Last-minute marketplace tweaks for Black Friday week

The internet is awash with tips and listicles on how to improve sales on Black Friday / Cyber Monday. And rightly so. Last year, online Black Friday sales in the US topped $9 billion, two in five Brits bought a Black Friday promotional item on Amazon and the average order value surpassed £125 in the UK. 

With a few days to go until the ‘big day’ (or right now if you’re abiding by Amazon’s Black Friday 17-27 November) deal range), brand strategies are ready to roll. But there are some last-minute tweaks you can make during Black Friday week to improve your sales. 

Refine marketplace listings

• Think mobile. Last year, almost half (48%) of Black Friday e-commerce sales were made via smartphone. This rises to 55% on Thanksgiving (Thursday 23 this year) as consumers are away from their computers. You should therefore double check your listings are optimised for mobile shopping (i.e. pick three products you’re selling at random on three different marketplaces - are the key product details easy to view on your phone?)
  
  
• Optimise keywords for current trends. Be it seasonal trends (i.e. snug clothing and cosy homeware) or year-long mega trends (i.e. sustainable fashion and natural health & beauty), make sure your listings align with consumers’ search terms. Cross-reference these keywords with those used by similar products, but also make sure to differentiate yourself.
  
• Adapt main product image. The product photo must be high-quality and unique in order to grab attention during the rush of online Black Friday traffic. Don’t be afraid of going bold during Black Friday week to stand out, such as adding infographics, putting on special logos, trying out new angles or even adding a 30-second video.

Review your deals

• Analyse competitors’ discounts. All brands will have planned their discounts based on previous sales and current targets, but what you won’t know until the last-minute is your competitors’ discounts. Analyse pricing for similar products and make changes to your promotions accordingly.
  
  
• Offer staggered deals. The average Black Friday discount is 25%, but whatever discounts you choose, don’t have to stay the same all week. For example, to encourage more early sales, consider offering above-average discounts to make your sales targets and then reducing the promotion towards the end of the week (or vice versa - i.e 25% discount for most of the week and 35% on final day). Let your customers know in advance to create urgency or send out last-minute emails to highlight the new bigger drop.
  
  
• Use dynamic pricing. Instead of manually looking at competitors' prices, similar product sales and internal stock volumes to change prices, let dynamic pricing tools do it all for you. Price is very important during Black Friday / Cyber Monday, so setting your dynamic tool to ensure you always match your biggest rival’s price during the week across all your marketplaces is a great tactic that can be tweaked last-minute.

Don’t stop the ads

• Advertise throughout the week. Brands rightly start trailing their discounts weeks in advance of Black Friday / Cyber Monday. But that doesn’t mean you should go quiet during the week itself - especially if you have staggered deals to promote. Schedule and plan compelling adverts (i.e. catchy graphics and visuals) every day.
  
  
• Be active on social media. Posting a visually-appealing social media ad (i.e. with a Black Friday discount infographic) is just the first step. You need to engage with posts, comments and reviews too to boost traction. Answer questions, pose quizzes and announce give-aways (i.e. coupons for further % off) to generate more buzz during the week and get your posts seen by more eyes.
  
  
• Create a sense of urgency. Black Friday comes but once a year - so subtly remind customers to take advantage. With Christmas looming, make sure customers know it’s better to buy now than wait until December. Add graphics - i.e. a countdown clock, a dwindling stock counter, or a flipping desk calendar with reducing discounts on each day - to encourage people to convert. 

And breathe

Black Friday / Cyber Monday is an important sales week for most brands - but it’s not the be-all and end-all. With a busy Christmas period just around the corner, don’t get overly-stressed and remember that all the lessons from this week will help you improve sales next month. 

To analyse your Black Friday / Cyber Monday marketplace performance and tweak your marketplace strategy for Christmas, get in touch with eManaged.