41 Black Friday Marketing Ideas For 2025 (eCommerce)

Is your eCommerce store ready for the busiest sales week of the year? 

Black Friday is often a weeklong holiday shopping extravaganza full of discounts and heavy traffic immediately following the Thanksgiving holiday.

It has become the favorite time for shoppers to get good deals and for retailers to land great sales.

Let’s take a look at some facts:

Raring to go? Here’s what this blog will cover:

Black Friday Marketing Ideas: 41 Ways to Boost Sales (With Examples)

9 Key Steps to Build a Powerful Black Friday Campaign

When Should I Start Black Friday Marketing Campaigns?

Black Friday Promotion Ideas: 41 Ways to Boost Sales (With Examples)

When you’re exploring Black Friday marketing ideas, you’ll have to keep a lookout for what’s most easily implementable—in this list, we bring you the ones that have worked consistently for our clients. 

1. Create FOMO with hourly deals

2. Run as many offers as you can

3. Create a gift guide 

4. Incentivize every purchase with a free gift

5. Build curiosity with mystery savings

6. Create value by offering donations

7. Discount your gift cards

8. Don’t forget your VIP customers

9. Flex your return/exchange policy 

10. Experiment with sitewide discounts

11. Consider conditional free shipping

12. Entice them with boosted loyalty deals

13. Leverage Black Friday special product launches

14. Create bundle deals

15. Use countdown timers

16. Fall back on last-minute urgency 

17. Make your customers feel lucky 

18. Offer conditional discounts

19. Reward them with a checkout coupon 

20. Go the BOGO way

21. Start building your Black Friday email list early

22. Extend the Black Friday celebration

23. Create popups for window/casual shoppers

24. Offer value beyond discounts

25. Make it interactive with a discount wheel

26. Reward referrals

27. Go creative with your Black Friday themes

28. Make your offers email-exclusive

29. Bring your brand values forward

30. Integrate social media into your marketing plan

31. Partner with influencers

32. Focus on mobile optimization

33. Show the numbers

34. Prep your team up for Black Friday

35. Make sure your Black Friday landing pages get traffic

36. Make it easy to find deals

37. Handle abandoned carts faster than usual

38. Run really creative Black Friday ads

39. Make it really easy to checkout

40. Promote ‘Friday’ themes over email, leading to Black Friday

41. Ask email shoppers to share a list for Black Friday

1. Create FOMO with hourly deals

If you reduce the supply of a product to a certain period, its value automatically increases.

This is the scarcity principle and can be an effective tool during the holiday season. 

Offering one deal per hour is a great way to boost spending as well as keep your Black Friday marketing ideas fresh. 

Let’s say you start with 40% off on everything in the first hour, you can increase it to 50% off on everything in the next hour. 

PRO TIP

Don’t forget to use it carefully though so that customers don’t wait for you to increase your discounts.

One way to keep this in check is to announce a not-too-high sitewide discount, but offer an additional discount when people subscribe to your emails.

This way you can even get to grow your email list. 

2. Run as many offers as you can

While segmentation is valuable while formulating Black Friday marketing strategies, the idea is to be able to appeal to as many segments as possible. 

So, even if your competition is focused on offering a sitewide discount, you can call out discounts based on:

• Separate categories
• Personal interests
• Best Selling products
• Products that have received massive social proof

Check out how Wayfair offers different Black Friday deals in different categories:

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Don’t hesitate to call out additional discounts and take the opportunity to push out your membership program—shoppers will believe you when you say “Earn an additional 15% on any category when you join our FREE membership program”.

You might like: Limited Time Offer: 20 compelling examples + how to copy them

3. Create a gift guide 

Black Friday is the ideal time for customers to give and receive gifts. 

It’s a great way to highlight specific products to customers. You can also divide your products into gifting categories such as ‘Gifts for Him’ and ‘Gifts for Her.’

You can either promote it by creating a Black Friday gift guide collection or by writing a blog post on Holiday gifting ideas.

This is how Converse creates an irresistible gift guide for its customers as part of its Black Friday campaign ideas. 

PRO TIP

You can highlight your gift guide on your homepage or create a separate Black Friday landing page to get more traffic.

4. Incentivize every purchase with a free gift

Want to encourage your customers to purchase more? 

