Black Friday Strategies: 5 Tips On Driving Online Revenue

Believe it or not, it’s almost that time of year again and many online businesses are heading into their busiest season. In 2019, Black Friday online sales hit $7.4 billion, the second largest shopping day to date. Whether people are shopping on your website for gifts for themselves or unique gifts for wife, there’s virtually always a part of the experience that can be improved. To help you prepare your e-tail shop and optimize sales during this all-important holiday season, we’ve compiled our top 5 tips for driving online revenue.

1. Maximize Mobile Experience

For many people, their phone is their only computer. There are 3 billion people with smartphones and only 1.3 billion with computers. About half of web traffic comes from mobile devices. If your site isn’t mobile compatible, you’re missing out. Add to that the fact that people are busy and need the quickest route to finding gifts for grandma and for the kids. To make it easier for on-the-go shoppers, streamline the interface, include a top navigation menu and have a single page checkout.

2. Make Recommendations

Further improve customer experience and increase sales by offering recommendations. For best results, base product recommendations on the individual’s demographics, geo-location and shopping behaviors. This type of data helps funnel them into the inventory that is most likely to lead to sales conversion.

3. Cross-Sell & Up-Sell

Good merchandising is key to improving sales. When you cross-sell, you present consumers with additional products related to their original interest. If they’ve been browsing necklaces, show them earrings and bracelets. With up-selling, you want to encourage the shopper to buy an upgraded version of their initial product. If the customer is looking at a cell phone with 32GB of storage, suggest one with 64GB or 128GB. Both up-selling and cross-selling are important strategies for increasing sales, but you may want to prioritize one or the other based on your goals. If your target is to increase total sales, cross-selling is the way to go. If you’re mainly interested in upping the average order value, concentrate on up-selling.

4. Expand Email Marketing

Email may sound old-fashioned, but it’s unwise to discount the power of a mailer. Engage users and increase sales by building excitement and suspense around your Black Friday deals. Get started well in advance; fire off your first email in late September to early October. Send emails at different times and days of the week to gauge what gives the best results. To better fit your customers’ needs, use a marketing platform that tracks browsing behavior to further tailor your offerings.

5. Seize Abandoned Carts

People quit in the middle of shopping for many reasons, from wanting to price-compare to getting distracted by a social media ping. Many marketing platforms offer the ability to view abandoned carts so you can send customers a reminder about their discarded items. If they were wavering about whether or not to buy, a gentle nudge can help them decide. Note that you don’t have to discount the product; simply remind them.