Unique Approaches to Black Friday

Black Friday is a perfect storm of American optimism and fear. Optimistic because Americans believe that their lives will get better over time and fearful because they are never sure when this improvement will occur. The holiday combines the commercial optimism of capitalism with the personal beliefs of individualism. The consumer economy is centred around the idea of better living or at least improved living. However, one thing remains constant: consumers are looking for deals. Retailers will go to great lengths to encourage shoppers to come out of their usual Black Friday shopping habits, which means that brands who want to remain relevant will have to adapt too.

Here are four unique approaches brands will take to fill the cash registers this Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

The idea: Have a “Pre Purchase” Sale

First, understand why consumers purchase before Black Friday: they want to help their favourite businesses earn additional revenue. Then, use this knowledge to create a pre-purchase promotion to encourage and reward their loyalty and, in turn, increase sales during your Black Friday event or sale.

Accepting Apple Pay & Android Pay to speed up the transaction process.

Checking out is one of the most time-consuming aspects of online shopping. It has been proven that 19 percent of online shoppers abandon their carts due to the length of time it takes to check out, so finding ways to speed up the process is important. This year, retailers are using Apple Pay, PaymentCloud and Android Pay to accept mobile payments, to speed up checkouts for customers. Consumers can now save multiple shipping addresses in Apple Pay and Android Pay. This will allow consumers to save their shipping address for faster checkout when they shop at certain retailers. In addition, customers can select which shipping address they want to use later when they check out.

Improve Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

With this approach, brands doing at least 75% of their business online will focus all efforts on that channel during the holiday season. This means that these brands will improve their SEO, make sure their websites are mobile-friendly, and conduct research to snag any trending topics or products to stand out this holiday season. For existing brick and mortar retail stores, this means taking advantage of the increased traffic by promoting their products through social media, driving traffic to their website, and even advertising online.

For these brands, offline sales are merely a by-product of the online sales they are already generating

Move to Mobile:

Mobile is the new frontline in commerce. Mobile traffic is up 53% (ComScore). Mobile e-commerce sales are up 78% (Adobe). Cyber Monday is an excellent day to drive mobile sales. Small retailers can take advantage of having a mobile-friendly layout that allows customers to browse and buy. If your store isn’t built for mobile, then you’re missing out on 40% of your potential customers.