Adding gifts for every purchase is a great way to make customers complete the checkout process. 

You can make it even more irresistible by adding scarcity to the offer. 

See how Sephora does it for their Black Friday campaign:

PRO TIP

You can add a bit of a challenge to your Black Friday promotions by creating a purchase limit for availing the gift.

To nudge them a bit more, add to every product page “Add to cart and find a surprise gift waiting!”

5. Build curiosity with mystery savings

Add an element of surprise to your Black Friday marketing with mystery savings options. 

Scratch cards are a great way to do this. This not only builds anticipation but also makes the shopping experience interactive. 

Like Forever 21 does as part of their Black Friday marketing ideas:

PRO TIP

You can use this sort of gamification option to convert Black Friday and Cyber Monday offers – and reduce your cart abandonment.

Also read: 15 Top Examples of eCommerce Teaser Emails (+ Templates)

6. Create value by offering donations

Donations can touch upon the personal values of your customers and build stronger brand credibility during Black Friday. 

At this time, many shoppers are acutely aware of the plight of the less privileged. 

This is how Chatty Feet incorporates donations into their Black Friday promotion ideas, making them feel fun and true to their brand ethos.

PRO TIP

Bring in the tiered discount concept to create tiered donations: for example, “Buy for $200 and we’ll donate $30, buy for $500 and we’ll donate $100.”

7. Discount your gift cards

Another way to offer a great Black Friday deal is to provide a discount on gift cards. 

For example, if you were offering a $60 gift card, you could reduce the price of it to $50 (while keeping the value intact at $60). 

This Black Friday marketing idea can help you both take advantage of the gifting season as well as land loyal customers in the long run. 

Here’s an example of gift card discounts offered by Visa as part of its Black Friday promotion ideas:

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You can also extend this offer in the form of printable gift cards. Also – instead of using a flat discount code, try offering a ‘free’ Black Friday gift card in exchange for a certain cart value (or lead signup).

8. Don’t forget your VIP customers

A Black Friday sales idea you can use to attract your loyal customers: offer VIP discounts. 

This especially works if you have a loyalty program or a VIP club. Offering exclusive VIP discounts will make it exclusive for your customers.

This will entice them to buy more from you. It can also set off repeat purchases for the rest of the year—improving the customer's lifetime value. 

This is how Cupcakes and Cashmere offers early bird access and discounts to their VIP customers as part of their Black Friday marketing campaign ideas:

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PRO TIP

You can promote your VIP discount through a Facebook announcement or a landing page—alternatively, email your VIP members well in advance to stay true to “early access.”

Check out: eCommerce Tiered Discount: 10 Awesome Examples You'd Want To Copy

9. Flex your return/exchange policy 

The good news is that Black Friday is a time when people feel primed to buy. 

But many are also unsure about how well they’ll like their purchases. 

So they may not buy from you if they find you have an inflexible returns & exchanges policy. 

What you can do to fight this:

• Clearly mention what is eligible for return
• Limit what you offer as an exchange option
• Increase your otherwise X days return window (while an extra month might be too much, two extra weeks isn’t that bad a deal)
• Offer more options for refund (include options like forwarding the amount to a gift card or store credit)

PRO TIP 

Want a creative Black Friday Cyber Monday strategy using this flexi-approach? Announce returns & exchanges across popular channels by saying something like: “Our return window is extended to 60 days for BFCM—it’ll last from <date> to <date>”

You might like: 14 Brilliant Examples of eCommerce Return Policy (+ Proven Tips)

10. Experiment with sitewide discounts

If you think sitewide discounts are passé, you may not be using them right. 

Coupled with early bird access, attractive product photography, and compelling copy, a sitewide Black Friday discount can work wonders. 

Take some inspiration from how Able does it, as part of its Black Friday marketing strategies:

PRO TIP

Promote your big-ticket items more as you draw closer to the sale—across eCommerce, these items bring in conversions during Black Friday. 

11. Consider conditional free shipping

Free shipping is a very important consideration customers make when purchasing. During the Black Friday promotion season, this is a basic offer they expect from brands. 

