Shoppers love a good deal, and there is no better time for those deals if not on Black Friday.

If you run an eCommerce business, the chances are that you’re already gearing up for the big frenzy.

Undoubtedly, there is no day like Black Friday, and it can be a stressful period for retailers looking to make money.

Like you already know, shoppers often plan out their mail trips to have a better edge. They come with their tents, sweaters, inverters and are ready to sleep in front of the mall for the sake of Black Friday.

In the same light, businesses need to prepare for Black Friday to keep up with the sudden surge in shoppers and traffic.

A little digital preparation can help your business make the most of Black Friday.

In that case, here is how to prepare your e-commerce business for Black Friday


1. Engage And Prepare Your Customers

Engage And Prepare Your Customers
If you already have an email list of customers or perhaps followers on your social handles, now is the time to prepare and engage them for the big day.

This means you need to buff up your marketing strategies and create a hype that instantly keeps your customers anticipating Black Friday offers.

You can also offer discounts, giveaways; to keep your customers engaged till D-day. If you must know a secret, retailers well in advance of Black Friday, and long after.

So, starting earlier will be to your advantage in making the best of Black Friday.

Monitor your competitors, and try to incorporate some of their tactics. Most of them often offer sneak peeks, pre-Black Friday sales, and Black Friday previews.

2. Site Speed And Checkout Process

Site Speed And Checkout Process
A slow website is a huge turn-off, so make sure this Black Friday is not the case. About 46% of shoppers have said that they can’t return to a slow website.

Aside from your website’s load speed, another thing you need to consider is the checkout process. Is there a glitch? Can customers quickly check out without issues?

Friday is a huge event, and millions of stores online and offline will be fighting for your target market.

By ensuring that everything on your website is functional and ready to go, you gain leverage. So, take a day or two to go through your website and fix some minor things.

To make it even easier for your customers, you can add more payment methods to your store. This might include bitcoin or even PayPal if you don’t already have it.

3. Automated Emails For Abandoned Carts

Automated Emails For Abandoned Carts
In 2014, there was a whopping 65% abandoned carts for shoppers on Black Friday. If you want to make a lot of money this coming Black Friday, you need to optimize your email chain.

One way to mitigate this issue is to set up abandoned carts emails. That way, you have a chance of selling by reminding your customers about their abandoned carts.

Furthermore, you need to make sure your store or website is mobile friendly. Smartphones account for over 44% of online traffic, which is incredible if you utilize this opportunity.

4. Optimize Your Products

Optimize Your Products
One of the free and most sought ways for traffic is organic – Google. However, there is work to be done if you must pull this off.

This entails knowing how to conduct keyword research and optimize your products to these target keywords.

When your website and products are well optimized for search engines, your target market wouldn’t have a problem discovering your store.

By doing some tweaking and optimization, you prepare your e-commerce business for Black Friday.

Many tools will help you run useful keyword research, and one of them is SEMRush. It is a robust tool that gives you details insight on keywords and even your competitors.

But if you can’t afford the plans, perhaps you can use a free tool like Google Keyword Planner. You can also use Google Suggest and Google Trends to get keyword ideas for your products.

Write a product description that sells. If you can’t, hire a professional freelance writer to help out. You can have our writers work for you by contacting us ASAP.

5. The Right Discount

The Right Discount
Black Friday an all about discounts, and you have to be creative and smart to make the day a success.



On this beautiful day, people are looking for at least a 20% discount on the items they buy. If you want to stand out, you can even offer a free tiny gift.

This strategy is often used to have the edge over your competitors, and it always works. By applying the right discount, you prepare your eCommerce business for Black Friday.

If you’ll offer a 20% discount to customers, who should you offer a 50% or 30% discount to? Well, the ideal audience would be your first-time customers.

When you offer your first-time buyers something great, they are most likely to return another day. Here are a few tips that will help with your Black Friday discounts.

Display Discounts On Homepage: This will help your store visitors to know your offers for Black Friday.
Add A Countdown: A countdown helps create urgency, thereby compelling your customers to take action as quickly as possible.

6. Utilize Social Media

Utilize Social Media
Almost everyone is on social media, making it the perfect avenue for your digital campaigns. The good thing is that running sponsored ads on these social media platforms is easy and cheap.

Facebook, for example, allows you to run day ads for as low as 1$ (#390 in Nigerian currency). The more engagement you get, the more likely people are going to make some orders.

To get the best result from your social media campaign, you need to optimize for the right audience. It wouldn’t make sense to target an audience that isn’t interested in your offers.

Thet will be wasted efforts, resources, and time. With Facebook, you can optimize your ads based on audiences’ interests, behavior, and even demographics.

If running adverts on social media sound like a complicated and complex endeavor, we can help you out for just a penny. Do contact us, so you don’t miss these Black Friday goodies.

Not only can these campaigns be run on Facebook, but Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn if you prefer.

The potentials that social media offers for business is astonishing, and you don’t want to miss it. Make sure you use a high-quality image for your ads and a short, catchy text.

7. Use Referral Programs

Use Referral Programs
Another way to prepare your e-commerce business for Black Friday is by using word of mouth. That means using a marketing strategy such as referral programs.

Many business owners think running a referral program is technical. It isn’t, for as long as you use a reliable referral software.

Through referral programs, you will convince your customers to recommend your products and services to their friends and families.

As you already know, people prefer recommendations from people they know, compared to traditional ads. If you can use this strategy during this coming Black Friday, you’ll make more money than you’ve ever made since you began doing business.

Referral programs always entail offering a sort of reward to your referrals. Since it’s a mutually beneficial program, your customers wouldn’t want to miss the opportunity.

It’s an incredible way to create awareness about your business, thereby bringing potential customers for Black Friday shopping.

8. Backup Everything

Backup Everything
Before you start your Black Friday sales, make sure your website and products are backed up. There are lots of tools, plugins, and software that will help you do that.

Remember, Black Friday is a day of heavy and overwhelming traffic. To make sure there are no errors or crashes, back up your website. If possible, upgrade your hosting plan for the best result.

Having a backup is like having insurance for your business. If anything wrong happens, you can easily revert without issues. Talk to your hosting company about backing up your website, or perhaps speak to your developer.

If you don’t have a developer, do contact us so our team of developers can help you get ready for Black Friday.

Conclusion

Black Friday is a big day for businesses, and there is a need to prepare your business for this shopping frenzy.

Without adequate preparation for this big event, you’ll find yourself losing out, which can be sad, especially when your competitors are overwhelmed with orders.

By implementing most of these tips, you’ll make mind-blowing figures this Black Friday. So, what other tips do you think will help your business prepare for Black Friday?

Source: www.bloghomies.com

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