BFCM Sales: Top 15 Strategies For Black Friday And Cyber Monday Festive Success!

Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM Sales)— are undoubtedly the biggest sales week of the holiday season. That is to say; your store should stand out from other eCommerce businesses for a seamless BFCM buying experience. Optimizing your eCommerce store is the goal for amplified holiday sales.

The 5-day period from Black Friday to Cyber Monday is the biggest holiday sale season in the United States, with over 200 billion USD up for grabs. Black Friday and Cyber Monday (in short, BFCM or Cyber Week) can become a weekend bonanza for online retailers all over the world if they plan it correctly.

Which Is A Big Deal For Your eCommerce Store? Black Friday Or Cyber Monday?

There are a lot of considerations if this question pops in. For instance, last year’s consumer product demand, revenue generated online, and customer spending Index. While Cyber Monday is more tech-focused, Black Friday remains more about ‘general’ shopping. However, as a store owner, consider both a win-win day.

With negligible sales difference between both days, your BFCM sales will:

• Be Massive
• Bring new trends in shopping actions
• Force brands to rethink new strategies

So, your eCommerce store should be ready to welcome all those customers coming to you. And, if you are reading this blog, you are bound to take some great tips for better BFCM sales in 2024.

Therefore without any procrastination, let’s start.

15 Essential Strategies To Prepare Your Store For BFCM 2024

How can online retailers make the most of this BFCM? What should their priorities be to achieve unexpectedly big sales?

First and foremost, do not make BFCM 2024  marketing a hit-and-trial campaign; this will generate little money. The easiest way to maximize your benefit is to enhance your online store with BFCM sales-generating ideas.

Handling Black Friday and Cyber Monday this year may be incredibly challenging with an uncertain economic situation, supply chain issues, and changed consumer behavior. But, ‘If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.’ So, start planning ahead of time and keep the sales running long.

To get off to a good start and avoid last-minute scrambles here is what you can do:

1. Keep Track Of Your Stock

Festive shopping will dominate eCommerce stores over the upcoming holiday weekend. Moreover, a few hurdles like keeping backup stock and tracking out-of-stock items are necessary to avoid things getting out of hand. It becomes annoying when customers who are looking for products don’t find their choices.

Hence, in the first place, don’t let the stocks run out. Keep a backup of everything. But, if you do, here is what can help:

• Make sure to redirect shoppers to other related or similar product pages of your store.
• Mark the item as ‘temporarily unavailable’ and add product suggestions.
• You could also collect the user’s email addresses and notify them of the product being restocked.
• In the case of WooCommerce plugins and extensions plan all major updates before the holiday season begins, preferably start scheduling the updates by the third quarter.

You don’t want people purchasing out-of-stock products that will eventually redirect the homepage after checkout, or late delivery, terrible experience, and customer feedback. Create contingency plans for any mishap. There could be some issues with your inventory arrival, website, or shipping agency. Just be ready for the worst and hope for the best.

2. Optimize Store For BFCM Sales

Store optimization isn’t a one-day process but requires several preparations beforehand. The eCommerce holiday sales calendar for 2024 might not be coming close to Black Friday, but it is always advised to plan, to be on top of your game.

Product categories in eCommerce stores play a crucial role. Make sure you have categories for everyone like a parent, family member, friend, or college. Also, introduce categories for pets, sports lovers, make-up mistresses, work-from-home, medicals, gym freaks, featured products, foodies, etc., on your eCommerce store. When you deliver your products with customer satisfaction, there is no harm in showing off. Pull the attention towards your product reviews. Encourage users to share more reviews along with images.

Check out the reviews for the plugins developed by the WP Swings team:

3. Shipping, Refunds, And Locations For BFCM Sales

Mentioning the correct shipping dates of products is also a deal-breaker. Many users are time-specific, especially when it comes to shipping goods to their loved ones. So, avoid losing sales for something as minor as shipping dates.

It is crucial to have a dedicated refund and exchange policy in place before the peak festivities start. This is among the first steps to win your customer’s trust. How will you do this?

