Just because lunch is made with cheese doesn’t necessarily make it delicious — though the odds are highly in your favor if boatloads of mozzarella topped with marinara are involved. It’s the same with Black Friday: just because it’s the biggest shopping day of the year doesn’t make selling your products easy, despite how much mozzarella and marinara you pile on (a particularly bad idea if you’re selling stereos).
On Black Friday, every consumer hunts for the best deals. And every brand and retailer competes for the same massive pool of dollars.
While some shoppers chase deals on specific brands, others just look for a good deal on a product in a specific category. And like a bunch of local pizza joints all offering their own lunch specials, it can be a toss-up: sales could go to you or a competitor — whoever offers the best looking deal.
Show shoppers where they can get the best deals
As a brand, it’s tempting to send your customers to the sales channels where you get the best margins. This puts Black Friday shoppers in an uncomfortable spot, leaving the sale in jeopardy.
The first group of shoppers (the ones who really want your product) will feel like they need to keep looking for a lower price. But they may not be willing to put in the extra effort. The second group (the ones who are only interested in a deal on a product in your category) may feel like they need to look for other brands to find a better deal.
Remember, during the week of Black Friday, your target audience is looking for prices they can’t find any other time of the year. And every brand and retailer is competing for their attention. If your discounts aren’t steep enough, you can’t guarantee that they’ll keep shopping around for your product.
Your best bet is to highlight the best deals on your products, wherever they are. Put those low prices (and the stores that offer them) front and center on any marketing asset you create. With PriceSpider’s Where to Buy, our universal tracking capabilities let you see every transaction, even when sending your customers to a retailer’s website.
While leading with the best deal will help you win more sales, there’s another pain point you’ll want to address.
Don’t let stock availability derail your Black Friday
During Black Friday, stock can fluctuate quickly. Scarcity is often part of the formula for retailers to drive sales. Huge deals + hot items + limited availability. When your products are out-of-stock at a retailer, you don’t want to drive your customers there. They’ll have to:
- Buy something else (which the retailer is hoping for)
- Look somewhere else (which is nice, but involves more work)
- Give up (which many do)
Wherever consumers encounter your marketing, make sure they have multiple options and that availability is prominently displayed before they head to a retailer. That’s where shoppable media comes in.
Shoppable media blends your digital content with the online shopping experience, giving people multiple pathways to buy your products and the context they need to make more informed choices. For Black Friday, it would be especially valuable to display several retailers that have the best deals on your products, along with their prices and availability.
Whether your Black Friday marketing assets include social posts, emails, videos, blog posts, or other types of content, you can make them all shoppable with Where to Buy.
Leverage your retailer relationships
Another reason to highlight multiple retailers: your customers can choose the retailers they’re already planning on shopping with. Consumers naturally develop preferences for the retailers they use regularly. They might have rewards programs, other perks, or especially on Black Friday, other deals they want to take advantage of.
Consumers are used to seeing Black Friday sales advertised ahead of time. After years of record-breaking Black Friday shopping, Americans have been primed to start thinking about and planning for Black Friday well in advance. They already know where they’re going to look. They have particular deals on their minds. If you can show them a great price at a store they were already planning to browse, you can get yourself on their shopping list.
Make Black Friday shoppable
Last year, Black Friday saw yet another record-breaking year in ecommerce. While there will likely be more in-person shopping than there was last year, there’s no reason to expect ecommerce to slow down. Social media is still where people discover products, and the digital shelf is where they’ll hunt for deals.
If you haven’t already started creating your own shoppable media, now is the time.
Schedule a demo of Where to Buy today, and ask us about shoppable media.
