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Jul 18, 2024

There's no reason to begin with your shopping before Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM) that is one of the busiest shopping days in the year. Each month have been marked by an increase in sales each year which means you'll have to be ready for increased traffic to your website, as well as increased competition for ad space when compared to the previous years.

If you're the first to test running Black Friday Cyber Monday sales or you've already attempted this for the first time, now the ideal moment to start planning for the upcoming year right now and benefit from the following Black Friday checklist to get going.

In order to help you make plans in advance for the coming season and help you prepare for the coming months We've broken down the online-based Black Friday checklist into two elements: the checklist for you to engage customers as well as a checklist that will assist you in the management of your back-end systems.

Black Friday Checklist: Customer engagement

The first thing to do is finish the customer's engagement prior to any other action.

Black Friday sales tag on clothing

Be more productive earlier

Really?

Thus, you must begin your strategy in advance to ensure that you are ready to begin implementing your plans before time as well as increase the volume of money you sell.

Develop a Black Friday counter-narrative

Black Friday sales are scheduled to begin in the manner you'd like them to. Many people are becoming conscious of this. So, it is advised to launch a campaign to stop Black Friday. Black Friday is a day that falls in the month prior to the celebration.

"Why wait? This is the perfect time to shop and benefit from these fantastic bargains and complete your purchase before the closing date of the month."

The marketing approach that takes a stand against Black Friday is designed to promote advantages such as being able to get an early start to the holiday shopping season, crossing items off your list of things to buy before crowds and then sitting at ease throughout December, surrounded by people who want to rush because you've already got it all accomplished earlier.

Additionally, it is accompanied by an array of shifting offers and promotions all week long prior to Black Friday.

customer paying with a credit card

Make sure you reach out to the right audience

This can be done for advertising different products and to make a range of advertisements that incorporate Google and other social media websites.

If you're the manager of an online shop offering health-related products, you're in the right place.

The first category is breakfast with protein bars. A different category is gluten-free, gluten-free, dairy-free products. Another category is nutritionally rich food items that are organic. These can be promoted with your brand's primary language in a clear manner.

glass container of overnight oats

Who do you think is the best audience each of these products will be able to appeal to? What are their priorities? Make sure to include the same message within your Black Friday marketing content and you'll draw more customers in addition to increase sales.

If you're a business owner that sells a variety of products, don't conduct broad Black Friday sales that will affect your revenue. Instead, concentrate on just the items that offer discounts that will increase the sales. Utilize the sales to attract an increase in patrons to the store.

If you are able to convince buyers to spend greater than Black Friday discounts, you'll improve the quality of your orders as well as your net profit.

If you have items that are overstocked and seasonal items that aren't renewable or re-usable, these make great options to get the best price, since the seller will have to remove these items if you're required to. Make use of items you're selling in huge quantities in exchange for a discounted arrangement with the seller, or products that are able to attract an extensive market or which yield more profits.

Consider creating special Black Friday sale landing pages for your most important items instead of the typical landing page you've got to promote your item.

What are the products you're thinking about including in the madness of Black Friday deals this year?

Be ready to promote your business through many channels.

Multichannel marketing will yield greater results than only focusing on one marketing channel. Make sure you have at least three channels in mind to use this year for executing the Black Friday marketing strategy.

email from myLabBox

Channels are comprised of but not restricted to:

  • SMS
  • Social media encompasses all platforms like Facebook, X, TikTok, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Pinterest
  • Direct Post
  • Television and Radio
  • YouTube, streaming online video and YouTube
Google Listings and Ads extension page

You must ensure that you have optimized landing pages and monitor the number of the visitors to your site via the various ways you reach them.

Make follow-up plans for marketing that will go

Another important aspect to making money from Black Friday, Cyber Monday and the other days of the festive shopping period is to keep in touch with clients that might visit your business in the coming year.

Yes, many Black Friday shoppers will come to buy things, and then leave but then never come to go back. But, you might be lucky enough to get some of them that can turn into regular, lasting customers.

Develop a welcome message for emails. Start sending consistent email marketing. It's important to classify the customers you've introduced to you according to what they've bought in the past, as well as the other data you've collected regarding them during your initial purchase. After that, you'll have the ability to provide customers with relevant as well as useful information throughout the course of.

email from the city of Jacksonville

Do you have a strategy to market your business in advance of Black Friday?

Make use of the email system to spread your message to everyone frequently and during the early hours.

In the weeks leading up to Black Friday this year, send out emails that highlight your business and connect with your customers prior to the joy of shopping for Christmas. The customers must think of you before other online retailers begin to compete for their attention. Customers should be buying from you while smaller stores which have smaller businesses are getting up to discover that they've not planned in advance for Black Friday.

