What is Shopify BFCM?
BFCM stands for Black Friday and Cyber Monday. BFCM is an excellent time to promote your Shopify products and increase sales. It is a fantastic opportunity for your store to gain new customers and turn them into loyal customers.
The biggest shopping holidays of the year are Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM). They can be a big headache for your business if you are not prepared.
To make sure that your store doesn’t crash during Black Friday, it is important to prepare your store well before time. This article will show you how to prepare for Shopify Black Friday sales, including a checklist of everything you need to do before the holiday season begins.
A BFCM checklist to help you prepare
1. Start creating holiday sales banners and hero images
‘Decorate’ and personalize your website cover images. Use one to first announce that the sale will be held in a few days. One when it goes live, and another when it sells out quickly!
Moreover, make certain that the image you create is best suited to match the look and feel of that time period while also screaming your brand story.
2. Create an attractive BFCM offer
It means that the majority of your customers expect to find BFCM offers when they visit your store.
To attract customers to their stores, many retailers will run an “eye-opening” sale on a popular item. Customers who come for the deep discount may pick up additional items on their way to the checkout.
3. Add countdown timers to your Shopify Store
It’s always a great idea to include a countdown timer in your Shopify store so customers know when the Black Friday sales begin. There are countless third-party Shopify apps available in the Shopify Apps Store that can help you in adding a countdown timer for your Holiday season sale.
4. Create a dedicated BFCM store category
A dedicated product page for Cyber Week sales creates a space with a mission to display your best deals. You can then direct your audience to your sales page from various sources such as social media, email, Google ads, and so on. If you direct them to the place of your best deals, they won’t have to search through the whole selection in search of the best deal.
5. Homepage Design for BFCM
For the Black Friday season, the homepage deserves extra care and attention. It is also one of the simplest methods for ensuring conversions.
Here are some guidelines for designing the BFCM home page:
- To create urgency, use a countdown timer.
- If you provide free shipping on all orders, mention it.
- Introduce conversion-oriented sales banners.
- Have clear and visible CTAs.
6. Offer a Free Gift
Gifting has become something of a tradition during the holiday season. Let’s give your customers free gifts at the checkout to encourage them to buy more.
Remember that gifts should either be useful with the products purchased by your customers or help promote the items in your online store.
7. Offer free shipping
Consider offering free shipping with a minimum purchase amount or as a promotional or marketing tool during holiday seasons such as BFCM. Offering free shipping exclusively during the BFCM weekend may help you boost your conversion rate.
8. Add more payment methods to your online store
Accepting a variety of online payment methods can help you reach out to more customers, improve the checkout experience, and ultimately increase sales.
Set up multiple payment methods such as credit and debit cards, digital wallets such as Paypal, Klarna, Clearpay, Google Pay, Apple Pay, and PayPal, and more to accept cross-border payments.
9. Audit and improve your website’s checkout process
If your eCommerce store was not optimized for mobile and website during BFCM, now is the time to fix.
To avoid customers abandoning their shopping carts, make the checkout process as simple as possible for them. This includes ensuring that it is secure, easy to use, and does not require the shopper to go through too many steps to complete their purchase.
10. Prepare shipping and delivery communications in advance of any delays
Customers want to know where their orders are and when they can expect them to arrive (especially during the holiday season!). Implement tools that keep everyone up to date on order status to reduce customer stress and keep your support team happy.
11. Start creating an email and SMS list now
The holiday shopping season is an important revenue opportunity for eCommerce brands, and each name on an email or SMS list represents a potential customer.
With only a few weeks before the biggest shopping event of the year, building your customer email list will have a big impact on your BFCM revenue. Each email on the list represents a potential customer, so the more emails and SMS you have, the more potential customers you have for sales.
12. With BFCM in mind, update related email flows.
During the Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales, personalization and creativity is important. One of the best ways to capture attention and make it worthwhile for the customer is to create highly focused emails and segmented flows.
Look for ways to segment and customize emails to meet your customer’s needs, from promotional codes that offer exclusive savings and early shopping access to revamping email flows that entice shoppers to return to abandoned carts.
13. Create a gift guide and publish it to your blog.
During the holiday season, gift guides can be found all over the Internet. Create a gift guide that features various products and gift bundles that you’re selling to help your customers choose your products. Choose three to five themes, develop relevant content, and distribute your gift guide via email and social media.
14. Be active on social media
Keep year-round customer engagement by staying active on social media and sending out post-sale emails to your subscribers. If those one-time seasonal shoppers did not sign up for your email list or follow your social media accounts, retargeting might be your best option.
Consumers may no longer be afraid of in-person shopping, but we can assume they are still browsing their social feeds for BFCM deals. Grow your community so that you have a larger audience and reach when Black Friday and Cyber Monday arrive.
Spend time creating eye-catching content and using social media to provide additional customer support. Tell people they can send you a DM if they have any questions.