Retail has changed at an incredible pace this year. That’s why you need to start planning your Black Friday ecommerce strategy for 2020 as soon as possible (read: now).

As the global pandemic keeps people out of stores, more and more people are turning to ecommerce businesses for everything from groceries to apparel.

Towards the beginning of the pandemic, online sales boomed. In fact, consumers spent about $10.5 billion more online in April and May 2020 than they did in November and December 2019.

May 2020, specifically, had 3 days of online spending that reached over $3 billion. Last year, those numbers weren’t seen outside of the holiday shopping season.

With COVID-19 still impacting many countries, the data points towards a record-breaking holiday season for ecommerce.

To shift focus to online sales, your Black Friday ecommerce marketing strategy needs to include digital marketing.

If you haven’t yet started your Black Friday prep, what are you waiting for? Now is the time!

We have 3 tips to help you shape your Black Friday promotions, so you’re ready for the online rush.

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3 tips for creating your 2021 Black Friday ecommerce strategy

1. Prepare your website for ecommerce transactions

This idea might go without saying, but your website has to have ecommerce functionality if you want to sell online. Getting this ecommerce functionality is not as simple as clicking a button.

First, you have to choose an ecommerce platform that works for you. You can choose between options like WooCommerce, Magento, Shopify, Square, and others. Depending on which platform you use, you may be able to integrate ecommerce functionality with your already existing website or create a new website entirely.

Just know that creating a completely new website isn’t always easy, and picking the right ecommerce platform requires time and research.

After you’ve settled on your platform, you can choose your site’s layout, ecommerce UX design, and other functionalities that will improve the user experience.

If you already have an ecommerce website, make sure it works.

Make sure all of it works.

Check that people can easily navigate through your product pages. Can they easily find their way back to the main page if they’ve landed on a product page?

A simple way to help people navigate your site is to use breadcrumb navigation. This shows people where they’ve been so they can easily go back and forth between pages.

Make sure every link and button works, especially your add-to-cart button. Go through the purchase process and test different interactive elements.

Also, with record sales comes record traffic. You don’t want your site crashing when it could be raking in big bucks for your business.

Load test your website to see how much traffic it can handle without seeing a drop in performance.

If your site is normally slow, take action to make it faster.

Elements that affect your site speed include:

• Hosting
• Multimedia elements
• Bandwidth

Changing something like your web host can potentially take a lot of time depending on your business, so you’ll want to get a head start on figuring out where your website needs help before Black Friday comes along.

2. Optimize elements of your website for maximum conversions

With all the ecommerce heavy hitters vying for their shares of online sales, it’s crucial that you get as many sales as possible from your web visitors on Black Friday.

You will need to run tests and do a website analysis to figure out what makes people buy.

Using a tool like Hotjar, look at how people interact with your site. Do a majority of people only interact with elements that don’t require scrolling (a.k.a. elements that are “above the fold”)?

If so, you definitely wouldn’t want to put a Black Friday promotional code below the fold and risk your audience not seeing it.

While you have time to collect a significant sample size, run A/B tests on some shopping-related elements of your site.

You can A/B test elements like:

• The designs of your landing pages
• Text in your calls to action (CTAs)
• Placement of your “Add to Cart” button

You are in no way limited to those three test examples, but starting there can help you determine how to increase sales for your Black Friday ecommerce strategy.

3. Advertise your Black Friday promotions

Don’t stay quiet about your special Black Friday deals. Tell your audience what you’re planning so they get excited!

Give people a preview of your deals on your website. You can add a special page dedicated to all things Black Friday.

Share your reviews on social media. Whether you show your employees preparing your inventory or share photos of the products included in your sale, let people see what they can buy.

Send out email newsletters to your subscribers with your deals. You can even include a special discount, or include one on your website if people sign up for your emails.

And don’t forget to invest in digital advertising. This investment will help you get your products and your Black Friday promotions in front of people who are most likely to buy.

You can choose from many advertising formats including:

• Shopping ads
• Search ads
• Display ads
• Video ads
• Social media ads

Just keep in mind that although you can create and launch a campaign in a day, you should probably take extra time to make sure you’re targeting the right people and your ad’s content resonates with your audience.

You have a lot of targeting options between all of the ad platforms, and the more accurate you are, the higher your chances are of generating sales.

Also, make sure your landing pages work, both in design and in function. When someone clicks on an ad, they visit a landing page filled with information. If the page doesn’t relate to the ad, or if it’s not completely functional, you’re wasting your ad budget.

Start developing your Black Friday ecommerce strategy for 2021

If you incorporate these tips into your Black Friday marketing strategy, you’ll be on your way to a great day of online sales.

For help using these strategies to drive long-term results, don’t hesitate to reach out to our team. We’d be happy to help you grow your ecommerce business.