Target Black Friday Sales: What Should Lifestyle Brands Learn From It?

During November, companies have their annual Black Friday sales, during which they offer aggressive promotional deals and deep discounts to entice huge numbers of shoppers. 

Black Friday has become a general term given to the first Friday after Thanksgiving Day in the United States. It generally kick-starts the Christmas shopping season in the country. 

Traditionally, people arrive early and wait in line outside of brick-and-mortar establishments to get the best deals for themselves on the day. But now, it all happens online. 

Businesses target Black Friday in advance. To prevent early Christmas buyers from witnessing any delivery delays, several big-name retailers start offering Black Friday offers as early as the first week of November. 

Others begin their Black Friday marketing on Thanksgiving and continue until Cyber Monday, an online-only holiday shopping extravaganza that falls on the first Monday after Thanksgiving.

Although the concept of Black Friday started in the United States, it has now spread around the globe. One brand that has become almost synonymous with Black Friday is the Target Corporation, one of the USA's biggest retailers. 

How can your lifestyle brand target Black Friday sales?

If you want to compete with big-name businesses on Black Friday, you'll need a personalized marketing plan.  

The big corporations rule this space. For example, Target had an expected 11% rise in in-store sales over Black Friday even before the sale started. However, there are a few key takeaways your lifestyle brand can learn from its strategies. 

We have laid down some of the most effective Black Friday marketing ideas that your brand can implement. 

1. Optimize your website to hold extra traffic

Website performance is crucial for eCommerce businesses, especially during a shopping festival like Black Friday. 

On a day like Black Friday, buyers flock to fast-loading internet websites to locate the best offers. The optimal loading time for eCommerce websites is 0–4 seconds, with a 12–30% conversion rate. The losses could become significant with so many abandoned carts, dropped transactions, and website disruptions. 

Major retailers like Macy's and H&M have also experienced website disruptions owing to significant traffic increases. Optimizing the webpage helps avoid this, like what Target does. 

Evaluating web hosting is one approach to preparing an online shop for Black Friday. You should upgrade a website that reaches its resource limit. The website should have enough bandwidth and processing power to accommodate the number of products displayed and handle the expected traffic.

2. Give targeted hints to your customers

Black Friday is a significant event for businesses. So you'd want to make sure to market it well. The more build-up and hype you create around your event and deals, the more the chances of sales and conversions. This is something corporations like Walmart and Target do effectively.

One of the best ways to do that is by giving your customers hints about what they can expect from you during Black Friday. Will there be great deals on apparel? Or will your skincare products be at a discount? Make sure your customers know beforehand.  

Image Source: https://corporate.target.com/_media/TargetCorp/Press/Multimedia/2016/11/Black%20Friday%20announcement/Black-Friday-Circular-Cover.jpg

Prior information helps the customer make the right decisions. But also keep your campaigns:

• To-the-point
• Informative at all times
• Highlight the best first

And since it's Black Friday, offering rewards is a good email marketing campaign strategy. People are more inclined to join up if they get incentives on their purchases. 

Options include a discount voucher or a gift card. If you reach out to your customers via emails, personalize the email content to the subscriber's requirements. Personalization may double transaction rates and increase ROI by 122%.

3. Don't underestimate the influence of social media

Social media is one of those digital marketing and outreach mediums that allow direct audience participation. Use social media to keep consumers informed and excited about Black Friday specials. Make use of social shopping. Customers may purchase right from their Instagram or Facebook feeds when merchants link their online stores. 

Right from #BlackFriday hashtags to single-user coupons, everything can contribute to better outreach and your brand discoverability on Black Friday. You can also take full advantage of Facebook ads and go as far as tailored search advertisements. 

Another great way to improve discoverability is to reach out to micro-influencers in your industry. While their audience size is limited, their engagement rate is excellent. 

4. Create a roadmap/marketing calendar

Take control of the busy holiday season by creating a calendar that outlines all your Black Friday advertising plans in advance.

After you have laid your objectives and goals, it's crucial to build a roadmap to strategize your marketing plans and execute them the right way.

It may also be essential to create several calendars for various marketing channels to reach out to all your existing and potential customers.

You may also use timeline calendars to keep track of the dates for generating ideas, producing design and text briefs, and launching Black Friday promotions, among other activities.

5. Invoke Fear of Missing Out (FOMO)

It's not enough for you to lower the prices of your products. To get the most out of Black Friday discounts, encourage customers to visit the website as soon as possible. A good strategy is flash target sales. They are limited-time discounts and promotions that might run anywhere from a few hours to a day. A countdown timer and prominently displayed start and finish timings can entice customers to make a purchase.

FOMO means that you are infusing a sense of urgency among your customers. You make them feel like they have to be part of your sales campaign. A healthy and responsible amount of the FOMO factor can be responsible for more conversions and sales.

Make it a point to reward your fastest customers. The first hundred clients could get free delivery or a gift, as an example. On the product page, display the number of consumers who have purchased the item. Fear of losing out is a motivating factor for visitors to follow the example of previous customers and acquire the goods. 

Some of the best FOMO-invoking factors are:

• Limited deals
• Displaying the number of customers who have bought or are buying a product
• Declare discounts for early purchasers
• Introduce free shipping for a limited period
• Display positive testimonials from other customers

6. The "Combo Psychology"

Combo psychology could seriously improve your average transaction value for Black Friday sales. This encourages customers to spend more money. You can increase profits without increasing the expense of gaining new consumers by using this strategy. 

Offer free delivery with a minimum purchase. Having this strategy in place may lead to people purchasing more things to take advantage of free delivery. The product description or the checkout page is an excellent place to cross-sell related products. For instance, when the user is looking for jeans, you may recommend that they purchase an accessory to match their t-shirt.

Sell products in packages. For instance, you may offer a three-for-the-price-of-two deal or a purchase one, get one half-off promotion. If a consumer spends a specific amount of money, give them a gift card. As a result, customers will have a greater desire to return to your store in the future and make another purchase. To avoid suffering a severe financial setback, make sure the gift card's value isn't excessive.

7. Checkout Improv

Abandoned carts are a common problem in eCommerce stores, especially during Black Friday, where the options are immense for customers.

When retailers begin their Black Friday target sales promotions in October and November, online merchants have the greatest cart abandonment rates. Users may be waiting to see whether they can obtain a better bargain during the height of the event since they have planned their purchasing around that time.

Remind customers who leave their shopping carts by email or SMS to combat this. Remind the recipient of anything they left behind and provide a discount coupon to boost the likelihood of making a purchase. 

You should include all applicable taxes and shipping expenses before a user checks out his cart. Among the most often reported reasons for abandoning a shopping cart, "Extra expenses are too much" is one of the most common reasons.

Be upfront about pricing so that clients know what they're getting into before they buy.

Make the checkout process as straightforward as possible. Even during Black Friday weekend, shoppers want to get their purchases done fast so they can go shopping for even better prices. Guest checkout should be enabled, and only necessary shipping and billing information should be requested.

Conclusion

To boost sales and improve your brand discoverability, Black Friday is an ideal opportunity. It is an event a lifestyle brand cannot be unprepared for.

An excellent preparation strategy will involve taking a leaf out of the strategy that big corporations like Target follow. 

While replicating them entirely might not be possible, some of those strategies are worth their weight in gold. After all, it could be the difference between a successful shopping season and a mediocre one for your brand.