7 Effective Tips to Increase Your Black Friday Sales

Marking the beginning of the holiday season, Black Friday is touted to be the hottest shopping season in the U.S., and now the entire world is catching up to it. This year, Black Friday gained 2.49m mentions between November 23-27, 2023 – up 46% from last year.

That said, if you’re an e-commerce brand anywhere in the world and want to amp up your sales after the Black Friday frenzy you’re at the right place.

Consumers can spend close to a billion annually during the big sales season. Some argue it’s the consumer behavior giving into the sense of urgency and excitement for a holiday, while others call it a well-oiled marketing engine.

Any brand that reads into its data, consumer buying psychology, and competitive landscape can scale. This article will discuss the most popular Black Friday strategies that help brands rake in business and how you can rope those in for your business.

Understanding Black Friday Trends

Before we dissect trends that dominate the e-Commerce world, it’s essential to understand that all Black Friday trends are coined to navigate the highly competitive market, just like Prime Day or Big Billion Day.

It’s not just a day where consumers shop, but also a make-or-break moment for many businesses. With so much at stake, brands must carefully craft their Black Friday strategy.

One core piece of advice that stays true for businesses is to leverage their marketing channels uniquely.

For instance, for an e-Commerce brand that communicates with its customers through email or a young D2C brand that utilizes app notification, both companies must optimize these channels for success rather than spraying.

Black Friday Inspiration That You Can Morph For All Sales

• • Early bird promotions:Launching early bird promotions involves setting special deals for customers early so they can shop during the initial days. This creates a sense of urgency and gets your active customers in the shopping mode.For instance, you can run an exclusive sign-up program that promises great discounts. It’s great for an early commitment from buyers.

    In the past, brands have explored levers like rewards for early shoppers, gift cards, signing up for coupons, pre-booking, etc.For example, as WebEngage supports instant web push on Safari, one brand sends out a quick web push to inform users about an offer that ends soon.

• • • Exclusive deals for subscribers:Subscribers often feel valued and appreciated when they receive special treatment, fostering a sense of relationship with the brand. Use targeted email campaigns to communicate and entice unique discounts.For example, Amazon pulls a crazy campaign around Black Friday for its Prime members that lets them buy a tiny house for all their extra stuff. Just order the home online and put it in your backyard.It’s safe for Amazon to assume that this limited edition product will drive huge prime membership for the brand, creating a perfect example of an offer done right.

      Pro tip: WebEngage lets you identify the best channel to reach either by the time of the campaign or the channel – both of which remain critical from a conversion standpoint.Based on a user’s interaction, preferred channel, and past history of engagement, WebEngage’s send intelligently feature lets you run A/B like a boss.

  Read more: Optimize Campaign Performance with Send Intelligently and Best Channel

  • Social media engagement:Most Black Friday shoppers will be GenZ, a type of audience that lives on the internet. So, leverage the power of social media to build anticipation and engagement.Put out Black Friday posts, stories, live videos, or collaboration posts. The key is creating interactive content your audience wants or resonates with. Consider running a contest or a giveaway to increase your brand’s visibility.This ‘top of the mind’ approach will put your brand at the forefront.For example, Meesho, an Indian brand, does wonders with its social media activation. The brand has collaborated with 100s influencers who do ‘Meesho finds under 100/200/300’ on their social handles.These videos are sometimes also exclusive to a festival, say Diwali, Christmas, or Holi, to let new users discover unique things to buy.

    Pro Tip: If you’re sending out notifications to your select audience on the app about such good deals, enable its visibility on the app notification inbox, a feature supported by WebEngage. This allows users to return to a notification long after it has been sent, amplifying conversion.

    

  • Mobile Optimization:The rise in mobile shopping is going through the roof. At least 79% of smartphone users have purchased online using their mobile device in the last six months.Given this trend, brands need to optimize all their marketing efforts for mobile – from websites to emails; it should be a dynamic, mobile-friendly approach. Ensure the website is responsive, loads quickly, and provides users with a friendly experience across devices.Learn how you can enhance your mobile app engagement with In-app notifications

    Tailor your website content as well. For instance, product listings often break in the first view on the phone. Users must scroll through as they can’t see the product image and description in one go – a big red flag.For example, here’s Walmart optimizing its Black Friday landing page. Let’s look at the great things here:

    1. The page showcases all deals as on the website
    2. Search tab at the top to allow users to navigate freely
    3. Placement of hot deals on the homepage based on trends
    4. A scrollable category list at the top for easy navigation

    

  • Personalized shopping experience:Be it Black Friday or not, personalize your communication. As technology advances, 73% of those surveyed indicated their anticipation of a more personalized experience. Utilize customer data and your marketing channel to provide personalized product recommendations, sending targeted emails, SMS, and push notifications based on past purchases and preferences. Tailor your website content to display relevant content like deals, offers, and product recommendations. This increases the likelihood of conversion.Explore our personalization engine to create tailored and seamless customer experiences.

    For example, RedBubble leaves a lasting impression on its customers by picking up the Black Friday theme. The email was titled: Get up to 35% off—the stuff Black Friday dreams are made of.What do we like in this email?

    1. Most emails are straightforward, but this one is customized to the festival theme
    2. Calls out the offer clearly
    3. Gives a big CTA on the promo code

    What could be better?

    1. If the email opened with the name of the user
    2. More text, less image (1 in 3 people have turned off their email image)

    

  • Limited time offers, and urgency:Create a sense of urgency by showing offers and deals on every page with a time ticker. When customers are constantly reminded of the deals, it instils in their minds.Use countdown timers prominently displayed on category pages, show the discount duration, and communicate the limited-period offer.

    Above is a website that shows the discount offer and the feature that reads ‘selling out’ to let the buyers know it’s a hot item. Below the size option, the brand has also written that the discount ends in 14 hours. This is a great way to nudge the users towards an immediate buying action.Pro tip: Use your marketing levers when touching base with your audience. WebEngage now lets you send 3-button support in push notifications, thus empowering you with more targeted communication crafted for conversion.

    

  • Seamless checkout experience:You do not want your customers to spend time on checkout, leaving them with problems as it leads to a significant dropoff.Optimize your checkout page by minimizing the steps required to complete the purchase, providing multiple payment options, and displaying shipping cost, order summary, and delivery time.One good way to do this is to show the discount next to the checkout option form so that customers don’t doubt the low price.

Parting thoughts:

No one recipe has worked for all the brands, but rather a cocktail of a variety of options. For instance, new-age brands believe in being slightly more playful, thus introducing gamification at all stages.

We recommend you try it all.

Every company has its vibe and tribe, meaning you must know your audience and act like it. Understanding their needs and putting the proper marketing channels at work can create your recipe for success.

Want to know what works best in your industry? Reach out to our experts at WebEngage.