Every year, after celebrating Thanksgiving, Americans dive headfirst into preparation for the next holiday: Christmas. Over the last couple of decades especially, that has culminated in the massive sales extravaganza that is the modern Black Friday.
What used to be a single day when the term was coined in 1961, Black Friday is now more like a week. Sales these days span from Thanksgiving afternoon to Cyber Monday, and sometimes even longer with many retailers starting their holiday sales early.
If you sell anything at all, you can’t ignore this time of the year. Rather, you need to make the most of it so you can boost your sales for years to come. Here’s how you do it.
5 Reasons Why Black Friday Is So Important
But first, let’s cover a little context. If you’re reading this article, you know that Black Friday is a very busy sales day. That alone is a good reason to try to boost your sales on Black Friday. Yet there are some other reasons why Black Friday matters that are easier to miss.
1. Black Friday is the number one sales day of the year.
Black Friday is not just a busy sales day, it is the busiest sales day in the year. On average, Black Friday sales are nearly 8 times greater than any ordinary day. Statisticians believe that Black Friday sales could be greater than $90 billion this year for eCommerce alone.
Why not claim some of that money for yourself?
2. Shoppers spend tons of money on Black Friday.
Customers have spent more and more every year from 2009 to 2019 from Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday, with average spent per shopper being $1,047.83 in 2019. Even a pandemic and recession could not stop shoppers from spending in 2020.
So in summary, not only are a lot of people shopping, each individual shopper on average is spending a lot more.
3. Customer acquisition is easier on Black Friday than any other time of the year.
With 8 times as many shoppers as normal and shoppers spending four-digit sums in a few days, this is important to remember. If you’re looking to acquire new customers, and hopefully retain them for the long run, then Black Friday is the perfect chance.
4. Revenue generation potential is really high.
Not only do you have a chance to acquire tons of new customers, but you also have the perfect opportunity to pitch to existing ones too. All totalled, this gives you a once-a-year chance to make a lot of money really quickly.
5. Discounts are extra effective during Black Friday.
The whole idea behind Black Friday, at least in the eyes of the consumer, is to score some once-a-year deals. The vast majority of shoppers on Black Friday are looking for discounts. This gives you the perfect opportunity to reach out to customers who already have the intent to buy something with exactly the incentive they need to do so!
15 Tips to Boost Your Sales on Black Friday
Based on the reasons listed above demonstrating why Black Friday is important, you can see there are several different objectives that fall under the greater umbrella of “boosting sales.” They are:
- Acquiring new customers
- Giving existing customers a reason to buy
- Increasing the amount of money an average customer spends
In addition to that, you can also use Black Friday as a way to boost regular sales in the long run too. Here are some practical tips to help you do just that.
1. Start talking about Black Friday sales as early as possible.
There is no reason to wait until Black Friday to start talking about sales. Start hyping up the holidays as soon as possible. Get people to sign up to your mailing list early so you can notify them as soon as your sales go up.
This has a few benefits. It allows you to increase the overall reach of your holiday sales which helps you acquire more customers. It can also help you predict how much you will end up selling, avoiding inventory issues.
2. Don’t just run sales on Black Friday.
For that matter, you don’t have to wait until Black Friday to start running sales. Target, Walmart, Best Buy, Amazon, and many other major companies started running sales as early as October.
You also don’t have to end your deals as the sun sets on Friday. You can keep the same sale running all the way through Cyber Monday (or longer) to keep the customers rolling in.
3. Implement a generous returns policy.
As many as 66% of customers read your return policy before making a purchase. Another 80% of customers expect return shipping to be free.
Easy returns make customers less likely to abandon their shopping carts, which increases your return rate. There is even some evidence that longer return windows lead to fewer returns overall.
As Black Friday provides the best opportunity to acquire new customers, don’t give them any excuses not to make the purchase!
