How To Prepare A Store For Black Friday, Cyber Monday?

The time has come again! Black Friday and Cyber Monday are just around the corner. Prepare your online store with in-demand products, and make sure you are ready to accept a higher volume of orders than usual.

We like taking a little outlook before jumping into the details. While everyone just follows the trend of celebrating Black Friday with their store, we want to make sure you get a better understanding of this whole shopping holiday.

Black Friday has started to get ‘mainstream’ globally about ten years ago. It is still flourishing!

We notice that people are not that crazy about it as they were a few years ago but it is completely fine like this. Fights in the shopping malls over a product are hopefully not that usual now. Nevertheless, luckily customers are still interested in getting nice discounts from their favorite and/or demanded brands.

Hop on the trend of Black Friday, Cyber Monday, get new customers, and form an attachment with your long-term fans even more. Sell great products, offer reasonable discounts, and make sure your store is a worthy place for customers to get products from during the whole year and not only when you have huge discounts.

CONTENT

1. Products To Sell On Black Friday, Cyber Monday 2023
2. Strategies To Follow During The Shopping Holidays
3. How to Prepare Your Online Store For Black Friday, Cyber Monday with Syncee?

The official Black Friday in 2023 will be on 24 November. It is the big day for shopping worldwide and is better than last-minute Christmas shopping for customers. This is the time when most retail companies lower their prices and expect a high volume of sales. There is a potential for stores to draw large crowds with their special offers. However, there are stores that start offering big discounts earlier and say it’s a this and that kind of pre-Black Friday, some of them even during Summer.

Cyber Monday goes hand in hand with Black Friday. It is always held on the Monday after Thanksgiving/Black Friday. Based on this, Cyber Monday will be on 27 November in 2023.

2020 has changed the shopping behavior of all of us. It is one reason why the number of people who shop online has increased just like the number of orders online stores receive nowadays. The other reason is that people have realized that it is safe to shop online, and they have developed more skills to be able to decide if a site is reliable or looks like a scam.

Cyber Monday sales hit $10.8 billion in 2020, and like this has become one of U.S. history’s biggest online shopping days.

First Records of Using The Term ‘Black Friday’ and ‘Cyber Monday’

The first record of using the expression Black Friday to refer to a happening was not a shopping holiday. It was a financial crisis back on 24 September 1869 when two financiers, Jay Gould and James Fisk bought up much of the USA’s gold, made the price of gold drove up, and caused a stock market crash.

Then, in the 1950s people started to use this term to refer to the day after Thanksgiving and as decades went by it has become more popular as we can see. In the 50s, people called in sick days so they can have a 4-day weekend. They started the holiday shopping on that Friday as stores were open. Around the same time, Black Friday and also Black Saturday became used by the police in Philadelphia to refer to the crowds and the traffic congestion related to the Christmas shopping season. Then at the beginning of the 60th, they tried to call them Big Friday and Big Saturday but these have become forgotten quickly.

The phrase has started to spread slowly, and in the 70’s even in The New York Times they referred to this day as the busiest shopping and traffic day of the year.

There is another theory relating to Black Friday. The first time referred to it was on 28 November 1981—Based on this explanation, it is the beginning of a period when in financial records retailers are no longer marked with red which refers to negative amounts but with black ink. As the holiday season comes, stores make high profits. Retailers often said that they have a financial loss from January until November, and they started to make their profit during the holiday season.

As for Cyber Monday, it is a marketing term coming from the US market. It has been contoured by retailers to encourage customers to shop online. The first record is from November 28, 2005 when Ellen Davis from the National Retail Federation and Scott Silverman made a press release of Shop.org saying Cyber Monday is quickly becoming one of the biggest shopping days online.

1. Products To Sell On Black Friday, Cyber Monday 2023

The first half of Autumn or even a few weeks before it is the perfect time to decide what you would like to focus on selling in your online store this Black Friday, Cyber Monday. Start working on your strategies.

Prepare your business well for the shopping holiday, fill your online store with demanded products now, and when the perfect time comes, start promoting them. Marketing your brand is more than important to get higher sales.

