Getting Your Shopify Store Ready for Black Friday 2023

Every year, on the Friday after Thanksgiving, Black Friday takes place. Black Friday is a shopping holiday marked by some of the year's best sales, and it runs from Black Friday through Cyber Monday, the Monday following Thanksgiving.

Although Black Friday is largely an American shopping holiday, it has become a well-known and highly anticipated global event, largely through the massive role that ecommerce now plays during this shopping holiday.

If you are wondering where to get started in prepping your Shopify business for Black Friday 2023, then you have come to the right place. In this article by Ecommerce Pro, we are going to be talking about what you need to do to get ready for the Black Friday holiday rush in 2023.

When it comes to ecommerce Black Friday sales, there’s a clear upward trend. Last year's Black Friday set a remarkable milestone as we saw U.S. online retail consumers spend a record $9.12 billion. As astounding as those numbers are, we’re expecting 2023’s Black Friday sales to be even bigger, especially in the ecommerce space.

Driven by inflation and a challenging economic climate, American customers shopped for better deals on Black Friday. On November 25, online retail sales in 2022 actually topped 2020's pandemic-driven record by achieving a new high of $9.12 billion, seeing an increase of 2.3% from $8.92 billion in 2021.

This year, Black Friday falls on Nov 24, 2023. With plenty of time to prepare, it's best to get started as early as possible for a Black Friday 2023 you won’t be forgetting any time soon.

In the following sections, we’re going to give you tips and highlight areas of your online business to focus on in preparation for a remarkable holiday rush:

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1. Improve the Mobile Experience

While this is a recurring tip we give to all stores, especially during Black Friday and other holiday shopping seasons, it's important to pay just as much attention to the desktop experience as the mobile experience as mobile is only getting more popular over time.

It is worth noting that 78% of online traffic in last year’s Black Friday sales was generated by mobile devices, which play an increasingly significant role in consumer behavior. Mobile purchases on Black Friday amounted to 48% of internet sales, up from 44% in 2021.

The reason why optimizing your Shopify store for mobile is so important is because, unlike laptops and computers, consumers can whip out their phones anywhere and more searches today are performed on mobile phones than on desktops and tablets.

While Shopify stores are already optimized for the mobile experience, there are still a few improvements you can make, including minimizing your use of text on product pages and using sticky navigation and buttons.

2. Double Down on Social Media Presence

In relation to the importance of mobile devices in online shopping, it’s also important not to neglect your social media presence.

During the lead-up to Black Friday, social media can be a potent tool for building relationships with your customers if used properly. Positive reviews may be used in posts to increase demand and foster trust, or inspiring images can be used to draw in viewers, generate buzz, and encourage users to share their experience with your brand to others.

In the U.S. and throughout the world, social media platforms accounted for 12% of all mobile traffic during Black Friday, a 22% increase from 2021. Up to 65% of consumers plan to purchase online during the holiday season, and 36% of them will use social media to find offers.

In the weeks leading up to the event, be sure to publish often and make use of trends and hashtags to boost exposure to your posts. Moreover, you should consider enabling shoppable posts so you can sell directly on platforms like Facebook and Instagram.

Get in touch with Ecommerce Pro to learn how you can make your Shopify online store optimized for mobile.

3. Plan Your Discounts & Deals Early

It's important to remember that while Black Friday buyers are searching for big discounts, they are also ready to spend more money than at any other time of the year. These bargains and discounts are what motivate consumers to get enthusiastic about Black Friday, so plan out your sales strategy in advanced.

Planning for a sale takes time, so don’t wait until the last minute to start organizing. For Black Friday, you must select the products you wish to provide a discount on, then plan the start and end dates of the sales.

When planning a sale, consider your products, profitability, and inventory. To make things easier, create a sales map in Excel and include start and end dates, selling prices, and product details. You can also manage promotions with the aid of Shopify discounts to make things easier and automated.

Black Friday discounts typically range from 20 to 25 percent. Although there can be discounts of up to 80%, the majority of prices are around 25%, allowing businesses to actually turn a profit than when prices are kept at regular levels due to a high increase in the average purchase value.

4. Market Your Black Friday Deals

Once you have your discount strategy down, consider how you will market your Black Friday deals to your customers. Many online brands will be doubling down on their marketing strategies leading up to Black Friday and you should, too. You can begin by informing your email subscribers and followers on social media several weeks or even months beforehand. By doing this, you can launch your deals to an audience that is already interested and in anticipation of your sale.

