Black Friday & Cyber Monday

Black Friday 2011 was a record-breaking year with online sales reaching $816 million.  Total consumer spend for Black Friday reached $11.4 billion indicating that many sales take place in brick and mortar stores.

For the entire four-day Thanksgiving weekend (Thursday through Sunday), Forbes reports that 226 million shoppers spent $52.4 billion dollars.

When is Black Friday & Cyber Monday 2012?

• Black Friday: November 23, 2012
• Cyber Monday: November 26, 2012

1. How to Make a Profit When Everyone Expects a Sale

Before you begin marking down your products for Thanksgiving weekend, first ask yourself, “how is it possible to turn a profit on a day when I have to drastically reduce the price of my inventory?”

According to the New York Times, Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales help companies reach profitability through two strategies:

1. Sell everything as cheaply as possible and magnify a small profit through volume.
2. Mark down a few highly sought after items (even potentially selling them at a loss) in hopes that customers will also buy full priced items while shopping at your store.

2. When to Schedule Your Social Media Posts

According to the poll by Shop.org, consumers have indicated they will use social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter to find discounts and gift ideas.

Here is when you should schedule your social media posts:

• 33% will be early birds and shop between 5am and 9am ET
• 36% of men will ship early while only 31% of women will
• 29% of consumers will shop between 10am and noon ET
• 18% will shop between noon and 7pm ET

Schedule your social media updates to go on throughout the day – with your most important exciting ones going out before noon.

3. What Sales to Run on Black Friday

According to another Shop.org poll, retailer behavior shows that almost half of all online stores (45%) will offer a coupon or percent-off deal while many others will offer limited time promotions and free shipping. A smaller percent of online stores will include a free gift with purchase.

Consumer research shows that 96% of shoppers said they look for free shipping deals, so it seems to follow that free shipping is a really good deal to offer. If you set a spend threshold (example: spend $50 and get free shipping) you can encourage shoppers to buy non-discounted items to increase your profit margins and average order value while still providing customers something they consider highly beneficial.

4. Prepare a Strategy to Maximize ___

Create a to-do list that will help you prepare for Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2012.

Decisions You Need to Make:

• Which items you will discount and how much they will be discounted
• If you will require a promo or coupon code for all or some discounts
• When you will run your biggest sales (throughout the whole day or during peak hours?)
• If you will offer free shipping on all items or specific items
• Whether you will set a spending threshold for consumers to receive free shipping
• How many emails you will send to your list and when they will go out

Ready your website & prepare your staff:
·       Make sure you’re ready to flip the switch on your updated site at the exact moment your sales are advertised to begin
  

5. How to Continue The Momentum After The Holidays

Have an email strategy in place to convert people who abandon their shopping cart
Consider running retargeting ads towards people who abandon their shopping cart.

Send an email to all people who made a purchase during Black Friday & Cyber Monday and provide them a promo code good towards their next purchase. Consider making this code available only for the next 24 hours to 48 hours to encourage spending.

Add all new customers to an email nurture campaign that will run throughout the holiday season. Use these emails to encourage customers to buy discounted and featured gifts.Keeping the conversation going with your new customers is a great way to convert them again and again during the holiday season (and beyond).

While Black Friday and Cyber Monday are huge sales days, the biggest sales week of the year is the one right before Christmas. Don’t miss out on additional revenue by failing to engage your new customers throughout the rest of the year!

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This is a guest post by Kristina Allen - a social marketing consultant obsessed with conversion-oriented strategies. Check out her website here.