Black Friday eCommerce: 4 Strategies to Get Your Shopify Site Ready

Preparing your Shopify website for Black Friday and Cyber Monday is often a daunting task for merchants. We've compiled four strategies e-commerce websites should adopt to provide the best experience for their customers and prepare their brand for this holiday shopping season. 

Strategy 1: Leverage your communication channels

Customers may spend differently this year. Incorporating a note of gratitude to your customers in Shopify’s Order Confirmation Emails is a great way to thank customers for continuing to consider your store when they want a little indulgence. People are looking for connection and inspiration with the merchants they are engaging. Get creative with new ways to reach and delight your customer by incorporating meaningful copy on different areas of your Shopify storefront. 

Strategy 2: Make your BFCM shipping policy clear in the customer journey

Don't make your customers guess what your shipping policy is during this holiday shopping season. On average, customers hate paying for shipping but not every retailer can afford to offer free shipping. If that's you, make it clear early in the customer journey what your shipping policy is - examples can include above the product description (but keep it short - less than one sentence), in the checkout page and in the top bar above the header. If you are offering free shipping, make that clear too as it's often a great selling point.

Strategy 3: Be mindful of the way you merchandise

We’re living in exceptional times. Given that many are still sheltering in place, customers are gravitating towards products and styles that are relevant for today’s world. Through thoughtful merchandising and copywriting, we encourage merchants to incorporate perspectives of hope and optimism for their customers. For instance, if you have a clothing brand with a casual offering, perhaps you can feature loungewear in a collection on your homepage, making it easily accessible for customers to shop. Customers also seem to be on a quest to stay cheerful, so don’t hesitate to present them with quirkier items. At Exhibea, we advised a merchant who sells reclaimed wood furniture to display their home furniture more prominently so customers can liven up their home work spaces and children’s learning areas.

Strategy 4: Repair your website's page speed

Consider the load speed of your Shopify website. It’s the first thing to greet customers when they walk into your “virtual” front door. According to Google,  79% of shoppers who are dissatisfied with site performance say they’re less likely to purchase from the same site again. Speed can be measured through testing tools such as GTmetrix and impacted by app selection, coding standards and image optimization. 

If you're looking to improve your site speed as we approach the BFCM season, collaborate with a developer to remove unessential apps before BFCM and every quarter. Before installing a new app, ensure it’s vital to your business and growth goals. As 5G technology becomes the standard, speed will play a vital role in the user experience.

If you can do these four things well, your Shopify website will be in a fairly good position for Black Friday/Cyber Monday. Looking to build or redesign your Shopify website? Check out the Exhibea Website.