Do you ship to countries other than yours? If yes, then outline the various delivery date cutoffs based on the country in which your customers reside.

4. Navigation, FAQs, Live Chats, Images & GIFs

Holiday graphics add a festive spirit to your eCommerce store. That is to say; they can help you generate a consistent message across your website, giving your clients a clear picture of your holiday products.

Use holiday-themed banners to draw attention to your promotions, holiday landing page, shipping dates, etc. Images, videos, and GIFs are the most engaging media. Use good-quality compressed images to reduce load time.

Your navigation should work seamlessly for everything. Use a Product Filter for WooCommerce to facilitate easy product sorting for your customer.

However, you cannot possibly include all questions. What you can do is add a live chat option on your eCommerce store to interact with your customers instantly. Solve your customers’ queries and generate leads. Here is an example of how a live chat should look,

5. BFCM Sales Landing Page

A page for Black Friday & Cyber Monday sales promotes one place with one mission or a dedicated offer page that runs all the current offers of your platform. You can redirect your visitors/audiences from various sources such as social media, email, Google ads., SERPs, etc., directly to your landing page and everything related to BFCM in particular on that page in one go.

Adding something like this to your offer page can also be beneficial during BFCM sales.

Now, you have two ways to set up your landing page. Either code/design your web page manually or get a Black Friday template and quickly optimize your store for the BFCM marketing campaign.

Depending on how early you start optimizing your eCommerce store for BFCM sales, you can also create a pre-launch page. Creating a coming soon page:

• It gives you a headstart in BFCM marketing
• Help you build your BFCM sales-ready audience and grab their attention
• Give an idea of what your BFCM offers will be all about

Now, It is very easy to get overwhelmed during the festive season. There is so much to do with so little time. Having an eCommerce Holiday Checklist comes in handy in such situations.

6. Leverage Videos

Videos on the landing page to increase the conversion rate by 80%. They are more engaging, memorable, and less time-consuming. There are three types of videos that you can include on your landing page to make it appealing and engaging for BFCM sale. 

Leveraging videos for your BFCM marketing campaign will make you stand out from those sellers who don’t realize the importance of video marketing for their online store. You can use various video creation tools for hosting, creating, editing, and managing videos.

7. Countdown Timer For BFCM

A countdown timer for BFCM deals or product launches induces excitement. Include the time that remains to make the sale live or for the product to sell out. Instill urgency in your customer’s mind with a countdown timer.

The countdown time can be set based on hours, days, or weeks, based on the inventory you have in your stock and the approaching event. So, boost your online sales during the holidays with an urge for profitable purchases. Now, how will you incorporate this countdown timer into your website?

We have a solution for this as well the — WooCommerce Order Bump Plugin

The Countdown Timer Feature will let customers act fast and make a purchase—as they are concerned that your WooCommerce upsell products might not be offered in the future.

8. Offer Early Bud discounts (Hosting Pre-BFCM Sales)

Like last year’s BFCM sale is all set to start early and last longer than the previous year. To make the BFCM Sales a great success for your store, it is crucial to create awareness and hype about this sale. There are different ways of doing this, but the most interesting and effective way is to host a pre-festive or an early bud discount.

It is also important to note that the majority of the customers start their holiday shopping before the actual festivities start. With large percentages of shoppers planning to start making purchases before November even begins!

To capitalize on this market store owners should consider the early bud discount marketing strategy.

9. Stress Test Your Website

Holiday sales tend to increase traffic to eCommerce stores. That is to say, test whether your eCommerce store can handle a surge in traffic to avoid breaking down your site. Downtime on a website is equivalent to posting a sign on your front door urging customers to visit the competition.

Therefore, stress tests your website before the big weekend.

• Test your store’s load capacity
• Check your eCommerce store on different browsers.

10. Mobile Optimize Your eCommerce Store

The mobile responsive store is ‘on-the-go.’ Mobile accounted for 52% of paid search click share in 2024. Hence you can lose a considerable chunk of eCommerce revenue due to non-mobile responsiveness.

