good offer. So chances are, they are a) pressed for time, b) short of money, c) nervous.

They are already worried; don’t make the customer experience even more uncomfortable for them!

In advance of the big day, make sure that you have:

• The major payment gateways integrated
• The Customer Policy terms written in detail on a dedicated online store page
• All the messengers, chats, phone lines and other communication channels working properly
• The energy and patience to kindly handle even the weirdest orders

It’s also a good idea to go through this checklist – you will find it useful for preparation before any major shopping event.

In other words, it is quite possible to generate more sales and get considerable profits during Black Friday without spending much extra money.

Rule #6: DO launch new products

While new buyers unfamiliar with your brands may find your current inventory good enough, previous customers will hardly be excited to see the same offer during this period. So, consider offering something new as a part of your Black Friday ecommerce offer.

Adding a new item to your offer will draw more attention to your online store and attract both new and existing customers.

Rule #7: DO improve your ecommerce site’s speed and navigation

Just like with any other marketing campaign, you need to prepare your website to welcome customers before you start promoting. And there are the two most important things here: your website’s loading speed and navigation.

47% of site visitors will leave the site if it takes more than 2 seconds to load. As a result, even if you make a really cool ad that leads buyers to your site, they won’t buy anything because of the loading time.

To fix it, make sure to optimize images on your pages, use proper ecommerce hosting, reduce redirects, etc. Use this free Google tool to check your site’s speed.

Another problem you may face is navigation. If a customer doesn’t understand how to get to finish the checkout process, advertising becomes useless. So make sure to use professional ecommerce website themes.

Rule #8: DON’T postpone your campaign to the last moment

Many consumers (36% in the US) actually plan their shopping prior to Black Friday. It means they start visiting different online stores and browse catalogs way before the day comes.

So, you must prepare your advertising campaign in advance. Moreover, remarketing should also play a vital role in your strategy as you will have to remind some of your site visitors about your existence.

So don’t waste your finances, go with the smart free tricks and enjoy the growth of your Black Friday ecommerce profits!