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Your Last-Minute Guide to Boosting Black Friday and Cyber Monday Sales in Australia

By William Zhang

November 17, 20199 min read

Australian consumers and businesses are buying into Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales more each year.

According to Black Friday Global, 83% of Australians surveyed said they knew what Black Friday was, but couldn’t remember the exact date. Likewise, 57.1% said they participated in the shopping event last year, which is 7% higher than in 2017.

As this growth trend continues, small and medium-sized businesses must learn how to take advantage of this opportunity to generate incremental holiday revenue.

We’ll get into how you can leverage Black Friday and Cyber Monday in 2019. But first, let’s review the history of Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping events.

What is Black Friday and Cyber Monday?

Black Friday is the name given to the shopping day that occurs after American Thanksgiving, which always happens on the third Thursday in November. It has traditionally been the biggest shopping day of the year for many US businesses, as it’s a federal holiday (as part of a four-day weekend), and many people begin their holiday shopping on that date. This year, it will take place on Friday, November 29.

Today, the word “black” refers to retailers going from “in the red” to “in the black” as they begin to turn a profit. While Black Friday represents the start of the US holiday shopping season, CNET reports that in 2018, Cyber Monday generated $7.9 billion US in sales—beating the record-breaking 2018 Black Friday, which reached $6.2 billion US.

This trend is due, in part, to the rapid growth of ecommerce in recent years. Many businesses, therefore, save their biggest online sales offers for Cyber Monday. This year, it will occur on December 2, the first Monday after American Thanksgiving.

Australians already plan to spend $375 per person—both online and in brick-and-mortar stores this Black Friday alone. Additionally, the average Australian Black Friday shopper tends to buy an average of four products.

You can find an overview of Black Friday customer insights below, which was produced in 2018.

Now that you understand the advantage of promoting your business on these dates, it’s time to develop a strategy to maximise your sales potential.

Tips to maximise sales on Black Friday and Cyber Monday

According to Black Friday Global, peak Australian shopping activity on November 29 is likely to happen between the hours of 10 am and 2 pm. You’ll need to build your promotional strategy around this time frame—perhaps offering doorbusters (special limited-time deals) in-store and online that encourage people to buy earlier and spend more than they would normally.

A doorbuster could be a gift with purchase over a certain amount or a special discount that’s only available for those that buy certain items.

Google Trends data for Australia for the 19th to 25th of November 2018 indicates two-thirds of all queries related to “Black Friday sales” occurred on Thursday and Friday (31.5 percent each) of the sales event.

However, consumer interest began growing on Wednesday, then faded on Sunday, which mirrors trends around the world. Keep this in mind while deciding when to launch and shut down your sales events.

You’ll need to be strategic about which sales categories to promote to shoppers on November 29 and December 2, as well. Black Friday Global’s statistics on 2018 shopping data reveals the most popular categories of products among Black Friday shoppers in Australia include:

Clothing
Shoes
Electronics
Cosmetics
Perfumes
Home and garden

Additionally, when shopping online during Black Friday in 2018, “more than half (54.9 percent) of Australian customers used smartphones, 38.6 percent preferred desktops, and the remaining 6.4 percent chose tablets.” You’ll need to factor this into your online marketing strategy, which we’ll get into shortly.

What should small and medium-sized businesses promote?

Black Friday and Cyber Monday are the one time of the year that small and medium-sized businesses should consider going deep with discounts.

In North America, consumers have come to expect them. The chart from Numerator below shows that discounts were even bigger in 2018 for all product categories. The average deal was a discount of 49.6% off versus 45.5% in 2017.

Since 33% of Australian e-shoppers buy abroad due to better availability of products, keep in mind that you’ll be competing with businesses for sales in the US and elsewhere on Black Friday.

However, you’ll need to determine how deep you can afford to go while also turning a profit.

One way to do so is by offering different discounts based on how much a customer spends:

You may also want to save the highest discounts for only your most loyal customers.

1. Give VIPs the upper hand

Consider offering your VIP customers both early access to deals, and exclusive deals that are better than what the general public will see. Email is a great way to deliver these VIP deals, which we’ll get into soon.

Here’s an example of an early Black Friday VIP email promotion for Platypus shoes:

2. Offer price matching to mobile shoppers in-store

In 2018, almost 57% of Australian Black Friday shoppers chose to seek out deals both online and in-store. This behaviour is known as multi-channel shopping. Additionally, the majority of online Black Friday shopping in 2018 was conducted on a mobile device, according to the chart below from Black Friday Global.

If you don’t have a mobile app or website to tailor deals to those shoppers, keep in mind that 80% of Australians are also using their mobile phones while in a physical store. The main reason is to compare prices and look at product reviews.

As a result, many retailers offer price matching in-store on Black Friday. If you can afford to do it, this will help you build customer loyalty into the New Year. Just ask them to show you the price at your competitor’s site on their phones.

