Tackling Black Friday: How can Retailers Embrace the Opportunities?

When is Black Friday? Black Friday is now under one month away – 25 November to be exact. Considered the biggest day of online spending the world has ever seen, retailers need to be prepared for the surge in demand.

How much consumers will spend will be determined by several factors and retailers need to consider their strategies and tactics to acquire a part of the pie.

Considerations – Shoppers will spend 47% of their budget online

Is Black Friday losing steam? There is recent speculation that for many shoppers the excitement of standing in long lines and sometimes fighting off other shoppers for the best deals is wearing off, with 31% of US shoppers admitting to disliking shopping on Black Friday. In order to quash the potential risk of not achieving revenue targets, traditional retailers are looking to improve their online sales. This is backed up by Deloitte’s study that in the build-up to the holidays, shoppers will spend nearly half (47%) of their budget online.

To support the increased demand from shoppers, retailers need to ensure they have the functionality and strategies in place in the run-up to Black Friday.

Building Engagement – Are your marketing campaigns tailored and targeted?

Black Friday is all about getting the best deals and in preparation for 25 November, retailers should consider offering deals which entice consumers to purchase on the day.

Launching marketing campaigns and promotions in the build up is essential, and on the day these incentives become a great way to increase revenue and win new loyal consumers. Offers could include:

• 10% discount on next purchase after Black Friday
• Discount for return purchase if you review Black Friday purchases
• Free delivery on any order over $20 for the week after Black Friday

Is Black Friday More than One Day?

While Black Friday might traditionally be one day, retailers can outdo the competition by launching their offers beforehand.

Why not have a week of offers? Tempt your customers to purchase your products without the rush of it only being available on one day. You could create your own event before anyone else launches their Black Friday offers, so why not launch Grey Week? Start hitting those revenue targets before your competitors, as well as promoting offers for 25 November to keep customers returning afterwards.

Supporting the Demand – Can your platform support the traffic?

With such a high volume of shoppers expected to be online during Black Friday (and Cyber Monday too), it is essential to have an infrastructure which can support the number of visitors on the site. It is also vital to have a platform which can cope with processing the high volume of transactions. This is in light of US eCommerce sales reaching $2.72 Billion on Black Friday 2015 – and this is set to increase for 2016.

Gathering Audience Insight – Are you able to collect audience information?

Visitors to your site offer you the opportunity to gather a plethora of information, providing exclusive insight into their interests, viewing and purchasing habits and engagement with the service. Considering how many visitors will be online this Black Friday, with 39%of US shoppers planning to shop online on Black Friday,no retailer can afford to miss out on collecting this information.

Key audience insight available this Black Friday can include:

• Most popular type of products
• Most visited pages
• The device visitors are using
• At what part in the payment journey do they exit
• Most common payment method
• Where the visitor comes from, e.g. organic or social
• The region/country most visitors come from

Complete Existing Strategies – Are you ready to build recurring revenues?

Regardless of the type of retail business you are, the way customers purchase products is changing dramatically.

To capitalize on this, retailers are considering how they can generate recurring revenues and looking to other industries who have recognised the opportunity in subscriptions. For all types of retail, a subscription model enables an organization to complement existing sales channels, increase revenue and improve customer engagement. The Honest Company for example, is valued at $1.4 Billion, with 80% of sales coming from its subscription plans.

This is where MPP Global’s eSuite comes in – an advanced eCommerce platform to manage the complete customer lifecycle to ensure you can maximize conversions, retain existing custom and increase average spend.

Get in touch with our retail specialists for a quick chat on how to generate and grow recurring revenues.