5 Top Tips to Maximise Sales over Black Friday & Cyber Monday
The lead-up to Black Friday and Cyber Monday is a busy time for merchants. You need to make sure you have good strategies in place so you not only capitalise on the annual shopping frenzy but most importantly satisfy your customers and hopefully gain some new ones along the way!
1. Make sure your stock is accurate.
Black Friday and Cyber Monday are 2 days where you don’t want to run out of stock, or worse, have stock inaccuracies. If you do sell out of a product line, make sure your customers can clearly see that product has sold. After all, there is nothing worse for a customer than placing an order, only to receive an email stating that the item has sold out.
Remember - making sure your products are in stock not only increases sales, but it also increases customer satisfaction.
2. Create an Irresistible Offer.
As consumers flock online to score the best, most coveted bargains, you want to make sure your business has its best foot forward. Offering free delivery is usually an appreciated strategy but this weekend, offering free delivery solely, will more likely have your customers racing to a competitor than to your basket. This is the time to get creative!
Consider your customers, not your competition. Don’t risk spreading your resources too thin and instead, focus your efforts on your most popular products and go all out when promoting them - this way you are offering an irresistible offer that your customers will genuinely desire and will respond too.
This could be via a limited time only promotion - a flash sale for a small amount of your most popular products, or another route is to highlight ‘the get more if they spend more’ incentive - bundle your bestsellers together to get 4 for 3 for example, which is a great way to drive sales.
3. Promote your Promotions.
Having an irresistible offer is great, however if no-one knows you are offering discounts, how are you going to receive any sales? Why not utilise your existing customer database by sending out a promotional email?
Don’t forget to promote your sales on Facebook and Twitter as well linking the two!
Another good tactic is to make sure the promotion is displayed on your homepage via your feature panel, further highlighting your holiday offers to capture the customers that will visit your website directly. By doing so, your website visitors will be much more likely to make that vital purchase. Time specific offers generally work very well.
4. Advise on last postage dates.
It is your job to assure your customers that all the gifts will make it to them with plenty of time to spare.
If you haven't already, why not add the last dates your customers can order and receive their goods in time to your website? It is a brilliant way to help them make informed buying decisions by providing clear expectations. Check out the last posting dates here
5. Provide exceptional customer service
It goes without saying, that all online businesses should provide high standards of customer service, after all, without customers there is no business. With last years' frenzy, it was reported that 84% of cyber shoppers were dissatisfied with their online experience during this event - which has resulted in more cautious buyers this year.
Keep your customers smiling, by providing the best service. Make sure you are responding to customer queries promptly, up-selling as often as you can and if you can - exceed expectations by dispatching customer orders quicker than you detailed. By doing so, you will have impressed your customers into being loyal to you, and not your competitor.