This Black Friday is set to be a little different from the chaos we’ve witnessed in previous years. People are spending more sensibly and trying to be more financially aware. A huge amount of the UK population has spent the last six months hanging onto every word from financial experts, with many seeking advice from the money-saving whizz Martin Lewis. This year he shared his expertise on how to spend wisely during the event…
“This is my Black Friday memo…If you were going to buy it anyway and it’s half price, you’ve saved 50 per cent. If you weren’t going to buy it, but do because it’s half price you’ve wasted 100 per cent.” – Martin Lewis, Twitter, 2022.
For business owners, this means that a generous deal or discount isn’t going to be enough this year. You need to have been laying the marketing groundwork for months. People need to have had their eye on your products, have your best sellers saved to their wishlists, your mechanise pinned to their Pinterest boards, and bookmarked your homepage. Quite literally. We predict it will be particularly tough for the small to medium-scale businesses out there who don’t have the budgets for a huge marketing campaign to compete with their competitor giants.
Previously, Black Friday was an opportunity, not only for the masses to grab a bargain and stock up on Christmas presents, but also a chance for businesses to get rid of stagnating stock and at least gain back the cost price of their items. So as much as it has a bad reputation for promoting mass consumption and indulgent consumerism, it actually prevents many business owners from ending up in the minuses and prevents lots of old stock from ending up in landfills.
Now, just getting rid of dead stock with big discounts probably won’t cut it this year, here are our top tips to succeed as retail business owners this Black Friday:
A weeklong campaign
Gone are the days of advertising the night before or the day of the event. Get your promotions out early and churn them out all week. This includes email campaigns to your entire database and daily content across all your social channels. An influencer campaign the week before could really get you fresh in people’s minds, ahead of the event. If you need third-party help with this, just reach out to us.
Black Friday Teasers
Many online retailers have been offering a Black Friday discount on certain stock lines all week long whilst building up to the big day and hinting towards a bigger discount on more lines on the official day.
A loss leader
You may have to discount one or more of your best sellers this Black Friday, in order to grab people’s attention, get footfall into the shop and on your website. This way, they may browse and see other products they like and purchase multiple items.
Highlight gift ideas
People, we won’t mention any genders specifically, but some of those amongst us may need a little extra help when selecting gifts. If you clearly advertise ‘Gifts For Her’ or ‘Stocking Fillers’ on your socials, and dedicate a section in your shop or a page on your website to these items then it could really signpost people in the right direction to make a purchase. Offer free gift wrapping or £1 gift wrapping to entice them further…
Offer bundle deals
People love getting the most for their money and although bundle deals probably don’t work out super cost-effective if you look at the individual cost per item when people are walking out of your shop or checking out online with five items in one transaction, they feel like they’ve found an uber savings deal. Etsy sellers, this is definitely one for you, bundle sellers on Etsy notoriously perform well.
Focus on stock levels
It goes without saying, of course, you need to make sure you have the stock to fulfil the demand but why not stock up on your best sellers or your products with the highest margins? Also, don’t be afraid to let items show as ‘out of stock’ on your website as opposed to removing the listing, it shows demand.
Think seasonal
If you can add anything remotely seasonal to your shop, do it. Christmas-related items sell like hotcakes at this time of year. Black Friday isn’t on the last payday of November by chance, it’s been strategically placed there. It will draw people in and give them an opportunity to browse around the rest of your inventory.
Have all hands on deck
You may get an influx of prospective customers asking questions as they are looking to buy ahead of Black Friday, make sure you have all hands on deck for the ramp-up of extra customer service which may be required. Monitor all inboxes and give speedy replies so they don’t go elsewhere.
If you like any of our tips and think we’d be a good fit helping your business expand and grow then, get in touch, we’re always happy to discuss all things digital marketing.
