Black Friday 2021 – how to prepare your online store for the promotion?

Black Friday is the day of the year for which every enthusiast of shopping at attractive prices has been waiting for. It is also a hot period for the e-commerce industry starting the pre-Christmas shopping spree. That is why we have prepared a handful of information and tips on how to prepare your online store for Black Friday.

How to prepare your store for Black Friday 2021?

In previous years, Black Friday was a typically stationary holiday drawing crowds of shoppers to shopping malls. However, 2020 was a breakthrough year for e-commerce as a whole, with Black Friday moving almost entirely online. Certainly this year will also witness a significant amount of transactions going online. The pandemic and the related restrictions have accustomed consumers to buy even electronics and household appliances online, and have shown that you should not be afraid of returns or complaints.

Unfortunately, during Black Week you may notice several times more website traffic, which may not translate into an increase in orders. This is because consumers browse through many offers and reviews of stores before they decide to make a purchase. Therefore, you should do your best to make sure that everything is running properly before the planned promotion.

Black Friday 2021 – Your offer must be visible

You must make sure to promote your offer. Don’t wait until the very end to announce a discount or other Black Friday offer. Let your customers know in advance (e.g. in social media) that the promotion has already started. Many stores start not only the promotional activities, but also the sale as soon as November 2. In addition to Black Friday, companies also organize Black Weekend, Black Week, and Cyber Monday.

Let them know about the special offer on the store’s website. Use a promotional banner, for example, to make the offer stand out on your website. Include only the most important elements, such as the discount code, the discount value, and the duration of this special offer. It is also worth thinking about paid solutions, such as Google Ads campaigns. Remember, of course, that the choice of channels to reach potential customers depends on your target audience.

You can include a newsletter in your Black Friday marketing strategy and use it to inform your customers about the special offer. You can send an email with a discount code on Black Friday or the day before, and in this way you can be the first to inform your subscribers and regular buyers.

Think about the offer as well. Here a lot can depend on your business and industry. Think what price reduction you can offer to ensure that the profitability of sales is still favorable. Very often sellers also decide to offer free delivery, which the buyers do not miss. Try to stand out from the competition with an uncommon offer, as potential customers will also get suggestions from other stores in your industry.

You can also opt for a separate promotion for regular customers from your loyalty program.

Website optimization

Black Friday this year falls on November 26, so there is little time left to take care of better search engine rankings for your website. As you probably know, the SEO efforts are a time-consuming process. However, you can optimize your store’s website for the customer experience.

Product descriptions are very important (not only during Black Friday). To make sure the description encourages purchase, focus on who the viewer is. Write about the benefits the customer will receive and show them what makes your product different. In the description, try to include keywords as well. Pay attention to make your description language simple and correct.

It is definitely worth taking care of server bandwidth as well. Sometimes it may also be reasonable to increase its capacity. Online stores are overwhelmed during sales, and overloaded servers can quickly discourage a potential customer. Therefore, make sure that this does not happen. It is better to have your IT department on standby in case there are errors on the website.

The loading speed of your website is another aspect that is worth paying attention to. Customers do not like to wait. If you provide them with a long-loading page, they will certainly not even look at your offer, not to mention making a purchase. To avoid this, conduct a page speed test on e.g. PageSpeed Insight, and then follow the tool’s recommendations.

Don’t forget to check how your store works on smartphones and tablets. In addition to responsiveness, visible buttons with a clear message are an important element, as well as intuitiveness. Don’t hide important options deep in the menu. Take care of secure payments as well.

Logistics and customer service

During Black Friday, you need to make sure that you have enough products. Therefore, check your stock and verify the delivery time of your purchased products to your customers. If you know that the delivery time may be extended due to the number of orders, let them know on your store site.

Of course, customer service is another factor that influences the customer’s decision and whether they will return to you in the future. Therefore, you should make sure that the service runs smoothly. That is why it’s a good idea to partially automate it by adding a chatbot option on the website or Messenger. This way, you will not have to engage the service department to answer the simplest questions that can be answered by a bot.

Black Friday is a good time to increase reviews of your products. Before customers start besieging your store, create your account in Rating Captain in order to send out invitations for product ratings right away and respond to all reviews from one place. You can also display ratings along with customer reviews next to your products, which will increase the chance of sales.