The official kickoff of the holiday selling season is just a couple of days away. Last year, ecommerce sales on Black Friday hit a whopping $595 million, an 11% increase from 2008 (Comscore). In this video, Matt Winn discusses a last minute checklist for online business owners to get ready for the big day.
My friends, the big day is almost here. It’s the day when millions of people stand in the bitter cold outside the local Best Buy. It’s the day when otherwise law-abiding citizens kick and punch for the last Tickle Me Elmo. It’s the day we have learned to love…Black Friday.
A growing number of shoppers are going online to avoid the retail mayhem. Lucky for you, your online store is just a search and click away. This year’s Black Friday is projected to be the biggest in the history of ecommerce, so if you haven’t started your preparations, you’re way behind.
So to make the most of these final hours before Black Friday, take a look at this special edition of Two Minute Tuesday, where you’ll get some last-minute action items to help boost your big day.
Happy holiday selling!
-Matt Winn, Online Communications Specialist, Volusion
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Here’s the transcript if you’d like to read along:
Hi everybody! My name is Matt and I’m an Online Communications Specialist here at Volusion. Welcome to Two Minute Tuesdays, where we give you two minutes of ecommerce advice to bolster your online success. If you haven’t noticed, it’s that time of the season – Black Friday is just days away and is expected to be one of the biggest selling days of the year, if not the biggest selling day in ecommerce history. So if you haven’t been preparing, you’re really far behind to be quite honest with you, but never fear, we’ve got some last minute advice to help you get ramped up for the big selling day.
First and foremost, you’ll need to check your inventory. You need to see how many items you have in stock to see which items you want to promote, and number 2, see which items you want to provide discounts on. Figure out what your coupon codes are going to be, perform a pricing analysis so you don’t lose your shirt with your promotions, and get those discounts hammered down now.
That way, once your discounts are finalized, you can update your PPC ads. You’ll want to include your promotions and include Black Friday keywords in your ad copy to remain competitive with all the big searches going on this day.
On the same lines, you’ll want to communicate your discounts to your customers. It’s a lot cheaper and easier to market to your current customer base since you already have their contact information. And this late in the game, you don’t have time to get new ones. So put together a nice, creative email that really focuses on your promotions and blast it to your customers. Maybe send them a teaser email earlier in the week and definitely hit their inbox on Friday when they wake up.
Next, update your homepage design. Whatever discount you’re offering, make it big, have your featured products on there with a new image to drive traffic to the pages you want customers to visit.
And last but not least, on Friday, sell it. Blow it out of the water. Man your live chat and man your phones. Whatever you do, just keep ahead of the curve to make sure the traffic is coming through and you’re supporting your customers as they need it.
This is the day where you can come back into the black, so make sure you make the most of it. If you have any questions, we’re happy to help. From me to you, happy selling!
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