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Black Friday eCommerce Advice Round Up
To help you navigate the upcoming Black Friday season, we’ve compiled a collection of valuable resources from those in the know—our industry experts! Based on recommendations from our community inspired by Chloe Thomas’s recent blog post, we’ve gathered tips and advice—including ebooks, webinars, and blogs—to help you develop effective strategies and backup plans for this year’s Black Friday. With another unpredictable holiday season ahead, it’s more important than ever to be informed, flexible, and ready to adapt.
Black Friday: What's the Best Way to Drive Profit? | an eCommerce Explored Panel | eCommerce Tech
Get it here
Recommended by eCommerce Tech
10 Black Friday Top Tips 2024 including Affiliate Marketing, Attribution, and Inventory Management
Get it here
Recommended by Chloe Thomas and you can listen to the episode here:
🍏 On Apple: https://keepopt.com/apple
🦒 On Spotify: https://keepopt.com/spotify
▶️ On YouTube: https://keepopt.com/youtube
BLACK FRIDAY ADVICE
1 - Lauren Duncan, Philip Kingsley
“I would say to keep it simple and be transparent with your customers! If you’re planning something ‘extra’ on actual BF or CN let them know to avoid disappointing them and creating a bad experience and conversely, if you’re not, let them know they won’t miss out on anything by shopping early!”
2 - Natalia Chappell, Natalia Chappell & Co
“Engage with your audience now! Warm them up, remind them you exist so when they’re ready to get into those Black Friday deals they have you at the forefront of their mind! It’s not a sprint it’s a marathon and doing the work now (upper funnel) means A: you’ll be paying less for additional traffic ahead of BFCM madness begins and then retarget them to get them to convert 🫶🏻”
3 - Andy Stockwell, Andy Stockwell Consultancy
“Be different and stand out, nothing will bring more Black Friday fatigue than people seeing the same message in every email they open. I've been helping brands to stand out online since the first Black Friday in the UK!”
4 - Rich Evans, Get Better Limited
“Be warming up and widening your email lists, anyone that’s fallen into unengaged and is in danger of sunset - start building them back in ready when your content hits.
Segment out people that engaged with BFCM last year and have them ready.
Then PLEASE have a more robust plan to keep all those BFCM new acquisitions thru December and January.”
5 - Simon Wharton, Indexping | PushON
“If you are prepping now, you're late. I go on about this endlessly to the point of tedium, but really focus on lifetime value. Black Friday profit is hard so think about your comms with that customer over the next year and make sure you have the messaging in place for the next year.”
6 - AJ Saunders – Audacious Commerce
“Be congruent with your brand promise! (e.g. if you're anti discount, don't run a BFCM campaign!)”
“Best BF advice - avoid it at all costs.
From our experience it's caused customers to hold off spending money in the weeks before in anticipation of a BF deal. This results in a drop in sales during November and then a frenzy of heavily discounted sales over a day or so.
Once you're over that hurdle of resource planning and cash flow issues, you've the logistics delivery networks to contend with. They become swamped with parcels and "next day delivery" becomes an illusion that we still pay for but have little hope of seeing the value for that expenditure.
Delivery times stretch with delays and lost parcels (we've had BF despatches arrive with a customer in February!, and who knows where all the RoyalMail parcels ended up after their strike action last year)
End result - an increase in customer service noise - "Where's my order you said I'd have . . .". results in stress, disgruntled customers, loss of loyalty and future business, and then there's the poor reviews to damage a reputation.
We're going with telling our customers we won't be doing any crazy BF deals. We provide great prices all year round for our loyal customers. We'll encourage them to plan around this chaotic time and expect delivery delays.
Happy Christmas :-)”
BLACK FRIDAY EBOOKS
1 - Unlocking BFCM Success: A Roadmap for 2024
Get it here
2 - Golden Quarter 2024: Your Complete Guide to Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Christmas
Get it here
Recommended by Natalie Millen from Loqate for some last minute tips!
3 - eBook – Mastering BFCM 2024: A Strategic Guide & Expert Insights
Get it here + more from Snacks
Recommended by Irem Isik from Storyly
4 - The Order Edits Playbook for Shopify & Brightpearl: A Guide to Streamlining Your Operations
Get it here
Recommended by Jonathan Petrie from dot on, who says exceptional customer service is key, especially during seasons like BFCM.
BLACK FRIDAY BLOGS
1 - 10 Black Friday Marketing Tips for 2024 – Klaviyo
Get it here
Recommended by Asgar Dungarwalla from GiftsOnline4U whose takeaway from this blog is to start planning early.
2 - 15 Strategies to Prepare for Managing Black Friday Returns - ReturnGo
Get it here
Recommended by Andy Richley from Cogent2
3 - Black Friday Cyber Monday 2024 Operational Checklist - Fabrikatör
Get it here
Recommended by Bahadir E. from Fabrikatör, whose advice is to still go over their guide and checklist to see if you’ve missed anything.
4 - Essential Guide to Sale Emails – Hannah Spicer Consulting
Get it here
Recommended by Hannah Spicer, saying you also need to include a sweep up campaign once promotion period has ended.
5 - 12 Tips for Magento Black Friday Preparation - objectsource
Get it here
Recommended by objectsource – part of the Ampito Group
BLACK FRIDAY WEBINARS & GUIDES
1 - The Weekly Data Show #201 – IMRG
Get it here
Recommended by Janis Thomas of Look Fabulous Forever, sharing that the show covers what retailers are planning for BF this year.
2 - Black Friday webinar recap: Expert Strategies for Maximizing Your Sales
Get it here
Recommended by Becca Anderson from Instant Commerce, sharing this recap from their BFCM expert panel webinar.
3 - BFCM 2024 – Realtime Intent Driven Onsite Personalization Strategy
Get it here
Shared by Shwetank Tamer of Cooee
