Black Friday 2024: E-Commerce Checklist to Boost Your Sales

Black Friday is almost near, and everyone is holding back from shopping until the event arrives. That’s because Canadian shoppers await this event to buy items at huge discounts. It’s a very crucial time for ecommerce stores since during this time, all the brands resort to discounts. That’s because customers have more options during this time than ever, meaning the competition is at an all-time high. Black Friday is an unofficial start of the holiday shopping season and has a major impact on consumer spending patterns. The large discounts offered on Black Friday attract fierce competition among store owners. That’s why online retailers need to be prepared with their strategies to make the most out of this event. If you also want to achieve something big this black Friday, be prepared with the checklist given in this blog post.

Why is Black Friday important to businesses?

Black Friday is the busiest shopping day of the year, with millions of people participating in both in-store and online shopping. According to recent data from Statista, around 134 million people are projected to shop online this Black Friday in 2024, with a significant portion of consumers (around 64%) planning to make their purchases online. 

Black Friday is more than just a single day.

According to Google, the search queries for Black Friday start as early as October, almost four weeks prior to the actual day, and it further trails for weeks afterward. A shopper’s path to making a purchase is highly complex, but at the same time, it tells a lot about customers’ behaviour and the choices they make online. Brands can leverage this information to capture this wide spectrum of interaction and maintain their presence across the purchase journey of a consumer. 

To make it smoother, let’s divide Black Friday into 3 phases, so you don’t miss out on preparing for any aspect:

Here are three major phases that form during this big shopping event:

The Build Up

People start looking out for Black Friday deals in early October, which is now, so it’s better you start preparing for this stage as soon as possible. It’s worth noting that during this stage, customers are not tied to any specific brand or product and are open to suggestions and recommendations. This means you should start hyper-targeting your audience here and influence their perception of your brand or its products/services. 

1. During this period, search interests rise by 26%, especially for tech products.
2. The categories that are searched the most fall into a higher price point.
3. Queries are mostly generic rather than brand-focused. For example, “straightener” would have more search volume than “Dyson.”
4. At this stage, people start planning their bulk purchases. 

The Craze: Black Friday is here

During the two weeks leading up to and including the event, people are done with the research. This is the time when they actively start searching for specific brands and products. By this time, interest shifts toward the items that do not require much research. This is where brand familiarity plays a crucial role. If you do well in the stage earlier to this one, people might start searching for your brand or its products/services in this stage.

Here are some characteristics of this phase:

1. There is a sharp rise in searches for retailers. This is mainly driven by coupons and rebates.
2. Almost 55% of searches are based on finding any particular product.
3. People start searching for reviews, particularly on YouTube.

At this stage, marketers should optimize the consumer’s transactional experience and ensure they are clearly communicating their offers and rebates. 

The Last Call

During the last stage, consumers start looking for last-minute offers. This stage comes two weeks after Black Friday. The searches are mainly geared towards gifts and games. That’s because black Friday leads up to the holiday shopping season. 

In this stage, we recommend marketers offer extended deals. 

Black Friday Checklist

Pre-Black Friday (Weeks 1-4)

Weeks beforehand, the countdown to Black Friday is set. Brands set sales targets and goals, like achieving 20% more than last year’s Black Friday. 

Businesses determine what items are going to be discounted from trendy electronics.

The next step is to plan the marketing campaign, which will include social media advertisements targeting particular customers based on products they are showing interest in buying from sellers offering reduced prices. 

Here is what you need to do at this time:

Test your website and prepare it for a traffic spike

Focus on improving your website’s technical aspects. If your website traffic is 2000 per month, during black friday, it can go upto 10,000. So, make sure your website is capable of handling the traffic spike without slowing down. You can check its performance on  GTMetrix and WebPageTest. 

Make sure your website is optimized for mobile users.

Mobile is a major channel for Black Friday sales. Last year, mobile sales made up 48% of all Black Friday sales. Ensure your site has easy navigation, smooth pop-ups, a responsive design, and mobile-friendly payment options. 

Design an easy checkout process.

Most Black Friday purchase decisions are impulsive, and you can easily capitalize on this aspect. One crucial way to do it is by making the checkout process smooth. A lengthy, cluttered, and heavy checkout can increase the cart abandonment rate. You can also offer a guest checkout process for first-time shoppers. 

Optimize the product pages.

During this highly intensive season, you cannot afford to take a chance with poor product pages. Make sure all the pages are well optimized, descriptions are clear and concise, and the key features of your products are very well highlighted. You can do this by using badges like ‘Black Friday Deal.’

Plan to offer live chat.

You can significantly reduce the abandonment rate during the Black Friday sales by offering the live chat feature. This way, you can handle multiple queries, which may be harder with the phone support. This will allow the customers to get their issues and queries addressed while they are shopping simultaneously.

Plan to offer gift guides.

During Black Friday, customers are often flooded with irresistible offers, which can lead to confusion. To deal with this, you can curate a gift guide to help customers locate gifts quickly. Gift guides are highly useful during Black Friday sales because the event falls right before the holidays, and many people are keenly searching for gifts. By offering them a pre-selected option, you can quickly draw their attention.

Plan to launch a referral program. 

Integrate the referral programs to offer your customers incentives to appeal to your users. This can significantly help your customers spread the word about your brand. Moreover, customers are more likely to trust recommendations from friends and family than generic marketing messages. This leads to higher conversion rates for referred leads. 

Black Friday Week (Nov 21-27)

Black Friday shopping usually starts with a pre-sale. Stores send emails to their best customers to give them a sneak peek at the deals before everyone else. They also post about the sales on social media to get people excited.

