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8 Black Friday Promotion Ideas to Rock Your eCommerce Sales
Are you ready for Black Friday? The busiest shopping weekend of the year will be here faster than you know it, and now is the time to make sure all of your promotions are set up for success.
Below, we share our top eight Black Friday/Cyber Monday promotion ideas and their pros/cons to help you determine which promotion type is right for your eCommerce brand. Take your pick, test a couple different ones, and even consider combining offers to boost your sales.
1. Percentage-Off Sitewide
To your customers, a % off sitewide promotion appears to be a huge sale, which is particularly great for attracting both new and returning customers.
The Pros:
Easy to implement. We recommend slashing prices on the site versus using a coupon code; it’s easier for the customer to see the discount, add to cart, and complete the purchase. Just don’t forget to lift your prices after the sale.
Easy to advertise. Use Google Promotion Extensions and Shopping Merchant extensions in your ads. And don’t forget to use Facebook Offer ads!
Easy to explain. Adding “% off” copy is simple to explain (e.g. “Get 40% off sitewide!”)
The Cons:
Is it enticing? This is a common promotion for BFCM sales, so it may be hard to get noticed amidst all the noise.
How is your GPM affected? Take into consideration all your products and your gross profit margin. Will you lose money overall? You might only sell your most popular products and won’t be able to push other high-stock items.
Competitor could offer a better discount. For example, you offer 15% and your competitor offers 20%. You could lose market share and have to scramble to lower the discount at the last minute.
2. Free Shipping
Back in the days before Amazon Prime’s free two-day shipping (or now, same-day), this promotion would have been a good standalone offer. But now customers expect free shipping. We recommend combining it with another promotion type.
The Pros:
Easy to implement. Add Free Shipping copy to your ads and website to improve your CTR.
Easy to explain. Customers love getting free shipping. If possible, consider upping the shipping speed to be more appealing (e.g. delivery in three days instead of five).
The Cons:
Is it enticing? On the busiest shopping weekend of the year, free shipping is more expected.
Can’t use Google Promotions. (But you can add a Google Callout extension and Shopping promotion)
3. BOGO
Buy one, get one free (or half-off) is a promotion that will surely have your products flying off the shelves, especially if it’s popular to have more than one of said products.
The Pros:
Sell high-inventory products. If you have certain products you want to push, this is a quick and easy way to do it.
Buying in pairs. It’s a good strategy if your product is something people want to buy more than one of. (Clothing, shoes, or accessories are good examples. Who can ever have too many jeans?!)
Buy one, gift one. If the product isn’t something that is popular to buy in pairs, you could offer a buy one and give one as a gift deal. Customer feel like they are getting a free gift to give to someone else.
The Cons:
Is it enticing enough? To determine this, take a look at the number of your returning customers, which products do they come back for?
Be prepared to sell out. It’s a mixed blessing. Watch your inventory numbers closely, and, to avoid having upset customers, add a term like “until sold out” to warn people that once the products are gone, the promotion is over.
- Can’t use Google Promotion Extensions. (But you can use Shopping Promotion.)
Promotions Ready? Check.
Feel like you’re forgetting something? Ensure you’re prepared by downloading our Advertiser’s Checklist for Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
4. Free Gift with Purchase
If you have a high-inventory product, offering it as a free gift with a purchase of, let’s say, $50 or more, is a great way to: 1) get customers to purchase more products to reach that dollar amount, and 2) push that high-inventory item off the shelves. And, as the makeup industry has shown, it works—people love free stuff!
The Pros:
Tighter control of profits. You pick the $ amount required to spend in order to get a free gift, and choose what you want to gift.
Great for luxury brands. If your products are higher end, you won’t dilute your profits (or brand) with a percentage-off discount.
Gift card as the “free gift.” This variant on the free gift with purchase promotion guarantees that people come back to spend at your store.
The Cons:
Is it enticing enough? Think about which free gift your customers would want. It has to be something that appears worthwhile in order to get them to convert.
New assets required. You may have to create new assets (photos, videos, etc.) to make your free gift more appealing to customers.
Can’t use Google Promotion Extensions. (But can use Shopping Promotions)
5. Flash Sales
A flash sale is a promotion you offer for a short period of time, often with a limited quantity available. You’ll want the discount to be higher than a regular sale in order to entice customers to essentially “impulse buy.”
6. Bundle Packages
Bundling products and offering a discount is a great way to sell more inventory, and fast. Computer bundles are particularly popular: purchase a laptop with a mouse and carrying case included.
The Pros:
Sell more inventory. You can package best sellers with least sellers to get some of that stock off your shelves.
More GPM to work with. With more of your products in a bundle, you have more gross profit margin to work with, and you can typically offer a bigger discount to the customer.
Customers spend more. It’s a win-win. You sell more, while they get a deal on the products they perhaps would purchase anyway.
The Cons:
New assets required. You’ll need to create new photos to show what the bundle includes, and you’ll need to create a new SKU.
More complicated to explain. You’ll need to show images and explain clearly in the descriptions what they customer is getting in the bundle.
Can’t use Google Promotions. However, if you create a new SKU, you can push the bundle in your Google Shopping and Facebook ads.
7. Charity Donation
It’s the holiday season, and many people are in the spirit of paying it forward. Offering a donation to a charity of your choice with each customer purchase is a great way for both you and your customers to give back.
The Pros:
The warm and fuzzies. You’re giving back and the customer feels good about helping others too.
Opportunity for cross promotion. Depending on the charity, they may help you by promoting on their channels. Reach out to see if you can build a partnership.
The Cons:
Takes away from your profits. However, aside from feeling good about giving back, your donations could help with tax breaks come January.
Don’t forget to follow up. You’ll need to follow-up with the customer to let them know the money was donated. This helps build trust.
Customer Fatigue. According to this article, this tactic has been getting overly used and some people are ignoring the charity donation promotion.
8. Limited-Edition Product
Do your customers love buying limited-edition products from your eCommerce store? Consider offering something seasonal or a favorite product with a new twist, like a special design.
The Pros:
It’s exciting. You can tease that a new product is coming ahead of time to create buzz.
No loss of GPM. A new product won’t take away from your gross profit margin.
Promotes urgency. It will only be available for a short time, and there are only so many available. Consider pairing it with a discount that will go up if customers don’t purchase within a certain time frame.
The Cons:
Is it enticing enough? If the product itself isn’t appealing to your audience, you’ll be hearing crickets.
Time constraints. Do you have enough time to develop it and create new assets to promote it?
Difficult to predict sales. With a new product, it’s hard to know how much inventory you need. The good news is that if you do sell out, you can have others sign up for a list and send an email when you get more in stock.
Grow Your eCommerce Business Year-Round
In the next week or so leading up to BFCM, take a close look at which promotions will be most enticing to your customers and cost-beneficial for your brand, and use your BFCM checklist before and the day of the sale. Good luck!
Need help managing your Google Shopping campaigns throughout the year? Your Marketing People has the expertise to get your products to the top of the Shopping feed. Contact us.