Using conditional free shipping as part of your Black Friday marketing helps you in 2 ways: it ensures smaller orders from loss as well as helps you increase your average order value. ‍

Anthropologie offers a conditional free shipping offer after the order value crosses a particular threshold. 

PRO TIP

Use doorstep free delivery as a way to wheel back cart abandoners during this time. 

Check out: Free Shipping: Still a Conversion Driver in 2025? (+ Brands Nailing It)‍

12. Entice them with boosted loyalty deals

The Black Friday run-up is a good time to refresh your rewards and update your loyalty deals.

Attract more transactions by offering a little extra reward “oomph” for loyalty club purchases made over Black Friday weekend.

For example, if members usually receive 10 points for every $100 they spend, bump it to 20 for Black Friday purchases.

You can also turn this into hourly deals in which your loyalty points go from 2x to up to 10x (as much as you can 🙂), changing every hour.

‍Extremely exciting for shoppers!

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PRO TIP

While the masses have to wait to access Black Friday deals, let your VIP/loyalty club members enjoy BFCM prices a week before the big day.

13. Leverage Black Friday special product launches

If your brand has exclusivity or luxurious appeal to bank on, you can replace discounts with a collection launch. 

When your brand itself becomes a status symbol, customers will already be eager to buy your products.

Offering discounts may be off-brand and ruin the exclusivity customers may associate your brand with. 

In this case, you can use this period to launch a Black Friday special collection – like Chanel does. 

PRO TIP

Make sure you create a lot of suspense before the launch to build up the anticipation. 

To create more impact, create urgency and social proof through copy like:

“Access available only until x/xx/xxxx” and “1000 bags sold, only 100 more to go!” 

You might like: 6 Ways to Make Your Products Look Exclusive (& Real-world Examples)

14. Create bundle deals

If switching from a single to a bundled product will get them a better deal, then they are surely going to go for it—especially during the Black Friday season. 

Consider introducing bundle deals using some of these Black Friday marketing strategies:

• Get X% off when you create your own bundle
• Announce an additional discount for buying more than two bundles
• Float sluggish product stock through bundles (state clearly that these products won’t be available separately)

Check out how Equa plays it up by calling it “Deal of the Year.”

PRO TIP

Feature individual items & bundled counterparts together for shoppers to make out the price differences easily. 

15. Use countdown timers

The urgency that countdown timers create pushes impulse purchases and gets on-the-fence shoppers across the checkout line.

• Place the timer on the homepage–above the fold, on the product pages in the buy section, and on the cart and checkout pages
• Remember to add the seconds field along with the hours and minutes
• Consider adding subtle animations – like blinking colon or slight pulse effect
• Write a clear message – like ‘The sale ends in’ above the timer
• Take into account different time zones

PRO TIP

Add these timers to your emails as well – so as to make shoppers jump on the deals.

16. Fall back on last-minute urgency 

There are several tactics to achieve record sales on Black Friday. 

Throwing in a bit of last-minute urgency can really help speed up the conversion process, like limited time or limited stock.

This is how Game makes their Black Friday offer even more persuasive with a countdown timer. 

Figure out quick ways your shoppers can spot these :

• Post about it on Insta stories
• Send WhatsApp and SMS updates
• Use the alert bar across your website
• Send a couple of emails around the time the sale is about to start—one a day before and another when a few hours are left
• Create story highlights to pin on your social profiles – showcase exclusive sneak peeks, Black Friday offers, and landing pages

PRO TIP

Place the CTA very close to the last-minute urgency nudge – this will let shoppers know what to do next.

17. Make your customers feel lucky 

A classic giveaway like a lucky draw probably never goes out of fashion. 

It’s a great idea to encourage your shoppers to purchase and spend more.

You may add a purchase option to the lucky draw campaign to motivate both new and old customers. 

Here’s how Romwe offers Black Friday lucky draw rewards in the form of points to encourage customers to purchase more. 

PRO TIP

Announce a lucky draw campaign in exchange for customer feedback on cart abandonment, checkout process etc. 

Make sure you feature this at least a few weeks before BFCM so that you can incorporate the top suggested changes. 

Do check out: How to Boost Sales with Smart eCommerce Merchandising

18. Offer conditional discounts

Don’t want to lose sales while offering discounts? You can offer conditional discounts to ensure a minimum order value. 