Your initial email marketing campaign could begin in October. The inboxes of email are likely to be stuffed by the time November gets to an end. Therefore, if you use emails to plant seeds and offering promotions that appeal to customers ahead of the highest increase in sales, you'll be able to attract more customers, in addition to boosting your company's reputation and trust with customers.

Create eye-catching visuals

If the image is displayed on the page that lists products as well as the page which is designed to guide users to the items you're planning to show it is essential to use pictures with high-quality resolutions that draw the attention of viewers. This will allow users to feel the item at the touch of their.

Contact abandoned carts via email

AutomateWoo extension page

The process of preparing these for Black Friday will give you the opportunity to assess your strategy and figure out which strategy is most effective for your company. Discounts that are ideal for online stores.

Split your campaign into three parts

There are a ton of items to cross off of your Black Friday checklist, and it's easy for you to be overwhelmed. For help in organizing your tasks and to determine the importance to place in your calendar, you can divide the whole holiday is divided into three major components.

It's the first stage towards the lead-up to Black Friday. You can start when you'd prefer to start, however, it'll end within the months leading up to Black Friday.

Then comes the day. It can include weekends, and even the week following the week, where you're taking on the entire Cyber Week. It's up to you to decide what a 'day' is..

Everything you do following your Black Friday period is the phase that forms part of your marketing strategy.

Black Friday is but one of many days. Strategies you employ for promotion are suitable for any day of your work week.

Do you plan to split your Black Friday promotions campaign into three segments?

Make or edit your return policy

If you've run your own online business for a long time there's a good chance you've developed this. If, however, you do not yet have one, this is the perfect opportunity to get one. If you have one, maybe you've learned that it needs an upgrade.

  • A method of returning the goods you've shipped. Do you require original packaging, item's specific condition and so on. ?
  • The process for the refund. Can customers receive the money that they have paid back, as well as credit card or credit from the store?
  • Clear deadlines. What's the date for shipping things back to receive credit or a refund?
  • A shipping address. What address should they use for returning items?
  • Contact details. How can the customer reach you with regards to other queries?

Returns policy should be made public as frequently as it is necessary. It must be mentioned in the email sent to customers when the order has been made. The printed policy must be included in the purchase. It should be available via your site, and accessible, for instance, at the bottom of your site as and on the FAQ page, along with product pages.

Are you up-to-date with the Return policy?

Offer faster shipping alternatives

The time for shipping may be pushed back when selling is on the rise during the Christmas season and customers usually anticipate rapid delivery.

Based on data from a 2021 Baymard study, the research revealed that an average of 19% the carts that are abandoned because delivery times are far too long. Offering faster shipping options can aid in reducing the amount of money lost and can be an ideal solution for Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

In addition, expedited shipping strategies encourage customers and ensure that your items are delivered on time during an time where delays in shipping can happen because of the high volume of deliveries that shipping companies have to handle.

Think about the possibility of an offer of Purchase Now, pay later

example of buy now, pay later on a checkout page

It is possible to make this feature accessible on your checkout page. It is also possible to place it on your site's product pages or your homepage, the homepage, or another location that you think will aid customers to overcome cost-related concerns and remain in the buy.

Chatbots can be used to chat with you.

Chatbots help in offering clients support, and they can also boost sales. Most of the time, clients have issues that chatbots may help with. It's best if they can have a few issues clarified and they'll be able to finish the purchase.

example of a chat bot in action

If they are forced to search for email addresses, or look through the forums for help, or sit and patiently wait for live chat support to answer to their issue, they'll be likely to leave the process and move to another site.

If you are able to achieve this, the chatbot will help you with the purchase process without the need for any additional support from the customer service.

Find out the latest Black Friday sales data

A common idea is to start thinking of each year with a fresh venture. You start fresh to begin our new adventure and without any experience.

If you've managed an online store for a certain length of time and have conducted Black Friday marketing campaigns before it's likely that you've had the experience. Your data may be already in the database. You've probably done some things previously that worked effectively.

 analytics showing sales and orders

If you're nearing a certain point in your plan for the next year, it's a good idea to examine the results from prior years. Was it a success? What caused the issue?

Do you have the ability to duplicate the successes that you had the past year? Do you have the ability to increase your efficiency by looking at what you didn't do well?

Black Friday list Black Friday checklist Checklist for Backend Systems

Now we'll look at some of the Black Friday checklist items that shoppers don't see often and that rely on shoppers to fulfill their needs and enjoy a great Black Friday shopping experience.

