Boost Your Business: Essential Prep for Black Friday & Holiday Sales
Black Friday – Cyber Monday (BFCM) is a huge revenue-driver for ecommerce businesses. In 2023, BFCM generated $9.8 billion, and this year is expected to bring in even more. According to WooCommerce BFCM Trends Survey, 72% of merchants attribute more than 20% of their annual revenue to BFCM and the holiday season. Which is why you need to start preparing your store well in-advance to make the most of the potential profits.
In this article, we discuss this year's BFCM trends and predictions, marketing tips, marketing and sales calendar, as well as things that you should definitely do in order to better prepare your store.
2024 Holiday season trends and predictions
Last year, health and beauty sector was the third-biggest category driving the BFCM retail web traffic. While this year the world is dealing with inflation, layoffs, and other economic challenges, the consumer behaviour doesn't seem to indicate that things might be slowing down. Instead, consumers are more eager than ever to find the best deals, discounts, and to shop for holiday season gifts as soon as possible.
According to Boston Consulting Group, 60% of consumers favour clear discounts on everything over flash sales or bundle deals. In addition, these deals should grant at least 30% discount. This means that you should provide clear information about your BFCM campaign in your marketing materials, as well as your store. The clearer and more easily accessible your information – the better.
You should also launch your BFCM campaign as early as possible. According to data by CivicScience, 34% of shoppers now make holiday gift purchases before the actual Black Friday. In one part, this is due to the large amount of online orders being processed within the month before Christmas and New Year and consumers trying to avoid last minute shopping and the stresses that come with it. Another reason for this is trying to take advantage of the best deals to purchase gifts and other holiday-related items (decorations, gift packaging items etc.).
With every year, mobile commerce takes on a larger role in contributing to the BFCM revenue than previous years. With that in mind, it's a smart move to review your online store's capability with mobile devices. You can also check if it's also possible to offer flexible payment options, like, order now – pay later, to make the purchasing process as smooth and fast as possible.
Remember who your target audience is and research their shopping habits to better understand them and how to build your campaigns. For example, if your target audience is Gen-Z, then latest data shows, that 54% of Gen Z-ers and 45% of Millennials are using social media to discover gift ideas. And the majority of them prefer to purchase the items directly from the source, so consider linking your social media accounts to your online store.
Marketing tips
As already we established earlier, people are doing their holiday shopping early, meaning that you need to start marketing your BFCM campaign as early as possible. And keeping in mind the amount of flashy and loud holiday promotions demanding that people rush and purchase things “NOW”, it's best to tell your customers about your offers early and often.
So, how early are we talking about. Well, experienced sellers usually recommend starting communications about your BFCM sales at least 20 days in advance. A better approach would be to start in October and allow the campaign to stretch into the first weeks of December.
You can consider offer the so-called Private Sales or Early-Bird Sales.
Private Sales are sales that are exclusive to your subscribed or registered customers, and they're typically not advertised to mass audiences.
Early-Bird Sales usually tend to be advertised publicly, but can be approached from “subscribe to get access to exclusive sales before anyone else” standpoint.
The most common BFCM campaigns are:
discounts on all or certain products in your store
coupon giveaways offering either discounts on products or shipping
limited holiday-specific offers (best for limited or holiday-specific items)
bundle or gift set deals
The best marketing channels for your BFCM campaign are:
social media (particularly Instagram and TikTok)
affiliate and influencer collaborations
email marketing
paid ads (for example, Google Ads and Facebook Ads)
Learn more about using social media to market your skincare business.
Keep in mind the shipping timeframes
While there are no deadlines for BFCM sales, the majority of people shopping around this time are buying gifts and decorations for Christmas and New Year's Eve. Considering the amounts of packages in Q4 that the shipping carriers and post offices need to process, there are so-called cut-off dates. Meaning, if you don't place or ship your order by a certain deadline, there's a big chance the package won't reach your client in time for the festivities.
The major shipping carriers, like, USPS, UPS, DHL, including FedEx, which is used by Selfnamed, are yet to announce this year's official cut-off dates. However, based on the last year's information, we recommend avoiding accepting any holiday-related orders after the following dates:
for shipments within the EU: December 15-20th
for shipments outside the EU: December 12th
Remember the golden rule of ecommerce: never make promises to a customer that a package will arrive by a certain date. This is because there are always external factors, that can affect the shipping speed, which can't be controlled, like, the weather.
Additionally, the larger the order on Selfnamed, the longer it takes to fulfil it, so be mindful of the fulfilment times.
Other things to keep in mind:
Make sure your shipping and packaging information is clear and visible. It won't hurt to repeat the same information in multiple pages of your online store.
Review your returns & refunds policy.
If you're shipping the products yourself, consider including festive inserts or packaging designs, or even small gifts to boost customer return rates.
Communicate with your clients, that all orders placed two weeks before Christmas, have a chance to arrive only after the holidays.
Your BFCM to-do list
September & Beginning of October:
Decide on product discounts and promotion strategies
Plan your marketing campaigns for Q4 (October, November, December)
Build up your subscriber and follower list (additionally, actively collect customer testimonials and reviews)
Prepare your BFCM campaign content
In Q4:
WEEK 40 - WEEK 41: Launch a warm-up campaign (for example: stock clearance, giveaway, Fall sales)
WEEK 42 - WEEK 44: Start teasing your BFCM discounts and promotions
WEEK 45: Launch your Private Sale / Early-Bird Sale
WEEK 47: Launch your BFCM sale
WEEK 48: Keep actively promoting your BFCM sale and engaging with the customers.
WEEK 49: Actively promote the “last chance to…” of your BFCM sale. Consider offering limited discount codes for the Early-Bird customers from Week 45.
WEEK 50: Follow-up with holiday content and promotions.
WEEK 51: Remind people about the cut-off dates!
How To Start Your Own Skincare Line Using Selfnamed
Selfnamed is here to help create your own skincare line by making the process as simple and seamless as possible. As soon as you decide on your ideal customer and product range, there are only a few simple steps to take:
Select product sample sets. You can choose from more than 30 high-quality, organic or natural certified skincare products made in Northern Europe.
Add your style. Selfnamed offers an easy-to-use design studio to create labels and packaging. You can work with pre-made print-ready templates or create your design from scratch. You can also choose our design service.
Start selling your products. There are no minimum orders, meaning you can easily adjust the volume to your needs.
Before making a custom order, we recommend looking at our sample set selection. These sets contain curated product lines for different skin types, letting you choose the best products for your brand. This way you can test the products — their consistencies, textures, fragrances, as well as packaging quality.
There are the basic steps on how to start a skincare line from the comfort of your home. Best of luck with your new endeavour!