You can configure these discounts based on several factors such as product quantity, a minimum price threshold, location conditions, or bundle conditions. 

Below is a great Black Friday marketing example from Kosas offering multiple conditional discounts based on various price thresholds.  

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You can even personalize the conditional discount for customers based on their purchase history—and promote it over email for maximum impact. 

You should also read: 18 Killer Examples Of eCommerce New Years Marketing

19. Reward them with a checkout coupon 

Customers love surprises, especially when they get to save right before checkout. Often this prompts them to add more products to the cart. 

Offering a coupon at checkout is a win-win for all. It makes the checkout process easier and improves the conversion rate too. 

See how Nike offers a compelling coupon to lead customers to checkout? The subtle urgency acts as a cherry on top. 

PRO TIP

You can make applying the coupon easier by making it apply or copy automatically. 

20. Go the BOGO way

A Buy One Get One Free (BOGO) Black Friday deal is a win-win for both customers and retailers. 

Around 67% of customers prefer BOGO out of all promotions and 95% have availed of BOGO deals at least once. 

It’s a great way to clear out your inventory and yet drive revenue.

You don’t have to lower your price even, just offer an item for free along with the one at the original price.

Check out the BOGO offer by Vitamin World. 

PRO TIP

Create FOMO by announcing the BOGO sale to last only x hours. 

21. Start building your Black Friday email list early

You can have the best discounts and the greatest products on your site–but if they do not flash in front of the eyes of online shoppers–it’s a waste of a lot of effort.

Let’s not let that happen.

Plan for traffic early–at least starting from mid-October.

Build your Black Friday email list–and promote your Black Friday sale to them.

For this:

• Create signup forms on your website–popups, embedded forms and onsite notifications)

• Incentivize visitors to sign up (VIP discounts, early access to Black Friday deals, etc.)

Look at this simple Black Friday signup form–clearly highlighting the benefit of signing up–pushes visitors to drop their email ids.

Once you have a solid email list ready, get those email sequences running and pull those shoppers to your website.

PRO TIP

Send your first email as soon as someone signs up. Welcome them and let them know that the Black Friday offers will be dropping in their inboxes soon.

22. Extend the Black Friday celebration

Send your first email to subscribers as soon as they sign up. Welcome them and let them know that the Black Friday deals will drop in their inboxes soon.

While Black Friday is still the crowd-puller, you don’t need to limit your campaign to just that day. 

You can easily extend your campaign till Cyber Monday or for the entire month.

Chances are that the competition may be extremely high on the main day since many brands will be competing. 

You may get a better scope of deals when the rush drops. See how Mud Pie extends their Black Friday sale to include the weekend too? 

PRO TIP

Ensure to call out sale extensions with some witty Black Friday copywriting – here’s an example: “Discounts so good, we’re extending BFCM for a month!”

23. Create popups for window/casual shoppers

After the potential customers swarm your site, you must give them the hook to stay.

And what better way to tell them about the amazing deals that you are offering than putting them on a popup?

Few entry/exit popups you can consider are:

• Discount popups (with countdown timers)

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• Product recommendation popups

• Upsell popups

• Cart abandonment popup

PRO TIP

Time your entry popup to appear, at least 30 seconds after the visitor lands on your website. An early popup drives shoppers away.

24. Offer value beyond discounts

Another unique Black Friday marketing idea that you can toy with is doing something else other than discounts. 

Instead, offer them something more valuable—give them an experience. 

You can take a cue from Barnes and Noble’s Black Friday marketing campaign. It offers something that’s valuable to their target audience—signed editions of books.

PRO TIP

If you’re planning to build an exclusive brand that doesn’t want to be diluted with discounts, you can choose this Black Friday marketing idea.

25. Make it interactive with a discount wheel

Gamify your Black Friday campaigns by adding a roulette or Spin the Wheel contest. Interactivity is a great way to hook customers saturated with similar-looking offers. 

It’s a great way to show off your brand vibe and make customers return for the experience even when you’re not offering discounts. 

Like TravelUp does. 

PRO TIP

Make sure to add a bit of FOMO to the campaign otherwise, shoppers may not be as inclined to interact.

26. Reward referrals

If you’re looking for customer retention long after Black Friday, you can try referral reward programs. 