Create a site that is more efficient

95 % of users abandon a site if the website loads too slow. Site speed should be the main concern during all times of the year, and is especially crucial during times of high volume of visitors. There are some tips to consider when you notice that your website is slow.

  • Test your website performance. Determine what areas need to be improved by testing speed. Instruments like Pingdom as well as Page Speed Insights can inform you of how fast your website loads and also its performance in specific areas.
  • Implement a content delivery network (CDN). A CDN serves your site's files from high-speed, dedicated, and geographically-distributed data centers. Users will gain by having their content cached on the CDN most close server. This aids in speeding the load times and also reduces the amount of bandwidth and load on your website. Jetpack offers you the option to use a cost-free CDN instead of other network providers. You are able to create and set up the Jetpack CDN in just one click.
  • Improve your photo. Even if you're making use of the CDN that can improve the files to meet your specifications and needs, and specifications, it's recommended that you upload your photos to be as small as you can while maintaining the best resolution. Exporting images to the web with Photoshop and making use of the Image Optimizer and tools for resizing such as ImageOptim is a straightforward method to get your images ready to upload on the internet.
  • Upgrade your Hosting accounts. If you're on shared servers, your website may be slower to load, especially when other websites hosted on the same server are experiencing significant growth in traffic. It is recommended to consider making use of an online server (VPS) or dedicated servers.
Jetpack speed landing page

There are many other strategies to increase the effectiveness of your company.

Does your store's online operation run at the speed that is necessary?

The inventory syncs with the pages of the item

example sync log
example log

Facilitate and speed up the process to check out process

Checkout may function, but is it reliable and simple? You must make your checkout the simplest it can be, with the least amount of distractions, in order to motivate your customers to complete their purchase. There are a few points you could include to consider like:

  • Eliminate the visible distractions. Eliminate header and menus in footers along with widgets that appear on the sidebar, as well as extra distractions that appear on checkout pages so that your customers will remain focused to finish the transaction.
 Payments information

Make sure you are prepared to place your order and get the order shipped in the right date.

Are your dropshippers and suppliers have the capacity to withstand an increase in sales? Do you have the capacity to boost production when increase in sales is higher than anticipated?

The situation is ideal to deal with, but you mustn't ignore the chance to improve the income of your business and also to gain new clients as the supply chain gets overloaded.

If you're looking to increase production in advance of the Christmas season, ensure that you make your orders as soon as you can at the first possible time with your provider of materials. This is especially true if the products you sell come from an outside company and particularly when those products are made in a foreign country. Other companies take orders from sellers to make plans for Black Friday sales as well So, make sure to ensure that your purchases are secure before the end of the day. In the event that you don't then you could face a steep price or a lack of items.

man

If you're working through a third party logistic company (3PL) to ship your products, take a look at previous data on the sale and delivery of your merchandise and request the transfer of your inventory to warehouses located within the regions that you usually carry out the majority of transactions. This can speed up deliveries to clients. If speedy delivery is essential to you, request your 3PL to make regular delivery. You should choose providers with the fastest delivery time.

Furthermore, you could need to employ more employees or expand hours to meet the demand expected over the holiday season. This is especially important for handmade products or making things from scratch. Even if production outsourcing is completed, you may still have more demand for the offerings you make to your clients or ordering fulfillment, marketing, or any other items.

Gather customer details for follow-up marketing

In the past, we had discussed strategies to handle when your website is visited by visitors who may not have visited your online store previously.

Customers aren't in a position to reach you absent the information of your clients.

If you're sending out products, chances are you'll get the address for their postal business. Marketing via direct mail and following up are more costly than marketing via digital, which is the reason you need to be able communicate with your customers via email or perhaps even via SMS.

MailPoet opt-in settings

In order to do this it is necessary for buyers to have the ability to register. One of the most effective places to register is on the checkout page on the lower right. You can then ask for the customer's email address and their contact number. The customer must be granted permission to communicate with the customer by text or email. However, you must reduce the number of messages to a minimum so that clients who do not choose to opt out of the marketing via SMS do not become confused.

There will be those who aren't, but it's acceptable in the same manner as others might. In the event that you're in that category, you'll need to get started on review your marketing.

Are you prepared to collect the numbers and emails?

Convert tracking may be set up

It is essential to keep track of customers' behaviors and how you perform with marketing tactics during Black Friday and the rest of the Christmas season so that you are able to adapt your strategy in the new year.

