Winning Black Friday Strategies For Fashion Ecommerce Businesses

The best time to start preparing for the 2024 Black Friday was 2 weeks ago...

Not to worry though - the second best time to start preparing is now.

The National Retail Federation has projected that winter holiday spending will increase by 2.5% to 3.5% compared to 2023.

This means total spending during November and December is expected to reach between $979.5 billion and $989 billion, compared to $955.6 billion during the same period last year.

Black Friday marks the start of the winter holiday shopping season, and is the most popular day for online and in-store shopping in the US.

Last year, Apparel and accessories emerged as the second largest shopping category, accounting for 16% of total traffic during the 2023 holiday shopping season. This signals an increased interest in fashion discounts and promotions, and highlights the need for fashion businesses to set intentional strategies in place to increase their share of the market during this period.

This article provides you with expert tips to prepare your business for a successful Black Friday-Cyber Monday (BFCM) Weekend.

Expert Tips For Boosting Your Black Friday-Cyber Monday Sales

There is going to be increased competition for shoppers’ attention and monies during BFCM. The last thing you want is to get drowned in the noise because of the "little things" that matter.

Here are 5 Expert Tips for boosting your share of the Black Friday pie:

1. Set up attractive-yet-reasonable discounts.

69% of shoppers used the 2023 BFCM to cash in on items they’ve been wanting to see drop in price, and 57% used it to kickoff or wrap-up their holiday shopping.

It's a no-brainer that you need to give shoppers attractive discounts - That’s the whole point of Black Friday.
However, your discounts and promotions need to be reasonable in the sense that you don’t devalue your brand. Offering discounts and deals that align with your brand is a much better way to create a long-term relationship with your customers instead of a one-off purchase.

The best discounts are those who will attract shoppers who can and will still buy from you even after Black Friday.

2. Start Your Promotions Early

Don't wait until the last minute to decide on your promotions and discounts. Early promotions will help create awareness and hype prior to BFCM, for both loyal and new customers.

"In my view, Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) brands should kickstart their preparations for Black Friday well in advance... Starting early saves you from last-minute stress and guarantees a smoother Black Friday experience... If you don't, you risk frustrating customers who purchased a product just days before Black Friday, only to see it heavily discounted.””

- Sander Volbeda, Conversion Rate Optimization Specialist

As high as 85% of shoppers who plan to shop online during Black Friday typically have tabs open when waiting for sales to begin. You want those open tabs to be for your products.

You should ensure that the information about your promotions are clear and consistent. This is important because confused shoppers are less likely to finish a purchase, especially when there are thousands of alternatives offering similar products and discounts.

Let your discount offers, dates, shipping/delivery policies, sizing guide, and returns/refund policies be clear and easily accessible.

3. Discount and Promote The Right Items

According to Google, only 26% of holiday purchases were impulsive during BFCM in 2022. Shoppers are very intentional about the discounted products they choose to buy, so you should be intentional about the products you choose to discount.

In situations where you cannot give discounts on all your products, the best products to prioritize for Black Friday discounts are products that are already in high demand. They provide you an opportunity to make even more sales and leave Black Friday shoppers satisfied.

Like I said earlier, the best Black Friday discounts are those that will have shoppers coming back even after Black Friday.

Using Fashion Business Intelligence tools like Woven Insights and Stylumia, you can easily identify in-demand fashion colours, features, categories and products across various regions, for which you can create promotions.

Another cheatsheet for identifying in-demand items to discount and promote during Black Friday is Product Alerts By Lykdat. This ecommerce customer engagement plugin can be used to send automated personalized email notifications to shoppers when items in their shopping carts are back in stock or available at a lower price.

Another advantage of the Product Alerts plugin is that it gives you access to the list of products that shoppers have added to their wishlists, letting you know what items are highly sought after.

With this information, you can easily decide what items would make sense to restock or put on sale in preparation for Black Friday.

4. Ensure That Your Website is Black Friday Ready

The retail web traffic during the 2023 Holiday Season was about 1.648 billion, with 67 million web visits recorded on Black Friday alone - almost 2 times the visits on an average October day!

Ensuring your website is Black Friday ready by putting technical measures in place to enhance the shopping experience and keep shoppers on your website.

Here are a few ways to ensure that your website is Black Friday Ready:

1. Adopt a mobile-first strategy: This is 2024. People shop with their phones. Shopify recorded that 73% of BFCM sales were made on mobile devices last year. Ensure that your online store is responsive across various mobile devices and browsers.
2. Optimise your website for high traffic volumes and increased speed: Turn off heatmaps during BFCM. They probably won't give you any new information, but they will definitely slow down the page speed for all of your visitors. Even a slight boost in page speed (by 100ms) can increase conversions by 7%.
3. Consider enabling BNPL options for shoppers: Shoppers are looking for flexible ways to manage their budgets while not backing down on spending. Buy now, pay later (BNPL) has seen continued growth in 2024 that is expected to continue during the holiday season.
   Adobe forecasts BNPL spending will peak on Cyber Monday with a new single-day-record of $993 million. BNPL payment options like Klarna and Afterpay are especially important this Holiday Shopping; as Shoppers who used a BNPL service spent $598 on average on Black Friday in 2024, versus $452 among those who didn’t use a deferred payment method, according to a survey by PYMNTS Intelligence. 

Making sure everything works on your online store before BFCM weekend will help you avoid an unpleasant user experience for shoppers.

5. Make The BFCM Shopping Experience Memorable

While Black Friday is most popular among retailers for the chance it gives to maximise sales, it also presents the unique opportunity to capture the hearts of shoppers who will make repeat purchases even after BFCM.

Creating such a memorable shopping experience during Black Friday goes beyond giving discounts - everyone is already doing that. Consider doing the following to enhance the Black Friday experience for shoppers on your site:

1. Set up bundles and/or free gifts for product purchases: Leaning solely on discounting would bring you shoppers who are less likely to repeat purchase. It is the easy way out, but is usually not sustainable. Think Post-Black Friday, and leverage bundles, gifts with purchase, or even free express shipping, to create a stronger connection with shoppers this season.
2. Have a Retail Operations Gameplan: Put plans in place to efficiently handle order fulfilment, returns and refunds. I think this is self-explanatory really. You don’t want the shopping experience to leave a bad taste in the mouths of your shoppers because of inadequate preparation.
3. Reward Existing Customers Specially: Rewarding loyal customers with special perks such as free/discounted shipping, early access and even higher discounts to generate excitement from existing shoppers, and foster loyalty from new shoppers.

15% of all Shopify website orders during the 2023 Black Friday were made across borders. This indicates that shoppers are now more intentional in seeking discounts and product availability. Consumers are now looking for the best deals, no matter where they are. Thinking Post-BFCM when planning and executing your Black Friday strategies will help you intentionally create a memorable experience that will have your shoppers coming back.

Conclusion

Black Friday offers an opportunity for retailers to meet consumers halfway, ensuring that they are offering shoppers the best, earliest, and most accessible deals possible.

Preparation, planning, and starting earlier are the keys to achieving that. If this is your first Black Friday as a retailer, treat it as a learning experience. Stay motivated and ambitious, set realistic expectations, and remember to enjoy the ride.