Reimagine Your Retail Business (on Shopify) For BFCM – 15 Point Checklist

With the holiday season around the corner, it’s time for marketers to gear up for the biggest sales event – Black Friday Cyber Monday (BFCM). This season serves as a great opportunity for all businesses of different shapes and sizes to amp up their sales and add more to the revenue game. In 2019 alone, Shopify business owners made a whopping $1.5 billion during BFCM.

But, unlike the other years, this year’s BFCM is going to be different. The novel coronavirus pandemic has changed the landscape of BFCM shopping. With fears around a raging pandemic, global lockdown, and the subsequent closures of brick-and-mortar retail stores, most shoppers are going online – a trend that is here to stay, till it is again safe to physically be at a retail store.

Why should you start preparing early?

Well, if you start early, not only do you give your marketing team more time to gear up but also avoid the last-minute errors. Besides, with fierce competition from top brands, creating a holiday buzz around your brand becomes critical as you have to work double harder to get your shoppers’ attention.

A recent research by Shopkick found that this year:

34% of shoppers are looking to complete their purchases before it gets to Thanksgiving.
27% of them plan to do it during BFCM.
The rest, 17% expect to complete their shop on Black Friday.

As much as the need for BFCM sales to rock look critical, recovering the losses incurred during the pandemic is also essential. Thus, if you still want to stay competitive, you need to get your BFCM ducks out ASAP.

Whether you are selling product/services on Shopify, this 15 point checklist we have built on preparing your business for this holiday season will surely give you a headstart.

Plan your promotions/offers:

1. Implement a referral program

Implementing referral programs in your BFCM promotion list, not only boosts engagement but also generates new leads for your business. Getting your present shoppers to vouch for your products, will add more value to the consumer trust quotient than running an ad by yourself.

Design your referral programs in such a way that the current customer who refers earns points for every referral they either through discounts or gift cards. So, plan your referral strategy wisely!

Boux Avenue used the following promotional idea for their 2019 Black Friday referral campaign.

Shopify Apps for building a referral program:

Referral Candy, Smile

2. Gamify the offers

The new trick on the block is Gamifying your BFCM offers. This widely used marketing technique is of definite help for your business. This is an extra spiced up surprise element in your website, that will generate multiple discount codes and is a great way to engage with your consumers too.

Here’s an example from FooGallery who gave it a shot with their special Black Friday promotion, by implementing the “Spin The Wheel” kind of game into their Black Friday sale page.

Shopify Apps to try:

3. Introduce Gift cards with price-points

One of the worst things that can happen to any business is not having a Plan B when you’re sold out? Well, we have a solution. Gift cards. These are an excellent way to capture sales that otherwise would have added revenue to your competitor. Plus, this also gets you enough time to restock before the gift cards are redeemed. This was used by the restaurant to capture sales along with offering gift cards at different price points for your consumers to make the most out of the season.

Shopify App to try:

Rise: Gift Cards & Loyalty

4. Unleash the BOGO’s

Who doesn’t want to reap the benefits of the ‘Buy One Get One promotions’? Although they look like typical retail brand offers on BFCM, they are effective, even more for services. A 50% off on services like a haircut or spa can help you take advantage of the promotions. EyeBuyDirect used this technique for their BFCM strategy.

Shopify Apps for craeting BOGO:

Ultimate Sales Boost , Quantity Breaks & Discounts

5. Limited Period Offers

Simply slashing your product prices doesn’t work well anymore. After all, nothing works better than instilling urgency in your shopper’s mind with timers. This works like a charm to coerce and convert shoppers quickly. So, boost your online sale this holiday season and get a taste of profits. The countdown timer used by Unbounce keeps consumers invested in the BFCM sale and helps to keep your revenue moving!

Shopify App:

Sales Countdown Timer Bar 2.0

6. Cyber Mystery Bundle

Another effective way to sway your consumers is to bundle up two or three products or services and offer them at exclusive price points. A cyber mystery bundle would make up for an interesting surprise, that would help you to encourage your shoppers to participate and eventually purchase. Causebox made use of the Black Friday Bundle and made a ton of impact and revenue from their Black Friday campaign.