Instead of just one-time sales, you acquire new shoppers with the help of loyal customers.

Apart from landing amazing discounts to your customers, you can also harp on their desire to share their purchases and savings with their friends. 

Here’s how Feelunique creates a personalized referral program for its customers. 

PRO TIP

You can add any level of personalization to the campaign starting from naming your customers to recommending relevant products for their close ones. 

27. Go creative with your Black Friday themes

During the Black Friday holiday season, there are too many brands and too many offers for customers to choose from. 

To stand out from the crowd, you may want to add specific themes to your promotions. 

Like how Tarte runs promotions with the catchy title Feel-Good Friday.

PRO TIP

You can extend the creative promotion themes to coupons and special deal periods too. Like in the above example, Tarte has used Cyber Week and the coupon code as CYBER.

28. Make your offers email-exclusive

If your customers have already signed up for your emails, then chances are that they will be interested in checking out your Black Friday deals too. 

This is ideal for customers who are in the consideration stage. You can successfully push them into the purchase stage with exclusive Black Friday email offers. 

See how Kate Spade makes its email subscribers feel special with its copy and exclusive offer. 

PRO TIP

Add a website banner with the offer so more visitors would be interested in signing up for your emails. 

29. Bring your brand values forward

A great way to stand out in the crowd is by promoting your unique brand values. 

For example, if you stand for sustainable fashion, it may be a great time to communicate that you source “only organically grown cotton”.

Black Friday is definitely a good time to amplify your brand identity. 

Here’s how Fjällräven draws attention to their brand values instead of a sale. 

PRO TIP

Use social media to amplify the message with themed posts and hashtags.

30. Integrate social media into your marketing plan

53% of American shoppers use social networks to make purchase decisions for holidays like Black Friday.

Utilize this to plan your Black Friday social media campaign calendar. Start building excitement well in advance by posting:

• Sneak peeks of upcoming deals: Offer sneak peeks of the deals that will be available

Example: Our Black Friday sale is coming with up to 50% off – stay tuned! 👀🛍️

• Countdowns: Share posts with countdown timers leading up to Black Friday

Example: "Only 3 days left until our biggest sale of the year! Are you ready to save big?"

• Shopping tips: Nudge shoppers to buy from you

Example: "Black Friday Shopping Tips: 1) Make a wishlist. 2) Check our website early. 3) Act fast on limited-time deals."

• Deal announcements: Clearly communicate the details of your Black Friday sale, including start and end times, discount rates, and any special terms

Example: "Our Black Friday sale starts at midnight! Enjoy up to 70% off sitewide. Here’s everything you need to know."

• Create FOMO: Highlight the limited time that is left

Example: Flash Sale Alert! 3 hours more to go, get 50% off on all electronics. Don't miss out!"

PRO TIP

Make use of stickers–add polls, quizzes, etc. to engage your audience as much as possible.

Do check out: Influencer Marketing 101: Step-by-Step Strategy For eCommerce Store Owners

31. Partner with influencers

Influencers are aspirational for their followers. And when they recommend something–their followers listen.

Based on your budget, you can either do a paid collaboration or a barter partnership.

The simplest way to do this–search for your category–fashion, electronics, beauty, apparel etc.– and shortlist influencers that have a follower count that corresponds to your budget.

Cold reach out to them proposing your offer and take it forward from there.

Note: The metric that you should check to finalize the influencer is their engagement. (Average views on their last 5 posts or videos/ 5) *100 = The number of eyeballs you might reach with your influencer campaign.

Calculate your ROI and invest accordingly.

PRO TIP

Strike a deal for at least 4-5 pieces of content – a mix of posts, reels, and stories.

32. Focus on mobile optimization

With a significant portion of shoppers browsing and purchasing via smartphones, a mobile-friendly website is not a choice. It is a necessity.

• Make your CTA buttons large enough (44pxx44px) to be easily tappable on mobile devices
• Place all the buttons and important links in the thumb zone
• Optimize your voice search system to recognize common phrases, synonyms, and variations of product names–place the voice search option right next to the search bar
• Optimize your product descriptions–Use short paragraphs, bullet points, and headings to make the content scannable and easy to read on small screens

PRO TIP

Use different colors and font-formatting to draw attention to your Black Friday deals and announcements – but avoid making them sticky on mobile – instead, loop in the announcements/deals across multiple  areas on your store (nav menu, header, footer, etc.).