Users prefer the comfort of shopping via their mobile phones and some of them come to your store via social media. If you fail in this, you might as well not use social media marketing too.

• Make Sure Your Images and Videos are also Mobile-Friendly.
• Carry out Mobile-Friendly Test

11. Create A Sense Of FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out)

Simply providing offers will not work anymore. It has recently become a forcing medium to convert more shoppers quickly. Work with FOMO marketing. Show how fast your stocks are running out and users need to hurry to grab the best deals.

• Use urgency phrases in your headlines, phrases, titles, and text.
• Use the loss aversion strategy to induce pain
• Place and display limitations
• Use deadline
• Create flash sales

12. Focus On Lead Generation

Make the most out of your BCFM sales by capturing as many emails as possible during this festive period. The email IDs that you collect during the peak festive season can be utilized during the times when your business is running low on customers and sales.

There are many ways to do this, some of the popular ways are, 

• Hosting giveaways 
• Implementing loyalty programs
• Hosting competitions on social media platforms, and many more 

13. Retargeting Past Customers

Retargetting customers is a concept that almost all marketers know, as it is such a crucial marketing technique. But if you’re new, we got you!

It is equally important as it is to create new ones. If you’ve already installed a Facebook Pixel on your website, now is the time to put it to use. It helps in

• Evaluating cross-device conversions.
• Optimize delivery for people most likely to take action.
• Create a Custom Audience for website visitors.
• Know about your website traffic.

Customers who have previously purchased from your store can also be retargeted. Because existing customers are often easier to reach and market to than new customers.

Do you know what else helps in retargeting users? Email Marketing Campaigns.

14. BFCM Email Marketing Campaign

Email marketing, although one of the oldest but most efficient ways at every occasion and event. You can run your BFCM email campaigns and harness its benefits. It cuts through all the other holiday buzz and provides a personal touch for the user.

• When you have any announcements to make or promotional emails, you can’t just send text and expect conversion.
• Plan and start your BFCM email campaigns early. Send VIP emails to your best customers.
• Re-capture the user’s attention by sending follow-up emails. Moreover, after your BFCM sale is over, send another email inviting users to revisit your store off-season too. You can also include surveys.

You can adjust ad spending based on your budget. Just remember, spending on social media targeting has more chances of amplifying reach. However, investing in search engine ads will target users who are already hunting for products. Therefore, these are closer to conversion.

15. Track Competitors

Keep an eye on your competitors’ marketing efforts to get new ideas for your Black Friday and Cyber Monday Sales. Additionally, keep checking their social media handles. But, don’t get too inspired. Always keep room for your creative ideas. Set up Google Alerts to find out which websites are discussing them.

Subscribing to your competitors’ email lists is an easy method to stay on top of what they’re doing on Black Friday and Cyber Monday. You can gain a good understanding of their marketing strategy and adopt any suggestions on your own.

11 Best Tools & Tips for Soaring eCommerce Sales

eCommerce stores are created on different platforms like BigCommerce, WooCommerce, and Shopify. But the essence of these stores for this BFCM is to cultivate more revenue.

Here are a few essential tools and tactics that you should make sure to promote BFCM sales in 2024.

1. Buckle up With Festive Subscriptions

We understand that people buy gifts for their loved ones during the holiday season. But, don’t forget that people want to pamper themselves too. Self-love, right? So, while users browse through your store, make sure they come across great subscription offers. Beginning from the BFCM holiday season, selling subscriptions will generate revenue all year round.

• Make sure to mention your subscription offers and products.
• Give them extra savings using ‘free shipping’ or ‘extra 10% off’
• Create a fun survey to guide them to a personalized subscription bundle.
• An enticing deal for shoppers is that they purchase your subscription for at least 6 months.

2. BFCM Product Bundles And Recommendation Products

Creating product bundles is helpful to merchants as well as shoppers. Merchants increase their total sale value while shoppers experience a quick and less complicated buying process. Creating bundles saves a portion of your delivery expenses and elevates your profit.

