The 5 Most Common Misconceptions about Black Friday for Businesses
For many retailers, brick-and-mortar and ecommerce alike, Black Friday is a day to capture a massive sales spike from frenzied shoppers who are after the highest discounts on the best products.
Over the years, the way Black Friday looks has changed, and 2021 will be no exception. Since it hit the UK, we’ve seen the number of sales for Black Friday go up each year and its duration shift from one day, to one weekend, to one month in some cases. We’ve also seen it develop from an in-store shopping frenzy to a mostly online event (the pandemic certainly helped this trend along).
If you’re participating in the madness that is Black Friday, we’re here to help. We’ve put together a list of the five most common misconceptions about Black Friday for businesses so you can go into the day with a fully informed plan.
1. Black Friday is a Formula and Discounts = Automatic Sales
What is the first thing you think of when you think about Black Friday? Deals, of course! The two go hand-in-hand. But this doesn’t mean you can get lazy and believe that offering a discount on Black Friday will instantly result in you getting a spike of sales on the day.
Many ecommerce brands have become attuned to think of Black Friday as a simple formula: big discount = big sales. This is not the case, though, because consumers are becoming blind to blanket discounts. A simple discount with the words Black Friday splashed across the ad will no longer be enough to catch attention and incentivise customers to buy. It’s too expected.
You need to be clever with the discounts you offer, what products and services you offer them, and how you present the offers. Segment your audiences and create specific offers for their needs and desires. Consider what motivates each segmented audience and play on this. Make it unique— it needs to stand out from the hundreds of other offers they will receive at the same time. A little bit of personalisation will go a long way this Black Friday.
2. Customers who buy from you on Black Friday Won’t Return After the Deals are Done
This misconception is based on the idea that Black Friday is a frenzy fest of people shopping for one-day deals only. Once the deals are gone, so are the customers.
If you accept this as fact, you’re going to be missing out on a massive opportunity to convert new customers to customers for life. Retention, or keeping your customers engaged with your brand, is the most effective way to grow your customer base, and it needs to be considered every time you plan a promotion. And there are several ways you can target Black Friday shoppers specifically.
Find ways to incentivise new customers to return. You could send out thank you notes via email and offer discounts on their next purchase or offer a discount as a reward for further actions such as giving feedback, signing up for your newsletter, or making another purchase within two weeks. You already know these customers are incentivised by exclusive offers because they’re shopping on Black Friday. Work with this knowledge!
Even offering competitions, free shipping, or free gifts can be a great way to keep these customers in your marketing sphere after the craze has finished.
3. Your Long Term Business Goals Don’t Apply to Black Friday
Black Friday has the reputation of being about growing sales only, but this is a major misconception. You can still focus on every part of the customer’s journey through the closed-loop on the day, and this will help you grow all aspects of your business.
Black Friday campaigns should be thought about the same way as any other marketing campaign you create. Think about your main goals as a business, and apply these to the way you approach it. You can still use the frenzy of Black Friday to your advantage.
If you want to focus on acquisition, great! Customers are much more open to trying new brands on Black Friday. Want to focus on retention or re-engagement? Even better! What better time could there be than the holidays to get previous purchasers interacting with your brand again?
All these possibilities are open to you. If you think about how you can use the opportunity to achieve your business goals above all else, you will find a way.
4. Black Friday Online Customers Don’t Want an Immersive Experience
The pandemic has led people to share more over social media than ever before to feel connected to people and communities while we’ve all been forced to stay apart. And half the fun of getting a good bargain on Black Friday is telling people about it.
Because of these factors, many trends suggest that the focus of Black Friday this year for ecommerce should be on creating an immersive shopping experience.
If you can give your customers a way of feeling the pleasure of in-store shopping on Black Friday online, it will be a positive experience for them, and a good user experience usually equals a returning customer.
One way that a lot of retailers gave customers a way to share their shopping experience online with their friends in 2020 was by crafting campaigns for customer referrals after purchasing.
Charles & Keith Black Friday 2020 Promotion
Refer-a-friend campaigns can be an excellent way to generate some organic growth and repeat purchases. It can be a way of extending that sales spike past Black Friday alone, while providing a new fun way for your customers to share their purchases with friends and interact with your brand.
Charlotte Tilbury Black Friday 2020 Referral & Competition Campaign
Referrals have a lot of value for businesses. Referral campaigns, on average, result in a return on investment ten times higher than a typical acquisition campaign and referred customers are 5x more likely to refer others and usually spend 11% more on their first order.
If you’ve not tried a referral program before, this Black Friday is the perfect time!
5. Everyone Offers Discounts on Black Friday Therefore You Should Too
It’s easy to see Black Friday as a “must-do”, but at the end of the day it’s completely optional. No one is forcing you to do it, and it can take a lot of effort and time to prepare for. Many large brands in the UK began dropping out of the day’s events years ago, including Marks and Spencers— and it’s not hurt them one bit. For 2021, it’s predicted that many more brands will be following suit.
The pandemic has presented a lot of new challenges for businesses. Many brands simply aren’t prepared for a mass uptake in sales due to staffing shortages in warehouses, increased shipping costs, and a lack of product availability. We’ve seen brands focusing on electronics and toys especially affected by these complications. These brands will likely be taking a backseat this November.
If Black Friday doesn’t fit in with your business goals or your goals will be hard to achieve while providing a good experience for your customers, you’re allowed to ignore it. You should never feel like you need to participate in a holiday if participating will not create a positive experience.
If you’re worried about the FOMO, try to offer something else that’s still of value to your customers instead of mass discounts. Maybe this could be an excellent chance to clear out some old stock or promote some of your best sellers by offering exclusive bundles or samples like The Body Shop did in 2020.
The Body Shop’s Black Friday 2020 Product Bundles
If it’s not going to be a positive event for your brand that will contribute towards your business goals, it may be best to sit this one out.
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