4. Provide free shipping whenever possible.
It’s said that implementing free shipping can increase your profits – not conversion rate – profits by as much as 15-30%. Why? Free shipping removes one of the most common reasons for shopping cart abandonment, giving you yet another easy way to acquire new customers.
5. Create landing pages specifically for Black Friday sales.
Customers start to look for Black Friday sales early. That means if you want to pick up Black Friday customers early, it helps to create a landing page and start collecting emails well in advance of the sales. It’s an easy way to capture organic search traffic and turn it into leads, and with any luck, sales.
6. Use discounts heavily.
From the customer’s perspective, Black Friday exists for one reason and one reason only: sales. While there are tons of customers shopping and many of them are spending a lot of money all at once, the flip side is that you need something really compelling to convince them to go to your store. Nothing does the trick quite like a hefty discount on a popular product.
7. Publish gift guides online.
Knowing what to buy for your loved ones for the holidays is something of an art form. That’s why so many stores publish gift guides online. These posts answer questions that people have, and can often turn searchers into shoppers, as those searchers likely already have purchase intent.
8. Use your mailing list as much as possible.
We’ve talked at length about how valuable email marketing is. For every dollar you spend on email marketing, you can expect to make between $36 and $44 back if you do it right.
Read our in-depth guide for more ideas on how you can use your mailing list to turn would-be shoppers into already-have shoppers and new customers into repeat customers.
9. Talk about your sales on social media.
A lot of people get their news through social media, and that includes news of Black Friday deals as well. Make sure you have a good social media marketing strategy in place to that you can effectively spread the word of your sales through your social media outlets of choice.
10. Use time-limited flash sales and hourly deals.
Part of the tricky part of generating sales over an increasingly long Black Friday sales period is keeping a sense of urgency. One popular way around that is to run an hourly sale.
This works best for high traffic stores, and the idea is simple. Every hour on Black Friday, you offer a really steep discount like 50% off of a popular brand or item. You swap out the homepage banner every hour and push people to take action before the precious minutes run out. You can also spread the word with social media too.
It requires a lot of coordination and effort to pull off, but if you run a big store, this could really work wonders for your bottom line.
11. Collect email addresses for later.
One of the best things about Black Friday sales is that you can acquire new customers who may come back and shop again later. That’s why it’s really important to try to collect email addresses from every new customer you can. That way, you can spread the word of deals in February, May, July, and beyond!
12. Reward loyal customers.
Don’t forget about your regulars! If you have long-time customers, you want to make sure you give them a reason to keep buying from you. Loyalty programs give you a chance to get special, customized incentives to customers so you can keep them coming back to your store.
Consider giving extra special Black Friday discounts to only your most loyal customers. You already know they like buying from you. Why not give them a reason to spend even more?
13. Put marketing inserts in the packages.
During the holidays, you have a unique chance to not only reach the shopper, but also gift recipients as well. That means any marketing inserts you add to the box, be they coupons, catalogs, fliers, or something else, are likely to be seen by a lot of people. This can go a long way toward making sure people remember your brand and your products when they might otherwise forget about you.
14. Use influencer marketing to your advantage.
Influencers are people who are popular on social media platforms who help companies sell products. By working with influencers on platforms like Instagram or TikTok, you can dramatically increase the reach of your holiday sales with minimal extra effort. This is especially true when people are already in the mood for shopping and who are looking for a good excuse to click “Buy.”
15. Use retargeting to sell to fence-sitters in December.
You won’t be able to convince everyone to buy something on Black Friday or even Cyber Monday. That’s where retargeting comes in. With sites like Facebook or Google, you can reach people who have already visited your website and show them another message. Sometimes it’s the second, third, fourth, or twenty-sixth reminder that finally gets people to make that purchase!
Final Thoughts
Black Friday is a great time to acquire new customers, increase average customer value, and overall improve your company’s profitability. By taking some time to create good discounts and make sure people know about them, you will be in a good position to take advantage of this unique time of the year.
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