With only a month to go until the biggest shopping bonanza of the year, it is all hands on deck to get your fashion business ready to maximize sales. This year’s Black Friday lands on November 29, 2019, so no time to waste to prepare for the massive spike in customers starting their holiday shopping sprees. Read our 7 tips to stand out with your Black Friday promotions.

1. Start ahead of the others

Why wait until Black Friday? Use the power of people waiting impatiently on Black Friday deals to start ahead of others. Create your own brand’s momentum with a pre-party like ‘Purple Thursday’ and convince early birds to spend their money at your online shop.

2. Extend the deal past Cyber Monday

Just like starting early with your Black Friday deals, it’s well worth the effort to extend your deal past the weekend and even past Cyber Monday. Don’t tell potential buyers up front you are prolonging the promotions but keep it a surprise that’s in line with your brand’s DNA. Impulse buyers will be grateful they were handed the gift of an extended great deal they didn’t want to miss. Adding a countdown clock to let them watch the seconds ticking down will create an extra sense of urgency.

3. Add more channels

Creativity is key when trying to stand out from the crowd. Think outside the box when picking the channels you will be using to communicate your Black Friday offers. Sending promotions using direct messaging, like text messages or Facebook Messenger, is a great way to reach a lot of people in an instant, personalized way, whether it is by sending them a catchy, personalized text message or an image of your offer redirecting them to your website.

4. Have a landing page live all year

Instead of creating a landing page a couple of days or weeks before Black Friday, it is a better idea to let this sales funnel run all year long. Your landing page will rank higher in search engines, because SEO performance will improve when the page is not just launched for one specific moment in time, but all year long.

Furthermore, including a newsletter signup button on your landing page will grow your email list to notify potential customers for more promotions to come.

And finally, nowadays it is a no-brainer to design a landing page that is responsive and accessible on all devices, since more and more people are visiting your website from their mobile phones or devices.

5. Play by the hour

Black Friday is a global phenomenon, which implies that especially for smaller brands, it isn’t easy to draw attention and increase traffic to their online store. A simple ‘30% off everything’ may sound like a great idea, but it will not build the buzz you need stand out from your competitors.

Instead, make your offers and deals timely by playing by the hour. Boosting a specific category or piece each hour or every few hours with a temporary offer will give your client a reason to return to your website multiple times that day or weekend and is a great tactic to encourage impulse buying. Surprising them with a bouquet of Black Friday promotions triggers curiosity and moves your audience to (re)visit your website. People in general like the element of surprise of a mystery offer, so why not use it in your favor?

6. Don't forget the inspiration

Offers and promotions are great, but for a sector like fashion and luxury goods inspiring content is just as important to lure customers and increase the perceived quality.

Don’t forget it’s the ideal time of year for customers to start planning their Christmas presents, outfits for the holidays and (winter) holiday shopping. Inspiring potential customers with a nicely designed Christmas gift guide, combined with a Black Friday discount is a proven key to success!

7. Marketing automation

Although November and December are the number one months - online retailers sell approximately 30 percent more than during non-holiday months - competition is never so fierce as during this time of year. Customers tend to visit multiple online stores to compare offers, deals and promotions. That’s why it’s important to set up marketing automation workflows to retarget customers that have abandoned their cart using social media, Google or email marketing.

Excited to take your Black Friday marketing to the next level? Read our article on how the fashion industry tackled Black Friday weekend last year and/or contact us today to get your online sales off the ground with a bang!