8 Tips to Boost Black Friday and Cyber Monday Sales
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Red Alert! Black Friday and Cyber Monday have come and gone and it’s now time to prepare your eCommerce online store for the 2021 festive frenzy holiday season!
As an eCommerce merchant running an online store in South Africa, you know what this means. Increased online shoppers, increased sales, increased stress, and increased competition. The heat is on, so I’ll cut to the chase with my top tips that are easy to implement to make sure that your Netcash Shop online store is running at full speed.
1. “Compare to” Prices Displayed in Your Storefront
We unpacked the value of offering deep BFCM discounts in the 8 Tips to Boost Black Friday and Cyber Monday Sales article we posted recently. If you are running promotions in the weeks leading up to the holiday season, you will want to use the ‘Compare to’ feature to catch the attention of deal hunters browsing your online store by showing them what the original selling price was and the amount of money they will be saving if they buy online now.
Manage discount prices in Netcash Shop
Choose to display a rand value or percentage discount to your customers by editing the Cart & Checkout settings in Netcash Shop Admin > Settings > General > Cart & Checkout.
Next, update the ‘was’ and ‘now’ prices of the products in Netcash Shop Admin > Catalog > Products.
- Select the product you would like to edit and navigate to the ‘Price’ section to make the changes.
- Save the changes.
- Learn more about discounts in Netcash Shop >
2. Offer Discounts on Order Subtotal
Traders use this type of discount with the expectation that customers will add more items to the cart and increase their basket size to reach a certain threshold and qualify for a discount.
To successfully run this type of promotion you should have a good portion of repeat customers or well-known products that customers would be open to buying more of.
You can set up discounts on order subtotal in Netcash Shop Admin > Marketing > Automatic Discounts.
Read more on Automatic Discounts with Netcash Shop >
3. Set Up Bulk Discount Pricing
This is another subtle way to let your customers know that you offer great value and they can save on gifts if they buy several of the same items.
Bulk discount pricing
Set up bulk discount pricing in Netcash Shop Admin à Catalog à Products and navigate to ‘Bulk discount pricing’ in the pricing section of your product. As your customer adds more items to their cart, Netcash Shop will automatically calculate the total discount and display it as a percentage.
4. Create Discount Coupons
Online traders love using coupons for their flexibility. They are excellent tools to use if you want to run a promo on many different terms:
- Give a discount to repeat customers only
- Give a discount depending on order subtotal
- Offer free shipping on specific conditions and more.
To use Discount Coupons you need to set the qualifying rules that apply to be able to use the coupon. Netcash Shop will generate a random code for you or you can create a custom code, for example, “CYBERMONDAY20”. When you have set up the coupon rules, you can share the code on your website, social media or personally via email, depending on how you want to use the coupon.
Below are some examples of rules that you can apply to coupons:
- Apply a time and date rule to coupons, for example, valid for 24 hours or valid for 7 days
- Limit the number of times a coupon can be used
- Make a coupon valid to a specific user
- Make a coupon valid for specific products and
- Apply a minimum order value for the coupon to be valid
Learn how to set up coupons here >
Tip: you can create, enable and pause coupons on the go with the Netcash Shop store management app.
5. Run a BOGO(F) campaign
A great way to catch your customer’s attention. BOFO(F) stands for Buy-One-Get-One-Free and this promo has many fans. Install the app in the Netcash Shop app market, set up your rules and start driving sales.
6. Offer Free Shipping
Free shipping, yes, please. Offering your customers free shipping is a tried-and-trusted marketing strategy and it is easy to set up.
You can set u free shipping sitewide, for order values exceeding an amount and for specific regions.
Find out everything you need to know about Shipping & Pickup here >
TIP: You can also use coupons to create a coupon code for your customers to apply at checkout. You can use a coupon code to apply free shipping based on your customer’s cart value or send the coupon code to VIP customers only.
7. Offer Gift Wrapping
To keep your customers coming back offer them value by saving them time and making their lives easier. It is a great idea to offer a gift-wrapping service to your customers over gifting season. You can use product options to offer free wrapping, or charge an amount for wrapping options.
Use Product Options to add the service to specific products, or add gift wrapping as a stand-alone product.