Be ready with your Shopify store

7. Start with the BFCM Landing Page:

A dedicated web page for your BFCM sales can do wonders for your marketing game. A single landing page allows you to showcase your BFCM offerings in one go to your target audience redirected from various marketing channels. A loaded page with all your discount deals, products, announcements will encourage your audience to buy. You can either decide to code/design your web page manually or you can get a customized template from Shopify and quickly optimize it for your BFCM campaign.

Pro-Tip: Keep The CTA buttons prominent to your visitors.

Shopify App for building landing pages:

Shogun, Pagefly

8. Cross-sell and Up-sell Products/Services

BFCM is a great opportunity for businesses to cross-sell and up-sell. This only means, suggesting your consumers with products that go together with their purchased product to amplify your cross-selling and up-selling game together. Thus, if you’re selling a shoe, don’t forget to add socks, and maximize the marketing efforts.

Shopify Apps:

Bold Upsell, ReConvert Upsell & Cross Sell

Prepare your brick and mortar store

9. Implement COVID Safety Checklist

Although there has been a significant rise in online shopping, it can never diminish the charm of retail stores. While stores like Walmart and Kohl’s said that they won’t be open for BFCM, they will run BFCM deals from October itself. This only implies that you need to implement a COVID safety checklist to keep both your store employees and your shoppers safe. Also, don’t forget to train your employees about the precautions and the safety measures that they should take while in the store to keep everyone safe.

10. Offer Appointment Scheduling

In times of COVID-19, when people are moving to virtual shopping, click-and-collect shopping, you should offer appointment scheduling for store visits. It will ensure smooth operation and most importantly, the safety of your customers and store staff.

Sesami Shopify app lets you manage appointments seamlessly on your Shopify store as well as the POS with breeze. During these trying times, when contactless transactions are on the rise, implementing Sesami on Shopify can help you offer a seamless appointment booking and store visit experience.

Plan your holiday campaigns early

11. Design Your Creatives Early

Nothing beats a beautiful creative that conveys the spirit of Holidays to your shoppers. Dazzling visuals with promising deals and offers not only helps you grab their attention and grow BFCM sales. Fortunately, starting early gives you enough time on the clock to design some eye-catching ads, templates, countdown GIFs, and other graphics to drum up excitement.

12. Build Holiday Buzz With Quirky Emails

BFCM season is a great time to keep your shoppers updated and send them sneak peek emails! This helps your brand stay connected with consumers and make them feel special. Besides that, with smarter audience segmentation, you can send tailor-made emails based on the users’ shopping habits, previous orders, and wish list. Starting early buys you time to customize those messages and deals better, and send them way before BFCM hits to increase your chance of them shopping with you! Head over here to look at the Ultimate guide to Holiday Email Marketing.

13. Schedule Your Promotions

Gearing up your online store with the upcoming BFCM and holiday deals will only strengthen your marketing game. Schedule the savings-worthy promotion deals with Shopify, and prepare the copies for push notifications, emails, SMS – in about every aspect of a campaign can be scheduled.

Lastly, don’t forget to keep track of the promotion analytics to monitor performance and amplify the strategies that are working!

Operations & Customer support

14. Provide Prompt Support

Every customer is looking out for a unique and hassle-free shopping experience and more so during the holiday season. Thus, it becomes crucial to provide a quick, and empathetic response to provide a delightful customer experience. Although the holidays can get hectic, committing towards full-blown customer support can yield fruitful returns in the future.

Pro-Tip: Prepare a set of pre-made responses for frequent queries, that will help your customer support to be consistent with minimal effort.

Shopify Apps for customer support:

Richpanel, HelpCenter

15. Offer easy and hassle-free returns

The holiday season is a frantic and stressful time for both business owners and shoppers. That’s why it becomes essential for businesses to go above and beyond for their consumers. Clearly stating your return policy, along with other nitty-gritty would make shopping feasible for your consumers. You can also use Shopify’s new feature, which lets shoppers adjust, remove, or add products, before shipping the order.