You Can Do Better on Black Friday
A Guide to Maximizing High Heat Moments and Minimizing Crashes
Black Friday and Cyber Monday are almost here. Your price and promotion strategy is locked. All that’s left to do? Make sure it all works and that you’re making the most of it. This guide spells out the smarter way to set up your upcoming sales, so you can handle the highest heat moment of the year, and drive results beyond a weekend of transactions. Sizzle. Sizzle.
BACK IN BLACK (FRIDAY)
An ACDC reference. My pleasure.
First, a short history lesson. (Skip if you know it all.) Black Friday began in the 50s and has gone through iterations of innovation since its inception. But recently, the momentum has slowed. These widespread sales have lost their unique impact—brands aren’t achieving the same levels of interest at the rate that they’re peddling products.
The sales are tired, and so are modern shoppers. It’s time for the next round of innovation. Intrigued? Keep reading.
If we looked into a crystal ball we'd guess that this is going to happen on Black Friday:
1. Retailers promote the hot deals
2. Sites crash or stores can’t handle the foot traffic
3. Retailers only sell to those lucky enough to get in first
4. They never knew who had money burning a hole in their pocket but didn’t get a chance to spend
Why do we know this? Because it’s old school commerce. It’s all about the transaction. But that has changed.
FROM TRANSACTIONS TO INTERACTIONS
Black Friday is always about the best prices whether that’s discounts or flash sales. The one thing that is a given is the hottest deals will always sell, but don’t view a transaction as the end game. If you’re dropping your margin, you better be maximizing the entire opportunity. View the biggest deals as the honey pot. Everything that happens in and around that offer is what matters. So get smarter, capture all that wonderful demand, and reward loyalty. It’s a new wave of commerce, and this is what you need to do.
STEP 1: Make it an 11/10 customer experience
No site crashes, no bots exploiting deals and no pesky 404 error pages popping up. That is table stakes and if you can’t guarantee that much you’re not doing it right.
DID YOU KNOW: CONSUMERS PREPARE FOR MONTHS LEADING UP TO THE HOLIDAYS, SO EXPECTATION ARE AT AN ALL-TIME HIGH
Implementing the proper technology can be the difference between life and death. Ok, that’s extreme. But it’s the difference between a horde of angry customers screaming at your Customer Support team, and beautiful advocacy on your social channels. During high heat sales, people are emotional, they want a smooth experience, not to be blocked from the site.
Your technology should scale infinitely, scammers should be deflected and payments should be a breeze.
Make it easy to buy, and people will buy. Offer an experience that doesn’t live up to the hype? You’ve just hurt your brand and you’ve lost the moment. And you only get one crack at this a year.
STEP 2: Capture your most interested customers.
During Black Friday, buckets of cash get thrown at advertising to drive the right eyeballs to your store and today you’re only capturing that small percentage that actually transacts. But what about all the other brand fans who have shown intent to purchase but missed out on the deals? They are waving money. Your next month's sales quota is standing right there. Capture them.
Imagine if you’ve captured all the interest and can spot demand trends, insights that can help you know what sale you should run next or how much you should be discounting. What if you capture everyone’s details, then hit them with a post Black Friday deal that you knew they’d buy? Keep that mind racing…
Now imagine if you didn’t have to pay to acquire net new customers for months because you just filled up that whole funnel with the high-quality Black Friday demand and it cost nothing. Mind blown yet? Take a break. Breath. Then come back at us.
Forget about just the transaction. That’s old news. Capture the magic around it. That’s the long-term value.
STEP 3: Fill Carts AND Hearts
Loyalty in this game is everything and customers that show loyalty should be rewarded with fair access to the hottest deals. Want to track historical spending data and upweight folks who deserve it by giving them first access to the deals? You should. It’s one of the few moments in the year when loyal customers expect that special treatment. Do you know how to do this? We can help you.
RECALIBRATING THE HYPE MACHINE
At EQL we think about these launch moments differently. The types of behaviours you see are the antithesis of normal commerce; emotions are high, dopamine kicks in, and it’s a real frenzy. Today’s eCommerce is not built to manage this. You need the right tools to give you flexibility and control.
THAT’S WHY WE BUILT EQL
We’re experts in Hype Commerce, which includes your biggest retail moment of the year. We provide the world’s most in-demand brands with the tools to manage high-heat retail experiences, create fair and unforgettable launches and acquire fanatically loyal customers.
We’ve launched over 2,000 products in 14 markets, analysed over 50 million signals, and put over 500,000 products into the hands of real customers.
We work with Nike, Foot Locker, Crocs, to name a few. And above all, we help control the chaos so your team can capitalise on the moment (and sleep better at night).
You’ve got one shot. One opportunity. Capture it. Don’t let it slip.
