How to Increase Sales on Your Online Store for Black Friday 2024

Black Friday is one of the biggest shopping days of the year, especially for online retailers. With so much competition during this peak season, it's important for e-commerce store owners to implement effective strategies to boost sales and drive targeted traffic to their sites. Top deals websites like CouponXoo have mastered promotional tactics to attract huge audiences during huge sales periods. In this post, we'll explore several strategies taking cues from CouponXoo's success.

Offer compelling discounts

The whole point of Black Friday is deep discounts and doorbuster deals, so you'll want to offer savings that are just as good or better than what shoppers see on other sites. Study what discounts were offered last year by your competitors and other major retailers so you can strategize how to best your offers this year. Aim for discounts of 30-50% off sitewide to really catch people's attention. You can also do flash sales on select products at 60-70% off to create urgency. Make sure your deals are prominently displayed on your homepage and throughout the site.

Key tips:

Study competitor & major retailer discounts from last year
Aim for 30-50% off sitewide discounts
Do flash sales of 60-70% off on select products
Prominently display deals on homepage & throughout site

Run exclusive coupon codes and flash sales

In addition to sitewide discounts, launch exclusive coupon codes that shoppers can use to save extra. Send these codes out in your emails leading up to Black Friday to build excitement. You can also do flash sales with limited quantities of hugely discounted products and a quick expiration time like "50% off these 10 items for the next 2 hours only." This creates a sense of urgency that will get more people to purchase right away versus waiting until later.

Key tips:

Send coupon codes in pre-Black Friday emails
Do flash sales with urgency-inducing limits & timers

Offer free shipping promotions

Since many shoppers will be buying multiple items, consider offering free standard shipping sitewide during Black Friday. You can even upgrade some orders to free expedited shipping. Free shipping is a huge incentive for shoppers and can tip purchases in your favor versus a competitor. Just make sure you factor the increased shipping costs into your discounts.

Key tip:

Factor increased shipping costs into item discounts

Run paid social media ads

Facebook, Instagram, and Google ads can help you reach massive new audiences with targeted Black Friday promotions. Test different creative concepts like flash sale ads vs. general discount ads. Be sure to retarget site visitors who add items to their cart but don't complete the purchase to give them that extra push. Social media is one of the best ways to gain major brand exposure during this busy sales period.

Key tips:

Test different ad creative concepts
Retarget site visitors who abandon carts

Send inspiring emails

Make sure you're sending multiple pre-Black Friday emails hyping your deals and building momentum. Send a special Black Friday email first thing Friday morning to remind everyone of your sales. Include inspiring subject lines like "Don't Miss Our Biggest Sale of the Year!" to get more people to open your messages. And follow up with a Cyber Monday email as well to extend your sales.

Key tips:

Send special Friday AM reminder email
Include inspiring subject lines
Follow up with Cyber Monday email

Offer bundles and curated gift guides

Promote value bundles on your site like a skincare bundle that contains full size products worth $100 for only $75. Bundles encourage bigger basket sizes. You can also create curated gift guides sorted by interest, price point, recipient type, etc. to give shoppers easy gift ideas. This exposes them to more of your products.

Key tips:

Bundles encourage bigger cart sizes
Gift guides expose shoppers to more products

Emphasize free shipping and quick delivery

With the hustle and bustle of the holidays, shoppers will appreciate perks like free delivery before Christmas. Highlight when orders must be placed by for certain delivery dates. You can also offer express shipping upgrades for last minute gifts. Anything you can do to ease the shopping experience will help improve conversions.

Key tips:

Highlight delivery date cutoffs
Offer express upgrades for procrastinators

Run flash sales on social media

Launch short-lived sales exclusively on Facebook and Instagram to attract social buyers. You can simply announce a single item or two at a steep one-hour only discount. Or run raffles where 10 shoppers can win a free gift with purchase. Interactive social campaigns like these create buzz and urgency that transfers visitors to your site.

Key tips:

Do one-hour discounts on single items
Run social-only raffles for free gifts

Optimize your product pages

Make sure all product details, images, and calls-to-action are polished for Black Friday. Test which page elements drive the most purchases, like user-generated reviews or easy click-to-add options. Have the discounted price and "Purchase" button highly prominent. Consider bundling complementary items to naturally upsell shoppers once they arrive at the product page. Optimized experiences lead to higher conversion rates.

Key tip:

Have discounted price/purchase button prominent

Promote newly launched items

Use the Black Friday traffic to your advantage by promoting any new product launches. This gets early adopters excited about your brand's latest offerings. You may even find new top-sellers this way that continue performing after the holidays. Make sure new items are featured high on category pages and landing pages to maximize discovery.

Key tip:

Feature new items high on pages for discovery

Refund overages

Most importantly, don’t forget to honor your deals. Nothing ruins a good sale like a retailer running out of stock or upping prices. Stay up-to-date on inventory levels and continue offering rain checks if stock is depleted for hot items. And sincerely thank existing customers for their repeat business too—satisfied shoppers are your best allies this busy season.

So in summary, by closely benchmarking tactics used by successful deal sites like CouponXoo and leveraging their promotional expertise, online retailers can maximize Black Friday sales and drive major traffic to boost their business during this critical season. Let the deals begin with a little help from the pros at CouponXoo!