Nevertheless, you need to be careful while deciding on the products for various group bundles. A non-relevant set of products may discourage your customers from even considering your product bundles for purchase. Follow bundle pricing strategies to create bundles that are profitable and increase sales.

3. Reward & Redemption For Loyalty Purchase

Loyal customers are a valuable asset, and keeping them engaged and satisfied is crucial, especially during BFCM. To reward and incentivize your most dedicated users, consider implementing a range of strategies. Start by offering them exclusive early access to your BFCM sale, allowing them to shop before the general public and get first dibs on the best deals.

This not only makes them feel valued but also builds anticipation and excitement. Additionally, reward loyal customers with extra loyalty points or special discounts that they can use during the sale. This encourages repeat purchases and deepens their commitment to your brand.

4. Encourage Referral Programs

Be it Black Friday deals or Cyber Monday sales, you can implement referral programs in your marketing list. Referral programs increase the engagement of existing customers while generating new leads.

The referrer earns points for each referral which can be redeemed after a specific limit. Also, many include gift cards as a digital gifting medium from their eCommerce platform. So, plan your shopping strategy wisely!

5. Create Your Festive Community For BFCM Sales in 2023

Think of it now if you have not yet thought about creating a community of members to give out the best deals on this BFCM. Creating membership plans and providing members-only discounts can increase your customer base.

Moreover, improve your store by providing exclusive BFCM prices based on user roles. Let all kinds of customers be happy to shop and extract discounted deals this festive season with Role-Based Pricing for WooCommerce.

6. Digital Wallets & Payments Are The New Black

Firstly, I’d like to say that digital payments are the future of eCommerce transactions. However, digital wallets are rising successfully. Digital and mobile wallets were globally the leading choice when it comes to buying online.

Adding a digital wallet for BFCM 2024 is a wise thing to stay ahead of your competitors. How?

• Firstly, it is secure, convenient, and flexible.
• Secondly, the rate of its youth utilization is high. Aged 18-25 prefer digital wallets the most.
• Thirdly, it favors mobile shopping entirely.
• Above all, it opens up more options for digital payments.

7. Digital Gift Cards Never Let You Down

Physical and digital products once sold still carry the risk of return, exchange, or refund. But, digital gift cards don’t carry any such hassle. It is a sure shot to ‘once sold, will only be redeemed. If not redeemed, you still have your money.

So you see how it works? It is a MUST-HAVE for your eCommerce store. For instance, Amazon has a wide variety of different e-gift cards. Moreover, the audience also finds it better than spending time searching for the perfect gift for everyone. Instead, they can easily send over a gift card that also acts as a substitute for cash.

Moreover, gift cards are trackable. So, you know what people buy most during the holiday season too. Gift cards promote customer loyalty. Additionally, improves your brand awareness. Get them in your store now.

8. Hassle-Free Returns & Partial Payments

The inevitable truth of the eCommerce business is that you will receive a refund, exchange, and return requests. But, don’t let that pull you down. Especially during the BFCM season, it is possible to receive many such requests.

That is to say, your role is to provide an exceptional experience to the user. So that, even if they have to return or exchange an item, they end up building trust in your services and store. It is a part of winning over customer confidence.

After the festive purchase, about one-third of the purchased products are requested for return and refund by the buyers. And therefore, without proper RMA management, businesses began to lose motivation and were crushed under the burden of a high volume of return and refund requests. Let’s learn about the advantages of having RMA management in place –

9. Stimulate Upsell & Cross-Sell

To make the most of the WooCommerce upsell approach, leverage data to offer personalized recommendations based on customers’ past purchases and browsing behavior.  Create appealing product bundles that pair complementary items together, making it easy for customers to see the value in purchasing additional products.

Implement targeted promotions and discounts for higher-tier products or related items to entice customers to spend more.

While upselling focuses on increasing the order value by persuading the customer to make expensive purchases, cross-selling involves making a product recommendation that can be purchased as an add-on. BFCM or the entire festive season is all about increased sales and revenue. It is the best opportunity to stimulate upsell and cross-sell techniques. You can always recommend better or related options to your shoppers.

