7 tips to maximize sales for Black Week
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This guide gives you an overview of our customers’ preferred personalization strategies for Black Friday, so you can maximize sales during this year’s holiday shopping season.
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Plan to shop online during the Black Friday season
By Laura Bjerre Schwalbe
Reading Time: 3 minutes
Why Black Friday still matters
Is Black Friday still the biggest shopping day of the year?
Or are we officially entering the era of Black Week – or even Black Month throughout all of November?
In 2023, we are expecting very different challenges during the holiday shopping period compared to recent years.
Maybe you’re facing stock shortages due to supply chain issues?
Or stock overages due to inflation and changed shopping behavior?
Consumers are also growing increasingly sceptical of the Black Friday concept. Their expectations of great deals are increasing, and they are disappointed if they don’t find them. Especially during inflation when money is tighter than usual.
Does that mean Black Friday is doomed for the year of 2023?
Certainly not. But a choosier consumer makes it even
Four factors influencing buyers’ decisions during Black Friday
%
of customers are influenced by whether the company is offering free shipping.
%
of customers make purchase decisions based on "Promotions or limited sales".
%
of customers rely on an Easy-to-use website or app when they purchase on Black Friday.
%
of customers will choose the "Buy-online-pick-in-store-option" for Black Friday.
1
Merchandising:
Boost specific products & suppliers
Raptor’s Merchandising center is made for boosting specific products and
suppliers. And during the Black Friday season, it has many benefits:
Brand-specific campaigns: Want to create a platform for a specific supplier or brand in order to strengthen relationships? By boosting them in your recommendation modules, you can create brand specific- or vendor funded campaigns. When you make your website space available, you become a go-to choice when choosing an advertising venue.
Boost high-margin products: High-margin products tend to generate less
traffic than high-value products, meaning they will get less exposure in modules. You can change that in the Merchandising center.
Clear product from stock: Did the inventory crisis leave you with too much stock in wrong categories? Merchandising is a great way to place these products in the spotlight to help you sell out faster.
Learn how Carl Ras achieved an 82% increase in conversion rate with
Merchandising.
2
Personalize your ads in Paid Media
Your Black Friday Campaign needs to make every customer touchpoint count. Social media is a direct way to increase reach because you get to take the platforms already generating the most revenue and make them even more relevant with personalized content and product recommendations.
By integrating personalization in your preferred paid media channels, such as Facebook ads, Instagram ads, Twitter ads, etc., you take the best from your advertising activities and make the communication more relevant to customers who will receive many offers this week.
Instead of just communicating a generic “Black Friday” message, you can reach customers with personalized banners inspiring them with products they have previously clicked on.
3
Make sure to personalize your landingpage
The more relevant your landing pages are, the more likely it is to increase conversion rates. 40% of executives claim that personalization has directly impacted maximizing sales, basket size & profits in direct-to-consumer channels.
During Black Friday some of your visitors will be unknown, and some will be known. If you have preexisting data on your customers’ prior activities, such as purchases, clicks and visits, now is the time to activate this data.
How do I personalize my landing pages?
You can approach personalization of your website from various user touchpoints: device, the time of day they visit, most viewed items, prior purchases, and browsing history. Below you will find some personalization options to help you attract customers by creating unique content and product recommendations.
Frontpage
Make modules “Best Selling” and “Popular Products” dynamic by taking a shorter period of users’ activity, such as 500 or 1000 clicks into account.
A shorter period will catch microtrends happening each minute. A more extended period, such as the last 30 days, will give you a misguided idea of the most popular products on Black Friday.
Product pages
Use modules displaying similar products. If the user cannot find the specific product they are looking for, it’s your job to show alternative choices.
A visitor on your product page is a clear sign of interest, but it might not be quite the right match. By showing similar items, you might match the customer’s needs more accurately.
Product pages
Use modules displaying similar products. If the user cannot find the specific product they are looking for, it’s your job to show alternative choices.
A visitor on your product page is a clear sign of interest, but it might not be quite the right match. By showing similar items, you might match the customer’s needs more accurately.
Category pages
Use your category pages to urge the user to click on products. At this point, you have more customer data as you know which category the user has shown interest in from previous visits. Use this data to decide which products to display.
On category pages, you should display the best-selling products within the category. If you don’t have any data, you should display the most popular products, which still has an impact.
Basket pages
On the basket page, you have one last attempt to increase conversions, but be careful. You want to present customers with products related to the content of their basket and not confuse them with similar products that can demotivate their decision making or make them re-consider altogether.
Basket pages
On the basket page, you have one last attempt to increase conversions, but be careful. You want to present customers with products related to the content of their basket and not confuse them with similar products that can demotivate their decision making or make them re-consider altogether.
4
Personalized e-mails are a must during Black Week
Combining personalized landing pages and e-mails is a powerful and profitable setup that will first engage customers online. Second, initiate a long-lasting customer relationship with personalized e-mails sent regularly.
Many of your subscribers have already visited your website before Black Friday, which gives you a competitive angle when personalizing products and content for future visits.
Shoppers receive a lot of offers during the holiday shopping period, so choose your timing wisely.
