Black Friday & Cyber Monday - Proven Strategies for eCommerce Brands, without Squeezing Profit Margin

The rise of BF/CM:

Black Friday, the day after the American holiday Thanksgiving, historically marked the start of the Christmas shopping season and the start of Retailers’ Sales. In today’s always-on digital world, more and more buyers now prefer online shopping, spurring Brands to come up with promotions to cut through the noise and entice buyers. What started as a one-day event is now a four-day shopping event ending on Cyber Monday. Cyber Monday, the Monday after Black Friday, is essentially the same type of event but was originally more targeted at online shoppers. What was mainly a US-centric idea has spread across the globe in recent years prompting Brands with online promos and offers.

Reward Your Loyal Customers & increase Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)

That lucrative sale is more likely to happen if you recognise and reward loyal customers. To ensure customers, regardless of where they are shopping from, will want to return to your online store to check out your seasonal deals, you need to deliver a personalised experience that goes beyond just design.

Timely and relevant communications

If a customer has made a recent purchase, your brand is still fresh in their mind. It’s important to reach out to these recent buyers and offer them targeted and personalised offers.

Reactivate Previous Customers

Contact former customers with special offers such as a VIP discount code that offers them even more savings when they buy. Since they’ve already bought from you before they are more likely to check out your offer and buy again.

Use Digital Coupons

Shoppers typically feel better about entering a code and are therefore more likely to take advantage of that code, rather than a blanket deal available to everyone. In today’s digital Christmas season, shoppers are typically open to preloading coupons on their devices and searching for deals at checkout. Reward your customers with unique or one-time-use codes that drive repeat business and support ongoing brand loyalty.

Focus on average order value

Having a high average order value can offset your advertising costs and create larger profit margins, this is a good strategy and gives Brands an alternative to offering blanket discounts.

Add New Product offerings and/or unique Bundles based on buyer behaviour:

It’s important Brands understand who their customers are, and how they like to shop. You can use this shopper and customer behaviour data to understand their digital footprint and what that means for your Brand and selling strategy, especially around the holiday season. Based on these insights Brands can offer new products and unique bundles. Giving the customer what they want and an attractive price point will always pique their curiosity. You can add new exclusive Black Friday bundles to boost that day’s sales. Advertising the fact that it’s a “Black Friday Exclusive” always helps!

Be Smart with Your Ad Spend

On the run-up to BF/CM the advertising spending by most Brands will jump. Many are happy to increase their spending as they see sufficient RoAS. If you increase budgets to drive traffic it makes sense to also be smart about the bottom of the funnel tactics. For example, if your products are selling on Amazon, be sure to spend money carefully at the SKU level to drive conversions.

Sharpen your Cart Abandonment rate strategy:

Reduce lost sales with a proven approach to cart abandonment. Deliver friendly reminders, and time-based prompts to ensure no sale is left behind.

Use that Email List to your (& the shoppers!) Advantage:

Speak directly to your customers with targeted emails with exclusive promotions. You can educate, up-sell and cross-sell with relevant and timely offers and promotions.

Extend Your Sale From Black Friday Until Cyber Monday & Beyond

Year on year we see the “Black Friday” theme, and timeline, growing! The explosive growth of eCommerce means that BF/CM sales can extend for days or even weeks. By extending your sale, you’ll be able to draw in more customers and sales.

Happy Selling!

About Luzern

Luzern offers a managed eCommerce platform that optimizes sales, margins and inventory across channels and geographies for leading brands across the globe. We have a proven track record of dramatically growing online revenues for brands and we are trusted by household names such as Philips, Fossil, JDE coffee, Panasonic, Petsafe, HTC and Nestle.

By using our deep expertise and technology, we extend your eCommerce capabilities to attract and convert buyers, boost margins and improve customers’ experience of your brand. Our technology enables us to excel at the execution-end of eCommerce, bringing you speed and agility across channels (Amazon & other marketplaces, D2C) and geographies.