The best Black Friday tips for online store operators
Everything store owners need to know about Black Friday!
Black Friday is a day for bargain hunters who want to do their Christmas shopping or simply take advantage of the good offers. But that's precisely why it's important for store operators to prepare properly so as not to be overlooked in the flood of offers. In this article, you will find everything you need to know about Black Friday as a store operator. If you put our tips into practice, you are sure to have a successful Black Friday.
Reading time 7 min
- what Black Friday actually is
- the advantages and disadvantages of Black Friday for online store operators
- what tips you should consider for Black Friday as a store operator
- what Black Friday looks like for some store systems such as
- and we draw a brief conclusion in order to
- finally answer a few questions in our FAQ like
What is Black Friday?
Black Friday is a day that originated in the USA and takes place on the Friday after Thanksgiving, the American harvest festival. Thanksgiving is celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November to give thanks for the harvest and the blessings of the past year.
Unofficially, Black Friday marks the start of shopping for the Christmas season. Many retailers offer massive discounts and special offers, leading to a huge rush of customers in stores and online stores. You may be wondering why Black Friday is called Black Friday. This is because many retailers become profitable on this day and are therefore in the black. The concept has now spread all over the world and there are also many special offers and discounts in stores in Germany on this day.
The economic significance of Black Friday
Black Friday plays a crucial role for retailers. This is because it is a real sales boost for many retailers and is often one of the strongest sales days of the year. As a retailer, Black Friday also gives you the opportunity to acquire new customers who would like to try out your products for a lower price. The influence of Black Friday has steadily increased over the years: from an American phenomenon to a global event.
And what is Cyber Monday?
Cyber Monday is the first Monday after Thanksgiving in the USA. The term for this day was first used by the National Retail Federation in a press release on its Shop.org website in 2005. The idea was to introduce a special day for online shopping to counter Black Friday, which initially took place mainly in stores. Since then, there have also been online discounts on Cyber Monday, not only in the USA but also to some extent in Germany.
Advantages and disadvantages of Black Friday for store operators
Black Friday has advantages for bargain hunters in particular. But of course, this day is also important for store operators and has some advantages, but also disadvantages. To give you a better overview, we have summarized all the advantages and disadvantages of Black Friday for store operators:
| The Black Friday advantages: | The disadvantages of Black Friday: |
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The best Black Friday tips for store operators
To help you prepare for Black Friday, we have put together a few tips for you. This way, you can prepare your online store and your team for the day and enjoy excellent sales at the end!
1. prepare your online store technically
As it is to be expected that more customers will be visiting your online store at the same time on Black Friday, you should prepare your store accordingly. Firstly, you should check whether your server can cope with the increased traffic and secondly, you should also check the loading times. It is important that your online store loads quickly, even though many customers are browsing your products, so that they don't bounce and go shopping in another online store. Other things you should prepare on the technical side are the mobile optimization of your online store and an efficient, easy-to-understand checkout process. To avoid overselling, you should use a system that updates your stock in real time.
2. check stock levels
One of the most important things for Black Friday is a well-prepared inventory. For example, you should check what your sales figures have been in previous years in order to adjust and replenish your stock accordingly. Identify bestsellers and focus on these in particular. Keep them easily accessible and have a large stock, as these are the products that make upselling possible. Depending on the situation, you should also plan for more staff to quickly prepare orders for dispatch.
3. consider good offers
In order to create good offers, you need to know exactly what your cost structure looks like in order to remain profitable despite Black Friday. So go through what discounts you can afford and try a combination of products to increase the average order value. Other options include free shipping, volume discounts, loyalty programs, time-limited or exclusive offers.
4. prepare customer service
Customer queries and problems are also likely to occur more frequently than usual on Black Friday. You should be able to deal with these quickly and efficiently to avoid losing customers. During this time, you should think about hiring more employees for customer service. Also, train your staff properly about discounts, promotions and important policies so that they can respond efficiently to any queries. Another point you should consider for Black Friday is extended service hours.
5. communicate discounts clearly
So that there is no confusion and your customers know exactly what they can save. Both the original price (crossed out) and the discounted price should therefore be clearly visible on the product page. You can also highlight the percentage saving. Also make it clear how long the discount is valid for and whether there are any conditions attached to the discount.
6. take advantage of upselling opportunities
You can use upselling to increase the average order value. This allows you to increase your turnover without having to acquire more customers or traffic. For example, you can upsell with special offers that are linked to the purchase of additional products. But displaying other relevant products is also a strategy. Product sets and bundles at a better price are also a good option.
