Online sellers act now! What you need to know to make the most of Black Friday 2018
So, it’s that time of year again and ‘Black Friday’ is in the news! This yearly retail promotion originates from the US but is now just as popular in the UK.
Black Friday will fall on November 23rd and last through the following week as usual. But this year a bumper spend throughout the whole of ‘Black Friday week’ of around $5.8 billion is predicted!
That’s a lot of potential customers for you as an online seller!
As an online seller you can potentially get involved in Black Friday without having to deal with shop floor fights which we have seen in previous years, a trashed store and generally people losing their senses all around you and if you are a seasoned seller, you’ll know that it’s exactly at this time of year that an amazing phenomenon starts to happen because…
Final pay packets before Christmas are received!
Some of us don’t want to consider getting involved in the crush, traipsing from shop to shop, queuing for what seems like hours for the must have (and probably already sold out) toy of the year and arriving back home eight hours later, super stressed.
Some of us (me included) prefer to do our Christmas shopping in a rather more civilized manner, from the comfort of our own homes. Some of us simply like to take advantage of the relative ease of shopping online.
Over the next few weeks’ billions of pounds will be spent by millions of people online as pretty much everyone starts thinking about gifts, food, drink, decorations, new outfits, cards and parties. And that’s why this next piece of information is very important….
Black Friday may be just around the corner, but brace yourself, ‘Cyber Monday’ is also almost upon us too and both of these dates are far easier to deal with as an online seller.
‘Cyber Monday’ is simply a marketing term for the Monday immediately following ‘Black Friday’, so this year ‘Cyber Monday’ falls on Monday 26th November. This day was created by companies in order to persuade people to shop online and was first heard of way back in 2005 when shop.org issued a press release entitled “Cyber Monday’ Quickly Becoming One of the Biggest Online Shopping Days of the Year”.
And…it stuck! We’re still talking about ‘Cyber Monday’ thirteen years later.
Now, if I were to put my ‘buying’ head on for a moment, generally I tend to have a major panic around the end of November, beginning of December when I realise that I ought to start actually purchasing Christmas presents – and I’m certainly not unique. There appears to be a collective panic that happens to everyone around this time, and that’s when internet sales rocket, websites crash under the strain of visitors and you might find that the very thing you are looking for has suddenly sold out, even though there were 679 in stock yesterday.
And this is exactly the same time as Black Friday and Cyber Monday are taking place! So…
Sellers: Act now to get in on the online action
So, as Monday 26th November is just 17 days away, you absolutely, definitely must get cracking if you want your products to be visible online on what is predicted to be one of the busiest shopping days of the year.
With this in mind, I want to give you some tips for maximising your Christmas sales online so that you can get your products listed right now – either on eBay, Amazon or within your own webstore and hook some of those buyers that will be heading in your direction in a couple of weeks’ time.
7 Ways to Increase Orders
1. Double check your keywords and make sure they are super relevant to your product. If buyers can’t find your items, then you won’t make any sales.
2. Make sure you appeal to ALL potential customers. Use eBay’s auction listings for bargain hunters and Buy It Now’s for those who are in a rush and haven’t the time to wait for an auction to end. Use Amazon to mop up those customers who are loyal to one site only and use your own website if you want to offer an extra service such as ‘Gift Wrapping’. Believe me, in the run up to Christmas, people are impatient so you need to cover all bases.
3. If you only have a small inventory, add a few lines to the description of your products hinting that your item is the ‘perfect gift’. This can be implemented for most products with a bit of creativity and will subconsciously play on your potential buyers’ minds making them more likely to purchase. Also consider adding the keywords ‘Christmas Gift’ to your title. This can help you pick up some extra sales. But don’t remove relevant keywords just to fit those extra keywords in. Do it if you have spare space. Don’t if you haven’t.
4. Consider adding a ‘Best Offer’ facility to your eBay Buy It Now listings, then automate the Accept/Decline Offer’ option to remain competitive and to pick up those extra sales from people who don’t want to pay the full price but still want to Buy Now.
5. If you have an eBay shop, use ‘Markdown Manager’ to offer seasonal discounts or limited offers to buyers.
6. Buyers adore fast dispatch so consider offering super-fast delivery options to buyers over the Christmas period.
7. When possible, make sure you answer questions from potential buyers promptly – this could be the difference between a sale and a ‘no sale’ especially on the run up to Christmas when there is plenty of choice from sellers and it’s easy for buyers to become impatient.
So, if you haven’t listed anything online yet then make Black Friday the incentive you need to get started. If you are already up and running, then take these points in to account to ensure you get the most out of the festive season.