10. Implement BNPL And BOPIS

We have already discussed the importance of personalizing the shopping experience for the costumes. Implementing BNPL (Buy Now Pay Later) for services and BOPIS (Buy Online Pickup In-Store) takes it to the next level. By doing this marketers are showcasing how much they value their customers and their accessibility. 

Obviously, these practices can’t be included overnight, but marketers still have a lot of time to figure this out. But if you sort out the supply chain and logistics snags, there’s nothing like BOPIS and BNPL to rake in customers. 

11. Gamify Your Offers To Increase Traction

If you are still debating whether or not to add the gamification feature to your online store, BFCM Sales can be your best shot to do it. Customers love a well-built and interactive website, that is exactly what will happen to your eCommerce store.

Including segments like “spin the wheel, ” be a game changer. We also have the perfect plugin that will help you do this. Points and Rewards for WooCommerce can be the answer to almost all your gamification questions. We have introduced a feature wherein a “win-wheel” experience captivates customers and drives participation, while rewards for engagement foster loyalty and repeat visits. 

By offering a unique, memorable, and tailored engagement, merchants can not only keep customers on their websites for longer but also benefit from word-of-mouth marketing as excited customers share their experiences, ultimately leading to increased sales opportunities and a stronger online presence.

Keep the Buzz Alive: Marketing Strategies For Before & After BFCM 2024

The end of the festival is not the end of sales and customers’ needs. The BFCM could be just the beginning of a purchase by a particular customer, so stay connected to them with your coming normal day sales or festive days.

Nurture them with regular emails. Use different types of email templates; eBook email templates, business email templates, resources email templates, announcement & promotional email templates, etc. for your email marketing.

Above all, the thank you email template for sending a follow-up email; is mostly used after conversions or sign-ups. eCommerce BFCM sales and marketing campaigns are essential after you have revamped your online store, and to make your customers feel like you care.

Your BFCM marketing strategy should be bulletproof.

How?

Leverage Social Media Marketing

Social media is a great platform for festive marketing. You have the majority of your customers on various social media, and all you need is to attract them and keep them engaged with you, even after the grand BFCM sale. A normal strategy is to write regular posts, informing your audience about your new offers, features, or products.

It is the best way to promote your holiday season sales and even drive revenue. People watch videos, and reels, or follow some influencers to buy their recommended products. So make your strategy accordingly.

1. Bring Personal Touch

Smoothen your buyer’s sales journey by giving them a more personalized experience. To implement personalization, you first need to gather enough information about your audience or customer, not just from previous purchases or browsing history but also through various surveys, social media listening, or other campaigns.

2. Social Media Pages

Re-design your Facebook page specific to BFCM deals and offers. In addition, update your Messenger chatbot with a new conversation that emphasizes offers, landing page links, discounts, and other sale promotions. Make the most of WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger. Reply to any query, take customer reviews, or send out holiday deals. Update your designs for each holiday sale post.

3. User-Generated Content

Never forget to leverage User-Generated Content. Instead of creating a lot of holiday content, reshare content, reviews, and photos of your customers out there. Resharing Instagram stories is the easiest. Just throw in a couple of tags and you’re done.

4. Hashtags

Have the power to increase your reach. To pep up this, you can also implement the power of hashtags like #CyberMonday, #BlackFridayDeal, #BlackFridayWeek, #CyberWeek, #Postsalemagic, and many more.

Not all hashtags are popular, the best practice is to discover popular hashtags and use them and gain more exposure. Find some using hashtag generator tools.

Final Check – Are You Ready For BFCM 2024?

This article presented you with simple tips to boost your online store sales on Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Please do let us know in the comments if you find this article helpful in making your eCommerce store BFCM marketing and sales-ready.  I hope all your doubts are clear regarding Black Friday eCommerce strategy or Cyber Monday marketing campaigns.
Here is the crux of this article in the form of an infographic.