Black Friday is perhaps one of the most anticipated events of the year: the week in which it is possible to buy products and clothing with sensational discounts, ranging from 30 to 70%. During Black Friday 2020, over 40% of consumers said they bought products on offer only from online stores, using e-commerce and getting an average discount of between 26 and 50% of the original selling price. But how to prepare for this particular event of the year? Those who manage an online store know well how important it is to plan well in advance the week most awaited by consumers, which in the course of 2021 will fall in November, in the period between 26 and 30 November 2021 (Black Friday as per tradition should last only one day, precisely on Friday, but generally the discounts are extended for about a week, in order to end on the following Monday: cd Cyber Monday). But what exactly is Black Friday? And how long does it last?

Black Friday and Cyber Monday: the week most awaited by consumers

Black Friday, translated from English, means Black Friday: a day that in the United States of America corresponds to the day immediately following the Thanksgiving holiday. For Americans it is not a festive occasion, but since it falls close to Thanksgiving it is experienced as a period of positivity, in which many schools and businesses are closed to the public to make a bridge until the following Monday. The American tradition has it that Black Friday, as per tradition, extends only for 24 hours: an entire day of shopping in the name of convenience for retailers and discounts for buyers. In recent years, however, there has been the emergence of a particular custom especially in Italy: discounts are offered to the public for the whole week until the following Monday, called Cyber Monday (from the English "cyber Monday"). The latter is nothing more than a recent extension of Black Friday, which today is no longer celebrated for a single day but until the Monday following Black Friday. Originally Cyber Monday was born as a day dedicated to discounts in e-commerce, but over time it has been used indifferently by online and physical stores as a strategy to boost sales: today merchants and retailers use Black Friday and Cyber Monday indifferently to offer discounts and offers to its customers, at favorable conditions for both.

The most profitable sales week of the year

From a commercial point of view, Black Friday is somewhat considered the beginning of the Christmas shopping season, in Italy as well as in the United States. In fact, during the week of Black Friday, usually until the following Monday, physical and online stores offer customers offers and discounts for a limited period, even throughout the day. In Italy now, behind the original push of the American model, Black Friday has turned into a tradition that has become increasingly popular: a recent study has shown that over 70% of Italians wait for the week of Black Friday to buy personal products and buy Christmas gifts, considering Black Friday as an excellent opportunity to save and buy quality products. Google statistics are also very positive in this regard: Google Trends shows us that consumer interest in Black Friday has grown more and more over time, highlighting how in the days immediately preceding the event, and those of the week itself. Black Friday, Black Friday is one of the most typed words on search engines. But where does this tradition of discounts and offers for consumers come from? And how can it be exploited in favor of e-commerce? Black Friday was originally conceived to entice consumers to purchase Christmas gifts, which is why it is celebrated in November, just before Christmas. Department stores, physical stores and e-commerce offer their products at sensational discounts, thus attracting the interest of consumers. With the advent of the internet, in particular, and therefore of e-commerce, taking advantage of all the benefits of Black Friday becomes simple and convenient, just plan this week in detail to maximize sales. But how can e-commerce companies optimally prepare for the event?

Prepare for Black Friday and Cyber Monday: the most useful sales week for e-commerce

