If you’re a fan of shopping, you should know what Black Friday is. But if you’re not, you should it just the same, so we’ve compiled in this post all the valuable information you need to know and tips for your store on Black Friday. Why? Because this day of the year is one of the most popular, when almost each and every store have amazing promotions and users can get those items they’ve always wanted.
Black Friday is the ideal time to give you that whim or bring forward Christmas shopping in order to save a little money. Best of all, there are different sectors that join this day and many more do it every year. So you can start saving money now and mark this date on the calendar.
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What is black friday?
Originally from the United States, Black Friday is a date where all businesses, both large and small, give big discounts for the start of Christmas shopping. Although a lot of people know what Black Friday is, very few know where the term comes from. This was generated in the city of Philadelphia where, after the celebration of Thanksgiving, the roads were crowded with vehicles of travelers returning to their homes.
In this sense, and due to the road collapse that it caused, the police in charge of regulating traffic began to use that term. In the same way, at the end of the 80s, this term began to be associated with the economic state of companies, which went from being in the red to being in the black. In the United States the term “in black” means to generate money, so we understand that this means the times when companies generate more profits.
As a curious fact, when Black Friday began to be a successful commercial event, merchants wanted to change the name to big Friday, but people didn’t welcome this idea and the term retained its name.
Black Friday in UK
Black Friday didn’t arrive to UK until 2010, brought by Amazon. But it was in 2013, when Walmart joined that it hd the most success and it was officially adopted as a commercial event that benefits both users and traders.
So although the first year it didn’t have a great scope, over the years more companies have joined the celebration, and with the sponsorship of the big ones, they have managed to turn Black Friday into something popular among the masses. Many believe that online stores don’t celebrate the Black Briday, but the truth is that these platforms is where the biggest impact have been seen. An example of this was 2019, where a total of £8.57 billion was spent on online sales in the UK, being among the most quoted products clothing and footwear.
Key dates of Black Friday
This day has become one of the most anticipated of the year, both for users and traders, who wait all year for the best day of offers to make their pre-Christmas purchases. However, many are still wondering what day is Black Friday? For those who are making their shopping lists, we advise you to prepare for November 27th, the date on which Black Friday is celebrated every year.
In some stores, and every year more and more of them do it, the date extends until the first of December, which gives people a five-day window to do their shopping. We just advise you not to take too long, because many times the products are sold out, and even if you do your shopping online, you can still run out of what you are looking forward to.
The interesting thing is that on December 2nd, just after the end of Black Friday, Cyber Monday takes place, the day when you can buy online everything related to technology, with great deals for you to get what you’ve always wanted.
Tips for your store on Black Friday
As we’ve emphasized throughout the text, Black Friday is very important for users, especially for those who want to save a good amount of money. However, merchants also receive many benefits on this day. That’s why it never hurts to get some tips for your store on Black Friday.
The first of them, and this is quite important (even if it’s not Black Friday), is to take care of your image. Before you start offering any kind of discounts in your online store, the first thing you need to check is which products in your catalog you can apply those discounts to. Take into account the percentage of profit you receive for each of the products and then make the decision.
It’s never a good idea to apply the same discount percentage to all the products in your store, especially because doing so will cause some of them to generate losses. So, doing an in-depth study will save you a lot of money and headaches.
On the other hand, you can offer different offers and limit them by days. This is done in order to make your customers visit your online store several times during the days of Black Friday and until Cyber Monday starts. A valid and very useful strategy is to offer the first day a list of products on offer, with that the customer can see at a glance all of them, so they’ll be intrigued by future offers. Do it every day and you’ll see that your sales will increase compared to other years.
Another key tip is to announce your actions one or two weeks in advance. The secret of any good Black Friday campaign is to give certain previews of the offers that are coming that day. To do this, you can make use of your newsletter, so your entire community will be informed about what you have prepared for them. It is known that two weeks before Black Friday, sales drop by 40%. It’s during this time that you should take advantage and bombard with useful information that anticipates the great sales that you’ll offer.
One technique that has been proven to be infallible is that of coupons. In order to know if your campaigns are successful, it’s best to offer coupons, both through email marketing or your the different social networks, with which you can analyze how profitable your campaigns are. Something important is to offer different coupons in each place, which will allow you to differentiate which medium works best. Remember that always, in e-commerce, it’s important to measure and analyze the results.
To finish with the tips, a key one is to prepare your online store. This will be the visible face of your sales, the bastion where you’ll take refuge to win the battle, so it’s best to strengthen it. Optimize your store as much as you can. Avoid making navigation on your page difficult and making a purchase a cumbersome process.
Before, we recommended that the days before Black Friday you release relevant information for your customers. Now we tell you to use those same days to check the hosting of your page, make sure it’s in perfect condition and that it doesn’t present problems when receiving the large number of visitors that (hopefully) will arrive. Similarly, check the loading time, to make sure that it doesn’t take more than four or five seconds to display the page entirely and make also sure that the payment methods are correct.
Most popular sectors on Black Friday
As usual, some sectors are more benefited by Black Friday than others. One of them is the technology sector. Everything that concerns televisions, computers, mobile phones and all their accessories. Many people wait all year to change their smartphone or buy a graphics card, PC screen, headphones, etc., because at any other time it would be much more expensive.
The fashion sector is also one of the most benefited. Due to its proximity to Christmas, a large number of users take the opportunity to get the clothes they’ll use in these days, as well as accessories: shoes, belts, wallets, bags, you name it. And, for the same reasons, everything related to leisure is the most sold on this day, especially if we understand that Black Friday is used to buy gifts that will be given to loved ones later.
It’s normal, then, that the sale of toys, appliances and computers rises to the clouds. Black Friday is an opportunity for everyone to get what they’ve been dreaming of all year, and a very interesting window for merchants who want to increase their sales and see their goals fulfilled.
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