Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM) shopping season is around the corner and merchants must prepare to host the best of the shoppers to their online stores. While physical stores see a rise of footfall, e-commerce stores also witness a record-breaking sales during the BFCM season.
Last Year Success
Last year on Thanksgiving Day, the consumer spending rose by 22 percent annually to $5.1 billion. A day later on Black Friday, the spending rose by the same percentage to $9 billion. On concluding Cyber Monday, the US consumers set a world record by spending $10.8 billion in online shopping. It marks to be the largest internet shopping day in the US.
Coronavirus pandemic deserves a fair credit for the last year’s e-commerce success. As the world opted for massive lockdowns, consumers used a fair share of their free time shopping online. E-commerce giants like Shopify made massive profits after the pandemic-hit 2020, though their expansion based on that growth landed them in trouble. The company had to layoff 10 percent of its workforce when the overestimated “bet” didn’t pay off.
What’s Ahead?
Irrespective of Shopify’s recent failure and e-commerce’s fall amid the microeconomic conditions, the BFCM 2022 is expected to bring huge number of shoppers to retailers. Here below are some suggestions for you to make the best of business this BFCM season:
Start Now
This year, BFCM will be celebrated from November 26 to November 29. Since you know the dates, start your preparations now otherwise it will be too late to attract more and more customers. As the season approaches, advertising costs rise manifold so it is wise to roll out your adverts across social media starting now. The early start will help you get consumer attention and you can go bigger with promotions and adverts during and after the season.
Go Online And Offline
While social media promotions surely help driving customers to your online stores, traditional methods like billboards, flyers and posters also help gain consumer retention. Drop in emails to your potential clients, send SMS and make the best use of social media platforms with paid and organic promotions.
Influencer marketing is also at peak right now, so don’t miss out on collabs and promotions using social media influencers.
Quality Over Discounts
We all like discounts but make sure you don’t do that at the cost of quality compromise. Even if your products are high in cost, influence and convince your buyer to spend. The best way if to highlight quality metrics like look, aesthetics, usage and convenience.
Customer Engagement
You can use interactive media like games, contests and quiz to promote your products on social media. Make your customers feel fear of missing out with an extensive products range. Deals for limited time and free shipping also help customers make quick checkouts.
What is BFCM?
Black Friday is the Friday, which comes next to when Thanksgiving is celebrated in the United States. It marks the beginning of the Christmas shopping season. Stores, both physical and online, offer discounts and sales to customers across the US. The shopping season starts either late night on Thanksgiving or early morning on Black Friday. These appealing sales continue until Monday, which is called Cyber Monday. Some stores continue these sales for a week, which is termed ‘Cyber Week’.
Thanksgiving will be celebrated on November 24. The BFCM 2022 falls on November 25 to 28. The BFCM falls on every November’s fourth Friday, until the month starts with a Friday. According to the International Council of Shopping Centers, Black Friday has been America’s busiest shopping day every year since 2005.