Conversion Tracking Pro extension page

Make sure the site you're visiting is safe

One of the simplest and most effective methods to enhance the security of your website is to install the security plug-in. Jetpack is free security from attacks via brute force which blocks the attacks that are one of the most frequent forms of hacking, in addition to the two-factor security to protect your login procedure. The Jetpack WordPress security plug-in provides automated backups, malware scanning in addition to monitoring downtime in order to guard against spam, as well as other threats.

Jetpack Security information page

Be sure that your site works across all devices and browsers.

The site you're selling must display properly on all devices that run on desktops, mobile phones, tablets as well as all well-known browsers. This can be checked using the device you have, but it is important to test the appearance of your website if you're using a laptop computer or browser emulators, such as LambdaTest.

Lambda test page explaining features

While you might not be able to guarantee that your site is flawless on every device and platform, there are tools such as Google Analytics that allow users to find out which the gadgets and web browsers that your customers are using. You can then focus your attention in making your website for your preferred devices and platforms.

Are your websites mobile-friendly? functioning on the same number of mobile devices?

Check out the major purposes of your website

 system report

Be sure to plan your sale times along with coupons

There is a way to lessen stress and anxiety during the most hectic period of shopping by doing the most you can in the days leading up to it.

It's easy to make coupons and plan sales in advance. When you've figured out which products are suitable for sale, the timing of flash sales or special offers, as well as how prices may change in the time period, create coupons and back-end support system to ensure the effectiveness of sales. If you're giving something away with purchase, make sure you are able to provide the item.

Smart Coupons extension

It is crucial to highlight Black Friday bargains on your website.

Customers aren't eligible to profit from this offer in the case that they don't know about it. If they visit your site on their own or access it via email or ads paid for by you, it's essential for them to be aware of the offers you provide.

adding a sale notice to the bottom of the site

There are a variety of methods to accomplish this:

  • Use pop-ups to advertise the sales you have made. You can use them to announce your calls-to-action and buttons to direct people to your website.
  • Create a banner for your website to promote your sales.
  • Incorporate the "Black Friday Sale" menu item into the menu navigation on your website.
  • Place sale items in the right sidebar of the store's website.
  • Make sale icons visible on thumbnails of your items.

Create your customer support systems

While you may require additional staff to help the sales and customer service personnel throughout the days leading up the Black Friday Onboarding and training temporary workers is often difficult and lengthy. Other strategies can be employed to improve customer service aside of hiring temporary workers.

Three strategies for customer service are listed in this article to be used throughout the year.

Offer a variety of options to support your customers.

Alongside the phone number for support via direct line required to provide if you're able to offer the service, there's other options for clients to get answers to their queries.

  • FAQs, also known by the name of knowledge base. Help customers help themselves by providing easily available and simple to use queries, knowledge bases or other data.
  • Utilize a customer Contact website. Let people get to the customer service team via email through a contact form. Make use of the conditional logic when responding to the question form. Direct any queries from customers seeking customer service to the proper email address.
  • Find AI chatbots currently in operation.Filter out some of the most frequently-asked inquiries such as "How is shipping priced?" or "Do you provide delivery service in my city?" with the help of an AI chatbot. This AI chatbot will help save the support personnel of your customers and provide quick responses to even the most fundamental concerns

Utilize a customer tool for maintaining relations (CRM)

CRM software is a great tool for tracking your customer's interactions with you as well as help you in customer support issues. find new customers, and customers that are selling.

Jetpack CRM dashboard

Jetpack CRM is an incredibly slim and easy-to-use tool that can be connected directly to your dashboard. It is free of limitations on communication, and it's also among the cheapest CRM choices for shops that sell retail.

     Be sure that your customers service procedures and FAQs are up-to-date    

Review regularly the processes used to provide customer service, and make sure that they're up to date. There are certain policies or promotions that staff must be aware of for Black Friday and Cyber Monday Make a note of them and ensure your staff knows about the. Discussions with the team about a week before the beginning of Black Friday deals may help to ensure these guidelines are remembered for your employees.

If you've simplified the process of providing customer service to your clients as well as your staff however, it's still necessary to find employees who will aid you through the holiday season of Christmas. By boosting the effectiveness of your employees and reducing the quantity of seasonal workers you'll need to hire.

shopper browsing products on a phone

Are you ready for Advent retail season?

It's a must-have item to have Black Friday checklist may seem like a difficult task to prepare for a weekend that only is a couple of days long These tips should not be limited to just the one weekend.

If you've implemented these strategies, a few of the strategies and methods will help enhance your online presence each and each day. If you're able to keep track of the items on your list throughout the year, then you should not be required to perform things that are unusual when the date for Christmas draws nearer.

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