33. Show the numbers

Heavy discounts come with negative connotations – this is exactly why you should include some statistics in your Black Friday copy. 

The statistics can be about:

• the demand for the product
• how long it was out of stock for
• number of people who have added to cart

Take inspiration from how Wayfair shows numbers in their product description to back up their recommendations.

PRO TIP

You can try this Black Friday marketing tactic when you need to bring a product back to stock for Black Friday.

34. Prep your team up for Black Friday

Black Friday isn't a great period to run tests, it's when you have to be at your best. 

The idea here is to look at the data for all the past Black Fridays and Cyber Mondays – check:

• The return rate after Black Friday
• Number of abandoned carts
• The add-to-cart ratio (how many people came vs how many actually got to the check-out page)

Use this data to augment your support capabilities during Black Friday and Cyber Monday – here are some best practices you can try:

• Automate your support to nudge and recommend when a product is out of stock
• Show quick responses to FAQs – here's a solid example from Retrospec:

• Loop in a product discovery quiz on your header to provide a more personalized experience for Black Friday

PRO TIP 

Automate a base template to trigger when shoppers come looking for Black Friday-specific information in your DMs.

35. Make sure your Black Friday landing pages get traffic

Peppering high-volume queries into your landing page copy isn't going to be enough for your Black Friday SEO.

What you need to do is: Get your keywords ready as well as get the word around.

You can list your Black Friday coupon codes on deal finder websites – or collab with partner sites/bloggers – or get some PR like Walmart does:

PRO TIP

Use the ‘offer’ schema on your Black Friday landing pages – do this while making sure individual product schemas get updated as well. Doing this will ensure that your Black Friday deals are found in the search results:

36. Make it easy to find deals

This is perhaps the most important step as it's actually about how shoppers find the best deals once they arrive in your store. 

Here are some ideas on how you can do this:

• Use the site banner

• Create great filtering options – on price, product type, and amount/percentage of discount 

• Incorporate a search bar for easy discovery – make sure people can actually find deals as well as trending search terms

• Include popular search terms as ready-to-search filters

PRO TIP

If your ads/ affiliate/guest posts display individual products, make sure all links lead to product pages, instead of landing pages. 

⚠️ As a safety measure, use UTM parameters or a custom identifier to record what products a viewer browses. This can help you trigger a pop-up with an offer on the same product(s) – even if someone moves away from the intended product page. 

37. Handle abandoned carts faster than usual

Almost all cart abandonments that occur during Black Friday aren't recoverable. Here's why: there's always a bigger discount or another similar product to woo your abandoner.

This is why we recommend that you nudge shoppers in real time as abandonment occurs. Here are some quick ideas on how to handle cart abandonment during Black Friday:

• Offer an option to SAVE the Black Friday offer for later – this will help you catch some data – if needed, use your live chat or an exit-intent pop-up 
• Send an SMS within 30 minutes of abandonment – consider throwing in a slow-selling product (or a mystery gift) to get a conversion 
• Follow up within 1 day over email – let them know they won't be getting this deal again – here’s a solid example from Steve Madden:

PRO TIP

Continue targeting abandoners during Thanksgiving as well with Black Friday offers – here’s how Sol Angeles does this with a SMS: 

38. Run really creative Black Friday ads

How do you approach Black Friday ad campaigns? Go big? Go wide?

Well, you don't need to. The most creative Black Friday ads reach people really fast, and get them to experience what they've been waiting for. How? Lure shoppers with discounts and retain them as lifelong shoppers. 

Here are some ad ideas you can try out for Black Friday:

• Show the USP with a discount

Craft your copy in such a way that the discount, as well as the USP, seem irresistible – here’s an example ad from Hey Harper:

• Retarget engaging shoppers with a reason to check out

See how this ad example from Blunttique leaves a Black Friday discount code in their ad copy:

• Offer a reward they can't afford to miss 

This can help convince window shoppers as well as high value shoppers:

• Show content from employees or existing customers in your ads

This will help demonstrate the use case, build social proof, and get the offer across:

• Make the ad fun

Doing this will help you be memorable in the long run – and increase your click-through rate:

PRO TIP

Start dropping clues across your organic social media posts since mid-October about the dates of your upcoming Black Friday promotions. 

