How to Prepare for Black Friday and Cyber Monday

Black Friday and Cyber Monday are fast approaching and will take place on November 29^th and December 2^nd this year. These dates are the perfect opportunity for your company to make huge sales, as well as helping customers prepare for their Christmas shopping. Last year, Shopify sales alone seen over $9.3 billion over the 2023 Black Friday and Cyber Monday, and 2024’s is estimated to make even more. It is crucial that your business starts preparing early to ensure you make the most of this year’s sales.

What is the best way to prepare? There are many things you can do to prepare for this year’s sales, and we will go through our most useful tips in this blogpost…

Plan EARLY

Make sure you know exactly which items you will have discounts on, and how large your discounts will be far in advance in order to prepare both content and stock. If there is stock that you’re struggling to sell, it may be a good idea to put your highest discounts on these items to try and push them out as fast as possible. You may want to run your offers for longer than the weekend too, and if so, make sure you have enough stock to sell to avoid being out of stock fast (and leaving customers disappointed).

Use Historical Data

It is so important to start planning early, and using sales data from last year can help you. Compare your data to see what worked well and what didn’t and adjust your campaign to make sure you’re getting the most out of the two days this year. It can be helpful to see what competitors did last year and look at their strengths and weaknesses too. By using data, you can plan your campaign accordingly and avoid any past mistakes that have been made.

Ensure your Site is Performing Well

You want the purchase process to be as easy as possible for customers across the weekend, and site speed/ the checkout process needs to all run as fast and smoothly as possible to avoid losing sales. Your website may see a huge surge in customers, and therefore you need to ensure that your site is prepared for the traffic it may receive. Ensure your site SEO is up to scratch, your site runs fast, and your checkout is as easy as possible for customers to avoid abandoned carts.

Email Campaigns

Don’t neglect email campaigns this Black Friday weekend, as it is the most popular weekend to send out marketing campaigns. 116.5 million emails were sent last Black Friday, and it can be the easiest way to reach your regular customers and offer them your deals. Black Friday weekend has the highest number of clicks and opens for email campaigns compared to any other time and is the perfect opportunity to receive high ROI’s by offering exclusive discounts to your email customers. You can even start early with your email campaigns and send out teaser emails a month in advance to get the excitement and morale boosted around Black Friday.

Reward Loyal Customers

Having exclusive offers for loyal customers is the perfect way to thank your customers and build a sense of community with your audience. If you want to stand out compared to competitors this Black Friday weekend, make sure you’re giving back to your loyal customers, and ensure they continue to shop with you over competitors. You may not have as big deals as some major brands out there, but by offering special offers, you can show your customers you appreciate them and build a relationship with them.

Make Creative Campaigns

Black Friday doesn’t have to just be about deals, you can also get as creative as you wish with your campaigns. Make sure to plan your campaign far in advance, and if it is a success, you may want to run it for longer than a weekend.

You may even want to collab with another brand this Black Friday to make a fun and creative campaign that gets your audience talking. Use social media platforms such as TikTok to create fun and engaging content to support your campaign and try get as much reach as possible.

Shipping and Logistics

Worried about your shipping and logistics this Black Friday? Why not partner up with a 3PL provider and let them take care of all of your shipping and logistics needs. No matter how busy you get this Black Friday, your chosen 3PL can store, pick, pack and ship your orders to your customers fast!

With years of experience, here at GNOC there are no orders too big for us, and we can ensure your customers are all kept happy this Black Friday and Cyber Monday. All your orders will be carefully picked and sent out with our trusted couriers to ensure they’re with your customers as soon as possible.

By partnering with a trusted 3PL provider like GNOC, Black Friday weekend will feel like a breeze, and you can focus on other areas of your business during this busy period. Enquire with us here, to find out how to start your 3PL journey now.