7. retain customers
Many shoppers are only looking for the best bargain on Black Friday. However, it is also an opportunity for you to retain new regular customers who will return to your store in the future. With special offers for loyal customers, newsletters, excellent customer service, etc., you can ensure that customers come back to you.
8. analysis of the day
After Black Friday, you should analyze the day to find out which strategies worked well and which did not. These findings can also help you in your future day-to-day business. Check your sales figures, look at which products did well and which didn't, where the customers came from and what the conversion rate looked like. Also take into account the customer reviews and returns you received during the day.
Black Friday and the store systems
If you run your online store with a store system, you can use the features already available in the system to make Black Friday a success for you and your business. This is particularly helpful as you don't usually have to spend a lot of time preparing your sales campaigns accordingly.
Shopify Black Friday
Shopify has a discount manager that allows you to quickly set up time-limited discounts or special promo codes. With the real-time reports, you can see how your traffic and sales figures are developing. You will also find a theme editor in Shopify, which allows you to better customize your online store for the Black Friday campaign and even improve loading times.
With Shopify Email, you can promote your Black Friday discount campaign to newsletter subscribers. You can also optimize your customer service by activating Shopify Chat. This offers you native live chat functions. This allows you to answer customer questions quickly and efficiently. For more individuality and better customer loyalty, Shopify gives you the option of activating order processing.
Shopware and Black Friday
With the Promotion Suite, Shopware also has an integrated tool for promotions. To keep performance high with every customer rush, you should analyze your store performance and prepare for Black Friday with the options in Shopware. For example, use a good theme and avoid unnecessary functions or widgets that could slow down your store. Shopware has the menu item "Shopping Experiences". You can use this to create landing pages especially for Black Friday.
An important tip from Shopware:
" Attention: For some product groups, the term "Black Friday" is protected and may not be used in advertisements. In the area of electrical and electronic goods, the Federal Court of Justice has revoked trademark protection. If you want to protect yourself from a warning, give free rein to your creativity when searching for paraphrases or use safe terms such as "Black Week"."
(Quoted from: https://www.shopware.com/de/news/black-friday-im-e-commerce-tipps-fuer-mehr-umsatz/)
Our conclusion
Black Friday is an indispensable opportunity for store operators to significantly increase sales and attract new customers at the same time. As a prelude to the Christmas shopping season and in the midst of the bargain hunt, this day offers the chance to highlight products with tempting offers and recommended prices.
To make the most of this day to increase your sales, you should implement our tips in your company. If you still need help with this, you are welcome to contact our online store experts. They will be happy to help you make the necessary adjustments so that you are well prepared for Black Friday. Do you also need support in creating an online store or would you like to make adjustments to your existing store? Then you've also come to the right place.
FAQ: All about Black Friday
Last but not least, we would like to answer a few questions that keep coming up about Black Friday. If you are the owner of an online store and have a specific question that we haven't answered yet, you can of course contact us so that we can help you directly. You can use our contact form or simply give us a call!
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What is Green Friday?
Green Friday is a campaign day that was created as a counter-movement to the traditional Black Friday. While Black Friday is primarily known for its high discounts, the shopping frenzy and the enormous rush of customers to stores and online stores, Green Friday has a different focus. It aims to steer people's purchasing behavior in a more sustainable and environmentally conscious direction.
Instead of indulging in the usual Black Friday spending spree, Green Friday encourages consumers to shop more consciously and support companies that offer environmentally friendly, ethically produced and sustainable products. It is not just about buying green or ecological products, but also about consuming less in general and thus conserving resources.
It is an attempt to reduce the negative effects of mass consumption and at the same time raise awareness of environmental and social issues.
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How important is Black Friday for retailers?
Black Friday has become one of the most important days in retail, especially for online retailers. Many see it as the unofficial kick-off to the Christmas shopping season. In the midst of bargain hunting, customers use this day to look for tempting offers and price recommendations so that retailers can significantly increase their sales figures. Retailers use Black Friday to showcase their products prominently and attract customers. By creating particularly attractive offers, you not only increase sales for the day, but also retain potential new customers in the long term. Overall, Black Friday is therefore very important for retailers to stand out in a competitive market and have a positive impact on their annual results.
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When is Black Friday this year?
Black Friday for 2023 falls on November 24. Online retailers should make a note of this date as it is an important opportunity to offer discounts and attract customers.
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Hello, my name is Meike. I take care of the EXWE back office and am responsible for our social media channels. All of our articles are meant to make your life easier and help you make decisions. Nevertheless, it can happen that something remains unclear, so: If you have questions about this article you can easily reach me at +49 231 93149827.
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