Based on what products were trending in 2021 and 2022 on Syncee Marketplace we have made some predictions for you all. You can now see what some of those products are that would be worthy to focus on. Along with these, we also share further data from other sources to help you articulate what to focus on.

Make sure you check your own market’s unique demands before digging deep into your Black Friday, Cyber Monday strategies!

Predictions based on BFCM 2022, most sought products on Syncee Marketplace:

Seasonal Christmas Products, Clothes, Shoes, Watches, Men Products, Coffee, Lingerie, Beauty Products, Branded Goods, Baby Products, Organic/Eco-friendly Products, Furniture, Children’s Products, Sunglasses, Yoga/Fitness Items, Candle, Face Mask, Pet Products

Predictions based on Summer 2022, most sought products on Syncee Marketplace:

Eco-friendly Products, Dresses, Men Products, Sunglasses, Bluetooth Speaker, Lingerie, Jewelry, Shoes, Candles, Watch, Pet Products, Leggings, Camping Products, Baby Products, Coffee, Furniture, Swimwear, Yoga/Fitness Items, Backpacks, Branded Goods

Predictions based on September 2022, most sought products on Syncee Marketplace:

Jewelry, Watches, Lingerie, Baby Products, Wall Art, Sunglasses, Christmas Decoration, Shoes, CBD Products, Gifts, Earpods, Pet Products, Dresses, Eco-friendly Goods, Kitchen Items, Yoga Products, Men’s Clothing, Camping Goods, Coffee, Scarves, Candles, Home Decoration, Plus Size, Skincare

What Does The Market Show? Examples from Shopify’s statistics:

Power tool accessories, Dog toys, Costume shoes, Laptop batteries, Shot glasses, Slipcovers, Wall plates and covers, Baby shirts, Curtain and drape rings, Cabinet knobs and handles, Watch accessories, Tumblers, Model train sets, Signage, Wedding dresses, Table runners, Motor vehicle parts

2. Strategies To Follow During The Shopping Holidays

Now let’s see what those strategies are that we recommend you focusing on during Black Friday. You can read some of our sales strategies, marketing strategies along with dropshipping tips and tricks you can implement into your business activities.

#1 Sales Strategies for BFCM 2023

• Research in-demand products of certain categories: You can only gain high sales if you sell what your customers really need!
• Advertise!: If people don’t know your name well yet, one of the most effective ways to reach them is by creating Facebook and Google Ads about your Black Friday offers as well.
• Analyse competitors’ product ranges: Don’t be the twin of them, just analyze what they are doing, what they are offering, and smartly pick those elements from their strategy and product selection that would fit into your aims as well. You can also check which suppliers they are working with.
• Review your inventory & make decisions accordingly: Check what you have high volume of stock of.
• Highlight hidden gems alongside your bestsellers: Don’t just highlight your bestselling products, it is the best time to focus on your hidden gems as well.
• Consider pandemic product trends: What do you see other stores highlighing in the last 1,5 year? What do you see on the shelves when you do the shopping? Consider selling those as well during Black Friday.
• Offer reasonable discounts: If you offer only 5-10% off of your product prices it won’t be an interesting deal for your customers as they could get it at any other time of the year. There wouldn’t be any special about it.
• Load test your site to prepare for enlarged traffic: Make sure your online store can work properly while a big traffic is trying to browse it.
• Test for user-friendliness: Share your store URL with your friends and family members and ask them to test your site and tell their opinions.
• Be mobile-ready!: As time goes, the number of people buying products using their mobile phone is increasing. It is very important, especially during Black Friday and the beginning of December to have a mobile-ready website.
• Set up Google Analytics to get to know your customers’ buying behaviour: If you know your customers’ buying behaviour in a detailed way, you can prepare your special offers in a more “personalized” way.
• Customers love all kinds of deals!: You can create bundles, special deals, free gifts, coupon codes or any similar offers that your visitors would love.
• SEO-friendly titles and categories: Make sure the way you name your products and the pages of your website are search engine-friendly, moreover they are easy to understand. It is important not only during Black Friday.
• Implement cross-sell, upsell strategies: What these are? Cross-sell is when you offer another product to your customer to purchase beside the one they picked, it has to be a related product. Upsell is when a customer picks a product, and you recommend them the same item but in an “upgraded” version, that are more long-lasting, or has a quality that makes it better.
• Don’t forget about your customers after this holiday: Build long-term relationship with your customers, and ensure them that they will get wonderful deals after BFCM season as well.
• Integrate live chat for prompt customer support: Lack of customer support availability can be an issue during this period. Probably, more people will visit your store so there will be more customers who will have questions.
• Provide hassle-free returns: Let your customers know about it. Make sure with your suppliers as well, that if there is an issue, the product can be sent back effortlessly.
• Offer value to your customers: Don’t just increase your prices dramatically from one day to another before Black Friday. Offer something more to your customers than at another time! Send gifts for them along with the product they picked, or send them an interesting ebook. Let people know they are special. That’s when they will know that your price decrease was not just a trick.

