Black Friday Promotions And Cyber Monday Sales

Black Friday Promotions and Sales 💸

Many ecommerce stores on Shopify are eager to offer their customers great BFCM-worthy deals, but the struggle is to balance out the bargains with the fact that these events tend to generate a healthy percentage of annual revenue.

So, the question is - what should your Black Friday and Cyber Monday promotions consist of? If this is a question of yours, you’ve come to the right corner of the web, as today’s article will lead you down the straight and narrow path of running promotions that won’t cut into your profit margins.

We here at Karmoon believe that no matter what Black Friday promotions or Cyber Monday sales are implemented, the most important aspect of events such as this is to make decisions with your customers at the forefront of your thoughts.

More specifically, when it comes to your store’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday promotions, we’d recommend keeping in mind that your customers will remember your offers from prior years, so don't do anything for short-term revenue gain that might go against your intended brand perception.

Furthermore, if your goal is to not be a heavily discounted brand, we’d suggest avoiding steep discounts at predictable times of the year.

For instance, if you were to offer 50% off your store’s products site-wide during November, the sales from your loyal customers will drop at the beginning of October and it’s unlikely that they will make further purchases until that 50% off sale hits again in November.

The punchline is: be smart with how you package these promotions and discounts for your customers, as it’s important to have a strategy when Black Friday promotions and Cyber Monday sales are executed.

Additionally, ecommerce strategies have proven themselves to be fundamental when it comes to moving inventory that you’re having a harder time selling. Equally, you could try to couple products together that have lower sale velocity with those that you know will sell.

Thanksgiving Promotions 💰

When the big Thursday - AKA the day of Thanksgiving arrives, we’d recommend keeping things low-key when it comes to your store’s promotions.

Start by thanking your active customer list for being loyal to your brand in a way that feels authentic to your business.

Then, at Thanksgiving mealtime, send a note to your most valuable customers (MVC) giving them early access to your store’s Black Friday promotions.

Black Friday Promotions

This probably won’t come as much of a surprise, but when the long-awaited Black Friday event hits, customers will be more than ready to shop. So, if your sales start to slow down during November, it’s probably because your customers are waiting until Black Friday to make another purchase with your store.

One of the best Black Friday offers that your store could implement is a high discount combined with a high average order value (AOV).

For instance, if you're selling a $20 product, try to build a bundle that sells for a total of $100 after a 30-40% discount has been deducted. Then everyone's a winner.

Additionally, when you start to increase AOVs, you will also be able to afford to provide your customers with bigger discounts on products within your store.

However, just a word of warning - be conscious of your shipping costs when building discount bundles. Let's say that you're selling candles, for example, ask yourself whether you could ship up to four candles for the same price as two? If so, make your offer revolve around four candles.

This approach is simple but effective, so be sure to use and apply this strategy to your own business’ products and line of thinking to save on shipping resources.

Facebook Lookalike Audiences 👥

The next offer that we would recommend using applies to the groups of customers that have previously become familiar with your brand.

For this strategy, Facebook Lookalike Audiences (using 1-2% lookalikes) can be utilised to drive new customers to your store or you could retarget those individuals who have engaged with your business in the past but haven't yet made a purchase.

You'll be shocked at how many people are ready to try your product when there's a discount attached to the result. So, make sure the content very explicitly details the discount either in the visual creative or in the copy.

Saturday and Sunday Promotions

The Saturday after Black Friday is also referred to as Small Business Saturday since it was coined by American Express. Then that leaves Sunday... if you guys can think of a more iconic way to refer to this day, claim it.

Both Saturday and Sunday offer merchants the opportunity to push different offers - that is if you have the resources to do this of course.

To get the most out of these days we’d recommend testing subscription-focused offers on Saturday and Sunday, or you could just put together a few new bundles where products that need a little bit of TLC to sell are included.

If you ask us, we think that these types of promotions can be great for testing out new products and categories that have already been launched, or equally if you're looking to cease selling certain products and reduce your store’s inventory, this method will quickly shift items that you still have in stock.

Cyber Week and Cyber Monday Promotions 🏷️

Haven’t you heard? Cyber Monday is no longer just one day in the year that customers have the advantage of shopping with hefty discounts as the event now lasts for an entire week.

At this point in the year, everyone is free from Thanksgiving commitments, so there's more time to shop online and with this in mind, it may not come as a surprise that the best Cyber Monday promotions run for the full week as opposed to just one day.

Take the opportunity of Cyber Week to run a site-wide, tiered promotion for your customers. Go ahead and blast your full CRM list and tell them that the more they spend, the more they’ll save.

For instance such offers across the week could include; spend $50 & get free shipping, spend $100 & save 10%, spend $250 & save 25% or spend $400+ & save 35%.

Giving Tuesday Promotions

Tuesday, the day after Cyber Monday is known as Giving Tuesday. This day is less about the discounts and more about giving to those less fortunate.

Besides, at this point in the event, your store will have likely accumulated a very healthy number of orders and there’s still the rest of Cyber Week to go, but Giving Tuesday is a time to select a charity of your choice, or use an app like Change Commerce to donate a percentage of your net profits to those in need.

If you think this will generate less revenue for your business, think again, as customers love to support brands when they know that a portion of their money is going to a good cause.

Furthermore, charitable purchases lower the barrier to purchase, as customers can rest assured knowing that their purchase is not only going to get them a product that they will love, but it’ll also help a cause in the process.

In conclusion, if you’re thinking of running Black Friday promotions and Cyber Monday sales, the best piece of advice we could give to you is to be thorough. Keep in mind that next year, your customers will remember what you ran this year and for how long so, be tactful with your promotional strategy.

In short, be concise with your messaging, but also explicit with what you’re offering in discounts and promotions. Lastly, don’t forget to lean on customers who’ve expressed intent in your brand previously and leverage your sale as an opportunity to drive trial.

If you’re actively looking to work with a Shopify agency designer or developer to assist you with your business, we’d love to hear from you. Get in touch to get started!