39. Make it really easy to checkout

Once shoppers are on your site, it's your job to make sure they reach the very end. Here are some tips on how to get Black Friday shoppers to convert:

• Reaffirm with microcopy – that they have indeed happened upon the right offer:

• Show the highest discounted products first – as most people read from left to right (also, decoy effect 😉):

• Automatically apply discounts – and make sure shoppers know about it (instant gratification, yum):

• Show a progress bar – and make sure there's a reminder about future rewards – note the “Bonus!....credit”:

PRO TIP

Always rep BNPL payment – this is something that helps reduce return rates for high-value purchases – as well as offer unbeatable deals:

40. Promote ‘Friday’ themes over email, leading to Black Friday 

The goal here is to condition shoppers and ensure that your highest-value shoppers checkout before Black Friday even arrives. 

Need inspiration? Try these ideas for size:

• ‘Christmas’ Friday – clear last year's Holiday stock here at crazy prices
• Freaky Friday – use this to clear some of your Halloween stock (or on the last Friday before Halloween)
• Re'buy’ Friday – offer a ‘rebuy’ on old merch in exchange for $$$ off
• {Product feature} Friday – the goal is to take a product feature and use it to showcase your products in use as well as announce a discount – check how Arctic Fox does it:

PRO TIP

Run a livestream event to kick-off your Black Friday promotions. Here's how you can do it:

• Create a countdown on your Black Friday landing page 
• Run some ads to get people to sign-up
• Announce the live stream on your notification banner and your emails

Also read: 30 Slightly different Black Friday emails (that actually get attention)

41. Ask email shoppers to share a list for Black Friday

Most shoppers wait for Black Friday because they have some products on their want list that they want for a discount. 

This is why, it's absolutely an amazing idea to be the first one to break the ice as Beauty Pie does by making their first trial free – as well as opening up several products on discount:

PRO TIP

Open up a queue for shoppers so they can submit their wish lists and get notified when the products they want are available with a Black Friday-sized discount. 

9 Key Steps to Build a Powerful Black Friday Campaign

With more and more shoppers leaning into online shopping, this is your chance to maximize your store conversions with some tested Black Friday marketing ideas:

1. Prep a month early

Some facts to keep in mind:  

• 40% of U.S. holiday shoppers say their holiday shopping experience has made them consider shopping much earlier for other milestones 
• 37% of shoppers who shopped last holiday season wished they had started earlier
• 50% of shoppers say they will start shopping earlier to avoid an item out of stock 

To get into prep mode early:

a. Create product categories with Black Friday themes such as ‘Holiday Faves’ and ‘Gifts for Loved Ones’.

b. Add holiday-specific descriptions to product details or information.

c. Show holiday-specific scenarios in product images.

2. Find customers on “favorite” channels

Promote your products to the right customers at the right time across different channels. 

Find where your customers spend most of their time and target them with engaging ads. 

On your website, feature a pop-up that alerts them—this is also a great way to catch those extra email signups in exchange of an exclusive Black Friday early access code. 

Social media can also be a great way to engage with customers through thematic posts. 

Use emails to stir the excitement with an early bird offer and reminders to wishlist products. 

For impact, create curiosity by revealing information partially like this: 

3. Leverage the most loved products

You can do a poll or survey on social media to see which products are popular with customers. 

For more insights, run an audit on which products competitors are bringing to the forefront at this time. 

Typically, big ticket products like appliances, designer clothes and perfumes sell well, especially when the deals are attractive. 

Here are some popular product categories that regularly sell out during Black Friday: 

4. Build anticipation & set expectations 

It makes sense to announce a pre-sale Black Friday event for your eCommerce store. 

The idea is to make shoppers interested in what’s to come after—they’ll probably expect deeper discounts during the main event, and maybe even product drops. 

Saying something as simple as “It’s our biggest sale…ever!” could make your audiences stop and read. 

5. Ease discovery with high intent SEO 

Search intent helps shoppers to discover products and explore different categories. 