#2 Marketing Strategies for BFCM 2023

It is best to start your marketing campaigns as soon as possible when it comes to your Black Friday and Cyber Monday special offers. There are many tricks and tricks you can implement to your marketing strategy. Now let’s see if there is anything new you haven’t tried yet.

• Pre-campaign is important to re-engage previous customers: Target your previous customers as they have already chosen your store one time. Why wouldn’t they do it again? Offer them a great deal, and make them be your long-term fans. Start this campaign in October, prepare them for your wonderful offer.
• Send out personalized emails: Personalized emails are important for customers so they can feel they are special. Send them Black Friday offers based on their previous orders, or their personal qualities. Offer them in-demand products that you think they would be interested in.
• Run social media and Google ads about special offers, tailored to your audience: Remarketing and lookalike advertisements at this time of the year are more important than ever. Create your visuals and your written content in a catchy way and, in a creative way, persuade people to buy from you with.
• Countdown timer to create urgency: It is also a great idea to implement to your online store. At other times of the year it is probably not an effective way to promote your deals as people realized there are many scam offers where they can see countdown timers. However, a shopping event like Black Friday is a special day to have this.
• Create catchy & appealing graphics/visuals: Implement them to your website, newsletters, social media content, and the ads you have. In the long run, it will be important to have high-quality and lovely product images as well so more people can find your store valuable. Make the promotion of your Black Friday deal be outstanding as well. Check todays’ trends.
• Create long-term customer relationships: How you can do so? Represent value with everything you do. Sell high-quality products, offer prompt customer support, send little gifts, and you can also offer memberships to customers with further special offers just to mention a few examples.
• Turn first time customers to returning ones: You can only turn first time customers to returning ones if they are satified with their first order. That’s why it is important to represent high-quality and value with everything you have. Tell your buyers to spread the word and let their friends know about you. Tell them to share stories or posts about your product, create and Affiliate Program as well.
• Build anticipation with exclusive offers: Exclusive offers are important when it comes to Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Don’t just trick your customers. They will realize that you increased your products’ prices just so you can decrease them by time to the original price. Offer extras to your buyers who decide to purchase from you at this time of the year.
• Display engaging pop-up messages: These popup messages can be the number one reason for many customers to pick from your Black Friday, Cyber Monday offers. Use catchy headlines and don’t forget about the great visuals as well. However, don’t scare them by pop-ups that are unable to be closed, and also don’t make them pop up in every page, even if they have closed it already. Place a menu in your menu bar and tell about your special deals there.
• Start promoting deals early: Don’t start promoting your Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals in the last week before the shopping holidays come. Let customers know about it weeks before the deal begins.
• Reward customers: If customers purchase from you during this shopping holiday, let them know that they will receive gifts along with what they ordered. You can decide if you keep it a surprise that what the gift will be, or you can let people know about what the item is in advance.
• Clear Call to Action to payment: Have a clear call to action so you can urge your customers to go to the cart and buy the item they picked or would like to pick.
• Include related products before checkout: We are back again to the upsell and cross-sell strategies. Recommend related goods to your customers. It is a bit like when you are standing in the queue of a brick-and-mortar store waiting to be the next one at the cashier, and there are products laying on the shelves right beside you, just a few centimeters away from your hands. In the last minute, the store makes you spend more money there.
• Place importance on both Black Friday & Cyber Monday: Well, it can be time to focus on Cyber Monday as well in your promotions and not only Black Friday. Let your customers know about it, that your great deals will continue after this Friday as well.
• Learn from this year’s strategies to prepare for next year!: We can say that it is never too early to start getting ready for a great and special offer. After the shopping holiday ends, draw a conclusion of everything that it held. It will be easier to create your promotions based on these next year.