Remember that 54% of consumers start their Black Friday shopping early – a number that is expected to grow in 2023. So, consider sending out your Black Friday offers earlier than usual to beat the competition.
How do I send personalized e-mails?
If you want to send personalized e-mails, you need to have a tracking script on your website to collect user behavior from your subscribers. With a tracking script set, you can use product recommendation modules in your e-mails tailored to each subscriber.
On average, we have seen an 18% improvement on click-through rates and 10% in conversion rates from our personalized e-mails.
You can still collect behavioral data even though a user hasn’t turned into a
subscriber yet. When they become part of your list, you have all the preexisting data you need to provide them with valuable e-mails suited to their interests.
Which e-mail module will likely convert the most?
Make sure to use the “Personalized Black Friday Offer”-module, which ensures that subscribers only receive relevant offers based on previous behavior in all their e-mails during Black Friday.
The module updates in real-time, which means it only takes the latest
interactions into account to create personalized recommendations for your customers. Immediately after an e-mail is opened, you will know which products should be presented. This way, you make sure not to display either out-of-stock or out-of-interest products.
The module can be adjusted, so it only displays products with a certain
percentage of discount, like 25% or more.
5
The psychological triggers for increased conversions in 2023
With the 2023 consumers holding on to their wallets longer, it’s important to know which tactics impact customers the most.
Low stock
Let them know your items are limited
Countdown
Give them a deadline for making a decision – your offer doesn’t stand forever
Free shipping & return
Offer something valuable that makes it “easy” for customers to purchase
Upsell & cross-sell
Make sure to present them with related items
Personalized e-mails (win-back)
Give them a chance to come back
Follow-up e-mails
Make it clear you are still around and ready for their next visit
Follow-up e-mails
Make it clear you are still around and ready for their next visit
4
Make the customer come back
During the Black Friday period, the competition is fierce. You need to sharpen all your marketing strategies to catch the consumer’s attention and choose your store. Most shoppers will compare prices on multiple sites to find the
best deal. If your customers visited your webshop without purchasing, don’t necessarily consider them lost, but rather as an opportunity for you to demonstrate your worth.
You can use the information you have gathered to send an e-mail with personalized content.
Abandoned basket:
The basket’s content is rich; however, the customer didn’t complete the purchase. Send them a helpful reminder with the products they never bought. You might even want to display similar products to increase the likelihood of upselling or cross-selling.
Win-back:
Your customer went away without purchasing. Send them a “We miss you” e-mail containing personalized offers.
Product Interest:
If a customer seemed interested in a specific product but didn’t end up purchasing, you could try giving them a discount for that particular item or by reminding them of their initial interest.
Follow-up e-mails:
Send a thank-you e-mail to customers who have purchased from your site to show your gratitude. A thank-you mail gives you a chance to cross sell by suggesting complementary products to their recent purchase.
Price Drop trigger:
The Price Drop trigger tracks users who have shown an interest in a product and lets them know when the price on the product drops. This trigger allows you to communicate valuable information to customers, even after Black Friday. How did Zizzi use Price Drop Trigger to increase conversion Rates with 8.37%?
5
Get the most out of your Black Friday data
It’s no secret that Black Friday is rarely a profitable event – so get the most out of the leads that enter your business.
Many brands make the mistake of using ad spend on drawing people in, but then they don’t do the work to make these leads into customers outside Black Friday.
A Customer Data Platform (CDP) helps you organize the oceans of priceless customer data that streams into your business during the busiest shopping season. It combines and matches IDs – suchs as e-mail addresses, cookie IDs, device IDs, user IDs, and token IDs – into a Single Customer View of each of your visitors.
This way, you can use your Black Friday data to create audiences for campaigns far beyond the holiday shopping season.
CDP lets you collect and connect all stitched data to create better insight into the choices and behavior of your customers. This is not only a nice-to-have but the path forward if you want to target potential customers in the future.
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Start your Black Week campaign today
Just like 2020 and 2021, your customer will be bombarded with offers and yellow sale signs. But she will only open her wallet for the very best offer. To make the cut, you need to carefully cater the products you serve her.
“Retailers will have to work hard to reassure shoppers on the credibility of their deals, and think even harder when it comes to their advertising strategy and engaging with an increasingly apathetic audience”, The Drum.
When the busiest shopping day of the year is put under pressure by inflation, you need to fight a little harder to convince. The way to do that is by creating customer experiences as relevant to the individual as possible, regardless of channel.
The balance of power has shifted to customers in a profound way, and personalization, as a result, has become a critical factor which will dictate the level of success in all your Black Friday efforts.
What you’ve just learned…
- Personalize every landing Page – make every visit count.
- Send personalized e-mails to keep your customers in the loop after Black Friday.
- Are you familiar with the box of psychological triggers? You should be. They work (even though you might think they don’t).
- Merchandising: Place selected products or suppliers in the spotlights to strengthen relationships to suppliers – or get rid of extra stock
- Cut through the noise and personalize any ads on social media – you want to be the “thumb stopping” moment.
- Retargeting: Remind the customer of “unfinished business”.
- Black Friday is a lead magnet. Make the most of your new-found customer data by organizing it in a CDP, building audiences, and activating them in future campaigns.