As one of the year’s busiest shopping days for online traders, Black Friday and Cyber Monday in South Africa are major days for many. Millions of shoppers hit their favourite online stores during this time, searching for the best limited-time deals.

This year, Black Friday is on 24 November 2023, and Cyber Monday falls on Monday 27 November 2023. But, for many, the discounts can start as early as October, which means the countdown has begun. Are you prepared?

Each year, analysts predict that the current year will shatter previous years’ numbers as companies try to go bigger and better with millions in additional sales, boosting Black Friday and Cyber Monday figures.

If you plan on taking part and running promotions over the Black Friday and Cyber Monday period, planning and preparing your marketing for the festive season well in advance is vital to ensure you capitalise on the occasion. Most South African retailers will be running promotions simultaneously, so how do you offer the best deal and make your campaign stand out in the sea of messages?

Tips for Black Friday and Cyber Monday catalogues and sales in South Africa

This shopping frenzy typically works the same way in South Africa as anywhere else in the world. And, while it is a North American day set aside for shopping after Thanksgiving, South African banks are seeing massive increases in spending over Black Friday weekends. But how do you use these days to your business’s financial advantage?

These are the top tips to help you optimise your online store and improve sales over the Black Friday Cyber week.

1. Plan well ahead

While Black Friday and Cyber Monday are a yearly occurrence, it is still good to plan well ahead and get organised. Some companies go as far as to plan months ahead of the time.

The most crucial factor to consider is crunching some numbers to ensure you have a good ROI during the sale, or your efforts will be for nought. This includes researching your customers, preparing your staff for the high influx, and ensuring you have enough stock to fulfill orders.

When is Cyber Monday / Black Friday in 2023?

As we mentioned previously, in 2023, Black Friday falls on 24 November, and Cyber Monday on Monday 27 November.

2. Research your customers

On Black Friday, customers are typically trawling the internet looking for:

• The best deals in the country
• Great prices on brands they already buy into
• Festive gifts for family and friends
• Bulk discount pricing

As an eCommerce merchant running an online store in South Africa, you should have a good idea of your clientele. You should know what they like, what they are searching for, and the best-selling items in the shop. You can then use this data to help you figure out which items to set on discount and for how much when the day comes.

3. Exclusive offers for Black Friday and Cyber Monday

Write this one down! If you drop the ball on your offers, you won’t see the results you are expecting. Black Friday and Cyber Monday are the two most prominent shopping days in the year where customers can find the biggest and the best discounts and promotions in South Africa.

Customers expect to see great promotions and deep discounts when it comes to Black Friday sales online. Some may say they demand them, and if you disappoint customers visiting your online store, you will not convert them or see them again.

To help build stronger customer loyalty, consider even thanking your long-standing customers by giving them exclusive cyber deals.

Remember these two words and the clear difference in the meaning:

SALE

Sale stock is commonly referred to as stock within the business that is distressed and needs to be cleared. If it were not selling or selling slowly, you would put the stock on sale.

In most cases, you would have been unable to sell this stock during the year, and the stock could also be near the end of its shelf life. In other cases, your stock could be distressed because it is the end of the season or the range, and you have odd colours and sizes remaining. This stock is distressed and should be marked to clear.

If you cannot sell this stock pre–Black Friday, you will struggle to sell it during Black Friday unless your discounts are deep. Very deep. Customers do not get excited when they see sale discounts below 40% and expect discounts of 50% and more.

When planning for a sale, you should identify the distressed stock, including stock with high volumes, item expiry dates, and left-over seasonal stock, all of which need to be cleared before a specific date.

PROMOTION

Very importantly, promotion is an in-demand product at a great price. The opposite of a sale, you should look at your best-selling products and categories when planning for promotions.

You want to offer customers great value on the items they want and love through gifts with purchase, sitewide promotions, and bundled deals. When planning for promotions, instead of trying to clear sale stock, you should forecast to replenish your core SKUs and negotiate with your suppliers for bulk discount prices to ensure you stay supplied and capitalise on sales over the festive frenzy season.

Ensure that your sale or promotion offers competitive discounts – we’re talking about the year’s busiest shopping day. Give new and existing customers an incentive to choose your online store over your South African competitors!

4. Advertise on social media

Statistics show that around 4.88 billion people across the globe use social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Tik Tok and Snapchat. Half of social media users check their accounts multiple times daily.

Social media has thus become a part of our everyday lives, and it is safe to assume that this will be the case for the foreseeable future. This is excellent news for online traders because social media platforms are powerful, low-cost marketing channels with many benefits.

How to use social media to promote your Black Friday and Cyber Monday online specials

Social media is a wonderful tool that allows people from all corners of the world to interact with each other. The top thing to do on social media is create awareness of the brand and any Black Friday and Cyber Monday offers you have.

Many social platforms use hashtags and user-generated content (UGC) to their advantage, allowing users to find your shopping campaigns easily. This works well when you run pre-launch social media campaigns in the weeks leading up to Black Friday to raise awareness and excite your customers.