Here are the four ways to implement functional search intent — 

a. Navigational: Keywords users use when searching for a particular brand or product. For instance, what stores are open on Thanksgiving 

b. Informational: Informational keywords reflect the information users seek about a particular product. 

c. Commercial: Keywords users decide to purchase with. For example, “Is home depot open on Thanksgiving?”

d. Transactional: At this stage, the user is sure about buying. They’re looking for the best deals. For example, “best online turkey places for Thanksgiving”

Read further: eCommerce Thanksgiving Marketing Strategies (and Brilliant Examples)

6. Harp on product value

Shoppers love a bargain.

But remember that offering promotional discounts isn’t necessarily the only way to profit more. 

Leading up to Black Friday, try to talk about the value of your products rather than simply offering them a discount.

Highlight qualities such as aesthetics, convenience and accessibility in your marketing and sales efforts to make your brand stand out.

7. Make a great case for FOMO

Make it real by introducing a countdown timer both on your website and across your emails. 

Consider offering free shipping or delivery for orders over a certain amount.

This will entice shoppers to add more to their carts beyond just the initial promotional discount that led them to visit your store. 

8. Prioritize speed like nothing else

An increase in web traffic around the Black Friday weekend can strain servers, which makes web pages slow or unresponsive and can cause your online store to crash. 

Downtime and sluggish website performance mean a loss in revenue on any day of the year. But Black Friday is when you can least afford them. 

When faced with slow-speed eCommerce stores, shoppers won’t hesitate to click away from your competitor. Such events could also result in the erosion of the brand trust you’ve spent years earning from customers expecting a great experience, especially on BFCM.

9. Segment your emails with a Black Friday focus

It goes without saying that you’ll need to segment your emails year-round. 

But Black Friday calls for it even more. 

‍Here’s what you can do:

Assess the data of the last, say, three years and take out info on customers who’ve only shopped during Black Friday.

Amongst recent opens and clickthroughs (say for the last 6 months), assess who all have been most consistent—it’s time to target these folks!

Take out data on subscribers who haven’t bought anything for the last few months and did before—this is the right time to win them back. 

When is the Best Time to Start Black Friday Marketing Campaign?

Mid October is what you need to aim for your Black Friday promotions ideas to begin. 

Your back-end preps for this should ideally begin in September. 

Curious to know how it can flow from prep to promotions—here are the steps:

September

- Check website UX including speed, usability etc. 

- Categorize your product listings more effectively 

- Decide on what kind of discounts would make sense for your business

- Figure which channels you and your customers are most active on

- Take stock of product inventory and place orders where necessary

- Sort out customer support challenges & add functionalities for quick support

- Collect customer feedback & social proof

October

- Refresh your product page content

- Create a BFCM specific landing page to link to paid ads

- Create “early access” sections on website & seek certain actions like email signups

- Segment your email list & decide on a BFCM cadence for each

- Create teaser material for social media, emails, push notifications

- Start sending emails (a BFCM specific one every week leading up to the event)

November

– Ask email shoppers to share a list for Black Friday

– Run livestreams for your Black Friday promotion launch

– Offer early access to your email list

– Offer an extra discount for BNPL

– Prep customer support (keep help docs handy)

– Share behind-the-scenes of your store’s BFCM prep

– Show slashed prices with charm pricing

– Open up secret flash sales for high-value shoppers

– Surprise shoppers with a free gift when they have at least 3 items in cart

December

– Do a last chance or extended Black Friday

– Run a surprise refund contest – and give coupons for the next purchase as consolation prizes

Recommended reading for Black Friday marketing campaigns:

11 Next-Level Reciprocity Marketing Examples (eCommerce)

Inclusive Marketing: 22 eCommerce brands that do it right

eCommerce marketing strategy: 31 Immediately-Actionable Ideas

2X Your Black Friday Sales

98% of visitors who visit an eCommerce site—drop off without buying anything.

Why: user experience issues that cause friction for visitors.

This is a pattern you can't afford during the Black Friday weekend, which is a great opportunity for high conversions.

Thankfully, this is the problem Convertcart solves.

We've helped 500+ eCommerce stores (in the US) improve user experience—and 2X their conversions.

How we can help you:

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