Are you planing a sale for Black Friday or Cyber Monday
The madness of Black Friday and Cyber Monday is just around the corner, and if you’ve spent any time on Instagram or in certain Facebook groups recently, you might have seen a lot of businesses speaking about what they’re doing or looking for ideas.
We’ve already said it before, but to reiterate, you don’t need to slash your prices and offer your biggest sale ever over the Black Friday / Cyber Monday sales.
There’s no doubt that Q4 is the biggest shopping quarter of the year, and this year it’s predicted to be bigger than ever as much of the country exits lockdowns.
Spending in Q4 is expected to exceed $55 billion in retail sales, $11 billion of that is expected to go towards Christmas gifts.
Not only is it going to be a busy time of year, the vibe is high and people are looking forward to Christmas - this is a brilliant time to join in on the fun, get festive and increase your sales.
WHAT CAN YOU DO INSTEAD OF GOING ON SALE?
There is so much you can do outside of the usual ‘all prices slashed’ sale, here’s a list of some of our favourites.
Free gift with purchase. This could be a lower priced item you have on hand you need to clear or you could partner with another brand that shares a similar target audience with you to create the promotion.
Free shipping or shipping upgrades. Sometimes free shipping is enough to get people over the line to make their first purchase with you. Or you could upgrade all orders to express shipping. Given Black Friday / Cyber Monday fall on the last weekend of November this would guarantee quick delivery in the lead up to Christmas
First item at full price, discount off the second item. Allow your customers the opportunity to snag a second item at a discounted price that they otherwise might not have been able to buy whilst increasing your AOV (average order value) for that period
Donate a portion of your sales to your favourite charity or organisation. Use this opportunity to support one of your favourite charities or not for profits by donating a portion of your sales to them, a great way to bring awareness to these great causes.
Seasonal Collection Discount (ie: Winter stock only). Move along leftover stock from previous seasons that you won’t be restocking by discounting these items only - clear through old stock and free up warehouse space ready for your new collection.
Product Bundles. Bring items together that you would normally sell individually into a bundle, for example: t-shirt, shorts and a cap - individually these items might retail for a total of $150, however you could offer the bundle at $120.
Tiered Offer (eg: Spend $100 get $15 off. Spend $300 get $50 off) Reward people for spending more by slightly increasing the discount the more that they spend.
Free Gift wrapping with purchase. Make things just a little bit easier for this purchasing a gift from you by offering everyone free gift wrapping with their order. Be sure to add an option at checkout they can select so you’re not wrapping absolutely everything that you send that doesn’t need to be wrapped.
First 25 customers get ‘X’. Reward those who take action early by offering the first in a discount or a free gift.
Offer a discount on their next purchase. Rather than offering a discount on this purchase you can send them a voucher or a code to use for a discount on their next purchase.
HOW TO MAKE THE MOST OF Q4 SALES
This time of year really highlights how important a holistic approach to marketing is.
Your website needs to be optimized for conversion, so check that you’re converting at a rate of between 1-3% which is about the industry average. If you’re tracking above 3% this is amazing - keep it up!
You need to be driving people to your website to purchase, so how are you getting them there? Email Marketing? Paid Ads? Organic Socials? Pinterest? Google Ad Words? SEO? Referrals? Influencers?
Engagement on social media is great, but if no one is clicking through to purchase, maybe something needs tweaking.
Most importantly, your customer needs to be at the centre of all of this, what do they want/need, how are they feeling? Are you communicating in a way that resonates with them, nurturing them on their path to purchase?
NEED SOME HELP?
Get on top of this busy time of year by locking in a 60 or 90 minute session with Sammi and we’ll help you take the overwhelm out of marketing your business.
We can also take your socials off your hands and manage your ads so you have more time to focus on growing your business and making sales.
Book a free 20 minute consultation with Sammi to discuss