3. Provide incentives for customers to return in January and February

Another way to drive loyalty and repeat purchases in the New Year is by offering gift cards or coupons which they can redeem in January and February. This strategy can also help you drive up the average amount that someone spends with your business.

For example, you could offer a $20 gift card or coupon code to customers who spend over, say, $100. Here’s a screenshot of a similar deal that was recently promoted by Adore Beauty on Facebook:

Once you’ve created your special Black Friday and Cyber Monday offers, be sure to promote them in advance to maximise profits.

Supporting marketing and sales tactics

Given that there are only a few weeks to go before two of the biggest shopping days of the year, here are some quick ways you can get the word out about your sales events.

1. Pre-promote deals early in-store and on your website

As I mentioned earlier, not all Australians are as familiar with the actual dates of Black Friday and Cyber Monday. That’s why it helps to pre-promote your sales in advance. Many businesses start their sales a few days in advance of the main event, as well.

You can start by adding a graphic to your website homepage or get more technical like Platypus did with a countdown clock. The example below is for a Click Frenzy promotion, a pre-holiday Australian online shopping event that’s similar to Cyber Monday that occurred on November 12th. Your strategy depends on your budget and your technical expertise.

Additionally, consider putting up signs in your shop or printing flyers to give to customers in the days or weeks leading up to the sale.

2. Tease your offers on social media channels

If you’ve generated a following on your social media channels, build up some excitement with teasers for your upcoming sales. For example, Adore Beauty promoted a GIF of cats typing frantically on a laptop to tease their Click Frenzy sale on Instagram:

Depending on how much time you have, you could promote a different product or offer that you’ll be featuring each day until the main event.

3. Segment and send your offers using your email database

If you’ve built up a customer email marketing list in a tool like MailChimp , now would be an excellent time to segment your customers based on the promotions you plan to offer. For example, you could create one for VIPs, and one for customers with kids (if you plan to have a discount on select toys), and lists for men’s or women’s clothing sales.

You could also create a promotion for a list of customers who haven’t bought from you recently but that you’d like to bring back to your store. It’s commonly known as a win-back email. As I’ve mentioned earlier, you could offer them a gift or gift card with purchase, and let them know about other deals going on for Black Friday, like the example below.

Think about the timing of when you’ll send out your emails, as well. You might want to send out a teaser email a few days in advance. Then, send one out the morning of Black Friday, when the sale begins. If you have the resources, you can also send one out a few hours before the sale ends to capture last-minute transactions.

4. Promote coupon codes and deals on discount sites

Another place to promote your deals is on Australian deal finder websites, like Finder.com.au and Retailmenot.com/australia.

Most savvy shoppers are aware of and visit these sites to look for discounts from their favourite brands, both online and in-store. Below are some sample promotions for the brand boohoo on Finder.com Australia.

Many of these sites work like affiliates, meaning they take a percentage of the sale that was generated after a customer used the coupon code, or clicked on the “get deal” link and completed a purchase. It’s somewhere in the range of 20% to 60%, according to Business Queensland.

5. Target ads to multi-channel shoppers

Finally, if you have the budget and resources to create and deploy a last-minute advertising or direct mail campaign, consider promoting your sales a week or so leading up to Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

This online advertising article on the Small Business Resource Centre provides tips on how to create and promote a campaign online. Your best bet is to start with a Google paid search or display network campaign, or a Facebook campaign, since it might be too late to create and run an offline print or outdoor campaign.

You can quickly put something together with images and text that can be targeted to your ideal customers per the example below:

It’s not too late to offer Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals

If you haven’t done so already, it’s time to consider how you can still capitalise on Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Factor in what you can afford regarding special discounts for all customers and deeper discounts for VIPs. Make sure to match prices in-store for mobile shoppers, and offer deals to bring them back in the New Year, too.

Start with the quickest and most cost-effective ways to pre-promote your offers. If you already have an email marketing system in place, it’s a good place to begin. Segment your lists based on VIPs, different product categories, and even a win-back campaign.

Likewise, be sure to promote your sales events in advance in-store, on your website, and social media. If you have some money for last-minute advertising set aside, consider online, newspaper, and direct mail channels.

But you don’t have to do it all at once. Start with a few promotional tactics and channels to test this year, then build on your success and plan further ahead in 2020.

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Your Last-Minute Guide to Boosting Black Friday and Cyber Monday Sales in Australia

What is Black Friday and Cyber Monday?

Tips to maximise sales on Black Friday and Cyber Monday

What should small and medium-sized businesses promote?

1. Give VIPs the upper hand

2. Offer price matching to mobile shoppers in-store

3. Provide incentives for customers to return in January and February

Supporting marketing and sales tactics

1. Pre-promote deals early in-store and on your website

2. Tease your offers on social media channels

3. Segment and send your offers using your email database

4. Promote coupon codes and deals on discount sites

5. Target ads to multi-channel shoppers

It’s not too late to offer Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals

Related Articles

Looking for something else?

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