Entrepreneurs have faced major disruptions to the way they operate over the last few years. This now means that for many smaller businesses, Black Friday (as well as Small Business Saturday) holds a heightened level of pressure as they attempt to capture the attention of consumers during a second wave of restrictions.
The competition among businesses for the attention of shoppers is fierce this holiday season, with industry giants such as Amazon dominating the market and making it hard for startups and small businesses to stand out.
Startups must be prepared to catch customer interest quickly and have the correct tools in place to ensure they convert to a sale.
To help entrepreneurs make the most of this Black Friday traffic and ensure they are converting users to a sale, let’s take a look at the following five tips for e-commerce businesses to capitalize on the day.
Verizon Small Business Digital Ready: Learn Digital Business Skills. Apply for Grants.
Analyze the data before decision-making
If your startup has been operating online for at least a few months, you can use Google Analytics data, to show you which of your product pages are particularly popular amongst customers. This data is extremely valuable for your Black Friday plans, since it can help you to inform both discounting and purchasing decisions.
By understanding which products your customers are most interested in, you can funnel more marketing resources into these areas to maximize sales for these particular categories.
Understand your USP and maximize it
Startups have a unique selling point (USP) with customers, which can help them stand apart from retailing giants such as Amazon. Black Friday is a great opportunity to remind your audience that you have the ability to directly serve their local needs while being better in tune with their wants than big corporations, because you have more personal contact with your audience.
With the pandemic putting many startups at risk, consumers are making shopping local a priority this holiday season, so make sure your brand is on your local community’s radar.
Providing vouchers or special Black Friday discounts to these customers can be a great way to ensure you are instilling loyalty and can help convert this audience to make a sale.
12 Keys to Choosing and Developing a Side Hustle
Target your marketing efforts to suit your audience
Many businesses start their marketing efforts a few days before Black Friday to drum up interest with their customer base. Although this is likely to support sales, we recommend starting your marketing campaigns at least a few weeks before the big day itself to ensure you have maximized the potential of your efforts.
Email marketing is a great way to build anticipation among your audience, with the opportunity to provide sneak peaks, discounts and limited-time offers to subscribers only. When engaging in email marketing, you must take the time to personalize your content to the customer base you are targeting, rather than sending a generic email to every customer. Using browsing and purchasing history information can be an effective way to target customers in time for Black Friday, giving you an insight into what these customers are particularly interested in from your brand.
Simplify the purchase process
If customers are having difficulty using your website (i.e. a problem adding an item to their basket, difficulty finding where to checkout or how to add a payment option), they will most likely take their business elsewhere. You must ensure you are in the best position to convert a user to a sale by having a website that is user-friendly at every touchpoint.
Having strong calls to actions on your site can also ensure users are not lost along their journey and that they can check out efficiently. Your website should also have clear contact details or a contact form so that customers can easily get in touch with any queries they may have before or on Black Friday.
Sign Up: Receive the StartupNation newsletter!
Ensure you support trusted payment methods
Customers expect to see a variety of trusted payment methods when they check out. If a customer is new to your business and your website, he or she needs to feel safe when entering their credit card details, meaning you must be equipped with the latest and most secure financial technology to reassure your customers they are dealing with a safe brand.
Having these additional measures in place will act as trust signals to customers and show that your brand can be trusted. This, in turn, will aid in converting users to make that all-important sale on Black Friday.
