One of the most important dates in online retail is fast approaching – and we’re here to dive into some of the top trends we have seen so far.
In this article, we explore some of the trends shaping the shopping landscape this Black November.
Black Friday? More like Black November.
A trend that we’ve noticed over recent years is that Black Friday is no longer a one weekend event. It starts on November 1st and this year is absolutely no exception, with brands such as John Lewis and Boots already kickstarting their deals. Deals that we are here for by the way, Liz Earle Cleanse & Polish kit £44 instead of £95, thank us later.
If you want to hold off from offering big discounts before the main event, replicate the likes of Wayfair and Google and start offering early-bird discounts and exclusive pre-Black Friday sales to entice customers. Email marketing is a great way to encourage sign ups and early-access campaigns.
And, if you’re already live with your promotions, make sure you’re shouting about these on social media and in your paid search ad copy as much as possible. Why? Let’s be honest, this year more than ever, we’re all feeling the pinch with cost of living and inflation rises, so discounts have to be extra temping to make any purchase feel worthy.
Shop whilst you scroll
Social media is now a powerful tool for e-com businesses, so if you’re a retailer, you should be utilising shoppable posts and live streaming. This is your sign to start engaging with your customers directly on platforms such as Instagram, Facebook and TikTok through all these tools and features.
If you’re late to the social party, we’d encourage jumping on any key trends and popular social media posts to create engaging content.
Remember, not every post has to be related to your products, services or sales, we’re seeing highest engagement from relatable trending content, user generated content and behind the scenes photo ‘dumps’ or videos.
Trends usually take off first on TikTok, so start scrolling and brainstorming some ideas to really break through the rest of November.
One final point whilst TikTok is on our radar, TikTok users spent an average of 55.8 minutes on the app in 2023 and a recent survey found that, compared to users on other social platforms, 54% more of TikTok users intend to shop Black Friday offers through ads here. (source: Oberlo)
Make sure you’re optimising towards mobile
It’s a mobile world, we just live in it, so make sure you’re geared up for additional peaks in market demand across the majority of sectors over the next couple of weeks and into the Christmas period.
According to Shopify, 73% of sales on the platform during Black Friday – Cyber Monday 2022 were made on mobile and we’re predicting this to be ever higher this year.
Don’t have a chat bot? We anticipate surges in customer service requests in the upcoming requests so make sure you have a tool implemented and staff on hand to pick up any questions and queries around things like delivery dates, returns, product or service queries, or promotional details.
Black November is in full swing, so this is our last minute reminder to start shaking things up on socials, your PPC and email copy sale messaging, showcasing different payment methods such as buy now pay later, and offering a seamless mobile website experience.
If you’d like to find out more about how we can help you navigate one of the busiest sales periods of the year, just drop us a message at team@modo25.com and we’ll be more than happy to help.
