Black Friday and Cyber Monday: two days that hold so much meaning for online sellers. They represent two of the biggest buying days in the calendar year, and a golden opportunity to really boost sales and visibility. But do you know how to make the most out of them? Read on to learn some useful strategies from RepricerExpress.
Black Friday
Black Friday is sort of like Easter in that it doesn’t fall on the same date each year. It’s always the day after American Thanksgiving, which itself is always the fourth Thursday of November. This year, Black Friday will take place on 25 November.
It got its name from shops gearing up to move from the ‘red’ to the ‘black’ and for 84 years now, it’s signalled the start of the Christmas shopping season. Even as the economy went up and down, Black Friday was still a constant with billions being spent.
Cyber Monday
Cyber Monday is, by far, the newest addition to the holiday shopping calendar. It only came around in 2005 when sellers started noticing a spike on Mondays from consumers who either didn’t want to bother with the crowds or didn’t have the time to go shopping. It didn’t take long before merchants twigged onto this new ‘holiday’ and started gearing sales just for it.
But despite the two days having different start times, there’s still a lot more that sets them apart.
Pricing v. Brand
Apart from loyalty or experience, shoppers buy based on either price or brand name. When it comes to the cost, merchants would do well to heavily advertise their promotions and specials on Cyber Monday when the majority of shoppers favour that over a brand. It’s also not quite a two-way relationship, as the same can’t be 100% said with Black Friday and brand names.
Location of Store
As we mentioned above, Cyber Monday got its start with shoppers who didn’t pick up items on Black Friday because they couldn’t or wouldn’t, so you’ll see more consumers buying things online on Cyber Monday. The opposite is very much true for Black Friday: people turn out in droves at brick-and-mortar stores, with store openings going as early as the afternoon before (not to mention the stampedes and near-riots).
Demographics
There isn’t a huge difference in genders here, but you might notice women shopping more on Cyber Monday rather than on Black Friday. But if you look at age and living conditions, that’s when you’ll notice some differences. Black Friday usually attracts more of the younger, under-24 crowd, and they tend to live at home and work either low-wage jobs or none at all. Cyber Monday shoppers tend to be above 30, with well-paying jobs and independent living situations.
Some Marketing Tips and Tricks You Should Use
We’ll always advocate trying to gear up for as many shopping holidays as you can manage, as that tends to lead to increased profit, better name/brand recognition, and long-term stability. But if you could only pick one, gun to our head, we’d have to give the edge to Cyber Monday because of its stronger association to online shopping. Regardless of which one — or both — you decide to market for, here’s what you should be practising:
- Free Shipping: We’re fans of offering free shipping as a way to woo more buyers, but these two holidays are strong cases for when you should just offer it, full stop. You’ll be dealing with an influx of buyers, giving them the upper hand in supply-and-demand, and you’ll have to make yourself as attractive as possible. Even just a single-digit increase in buyers can mean massive sales for you.
- New Customers: However, having said what we just did in the previous point, this is not a time you should be focusing on trying to build your customer base. While you probably will get new shoppers, it’s far likelier you’ll see more spending from the old shoppers — so reward them for their loyalty.
- Deals: There are a couple of neat things you can do. One is to spice up your landing page by featuring several on-sale items instead of just one or two. Another is to showcase the savings buyers will get with you as compared with other retailers.
- Site Use: Perhaps the most important point is to keep testing every aspect of your site to make sure it’s stable and easy to use, otherwise it’d be the equivalent of back in the day of taping your kid’s first recital — and realising there was no tape in the recorder. The last thing you’d want is to lose out on so many sales because your site is slow or unusable, as buyers simply will not wait around for it to load properly.
Final Thoughts
If everything goes according to plan, then you’ll have your hands full making sure everything runs as smoothly as possible. One area in which you won’t want to worry is making sure you’ve got the best prices out there. And for that, RepricerExpress is unbeatable. Hey, we’ll also make the first 15 days free when you sign up so you can start using it right away and cash in on Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals at maximum profit.