Social media is a fast-paced space that merits eye-catching content, so ensure your content is catchy and share-worthy too. Knowing each social media platform’s strengths and weaknesses is also a good idea. For example, TikTok is better for short-form video content, while Pinterest is better for aesthetic product images.

Consider the Platform

You can use Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Google, Twitter, and other platforms to reach broad and specific audiences. But know which audience is best for your business. For example, if you sell on Instagram, that should be your primary advertising platform.

But that doesn’t mean it should be your only promotional platform. It is always good to branch out to different social media outlets. For example, Facebook has almost three billion users worldwide, whereas Instagram only has about two billion users.

Social media platforms aren’t the only way to advertise to your online audience. You can also try reaching out to blogs, sites, and forums promoting your Black Friday deals and submit your specials to increase your reach.

5. Start a countdown to build anticipation

Black Friday and Cyber Monday are shopping days that customers look forward to each year. As you prepare to launch your promotions, customers, too, are preparing to shop. So, take advantage of that and start advertising early.

Using banners, subscribe pop-ups, and countdown timers is a great way to do this. Not only does adding a countdown help build excitement, but it also helps to add a sense of urgency and FOMO. Add this with the limited deals and discounts your online shop offers, and you have the potential to attract an even bigger audience.

Note that while this is an effective method to build excitement, ensure you don’t overuse this method. It could cost their trust if your customers become aware that it is only used to trick them into buying products or that the countdown is misleading in some (e.g. not related to the discounts at all).

Thankfully, the marketing apps in the Netcash Shop app market make adding banners, pop-ups, and countdown timers easy to keep your customers on the edge of their seats. Try Zotabox in the Netcash Shop app market for 20+ promotional sales tools, popups, banners, timers, coupons, and testimonials.

6. Offer free shipping

Show your generosity and seal the deal with this simple but effective marketing tactic for Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Customers often get caught up in the Black Friday and Cyber Monday mania. They will spend more time online shopping for deep discounts and taking advantage of great value promotions.

And, if customers are faced with shipping fees at checkout, on top of their already increased order value, they might choose to remove items from their cart or abandon their cart at checkout. Some might even shop in-store or buy from your competition.

You can cut out this possibility by offering your customers free shipping. Now, they can experience immediate gratification and tend to check out faster, leaving less time to ponder and compare your deals to your competition.

Speaking of shipping, it is always best to be transparent with your customers about your eCommerce logistics. If you anticipate a slower delivery period than usual due to higher demand in orders, adding this note to your site’s banner is advisable. This way, the customer is aware of the delay and minimises disappointment when the original parcel delivery dates come and go.

7. Employ email to maximise your marketing strategy

Don’t underestimate the power of email marketing and e-newsletters. These are easy and inexpensive ways to advertise and market your brand effectively, possibly making it the single greatest channel for reaching wide consumer audiences.

Email users across the globe check their inboxes multiple times daily during the week and over weekends. In this digital age, our emails are accessible at home, school, work, and on the go.

Create sign-up or subscribe strategies during the year to build up your email database so you can market directly to your active customers using this mass channel. You can add your potential customer’s information about your Black Friday and Cyber Monday campaigns and include detailed information in your marketing message.

The email marketing channel is a great way to increase returning customers on the same day. One way to do this is by sending out reminders or follow-up emails to create urgency and let customers know that your deals will end soon.

You can also use email marketing channels like the Netcash Shop MailChimp integration to send even better, ridiculous offers to customers who have already placed an order on Black Friday to encourage further spending. Reminders or follow-up emails are a brilliant way to drive more sales during promotional periods.

8. A smooth shopping experience means a higher conversion rate

Customer satisfaction is always an essential deal for any retail business owner. But, it is crucial during Cyber Week and Black Friday as sales skyrocket and sites and stores get packed. It is best to prepare well ahead and ensure these matters are in place.

Is the shopping experience seamless?

This point cannot be stressed enough. As a store owner, you must put your customer hat on and spend time shopping on your online store, pretending to be a customer and following all the steps they would while shopping.

When you are comfortable that your marketing assets are perfect, add products to your cart and proceed to checkout to ensure your site is set up and working correctly. If you promote bundle deals or use promo codes, test them to ensure they are set up correctly.

Check, check, and check again.

Is your site bug-free?

It is imperative to ensure that your website is running at an optimal speed on the day of the sale. Suppose your site has bugs, crashes or customers experience difficulty participating in your promotions.

Not only does this mean a significant financial loss on the biggest shopping days of the year, but it is a sure way to increase your bounce rate. Users will no doubt close their browser window and give their business to your competition in fear of losing another deal.

After all, this is the busiest shopping day of the year when the market is flooded with deals to die for and limited time to shop.

Is your site optimised for mobile?

In today’s day and age, people spend more time on their smartphones than on laptops and desktops. So, as mobile shopping rises, optimising your site for mobile users is imperative.

Take time out to check that your site loads images, videos, and landing pages at the correct dimensions and has a short loading time. Phone screens are smaller, too, so this could require a simplification of menus, navigation, and text.

Is the message clear?

On Black Friday, online shopping is a frenzy. That is why online stores must ensure that the promotion messaging is clear from the landing page. These include launch and end dates, qualifying factors, and T&Cs. More on this below.

