It may seem early to start planning Black Friday sales, but taking action now can save a lot of time and stress in the long run. What is the best place to start? Look at your ecommerce reporting and data to get the ball rolling.
Popular SearchesÂ
What terms did last year’s Black Friday shoppers search for? What have they been looking for in the months following? Pull a list of your top search queries across Cyber Weekend 2022 and in the following months and look for trends in the queries and results. Do shoppers repeatedly search for a product you don’t carry? Consider stocking it this year. Also, look at synonyms that may need to be set up. Is “Black Friday sale” a top search term? Start to formulate a plan for a dedicated landing page this year. Dig through your search query data and action the most common trends for 2023.
Zero Results
How often have shoppers been experiencing “no results found”? Look at this report and make changes now. Identify opportunities for synonyms and redirects and meet with your search provider for strategy ideas. If misspellings are causing problems set up autocorrect and “did you mean” suggestions. For search terms where there is no relevant result, look at other ways to optimize no results found. Highlight best Black Friday offers, suggest alternative products, or guide shoppers to the most popular categories or products. Lastly, enable content search so shoppers can quickly locate your return policies and shipping info.
Category Insights
Examine which category pages shoppers engaged with most during Black Friday 2022 and in the months that have followed. Look at page views, bounce rates, time spent on each page, engagements and interactions, and page rankings to identify top-performing categories. Implement quick wins to see if underperforming pages can be saved with a few adjustments or if a bigger overhaul is needed. Also, find opportunities to adapt your merchandising strategy for a more engaging product display this year. Try boosting best sellers, top-rated products, or your biggest discounts to capture shoppers’ interest. Doing this early will help optimize in time for Black Friday / Cyber Monday.
New vs Returning Customers
Black Friday shoppers may look a little different than everyday visitors. Take some time to learn about them and strategize how to turn last year’s seasonal shoppers into repeat customers. Give loyal fans a little extra incentive.
Conversions and AOV
How does your Black Friday average order value (AOV) compare with the rest of the year? If it’s significantly lower, this could be a sign you need to upsell and cross-sell more over Cyber Weekend. Use product recommendations to provide personalized suggestions to shoppers. They might come to your site with one product in mind, and be pleasantly surprised to find you also stock other items on their holiday shopping list. Impulse purchases are at an all-time high during sale periods, so boost product visibility to increase cart values.
Use Ecommerce Reports to Strategize, Convert Sales, Increase Cart Size, and Win Customer LoyaltyÂ
Start to think about a plan for Black Friday 2023 now and save a little time and stress later. Look at ecommerce reports and data that are designed to help strategize sales and learn about your shoppers. Data driven decision making and planning are key to a successful holiday season.
» Get more Black Friday content and planning tips by visiting the Searchspring Black Friday 2023 Content Hub.
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