#3 Dropshipping Tips & Tricks for BFCM 2023

There’s still time to implement dropshipping to your business strategies at the beginning of Autumn but hurry up! The shopping holiday is getting closer. You can start with dropshipping not just when you are about to open a new online store but also when you would like to broaden the product selection of your existing online store. For Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Christmas sales dropshipping is the best way to be able to offer more kinds of products to your customers.

• Pick & upload products in bulk: If you want to be successful, it is best to manage these in bulk to avoid any kind of logistics-related issues. Also, if you have more products in your store, potentially you can sell more goods, and more people can find you.
• Work with a few dropshipping suppliers: Like this you can grant that if a customer orders 5 different products from 5 brands from your store, they won’t receive more packages on different days. Furthermore, you can relax, you don’t have to fine-tune several different shipping conditions to be able to set the delivery conditions fine in your store admin.
• Unified & wide product assortment: If you pick products in bulk from only 1-3 suppliers, you can have a unified product selection in your store, and your visitors will find it more alluring.
• Pick your supplier partners informedly: Before you start selling a supplier’s products, it is best to contact them so you can avoid any kind of misunderstandings in the future. Check their activity, and pick smartly.
• Analyse your competition: Check which suppliers your supposed competitors are working with. Do you really like one of them? Do you target a slightly different market than your competitor? Contact that supplier to cooperate with.
• Reasonable prices, neat store: To be successful among retailers, you have to offer your products on reasonable prices. Don’t set them be too high compared to other places on the market. What people see in your store for the first glance, the prices and the whole appearance and user-friendliness of your store is very important. It has to be neat.
• Market your store efficiently before the holiday period: Without marketing activity, it is not easy to reach a higher volume of sales than usual.
• Did you choose your ecommerce platform wisely?: Well, it is not the best time to make big changes in your store right before an important shopping season like Black Friday, however, if there is still much time until that, you can decide to move your store to another platform if technically the one you have doesn’t cover all your needs. Maybe it’s too difficult to use for you, or the services you can get there doesn’t meet your needs. Each ecommerce platforms are good, they are just meant for different target audience.
• Syncee covers the technical side!: If you pick Syncee, you can browse among millions of products on its marketplace, and you can fill your store with goods in only a few clicks. The application offers a fully automated dropshipping solution for online stores working with product data.

3. How to Prepare Your Online Store For Black Friday, Cyber Monday with Syncee?

What is Syncee? Syncee is a global B2B platform created to connect retailers and suppliers. It has a great directory called Syncee Marketplace that has millions of high-profit products from suppliers from the US, CA, EU, UK, AU, and more. You can pick products one-by-one, or can pick and manage them in bulk by suppliers. Syncee runs on several ecommerce platforms.

How can Syncee prepare you and your store to reach sales goals, to be able to soar during Black Friday?

On Syncee Marketplace you can find winning and niche products you can extend your online store’s range with. As the suppliers listed are pre-vetted and reliable, you can find long-term partners there. The key to having long-term partners is to manage their products in bulk, and not pick goods one by one from dozens of different suppliers.

Syncee lets you upload products to your online store in bulk, you can have them updated as well like that, and can manage anything related to product data management in bulk.

Furthermore, the application offers a fully automated dropshipping solution. It offers automatic product uploads and updates and automated order data synchronization. You can also customize your products’ pricing settings in bulk, you are able to add your own price margin and can set rounding rules as well. Besides these, you can manage further useful product settings.

Using the diverse filters, you can easily decide what you would like to upload to your online store, and these are only some main features Syncee offers you.

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