Black Friday 2016 is just around the corner, and it's time for your business to get on the ball for the holiday season. Obviously, you don't want to creep into November with no idea of what you're going to be doing on the biggest shopping day of the year, but you don't want to start too early and turn your customers off, either. Making a solid plan for Black Friday now is one of the best ways to ensure that when the holiday season arrives, you're ready.
Closing For The Day On Black Friday?
In 2015, several businesses announced that they weren't going to be opening their doors for Black Friday. Instead, they encouraged their employees to spend time with their families and enjoy the long weekend. No waking up bright and early to open the store or leaving family dinner early to open the store on Thanksgiving. No fighting with long lines of dissatisfied customers. Many stores' websites were open, but they made it clear that orders wouldn't be shipping until Monday morning.
This is a trend that is likely to continue into 2016. As a result of their announcement about closing on Black Friday, REI experienced a 26% hike in online traffic. Other stores who chose to close on Thanksgiving and Black Friday saw similar increases in online traffic. With brick and mortar sales falling as more customers choose to shop online and avoid the holiday craziness, online sales are becoming more critical for many businesses. That means that for many small businesses, in particular, closing on Black Friday may make more sense than staying open.
The Holiday Shopping Season Begins
It's also become clear, thanks to the trends of the past couple of years, that Black Friday and Cyber Monday no longer stand in isolation. In fact, most consumers expect a full five days of sales beginning on Thanksgiving and stretching until Cyber Monday–which is still the biggest online shopping day of the year. As you're planning your Black Friday promotions, keep in mind just how important the entire season has become and make sure that you create your sales–and your advertising–accordingly. Staggering your sales is a great way to keep customers coming back throughout that peak period.
Setting Your Timeline
Start your social media marketing announcements for Black Friday and the rest of that critical shopping weekend around the second week in November. This gives you plenty of time to build up anticipation without sending your customers running for the hills by offering too much information too soon. Keep in mind, however, that early promotions will allow you to beat the shipping rush so often associated with the holiday season. Make sure that you let customers know when you're offering your best deals so they don't hang around waiting for Black Friday, only to be disappointed! Emails can go out a little earlier than your social media ads, but not so early that they're interfering with Halloween.
Don't Forget Mobile Convenience
As increasingly more shoppers turn to the internet for the bulk of their shopping needs, mobile convenience is more critical than ever before–and your cart will need to be able to support as much mobile traffic as possible. Test your servers to be sure what they'll take so that you don't get any surprises on the big day–like, for example, the fact that they aren't equipped to handle the amount of traffic you have coming in.
Black Friday is closer than most consumers are willing to admit, and your business needs to be prepared for it. If you need help creating and launching the perfect social marketing campaign for Black Friday 2016, contact us today to learn more about how we can make this your best holiday shopping season yet.