9. Enhance your website homepage with a new landing page or banners

Your landing page is the first thing your customers see when they are redirected from your marketing campaigns on social and email. So, make sure your landing page is easy to navigate with a clear message.

This helps your customers understand the promotions on offer, the rules that apply, and the action they need to perform for the promotion to activate. An example of these advertisement rules and actions would be a promotion where a customer needs to add multiple items to the cart for the discount to apply or enter a promo code at checkout.

If customers do not immediately understand what kind of promotion you are running, you will most likely see a higher-than-normal bounce rate as customers leave your site feeling let down.

A well-designed landing page and banners are a great way to combat this.

Check-in that these banners capture your customer’s attention with straightforward, precise, well-implemented marketing design. If you aren’t skilled in designing them yourself, employing someone to do it for you is a good investment.

Black Friday is the biggest shopping event of the year, so make sure your site reflects that and captures your customer’s attention.

10. Make sure you’re on the right plan!

If you are increasing your catalogue size or adding additional marketing tools like the Netcash Shop Abandoned Cart feature, make sure you are on the right Netcash Shop plan. You can upgrade in advance if necessary to ensure you can prepare for your official Black Friday campaign launch.

Explore the Netcash Shop app market for reporting and marketing tools to enhance your campaign, and sit back and watch your increased traffic convert to sales.

11. Offer Exclusivity

Who wouldn’t want to feel important while Cyber Monday South Africa shopping? Offering customers an exclusive deal is the best way to ensure returning buyers.

Pay special attention to first-time buyers, as this is their introduction to your site and products. Offering them a one-time ‘sign-up’ bargain makes them more likely to buy, fill, and check out their cart.

You are only as good as your returning customers, so don’t forget about them, too. You can offer them exclusive or VIP specials or gifts alongside their purchases to entice them to buy more. Early bird specials, especially on high-volume days like these, are also a good way to improve customer lifetime value (CLV).

While this might be pricey now, consider it an investment in building life-long clientele.

12. Offer multiple payment methods

When you’re considering how to make the most of Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales, keep in mind that offering multiple payment methods to your customers is a surefire way to knock two birds with one stone.

The first thing you’re accomplishing is a seamless buying experience, your customers don’t have to worry about how to pay when there are numerous ways to pay available. This also increases your potential conversion rate on the biggest shopping days of the year.

Secondly, your business will benefit by having numerous channels for receiving payments. This makes it easier on you and relieves the potential stress of things like abandoned carts. Trust us, on Black Friday, there’s nothing more sad than an abandoned cart.

Beyond that, having various payment methods available creates a sense of customer support that your buyers will appreciate. It also opens the door to after-sale support and a considerable reduction in returns/exchanges.

This peace of mind oftentimes also causes bigger cart sales and reduces cart abandonment.

13. Reduce the cart abandonment rate

If your customers abandon their Black Friday shopping carts, there are a few ways to reel them back in. There might be a few reasons why they haven’t clicked ‘checkout’, yet that may have nothing to do with you, so a gentle reminder might be helpful.

The best way to help them recover an abandoned cart is to send an automated email, which you can set up with Netcash. This email is an excellent way for future reference for the customer to return shopping. Some businesses even add a discount code in the email.

14. Increase FOMO

While Black Friday is a wonderful time for consumers to score a good deal or two, it is also a good time for businesses too.

The fear of missing out is often what draws many people’s curiosity. Keep customers on their toes and intrigued by using this time to promote any new products by offering your customers a sneak peek. You can do this ahead of time on social media, in email marketing, or on your site’s own homepage. Of course, cross-marketing is always a good idea when it comes to Black Friday shopping.

Providing early-bird access or email exclusive deals to sales is another way to create FOMO for those ‘on the outside’.

15. Optimise product titles

One of the top SEO tips for small businesses is to optimise their site and product titles with the right keywords. Doing in-depth keyword research can set your site alongside many other Black Friday and Cyber Monday offers on Google.

It also helps the user experience on your site if customers are looking for specific items in the catalogues or search bar. As mentioned before, a smooth user interface and user experience are some of the best ways to prevent a bounce rate from your site.

16. Customer support

Above all, customer service — especially during busy times is possibly the most important aspect of any business.

Often, customers leave the site or abandon carts because of a site issue or a bad experience. But, you can reduce the bounce rate significantly by including well-trained customer service.

With a high-volume weekend like this one, there are also bound to be some technical issues, like checkout errors, screens not loading, and payment issues. So, having customer service ready to assist is also a good way to maintain customer loyalty and satisfaction.

Sometimes, just hearing a human voice is enough to help a customer calm down.

Black Friday and Cyber Monday are around the corner. Are you prepared?

The best way to prepare is to start planning and strategising well in advance. This ensures your business adequately prepares for the year’s biggest shopping days.

It can seem daunting at first, but now that you’re armed with the best tips for setting up (and surviving) Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals, it’s smooth sailing from here.

If you still have any questions, reach out to the Netcash Shop support team to make sure you are prepared for a smooth rollout on Black Friday and Cyber Monday.