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As the holiday shopping season approaches, which typically runs from November 1st to December 31st, the question arises: How can you make the most of this time? The peak will be reached during the so-called Cyber Five or Cyber Week, which could generate 16.9% of all Christmas revenue.
Let's look at strategies to help you get through this busy time and maintain a steady stream of conversions in the future.
Related: Increase Your Ecommerce Sales – 8 Proven Strategies for the Holiday Season
1. Maintain healthy margins while customers save
Instead of offering blanket discounts, a tiered discount system that increases based on shopping cart value encourages larger purchases. Offering different discount levels motivates customers to spend more to maximize their savings, which increases average order value (AOV).
For example, offer 10% off a $50 order, 20% off $100, etc. By adding upsell opportunities, selling high-margin products reduces the impact on overall profits. For example, show your customers complementary items to increase the total order value, such as adding a phone case to a smartphone to reach $500 and unlock a 15% discount. This spreads the discount across products and offsets costs while customers benefit from the savings.
Another approach is to sell high-margin bundles at small discounts. Offer complementary or related items to the main product so that the customer reaches a certain order value to receive a discount. Customers feel like they're getting a bargain, but higher margin products help offset the cost. Last but not least, leverage your buyers’ behavioral data to offer real-time incentives. For example, you can set up a personalized popup that appears after a user views multiple products and suggests orders over $100 for them to receive a 20% off coupon for their next purchase. This keeps current margins reasonable while encouraging repeat purchases.
2. Incentivize with exclusive offers that go beyond Early Access
With early access to BFCM, you can increase signups, grow your subscriber list, and reduce customer acquisition costs. Greater value from early access motivates a prospect to convert into a customer early in the sale and maintains customer loyalty. You have a win-win situation:
- Customers are more likely to get the items they want without receiving an “out of stock” message.
- They will distribute traffic to your website.
- Your brand benefits from increased engagement, which can turn into loyalty.
Early access is a big draw in itself, but you can further incentivize signing up with additional benefits. The average cart abandonment rate is 82%, with 62% of consumers citing high shipping costs as the main reason for this. The higher the order value, the lower the willingness to pay for delivery: 19% will not pay for an order worth 15 euros, 27% for 50 euros and 35% for 150 euros. A strategically timed pop-up that offers free shipping on orders over a certain threshold and appears when a shopper is about to leave the store can be both cost-effective and extremely enticing for customers.
Additionally, providing early Black Friday access to your most active customers or loyalty members strengthens relationships with your highest lifetime value audience. The sense of exclusivity and urgency will encourage your consumers to take advantage of an offer that isn't for everyone as quickly as possible. An example of this approach are the LEGO or Sephora Insiders programs.
Related: How to Attract Higher Quality Customers
3. Gamified Shopping: Delight visitors and increase conversions
Gamification adds interactivity and a sense of reward to the purchasing process, increasing engagement and encouraging visitors to spend more time on your website. Winning discounts, earning loyalty program points, or participating in challenges increase conversion rates, increase AOV, and reduce cart abandonment.
Gamification is about adding playful elements to the traditional purchasing process. A common example of eCommerce gamification is a pop-up wheel of fortune. Klappo data shows that the Spin the Wheel pop-up has a 41% higher conversion rate than countdown timer pop-ups. You can assign different incentives to the cycling areas, such as: B. Discounts, free shipping, gifts or festive packaging. With an advanced reward management system, you can set win probabilities for each incentive – for example, 55% for a 10% discount, 30% for a gift, and 15% for free shipping – effectively managing your prize pool within your company budget.
This interactive element keeps shoppers engaged, while the uncertainty of the reward increases the excitement of their inner achievers. As an advanced tactic, behavioral data can be used to trigger pop-ups only when necessary when users are abandoning or about to abandon the cart, thereby motivating them to complete the purchase with a special discount.
Related: 7 Ways to Increase Customer Engagement Through Email Gamification
4. Flash Deals and Countdown Excitement: Create FOMO
Black Friday is already a limited-time event, but you can trigger FOMO with flash sales. The very limited time of such promotions creates a sense of urgency and scarcity among consumers, forcing them to make immediate purchasing decisions. This approach is effective for generating excitement for high-demand products and clearing out seasonal inventory.
Flash sales trigger FOMO, which is a powerful psychological motivator, pushing browsers to make immediate purchasing decisions. Timed promotions or hourly flash sales encourage consumers to check your website throughout the day for the latest deals. You can also create a mystery quick sale by keeping the range secret. This is particularly beneficial at BF when buyers expect limited-time or exclusive offers.
Before the sale, encourage visitors to leave their email address to be notified first, and display a pop-up with a timer during the event to keep them informed of the ongoing promotion and the countdown to the end to inform. Our customers have found that pop-ups with timers and engaging offers can increase conversion by 112%. As an advanced tactic, A/B testing can be used to determine the most effective times for flash sales based on customer loyalty data.
5. Put user experience first
With 48% of consumers researching products thoroughly before purchasing and 62% of consumers saying they would be more likely to purchase a product after seeing it, information accessibility is critical. Enhance product pages with user-generated content such as customer images or videos from reviews and social media. What's worth noting is that this type of content is often missing from many websites, so there is potential for growth and conversions.
Another way to improve user experience is to use informative pop-ups, especially for new visitors. For example, if your Black Friday deals are limited to certain products, a pop-up or sticky bar to inform users about the promotion ensures shoppers don't miss out. One of our clients found that pop-ups promoting sale items increased cart additions by 15% and increased sales by 19%.
Basic last minute tactics
Small actions taken early can lead to big results, and the impact will ripple throughout the holiday season. Ideally, preparations for Black Friday would have started in the summer, but there is still some time to get things going. Data from Google shows that shoppers complete less than half of their planned holiday shopping by December, meaning there are still opportunities to make additional sales even after BFCM. Capture first-time buyers with early bird access, use gamification to retarget buyers who showed interest but didn't convert, and delight returning visitors with exclusive offers.