Major sales events in the e-commerce industry are usually attached to significant holiday periods. Black Friday and Cyber Monday for example happen right after the Thanksgiving celebration in the United States.
The Cyber 5 holiday sales are a peak season starting from Thanksgiving shopping to Cyber Monday, two of which are Black Friday and Cyber Monday. These two major sales holidays recorded a whopping revenue of $8.92 billion for Black Friday and Cyber Monday hitting $10.69 billion in 2020.
Table Of Content
1. Introduction
2. What is BFCM?
3. The Black Friday Cyber Monday Sales Impact
4. How To Increase Sales During Black Friday Cyber Monday
– Start Your Sales Day Before The Major Days
– Offer Loyalty Reward During BFCM
– Promotional And Marketing Tools That Are In-Sync
– Prepare Your Sales Inventory
– Have A Order Fulfillment Schedule
– Have A Multichannel Sales Plan
5. Wrap
The enticing feeling about these sales events is that it is a win-win for both customers and online store owners. Out of every 10 online shoppers, about 6 are looking forward to a price slash or a sales discount so they can check out on their carts.
Naturally, customers will speedily check out their carts when they have a discount offer during the standard business time of the year. We can say then that the sales a retailer would record during events such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday will definitely be massive.
Putting the statistics of these giant holiday sales side by side, we can say each of them brings massive revenue digits to e-commerce stores each year with a promising index for the next year.
One thing this brings to mind as a store owner is to get yourself ready for the Black Friday and Cyber Monday holiday sales.
What is BFCM?
BFCM is one of the Cyber 5 holiday sales that run pre, post, and during the Thanksgiving holiday in the US.
Black Friday and Cyber Monday are the two giant sales days of Cyber 5. Black Friday sales begin right after Thanksgiving eve and Cyber Monday sales happen the Monday after Black Friday.
This is a season when people begin to find gift ideas they want to share with their loved ones during Christmas and end-of-the-year celebrations.
The significant part of this sales season is that most stores offer huge discounts on their products and also this is the time when they sell off dead stock or items that have been in the inventory all year. This kind of sale happens so that businesses can restock for the coming year.
The stipulated date for Black Friday Cyber Monday 2022 is November 25th to November 28th.
The Black Friday Cyber Monday Sales Impact
Most online shoppers tick their checklists of items during Black Friday and Cyber Monday. And these sales events bring retailers more customers to handle than they usually would in normal business periods.
What this implies for you as a store owner is that you need to prepare and create a marketing strategy that can help you gain the most out of these giant sales days.
Pollfish in their survey discovered that 56% of online shoppers in the US began holiday shopping before Thanksgiving weekend in 2021. Hence there is a prediction that BFCM for 2022 for retailers should begin early and might extend into the week after Cyber Monday.
Typical evidence that the BFCM sales record for 2022 will be massive is Amazon Prime Day on July 12 and 13. Amazon had prices slashed up to 50% and this strategy brought about a 16% increase in average value orders over 2021.
That means even the current inflation might not stop BFCM from doing great numbers. Customers might be skeptical about buying so much. However, Shopify’s assumption towards this peak season is that online sales are expected to grow in 2022.
Now you need to get your store ready with strategies and marketing tools in place to handle the new sales capacity you would get as a Shopify merchant.
How To Increase Cart Conversion Rates For Your Shopify Store
How To Increase Sales During Black Friday Cyber Monday
1. Start Your Sales Day Before The Major Days
Starting out with promotional activities earlier before the sales day gives retailers the advantage to boost their chances over their competitors.
Apparently, customers usually start their search game way before the sales day, they want to know what price or likely discount each store offers for the items they want to get.
Thanksgiving shopping for adults in the US began days before the BFCM periods with 28% starting to shop for gifts and other items in October which is way before the Cyber 5 sales event in November.
This will help online buyers know where to find major deals for their products especially if those items will be on sale on the hot days of the season.
2. Offer Loyalty Reward During BFCM
Giving customers this loyalty reward that can be redeemed post-holiday sales can help retailers retain most of their first-timers during BFCM sales.
As a Shopify merchant, your sales target should not be limited to the landmarks you are able to hit during the hot sales season but how many of those first-time customers you can retain and convert to returning buyers.
Every inch of marketing activities you build towards BFCM would leave an impact on your store’s growth and revenue post-BFCM considering the fact that this year BFCM will extend beyond the usual “one-weekend deal”.
3. Promotional And Marketing Tools That Are In-Sync
Marketing tools such as cart timers, countdown timers, sold count, cart upsell, and pop-ups, to mention a few should be at the center of your strategy. Let’s say, you are putting to use every sales conversion tip you can.
Creating sales urgency during times like this using timers helps you influence customers’ purchase decisions and also gives them a pointer that “this discount is not running forever”.
Part of your marketing strategy also is to create sales ads that can convert customers. These sales ads are ways to communicate awareness for your products and the offers you will be giving during this peak sales season.
4. Prepare Your Sales Inventory
There is a forecast for a rise in peak season sales this year by 15.5% in 2022. This implies that you need to plan your inventory on products you want to push for BFCM.
To prepare your inventory for this season, you can forecast demand on probable products that will be most demanded during peak season based on your popular and fast-selling products for your store. This will help you plan how to handle the supply chain especially when you rely on a supply source
This is also a time to clear off dead stock from your inventory attaching moderate discounts to each category of product.
5. Have A Order Fulfillment Schedule
Considering that sales during peak season outnumber the normal sales calendar, you have to plan on how to fulfill your orders. Your order fulfillment process during peak season might have an impact on post-holiday sales in terms of retaining customers gained from the sales event.
You do not want to give your first-time customers a bad first impression. This is why you might need to restrategize your shipping procedure. Customers are drawn to stores that are swift with their order fulfillment process.
This way you can give your customers the best customer experience while increasing your average order value.
Order Management For E-commerce Shopify Store
6. Have A Multichannel Sales Plan
Multichannel marketing is an e-commerce practice where store merchants engage their customers via different marketing channels. Usually, they combine both physical outlet sales and online stores to reach customers.
The 2020 pandemic had physical stores try to reduce the number of customers they had in their physical outlets hence, they strategized a way of having some major offers online to attract buyers to the online sales channels.
This doubled up their sales revenue as customers engaged in online buying massively.
Wrap
Shopify is preparing its merchants for this peak season of sales so that you can get yourself the best deals and stable customers, especially for small and medium stores. One of the ways to get your portion of the sales to be recorded in this year’s BFCM includes integrating the marketing apps that can facilitate your strategy for this sales holiday.
