How your Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals can convert to long-term customer loyalty
JP Arnaud-Marquez
·November 6, 2023
Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals can be critical for drawing in new audiences to your brand — but it’s important to get them right in both promotion and execution, or you’ll risk losing your potential customers to bigger retailers like Amazon and Walmart who have mastered the cyber week game.
To make sure you’re ready to play with the big boys, here are some tips on pulling off a successful cyber week that you can leverage to build ongoing customer loyalty and increased lifetime revenue.
Stock up early for the holiday season
Black Friday traditionally marks the start of the holiday season, where shoppers will be largely focused on finding items for holiday gifts as well as seeking out great deals on products for themselves. Many brands are likely to see dramatic increases in sales in the month leading up to Christmas — so well before that, it’s important to forecast your sales so that you have a good indication of which products you need to order more of to avoid running out during the holiday spike.
Make sure your technology infrastructure is ready to scale
Whether your business is online-only or also operates in-store, it’s important to make sure that your technology is set up to handle spikes in traffic, with a smooth POS and ecommerce experience that easily integrates and makes it easy to share data across the different solutions that you use, providing great visibility around your supply chain. Focus on accessibility in your website and mobile apps, ensuring that people with disabilities can read and view your content, offering a variety of formatting options and access to photo captions.
Determine which products will make the best Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals
You’ll likely offer an across-the-board promo coupon during cyber week, but shoppers are most excited about getting access to special doorbuster sales that they won’t see anywhere else. Pay attention to which products you’ve overstocked and are ready to liquidate, as well as offering exclusive discounts on specific types of gadgets and other products that you know will be bestsellers as holiday gifts this year. While these sales may not be the most profitable for your brand, they can help you tap into a larger pool of shoppers.
Find ways to upsell your Black Friday- Cyber Monday shoppers
When you’re selling items like smartwatches or iPads at 30% off suggested retail prices, these items may not be the most profitable—so build promos that help you pair doorbuster deals with items that have higher margins. For instance, if the shopper purchases a group of smart home accessories, maybe they’ll get $50 off the whole bundle if they spend at least $500, ensuring that they hit your spending cap to take advantage of the deal.
Retarget shoppers who didn’t buy anything during cyber week
Even if a shopper didn’t make a purchase on one of your Black Friday – Cyber Monday deals, if they’ve had a chance to explore your brand and liked what they saw, they may come back in the future. Use ad retargeting solutions to display ads and additional promos to people who clicked on your product pages, but never made a purchase. And for those who did make a purchase, you can use their shopping history to display ads for other products they might like, such as a new line of shoes from the same designer as the pair they purchased.
Focus on Small Business Saturday to build a niche
It can be tough for smaller retailers to compete with big box stores like Best Buy and Target, so don’t try to be just like them. Instead, focus on the differences between your brands by spotlighting your store as an example of Small Business Saturday during cyber week. You’ll be able to use your marketing to focus on your independent business and its story, helping you showcase your brand values and commitment to your community in a way that will attract new customers.
Optimize the post-purchase experience to retain shoppers during the returns process
In the aftermath of Black Friday sales and Cyber Monday deals, retailers see a higher volume of returned products. Whether the gift recipient didn’t like or need the product, or the shopper bought an item for themselves that didn’t work out, there are any number of reasons why you might see a high volume of returns during the holiday season — and most of those customers aren’t likely to revisit your brand in the future.
But by using a returns management solution like Loop, you can create a seamless post-purchase experience for your shoppers that enables them to initiate their return through self-service, and provides them with options for product exchange or a gift card that can be used towards a future purchase. Rather than simply asking them to exchange one size or color for another, shoppers have the flexibility to choose among any items that you have in stock, making it more likely that they’ll choose an alternative product instead of simply requesting a refund.
The Black Friday – Cyber Monday shopping period can be a chaotic time for retailers, but by following this playbook and finding opportunities to differentiate yourself from your competitors, you’ll be on the road to building a successful and sustainable path to scalable business growth—through cyber week and well beyond.
Want to learn how to leverage Cyber Week to improve your customer retention? Check out a demo of Loop.
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