On Black Friday morning, stores open early and have really big discounts on popular items. They make sure their website can handle all the people who want to shop online so that everyone has a good experience.

For example, a toy store might have a huge sale on popular toys at 6:00 AM on Black Friday. They’ll also make sure their website is ready for a lot of people to visit at once.

Here are a few aspects you have to look at during this time:

Offer easy returns 

Shoppers are more likely to buy more if brands offer them assurance that products can be returned if they turn out to be poor quality. You should also extend your return window. Marketers agree on the face that proactively offering easy returns helps better manage the expected increase in return volume during Black Friday and avoid customer frustration. 

Check your inventory levels. 

Overselling is a common issue during Black Friday sales. That’s why you need to keep a proper check on your inventory levels. You can use demand forecasting to make decisions about the inventory numbers and maintain a proper balance of products that sell quickly along with those that don’t. 

Black Friday Weekend (Nov 24-27)

Even after the weekend starts, stores don’t stop offering great deals. They use social media (like Twitter) to remind people about the sales and share positive feedback from happy customers. Emails also help keep people informed about the limited time left to buy these deals.

Example: A clothing store might extend its sale on electronics until Saturday and only show special, limited items on social media.

Cyber Monday (Nov 27)

On Cyber Monday, stores often have special online-only offers, like 50% off everything sold online. They continue to promote these online deals and keep people engaged on social media. For example, an online store might show products that are only available on their website.

Post-Black Friday (Nov 28-Dec 24)

After Black Friday, companies examine their sales numbers to determine what sold well and what could be improved. They plan holiday promotions based on popular gift ideas and special packages. Selling items that were popular during Black Friday can help keep sales going.

Example: A store might order more toys and games if they sold well during Black Friday.

Important things for businesses: During the Black Friday weekend, stores need to have enough staff to help customers and ensure their online security is strong to prevent hackers. They also need to work with good shipping companies to ensure orders are delivered on time.

By doing all these things, businesses can ensure their Black Friday sales are successful.

Why you need a Black Friday checklist

Don’t Let Black Friday Chaos Get the Best of You!

Black Friday is like a marathon for online stores. You gotta be ready to crush it! A checklist helps you in

1. Staying Organized: With a checklist by your side, you can easily keep track of all the tasks you need to do.
2. Boosting Sales: A checklist ensures you’re ready for the shopping frenzy.
3. Beat the Competition: You can easily concentrate on your strategy and outsmart your rivals with a solid plan.
4. Keep Customers Happy: By preparing a checklist, you can ensure a smooth shopping experience.
5. Save Your Sanity: Reduces the stress and helps you stay focused.

What to Include in Your Checklist?

Here are some important things that will make up your checklist.

1. Marketing efforts you need to employ, such as ads, emails, and social media.
2. Inventory management (stock up, restock, etc.)
3. Website optimization aspects like speed, security, etc.
4. Customer support (answer questions, resolve issues)
5. Analytics to track sales, website traffic, etc.

Without a checklist, you might:

1. Forget crucial tasks.
2. Miss sales opportunities.
3. Lose customers to competitors.
4. End up stressed and overwhelmed.

So, Get Ready to Rock Black Friday!

Some “Don’ts” to keep in mind during Black Friday

Black Friday strategy is very vast and includes many aspects from marketing and promotion, customer experience, to inventory management. We discussed what to do throughout this blog post, let’s take a look at some “Don’ts” as well.

In Marketing and Advertising:

1. Don’t spam customers with excessive emails.
2. Avoid misleading or deceptive advertising.
3. Don’t promise unrealistic discounts or promotions.
4. Refrain from using high-pressure sales tactics.

If we talk about pricing and discounts:

1. Don’t inflate prices before Black Friday to make discounts appear deeper.
2. Avoid price gouging or unfair pricing practices.
3. Don’t hide additional fees or charges.
4. Refrain from bait-and-switch tactics.

Coming to the inventory and shipping:

1. Don’t oversell products you don’t have in stock.
2. Avoid delayed or unclear shipping information.
3. Don’t cancel orders without notification.
4. Refrain from inadequate product descriptions.

Customer Experience:

1. Don’t neglect customer support or ignore inquiries.
2. Avoid long wait times or unresponsive customer service.
3. Don’t compromise website security or customer data.
4. Refrain from poor communication or unhelpful responses.

Website and Technical:

1. Don’t neglect website maintenance or updates.
2. Avoid slow website load times or crashes.
3. Don’t ignore mobile optimization.
4. Refrain from inadequate payment processing options.

Social Media:

1. Don’t spread misinformation or false promotions.
2. Avoid ignoring customer complaints or concerns.
3. Don’t post insensitive or off-brand content.
4. Refrain from over-posting or spamming.

Employee Management:

1. Don’t overwork or under-staff employees.
2. Avoid inadequate training or support.
3. Don’t neglect employee well-being or safety.
4. Refrain from poor communication or unclear expectations.

Post-Black Friday:

1. Don’t forget to analyze sales data and customer feedback.
2. Avoid neglecting post-sale customer support.
3. Don’t miss opportunities for follow-up marketing.
4. Refrain from complacency – plan for future sales events.

By avoiding these common pitfalls, you can ensure a successful and stress-free Black Friday event.

Wrapping Up

Black Friday is full of opportunities for e-commerce businesses. If you’re also planning to capitalize on this big shopping event, consult Kinex Media now. We are expert developers,  marketers, and strategists who can help you with design tweaking, custom checkout, create a full-fledged BFCM plan. Your first consultation is free. Let’s talk!