Black Friday is huge for e-commerce store owners, as it presents a golden opportunity to make a lot of sales in a very short space of time. With that said, competition is fiercer than ever, and if you want to stand out, you have to make sure you’re going above and beyond with your discounts.
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Discounts and Lightning Sales
Amazon is a prime example of how to leverage time-sensitive deals to your advantage. Their lightning deals are deals that are run in short bursts, but offer huge chances to save. Their discounts only run for half an hour, or an hour at a time, or until the stock runs out.
By combining urgency with speed, shoppers often find themselves refreshing their app at various times of the day to make sure that they don’t miss out. By creating a rotation of deals that unlock as the days go by, and by using countdown timers, you can increase the sense of urgency people have while also making sure that you encourage repeat visits.
Generous discounts and bonuses will also help you to stay competitive during the most competitive time of the year. It’s possible to take inspiration from casino bonuses here. Like Amazon, casino sites often offer discounts at various times, including Starter Reload. This allows you to claim up to $100 every Monday when you make a deposit. Pokie of the Week allows you to claim 100 Free Spins or 30 Super Spins on top games every Friday. Either way, if you know that your site receives more traffic on certain days, catering your offerings to this allows you to engage customers at different times of the day.
VIP Sales and Early Access
Another way that you can promote your site would be to offer VIP sales. Shoppers who want to get a head start on the sale can do so by accessing the VIP sale, where links are sent out to your most valued customers. Offer your email subscribers the chance to gain early access to a discount, and also make sure that you are creating tiered reward systems. This could be done in a way that your Gold-tier members gain access to the sale on Wednesday, and Silver-tier members get the sale on Thursday, ahead of Black Friday.
By doing this, you can stretch out how long your sale is, while also creating a sense of loyalty and prestige amongst your customers. NEXT is a prime example of a site that does this very well. On the NEXT site, people are sent VIP time slots when their sale is due to start. By using this to your advantage, it becomes possible to stagger the times at which people access your site. Sites like NEXT also allow you to preview the sale and the discounts that are to be had, so people can browse before the sale goes live, but not buy.
Things like this can help you to create urgency and demand, which, during the most competitive part of the year, is essential to success.
David Prior
David Prior is the editor of Today News, responsible for the overall editorial strategy. He is an NCTJ-qualified journalist with over 20 years’ experience, and is also editor of the award-winning hyperlocal news title Altrincham Today. His LinkedIn profile is here.
