Even though so-called sales phenomena “Black Friday” and “Cyber Monday” have yet to reach the USA level in Europe, the holiday, which has become increasingly popular in Lithuania within the last decade, will bring along exceptional challenges this year.
Based on the data generated by “IntraResearch” survey, the global pandemic has deterred a third of Lithuanian residents from visiting physical market-places, while ever-changing restrictions might eliminate the opportunity to take a stroll in discount-adorned shops altogether.
Having in mind the altered buying habits, “Black Friday”, which once ruled the physical shops, is increasingly moving online to team up with “Cyber Monday” in a sales frenzy.
“Currently it is important for the buyer to feel satisfied with the entire process of shopping fever – from selecting and ordering a desired item, to unpacking it at home. And this means properly preparing an e-shop, making a smart use of the possibilities offered by online advertising, and dealing with the equally important last part of online shopping experience – trustworthy, fast, and high-quality shipment delivery.”
Justas, General Manager at Venipak
For this reason we want to hurry up and share several widely-discussed strategies for the largest sales of the year which will help you join a somewhat different sales rhythm, and we would also like to show you how to deal with logistics issues and focus on an active sales development during this stressful time.
- Holiday Positioning
- Online Sales Collection
- Early Discounts for Subscribers
- Strong Website Efficiency
- Optimized Mobile Version of Website
- Help with Item Cart Completion
- High Quality Item Delivery
Holiday Positioning
A research carried out by “Spinter” indicates that Lithuanians tend to start planning their Christmas gifts as early as three months in advance, especially when the advertisements start popping up.
Therefore, it is recommended to focus not only on the best-selling items, but also to actively position Christmas gifts during “Black Friday” and “Cyber Monday.” Using important keywords, highlight which item would be a great gift to a loved one. This is where special gift guides such as “gifts for him,” “gifts for her” and other gift sets – prepared in advance or listed on the website and easily accessible to buyers in an online search – come in handy.
Gift guides placed on the main website page, social media channels, or sent by e-mail will help you attract a greater flow of new buyers, whereas Facebook Pixel can be used to monitor sales results.
Online Sales Collection
Digital marketing platform Yotpo emphasizes yet another effective sales tactics – a category on your website created specifically for “Black Friday,” where social networks and targeted advertising will give you an opportunity to point the buyers directly to the offered sales.
Besides a wide range of goods and exceptional discounts, it is recommended to use several other unique offers when talking about “Black Friday” page category: a gift for an item cart of specific size, free shipping after purchasing two items or more, even special discounts valid for the entire month.
The latter will give you an advantage by dividing the buyer flow throughout a longer period, and will make your e-shop pop in “Google” search – after entering keywords “Black Friday sales,” the search engine will be more likely to index your collection page and bring it to the top of the results.
Early Discounts for Subscribers
E-mails are an integral part of online sales, according to marketing service provider Groove. So loyal and potential clients may be presented with oncoming offers of the largest sales without skipping a beat.
One of the most effective means to do that could be a short video material created with Animoto, Canva, Photoshop or another tool that you use, it could be a GIF, or another campaign introducing soon-to-be-valid offers. And as a special value for the newsletter subscribers – early discount coupons could be provided. This will allow you to inform your clients on what to expect from your brand, and gradually nurture their desire to shop for less.
By inviting to subscribe to e-mails and receive early offers, you will be already effectively expanding your contact list. Use e-mail marketing platforms such as Klaviyo or HubSpot, monitor buyers’ search behaviour, and insights. Having meticulously applied this to future e-mail campaigns, you will have an opportunity to turn one-time sales buyers into long-term clients.
Strong Website Efficiency
In 2019, the US market network giant Costco suffered a loss amounting to 11 M USD – only because the corporate website went down for 16 hours on the eve of “Black Friday.”
E-commerce agency Visiture recommends preparing for a far larger visitor flow and ensuring a strong efficiency of e-shop before the largest sales of the year. There are many programs measuring the efficiency of websites such as BlazeMeter, Gatling, JMeter, which will help you to self-assess whether your website will remain in operation and be easily accessible during the increased sales.
Optimized Mobile Version of Website
Smart-phone users amounted to 52 % of internet user flow worldwide in 2019 while the number increased up to 70 % during the coronavirus pandemic.
Users feel especially comfortable when searching for products and shopping on their smart-phones. So it is necessary to make sure in advance that your website is properly optimized for mobile search – this is an essential factor when preparing for the November sales frenzy.
Help with Item Cart Completion
Has the shopper left their item cart unfinished for one reason or another? This is a wonderful opportunity to personally offer item recommendations to a potential client.
E-mail tactics aimed at shoppers who have left their item carts unfinished are one of the most valuable in online market. E-mail marketing platform Klaviyo maintains that failure to get in touch with the shopper who could not manage to complete the purchase is equal to leaving your money on a table – nevertheless, almost 70 % of item carts are left unfinished in online shops.
Using the history of the unfinished cart, remind the clients about the items they have not purchased, and during special sales consider offering a small additional discount. This will help potential clients to make a final decision regarding the desirable item.
High Quality Item Delivery
The quality of item delivery during the largest sales of the year becomes an inseparable part of the client’s experience. So when the amount of ordered goods increases significantly, high quality and timely shipment delivery becomes as important as the attention to digital marketing.
How the buyer will evaluate the final experience in e-shop depends to a large extent on the variety of delivery means and the guaranteed speed. Thus you should ensure not only shipment delivery to special pick-up points and self-service terminals, but also the possibility to receive the shipments easily and conveniently directly at home.
In order to ensure friendly service, Venipak takes care of extremely flexible item delivery to your clients swiftly delivering the shipments to the buyers the next day after placing the order, and, should a client express the need, even after business hours and on Saturdays.
However, this is not the only way to ensure a high quality item delivery. By connecting to Venipak Fulfillment service, you will be awarded a unique opportunity to point your item supply directly to the courier’s warehouse. This way Venipak’s team will take care of a safe and unlimited storage of items for you and will accept each order precisely, package the item adequately or adorn it as a gift, and will deliver it on time to your buyer. You will be able to observe the entire automated process, item balances, and sales efficiency in real time in a specifically-designed system.
So when the stressful sales period hits you, be free to focus on the sales of goods that bring the best value to your business, and leave the tender logistics matters to us.
Ending Note
We hope that these seven “Black Friday” and “Cyber Monday” tips will be of help to you in consolidating your campaign results. Do not postpone the opportunity to make proper preparations for this exceptional period – the sooner you do so, the higher chance that the stressful sales period goes smoothly and profitably.
Need help with a quick and high quality delivery of goods? Shortage of storage space and lack of time for packaging? Get in touch with Venipak team and – leave your worries to us.
