6 Common Black Friday Mistakes to Avoid
As a new or established online retail business, it can be hard knowing what exactly to focus on when it comes to the monumental task of preparing for Black Friday/Cyber Monday.
Here are some of the most common Black Friday Mistakes to avoid.
1. Not launching or planning early enough.
You can’t wait until a day before the event to launch your campaign. The early bird catches the worm, as we all know. Launching too late may mean that your offers are ignored by customers.
It can be easy to become overwhelmed when it comes to Black Friday, especially if this is your first time participating as a merchant.
In an ideal world, you should start strategizing for Black Friday months in advance. Due to the effects of COVID-19, an event like Black Friday or Cyber Monday will likely extend over a longer period than in previous years.
Our tip: Don’t procrastinate and set aside a few hours to plan your Black Friday strategy ahead of time. We promise it’ll be worth it!
2. Only offering discounts.
It can be hard to compete with stores that are selling items at incredibly low prices. No merchant wants to lose money on a sale.
Many merchants forget that there are other exciting promotions available that are not simply discounts.
You could offer ‘Buy one, get one’ or a variation of this to get rid of older stock. Similarly, offering a free or discounted gift can promote sales for a new product when packaged with a popular product.
Other promotion ideas include free shipping, gifts with a purchase, or even a giveaway to build some buzz.
Our tip: Remember that customers may enjoy other kinds of deals! Check what your competitors are doing. It may be best to offer a promotion instead of a discount.
3. Not creating urgency.
It’s often overlooked that creating a feeling of scarcity (a low quantity of product available for a limited time) has a psychological impact on shoppers. If you see only one item left in stock, you may feel the urge to buy it. If your customers know that inventory is low or that time is minimal, they will act fast.
Your customers can’t read your mind and they don’t know your stock levels, so prompting them to buy low-stock items is a great idea. However, a little urgency can go a long way, so don’t use this trick all the time.
Our tip: Start subtly by reducing the time that an item is available, such as ‘on sale this week only.’ Play around with different periods of availability to find the perfect amount of ‘urgency’ that drives results.
4. Ignoring abandoned carts.
These days, it’s easy to find out information about your customers. It’s a reality of eCommerce that you’ll face many abandoned carts along the way.
It seems that lots of merchants ignore this information and don’t contact customers with abandoned carts again.
However, by sending personalized emails to your abandoned cart prospects, you may be able to push the sale back on track. Don’t miss out on future leads this way!
Our tip: Track your abandoned carts from day one to ensure you don’t miss out. It’s smart to give discounts to abandoned cart users to promote the sale.
5. Staying too quiet.
You may have nailed your Black Friday plan and avoided every other mistake, but it’s still important that you are communicating to your customers often and at the right time!
Now that your awesome Black Friday promotion is live, you need to tell your customers how great it is and avoid assuming that they will come looking for you.
Remember that your audience will receive hundreds of similar deals from competing businesses. However, there’s a fine line between being too quiet and sending an email every two hours with a sales pitch.
Our tip: Send targeted emails at set intervals. Your messaging should be thoughtful, and your offers should be enticing. You can also use all of your channels for similar communication, such as social media profiles and blog posts.
Conclusion
Now that you know what some of the mistakes are, you should probably focus on what you should do. Luckily, ShoppingFeeder has written a preparation guide for you already, which you can read here!
Remember to plan for Black Friday ahead of time, and you’ll be fine!
