Black Friday 2021 – How To Prepare And Maximise Your Profit In 3 Steps

As the 'busiest' day of the years draws closer for businesses, you may be unsure as to whether 2021's Black Friday will really boost your sales. After all, we're post-pandemic, things are almost back to normal, and the market is anything but stable... so why should you make the effort to ramp up your store this year? 

The main reason for embracing Black Friday is that it is recognised globally. It is the one day of the year that people talk about, promote on social media, and also traditional media. Whether it's trending on Twitter or being covered by the 9 o'clock news, you can be sure that the events will be watched and clicked on by millions of potential customers. 

In 2020 the click through conversion rate looked like it had fallen on the infamous day, in reality visits increased for online sellers by 35% and that led to a profit rise of 23%. The UK actually surpassed the US and EU (who only saw profit increases of 9% and 14% respectively). If last year is anything to go by, you will want to ensure that your company is ready to take on Black Friday head-first. 

Every area from fashion and beauty, through to food and beverages saw an uptake, the most orders placed were in the home and garden sector with a whopping +68% achieved by 7pm the next day. With these kind of numbers it is essential that your Shopify store is visible, and accessible for customers. We're here to help you prepare and maintain your online presence, bringing in those sought-after sales. 

1) Are your back office processes in order?

Having an influx of customers is great... However, if you're not prepared as a business team, this can cause issues within your staff and operations. It's a good time to check for 'pain points' with your team members, review any outstanding complaints or suggestions from customers, and really make sure that your services are running smoothly across the full order chain from browsing to delivery. 

2) Can customers find you?

When was the last time you checked your website traffic? How are your social media stats? Have you had feedback from customers expressing that they were 'surprised' to come across your company – or they didn't know you existed? These all indicate a lack of visibility. At Pear Digital we can help with that. We offer Shopify growth via Facebook Ads and Google Ads. 

We currently manage a £2.5 million ad budget per year for our clients, so we know a thing or two about Facebook advertising. Good news for your business, as Facebook owns Instagram we also offer Instagram advertising as part of the service. No extra charge. We are 1 of 12 partner agencies in the UK, and as part of that exclusive group we can help build campaigns which will allow you to help find your perfect, paying, customer – without charging over the odds. As of September 2021 Facebook has 2.89 billion monthly active users, with our help, tapping into this fertile market has never been easier. 

Google Ads are also something we pride ourselves on. We employ a selection of ways to ensure you get the most visibility and traffic to your site. 'Googling something' has become common parlance now in the 21st century, and that's because Google has 3.5 billion searches per day, and as of 2019 it had cornered the market with over 92% of users choosing it as their preferred search engine. 

If you're not up to speed with your Google Ads, then you could be missing out on literally millions of new customers globally. On Black Friday, Facebook and Google are your ticket to success. Some clients see up to 60X return on their ad spend – so what are you waiting for? 

3) Maximise your existing marketing channels

You may think that you've opened up every possible avenue for reaching your customers, however, what if there was a way for you to not only reach your customers – new and existing – buy simply adding a single element to your Shopify system? We're talking about Klaviyo. We do have a whole blog dedicated to this subject here <<included backlink>> but the power of Klaviyo is worth mentioning again because it is groundbreaking. 

Their program allows you to get the most out of your existing email marketing system, by using specific customer data to send emails at the 'correct' moment. This isn't some mail dump, or generic advertising, this is targetted and personalised. You already have a customer list, and every address is a potential sale. By using Klaviyo you can remind someone that their cart has an item in it, you can nudge them in the direction of buying another item in your range that matches their current purchase... and most importantly, the timing is optimised so you don't lose that window of interest from the consumer. 

In brief, if you have prepared your back office processes, ramped up your Facebook and Google Ads, looked into Klaviyo marketing integration, and you have the stock in the warehouse ready to go... then Black Friday 2021 should be one of your most profitable, exciting days of the year.