black friday
Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and Cyber Monday weekend is like the Super Bowl for E-commerce websites. It only comes around once a year and is a huge opportunity for your business to make money.

According to the American Marketing Association (AMA), U.S. retailers earned a record of $7.9 billion on Black Friday in 2017.

The number is growing each year, with the youngest generations leading the pack on how much they plan on spending. If this is your first Black Friday as a business owner you may be wondering how to prepare your website for the madness. If you are a Black Friday champion, you may be more concerned with how to stand out from the competition during this shopping season. No matter if this is your first Black Friday or your fifth if you want to get in on it this season, we have some tips to get you ready.

Plan Ahead for Black Friday

Prepare your staff for black friday

Prepare your staff.

If you plan on participating in Black Friday you’ll need to have capable staff on deck. E-commerce sites need support staff ready to handle calls, answer live chats, and respond to emails. Don’t be the company that doesn’t offer support on Black Friday. If customers can’t get a hold of you, you are either going to lose their business or loyalty.

Prepare your website for black friday

Prepare your website.

I am usually an advocator for optimism, but in this case, you’ll want to assume everything that could go wrong, will. This will help prepare you for the worst case scenario. If you have a physical product, make sure to have a conversation with your shipping company prior to Black Friday. You need to know they can handle the demands of Black Friday, and if not do you have a back-up plan in place?

Prepare for the worst on black friday

Prepare for the worst.

Black Friday will most likely set or break your site traffic record. You’ll want to make sure your web hosting is up to par. If you are running a WordPress site you can look at the Resource Usage report in order to see how your website operates and the capacity your server can handle.

Make sure your hosting company offers protection from abusive website activity on your server. Our shared hosting has Case FS technology that ensures the activity of other websites doesn’t affect yours. Even though you are sharing resources on the same server, doesn’t mean you need to share the spam. The last thing you want is for someone else’s website to take you down on the day equivalent to Olympics for E-commerce websites.

Create Scarcity

The competition gets more intense every year, with companies offering sales earlier and earlier in an attempt to get customers to spend with them. The sales are starting sooner and lasting longer. The market is so saturated at this time that customers don’t know when they should hold out and when they should shop. What sets Black Friday apart is the deals, the doorbuster sales, and the scarcity of the product.

The thing that makes Black Friday so exciting for shoppers is the rush of feeling like they got a great deal. E-commerce websites have the opportunity to have a lot of fun with the sales they are offering on their website.

 

  • Offer deals on your website for limited times throughout the day on Black Friday. This will keep customers on their toes and checking back in on your website throughout the day.
  • Only offer a certain amount of a product. When it’s sold out it’s out.
  • Create excitement and anticipation with a countdown timer banner that promotes the limited time sales.
Black friday banner 30% off everything hurry ends in 11h 26m 48s

Get the Word Out

Pay Per Click (PPC) Advertising

Use copy that lets people know what sales you have going on. Bring new customers to your website with enticing ad copy that communicates what makes your brand special.

Social Media Advertising

Know your audience. If they are on social media run an advertising campaign on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Millennials plan on spending the most on Black Friday. Target them where they are, and give them an easy way to shop directly from their social platforms.

.blackfriday domain

Hype up your special holiday promotions with the .blackfriday domain. Use it on your marketing materials and in your ad campaigns. Spend less on PPC advertising costs when you incorporate the black friday keyword at the domain level. An exciting, unique and relevant domain name will help users find you and click on your website over your competitors!

Questions for our readers:

Are you planning on offering any special promotions for Black Friday? Let us know in the comments below.