TIP: If you add gift wrapping as a stand-alone product, make sure you add it as a recommended product on the product description pages and at checkout.
8. Add a call-out to your Home Page
Make your offer or value add stand out on Home Page and storefront. When customers land on your site, you want them to see your offer immediately. Shout it from the rooftops ‘Free Shipping on all orders over R500’
To add and customise a call-out, in the Netcash Shop admin panel go to Catalog > Categories > Store Front Page > General and add your text, image, or even a video.
9. Add Call-Outs for Special Offers on Category Pages
You can use the same tools to market deals on your category pages. If your deal or discount applies to a total category, add it in the category, or create a category with qualifying products.
In the Netcash Shop admin panel go to Catalog > Categories, select the existing category or create a new category and add a description with text, banner or video.
10. Promote Your Deals at Checkout
Use the Checkout Notices app in the Netcash Shop app store to promote deals and notify customers of important shipping updates or holiday business hours.
11. Display a Promo Bar
Find the Zotabox app in the Netcash Shop app market and add it to your admin panel. You can add customisable promo banners to highlight important notices or deals. You can create hype with a countdown timer, capture contact details with an email field, add a CT and choose from multiple colours and fonts., email and social fields and a CTA.
12. Use Product Ribbons to attract attention
Use Product Ribbons to highlight items and attract customers to specific products. A Product Ribbon can be added to individual items or multiple items in bulk. Simply customise the label colour add text with short callouts like ‘SALE’ ‘NEW’ or ‘SOLD OUT’.
13. Add Strategic Related Products
You can upsell and cross-sell to increase your customer’s order value. Add related products to the product description page and at checkout to feature supplementary products or best selling products to catch your customer’s attention. An example of supplementary products would be adding a conditioner item to the product page of shampoo from the same brand. Use ‘You May Also Like’ as your secret sales ninja.
Set up Related Products like this >
14. Highlight Recently Viewed Products
Customers are shopping on multiple sites and it is almost impossible to remember everything they view. Add the Free Recently Viewed Products app to your Netcash Shop admin panel, choose where to display the products and sit back while we remind your customers of products they viewed recently.
15. Create FOMO
Show your customers how many units of stock you have left so that when you are running low, this will push your customers to add the items to the cart and checkout to avoid missing out on the deal.
In the Netcash Shop admin panel, go to Settings > Design and select to show stock to customers option in the ‘sidebar’ section.
TIP: make sure you disable the feature that hides products that are sold out. When your customers see that some products are sold out it creates a sense of urgency to avoid missing out.
TIP: make sure you disable the feature that hides products that are sold out. When your customers see that some products are sold out it creates a sense of urgency to avoid missing out.
You can disable the “Hide out of stock products” in the Netcash Shop admin panel under the settings menu Settings > General > Cart & Checkout.
16. Run Ad Campaigns
Make sure you reserve some funds for marketing your promotions. Netcash Shop has some tools for remarketing and dynamic ads on Facebook, Instagram, and Audience Network with the free Facebook Pixel, and make use of Automated Google Shopping for Netcash Shop.
17. Sell Gift Cards Online
Gift Cards are extremely popular gifts and most shoppers spend more than the amount on the gift card.
You can set up digital Gift Cards in the Netcash Shop admin panel under Catalog > Gift Cards. You can add images, change the name of the gift card and track gift card balances with Netcash Shop.
Find out more about Gift Cards here >
18. Use Product Subtitles
Similar to a Product Ribbon, Product Subtitles can be used for a short product description to highlight any important features, mention a special offer or highlight free shipping.
The Product Subtitle allows your customer to find the right products faster and find out important information without having to open the product while browsing.
Learn more about Product Subtitles here >
19. Improve Overall Shopping Experience
Here are some final tips to consider while preparing for a successful gifting season:
- Partner with bloggers and add your products to their blog with a Buy Button, increasing your reach and allowing customers to buy in one click.
- Offer in-store pickup, also known as click and collect, to customers in your region.
- Make sure you have added or updated your legal pages/shop policies.
- Add product reviews to your strategy to gain more trust from your customers.
Author:
Steven Howard
eCommerce Product Owner
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