Interestingly, online customers are using social media to get inspiration and to find out about the best sales, promoting brands to use social media as a powerful marketing tool. Customers are increasingly clicking through to the discounts they find on social media, resulting in a slowly rising form of revenue. Here are some potential marketing strategies to use on Black Friday to get customers excited for the big sales to come:

• Give email subscribers or social media followers special early access to Black Friday deals.
• Promote your Black Friday sales in advance by informing your customers and followers that you will be sharing long-awaited sale soon.
• Announce free shipping during Black Friday weekend.

5. Provide Exceptional Customer Support

During busy shopping days like Black Friday,  more questions and problems may emerge. Because of this, its important to make sure your customer support team is ready to manage any concerns or issues presented by your customers.

You need to provide a variety of ways for consumers to contact you, including live chat, email, and phone support. During Black Friday, you may even want to consider hiring extra help to get you through the shopping holiday. Having a customer support representative can be pretty handy because you will be dealing with more people and more sales. If you can’t handle your customers’ queries, problems, and messages in a good and timely manner, then it’s time for you to hire a customer support representative, even for just a couple of months to help you handle the influx of people.

Alternatively, you can turn to AI chatbots or revisit your FAQ page to make improvements pertinent to the Black Friday rush

6. Use Cross-selling and Up-selling Tactics

Consider using upselling and cross-selling strategies to improve the success of your Shopify business on Black Friday in 2023. You can raise the average order value and increase total sales during the Black Friday rush by carefully displaying these recommendations on product pages and throughout the checkout process. Additionally, to encourage customers to make greater purchases, you can create unique bundle deals that pair different products at steep discounts.

You can improve the upselling and cross-selling process by utilizing data-driven recommendations and offering incentives like stacked discounts. This will give your customers a more satisfying shopping experience and boost sales for your Shopify store on Black Friday in 2023.

As long as what you are offering your customers is a product that is relevant and along the lines of what they are looking for, these strategies might even be a way to help your consumers get the best of what your store has to offer during Black Friday.

7. Review Your Return Policy

During Black Friday, there are more buyers eager to spend more money, which increases the likelihood of returns, prompting the need for you to review your return policy.

A return policy serves to safeguard both your online store and its consumers, but it also has the potential to affect many of your sales. Before making a purchase on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, customers are likely to look at a store's return policy to ensure that it is customer-friendly and allows for returns in the event that an item is damaged or may not fit well. If the return policy does not seem to be sufficiently customer-friendly, customers may want to shop someplace else.

Many online retailers provide their consumers with holiday-specific conditions, including a longer return period for some purchases. Even unopened products can be returned and refunded at some stores within 90 days after the original purchase date. However, not all items—including expensive ones like TVs, gadgets, and even personal items—should be taken into account for longer returns.

While you do want your return policy to be accommodating so that customers feel comfortable making purchases in your business, you also don't want it to be overly lax so that it attracts the less-than-honest sorts of customers who engage in return fraud.

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8. Evaluate Your Checkout Process

One of the most crucial things you can do in preparation for a successful Black Friday is to re-evaluate the checkout process from the perspective of a customer.

It's crucial that the checkout process is short and simple and without any sources of friction. You can also offer guest checkout to offer a more streamlined experience, only asking for the necessary customer shipping and payment details to complete the transaction.

You should also offer multiple forms of payment such as PayPal and Afterpay. Customers should also be able to modify their shopping carts easily, regarding quantity, size, color, and more before completing checkout.

The idea is to reduce as much friction as possible throughout the checkout procedure so that consumers may go with their journey with as few hiccups as possible without abandoning their carts.

Black Friday is Around the Corner

Is your Shopify store prepared for Black Friday?

Black Friday is just around the corner, bringing with it the potential for another year of record-breaking sales. As one of the most exciting times of the year for ecommerce, it's crucial that you prepare early on for the rush. By following some of the strategies we outline in this article, you can optimize your Shopify online store for success on Black Friday 2023.

In this article, we’ve given you 8 ecommerce ideas and tips to consider as you plan ahead. It’s now time to get your Shopify store ready for a successful Black Friday in 2023 that you won’t forget any time soon.

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At Ecommerce Pro, we help entrepreneurs and business owners build better and more successful Shopify businesses. Have a question or a project in mind? Get in touch with us today!