Black Friday has become increasingly popular over the past few years. The iconic American shopping day has quickly established itself here in the UK as a key time for busy shoppers in the run up to Christmas, with billions of pounds spent over the weekend and on Cyber Monday last year.

For online store owners, this is fantastic news in the run up to Christmas! In fact, reports from last year showed that despite a dwindling number of shoppers hitting the high street, Black Friday sales are on the rise in the UK with online shopping making up a large majority of transactions.

If you own an online store, taking advantage of Black Friday and Cyber Monday is a must. Everybody’s hunting for deals, so prepare yourself for increased visits to your online shop and make sure that you’re ready to convert them to sales.

This year, Black Friday falls on Friday, November 23^rd with Cyber Monday following on Monday, November 26^th. Starting early is key to getting your shop in shape for the Black Friday boom.

Improve your Shop

In the run up to Black Friday and Cyber Monday, it’s a good idea to treat your online shop just as you would a physical store if you were expecting a much larger foot fall through the door by making sure you’re ready for it. To prepare:
 

• Make sure your site is mobile-friendly: If your online shop doesn’t quickly respond to all devices, you’re already missing out on sales since more and more shoppers use their smartphones and tablets to make purchases. All Shopblocks e-commerce sites are responsive by standard, so book your free demo today to get started!

• Extend your fulfilment time: The last thing that you want is to leave your customers disappointed after making their order. It’s always better to overestimate your dispatch and delivery times, particularly during such a busy period of the year. Consider hiring temporary staff to help out if you need to maintain same- or next-day dispatch.

• Monitor your stock levels: If your business carries physical stock, it’s worth over-ordering in the run up to Black Friday. Make sure that you’ve ordered enough and keep a careful eye on stock so that you don’t over-sell items. Shopblocks allows you to easily integrate with POS systems so that your customers will automatically be updated when an item they’re looking at is no longer in stock, helping you avoid any Black Friday mishaps.

• Update your store design: Don’t forget to let your customers know that you’re participating in Black Friday and Cyber Monday this year! The easiest way to do this is with a banner on your homepage that grabs their attention as soon as they enter your site. You can easily add this in BlockLab in minutes!

Running a Black Friday Cyber Monday Promotion

Most online retailers will be running promotions during this time and marketing them heavily. The good news is that even if you don’t offer any discounts, your store is likely to see an increase in traffic over Black Friday and Cyber Monday, but on the flip side, visitors are less likely to convert if they don’t see any discounts to take advantage of. To make sure that you’re converting visits to sales, you could:
 

• Discount selected items: Choose some best-sellers and items that you want to clear out before Christmas and offer them at a discounted rate for Black Friday and Cyber Monday. It’s a great excuse to get rid of end-of-line items or stock that you’ve been hanging onto for a while.

• Offer a site-wide discount or have discount thresholds so that the more a customer orders, the more they’ll be able to save. This is easy to do with Shopblocks.

• Offer free shipping: If you’re not in a position to sell your products at a discounted rate, free shipping can be a great consolation prize. In fact, 9 out of 10 consumers say that free shipping is a top incentive for them to buy, regardless of whether or not the original price is cut.

• Have a clear time frame: A shorter sale period may encourage more people to order but running it out a little longer spreads out the increase in purchases and gives you more time to fulfil orders.

Marketing your Black Friday Cyber Monday Promotion

Getting the best results from your Black Friday promotion means making sure that your customers know all about it. Keep your customers in the know by:
 

• Keeping your site updated: Use the banner feature in BlockLab mentioned above, or add a pop-up advertisement to make sure that every visitor to your site knows there’s Black Friday deals available.

• Spreading the word on social media: Use your Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram profiles to let your followers know you’re taking part and all about the discounts they can enjoy. Don’t forget to include links to your product pages so that they can easily click through and buy anything that takes their fancy.

• Emailing your customers: Mention your Black Friday promotion in all email communications to your customers, including order confirmations and marketing emails. Send a specific email out about it, too.