Black Friday and Cyber Monday are two unmissable commercial events, not only for customers, who can buy their favorite products with high discounts, but above all for e-commerce, which if they can plan these events well in advance can take advantage of them. at full convenience, optimizing their sales. Black Friday, in particular, for many online companies has become the event that most of all allows to generate revenue, even more than the Christmas shopping period. To boost sales during the Black Friday week it is important to take full advantage of all existing channels, including social networks and reference websites. The rules in this regard are: "preparation, perseverance and promotion". The three fundamental levers that allow e-commerce to take full advantage of the trend of purchases that consumers make throughout the week, including the following Monday. The first thing to update is the reference web page of the online store: both to prepare customers and to inform them. This "strategy" must be done even before the week of Black Friday, in the previous six / seven days. It is essential that customers, followers and non-followers of the page, can be aware of the approaching discounts, which is why it is important to update the page of your online store with care, paying attention to the details and completeness of the information (customers prefer the clarity of information: it is better to specify the discount percentage that will be applied to the products, which will be discounted and which will not). Through a careful care of ecommerce, customers will be encouraged to visit the site in those days, to find the right purchase opportunity for their case. Online stores that use a web page for customer communications can also take advantage of this channel, just send newsletters to subscribers well in advance: even in this case the password is planning. Furthermore, as the days of promotions approach, it is important to set up your own themed sales pages, especially on the home, where there must be information on discounts and active promotions, preferably by creating a special section dedicated to Black Friday , divided into categories and secondary subsections. Since this is a period of special offers, e-commerce must take full advantage of the advantages of online stores: customers must be able to quickly select the types of products they are interested in, which is why it is important to organize the sales website well in advance. so that it is easy to use and with an extremely basic interface in product search. The online store must be structured in such a way as to optimize sales, even after "Black Friday": for this purpose it is important to set up a simple navigation for any user, to use bright colors and flashing indications on the promotions in place, so that the customer has an incentive to click attracted to the sales page. The product must also be written clearly, highlighting the peculiarities and strengths of each product or service, pointing out to the reader the convenience of the purchase (for example a silk product or a fine wooden furniture indicated on the front page , sold at a 70% discount if purchased on Cyber Monday). The watchword is promotion, it is necessary to organize in advance what to offer: during the period of Black Friday the traffic on the sites is much greater, for this it is necessary to exploit the potential of digital means of communication (during the entire week of promotions it is important to take care of customer relations, responding promptly to their requests or difficulties encountered in the online shop). To boost sales, some online shops decide to start discounts even before "Black Friday", in order to attract the attention of customers and boost sales far beyond the simple week of Black Friday (starting promotions one or two days before it is in fact possible to attract a greater influx of visitors). Also in this case the watchword is "planning": the Black Friday week is organized at least a month in advance, using all existing channels: social networks, web pages, e-commerce sites themselves, advertisements, emails, advertising television. In all cases it may be useful to set up newsletter subscription forms in advance, in order to create ongoing relationships with old customers and inform them directly via email of the promotions that are about to start.

Social strategies for e-commerce: a channel to be fully exploited to boost sales and prepare in advance for Cyber Monday

Preparing in advance for Black Friday and Cyber Monday means boosting sales over a period of 4 days, within which, as long as ecommerce is able to make the most of the planning, sales can skyrocket. Cyber Monday, as seen above, is nothing more than the Monday following the day of Black Friday, during which discounts are extended mostly online, or e-commerce (if Black Friday extends to shops materials and online, Cyber Monday is mostly about electronic retailers' digital stores). It is a day in which sellers promote the remaining products in this category, as the name suggests: telephony, tablets, computers, and office items; the final 24 hours which mark the end of the current promotional period. The date of Cyber Monday naturally changes from year to year, in the course of 2021 it will fall on November 29th. The largest electronic e-commerce companies are preparing in advance for this "last great day of promotions", often applying sensational discounts (up to 70%) and organizing the various categories on offer with a simple and intuitive interface, dividing them by category in order to facilitate purchases. Cyber Monday is in fact a day traditionally created to boost the sales of online stores: e-commerce sites and digital points of sale, a tradition that was born on the initiative of a US association: the National Retail Federation, during 2005, the whose main purpose was to give more sales opportunities to digital stores. Today, cyber Monday is also widely used by physical stores and large shopping centers, always in the electronics sector. Even for this last day of promotions the same rules apply: you need to prepare in advance to boost e-commerce sales. Such as? First of all, by customizing the home of the online store at least a week before the long-awaited Black Friday, offers and emails, informing registered customers that the promotional period is approaching. The offer must not remain generic, but enhance the important discount that will soon be implemented by the online store. To better prepare for the last day of useful discounts, it is necessary to arrange the offers in an orderly manner, immediately warning users about the offers that will be launched on the immediately following Monday (by setting up a flashing warning on the sales page it is possible to attract the attention of customers, both regular ones and those who visit the site for the first time). After "Black Friday" it is necessary to focus on the upcoming new day of discounts and promotions, underlining the new offers starting from the home. In this way the customer will be encouraged to return to the online sales site, knowing well in advance the promotions that will be activated on Monday. A good way to prepare for Cyber Monday could be to prepare strategies to encourage the purchase, for example the choice of giving free products to those who buy during this day: the Monday following Black Friday. It might seem obvious, but giving an item as a gift, or applying a sensational discount to those who spend more than a certain amount during that day (for example a 50% discount on the second item purchased), can be a winning strategy for both. for both the seller and the buyer: for e-commerce in the first place, as it enhances its sales by disposing of old products in stock. A nice strategy to plan long before the Black Friday week, in order to properly select the items to give as a gift or on offer.

Author: Alessio Hocevar

Alessio Hocevar

DIGITAL MEDIA MANAGER

Dr. Alessio Hocevar our expert SEA (Search Engine Advertising), SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and SMO (Social Media Optimization), graduated in Communication Sciences and Technologies, also deals with copywriting, e-mail marketing and Video marketing. Google Ads Fundamentals Certified, Google Shopping.

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