The last quarter of the year is a time of increased sales, and Black Friday and Cyber Monday are the days of the biggest sales of the year. In 2022, more than $9.12 billion (Black Friday) and more than $11.3 billion (Cyber Monday) were spent online by U.S. shoppers on this day alone. Total online purchases for November in the U.S. totaled more than $109.8 billion.
We'll tell you the reasons for this end-of-calendar-year sales growth, what Black Friday represents, and how to maximize sales during this period by properly preparing your store.
Sales Growth in the Fourth Quarter: Key Reasons
The fourth quarter of the year, or Q4 (October-December), is when a succession of holidays falls. Representatives of some cultures prepare for Halloween (October 31), Thanksgiving (the fourth Thursday of November), Hanukkah (December), Kwanzaa (from December 26 to January 1) and Christmas (December 25).
Sales increase as people buy gifts for loved ones, set holiday tables, and decorate the house. The festive mood makes it easier to spend money, and discounts offered by stores during this period increase sales.
How much profit increases during this period depends on the specifics of the store, but for more than a third of businesses in the United States, the fourth quarter of the year is the most profitable. Sales during this period are an opportunity to make up for losses the business may have faced in previous months, and a chance to end the calendar year profitably.
Black Friday: General Information
The Black Friday sale is a traditional day of mass sales. It was originally held in America right after Thanksgiving, that is, on the fourth Friday of November. Now Black Friday Sale takes place all over the world and often goes beyond one day.
The volume of online sales on Black Friday grew from 2013 to 2020. Thus, in America in 2013 it amounted to $1.9 billion, in 2018 — $6.2 billion, in 2019 — $7.4 billion, in 2020 — $9 billion.
In 2021, sales in America declined (to $8.9 billion) — according to experts, the reason was logistical disruption due to COVID-19. In 2022, growth continued — $9.12 billion was spent. The average check was $832.84. The best-selling categories were clothing and jewelry, electronics, and home goods.
Black Friday in 2023 is set on November 24. Nevertheless, most stores extend Black Friday to Saturday and Sunday, with some opening discounts as early as Thursday. The sales continue the following week: traditionally, the Monday after Black Friday is Cyber Monday. While Black Friday has both online and offline promotions, Cyber Monday is a day of online shopping. We talk about how to sell on Black Friday and Cyber Monday below.
Holiday Sales: How to Prepare Your Online Store
There are several ways to increase sales during the discount season. Let's consider the main ones.
1. Planning
Preparing for sales should start with analysis and planning. If the store has held promotions in previous years, you should analyze statistics and understand the successful strategies. Data on the region can also help: popular categories, the behavior of people of different age categories.
Besides, it would be best if you familiarize yourself with the offers of competitors to determine the promotion strategy and be able to offer your target audience something unique.
In addition to building a strategy, it is important to take care of the material side - in particular, agree in advance with suppliers.
2. Development of promotions and discounts
It is necessary to select the goods or services that will be subject to discounts and form a «plan B» in case the selected items run out or are unpopular. On Black Friday, discounts can be as high as 90%, but keep in mind that too low a price can confuse shoppers. Instead of direct price reductions, you can offer customers bonuses or promo codes for further purchases.
At this stage, it is important to evaluate your resources: in particular, ensure that your managers and technical support are responsive, and that you have scripts in place in case of force majeure.
3. Prepare the audience
"Warm up" the audience and inform customers about the upcoming discounts will help mailings through various channels (e-mail, messengers, SMS) and publications in social networks. It is recommended to conduct mailings a week or more before the holiday sales and repeat them a few hours before the beginning.
In the company's social networks you can post both informational posts and special offers ranging from super discounts to gifts for reposts. In addition, on the eve of the holidays you should pay attention to the reputation and image of the company, particularly to work on negative reviews..
Reduce advertising costs by collecting a base for retargeting through banners, subscription forms, and embedding pixels in targeted advertising.
4. Website Preparation
Before the Black Friday sale, the website should be prepared for the influx of shoppers. First, it is necessary to "strengthen" and optimize the website:
- Make sure that the server can withstand the increase in traffic.
- Make a backup website for redirecting customers in case of a failure of the main one.
- Check the website for errors.
Secondly, to increase sales conversion, it is important to make the buyer's path to placing an order as short as possible: without complicated registration and phone confirmations.
When preparing, you should pay attention to the visual component: banners on the main page, «wheel of fortune» with discounts, countdown to the end of the promotion, selection of products, etc.
It is also important to check for any payment troubles, for example, transaction blocks. Learn what can merchant do to reduce their number in our article.
5. Connecting crypto processing
Connecting cryptocurrency payments on the website is an opportunity to increase the conversion rate of the payment page. Crypto Payments have a number of advantages: many customers choose them for security, anonymity, and the ability to pay for an order in any foreign store even under sanctions.
For entrepreneurs, processing transactions via blockchain provides protection against chargeback, acceptance of payments from all over the world, and lower transaction processing fees.
The most convenient way to accept cryptocurrency payments is to use crypto acquiring to maximize order processing automation. This will help make the process convenient for the buyer, which is especially important on Black Friday. For the merchant, automatic tracking and confirmation of transactions will also be helpful in the face of an influx of customers.
You can learn more in our article «Cryptocurrency Payments: Pros and Cons for Merchants».
6. Launching and managing advertising campaigns
To attract customers and increase reach, it is important to organize competent advertising: work out semantics and keys, prepare thematic ads to promote several main products, launch campaigns to warm up the audience and remarketing. It is important that the ads read the message of discounts in connection with Black Friday. Creating a sense of urgency will help ads with a countdown: to the beginning of the sale, and then - until the end of special offers.
To make a campaign successful, it is important to prepare it in advance, as well as manually monitor it after launch. In case of poor coverage, it may be necessary to manually increase the rates, in case of too active spending of the advertising budget - disabling part of the ads.
Get Ready for Black Friday: Maximize Your Sales
Black Friday and Cyber Monday are the biggest sales that take place every year in stores around the world. The holiday season becomes an opportunity for companies to significantly increase their sales, attract an audience, and sell "stale" items.
For the store to cope with the rush of clients and buyers who would only leave with completing the order, it is important to plan the advertising campaign, assess your resources, and prepare the website. One point of preparation is to connect cryptocurrency processing to expand payment methods.
CryptoCloud is a cryptocurrency acceptance service that will help automate the processing of crypto payments in major currencies, increase the conversion rate of the payment page and make the payment process convenient for both parties. Learn more about the system's features on our website.
