Black Friday guide for e-commerce sites

Black Friday, a shopping frenzy that marks the month of November, will take this year by storm. So how should e-commerce sites prepare for this day when millions of people are waiting to buy something? Here is the Black Friday guide...

In this article, I will give you information about Black Friday and how the e-commerce sector should position itself. First of all, let's start with where Turkey is in this trend. Payment infrastructure iyzicoshared the following data for Black Friday, which took place on November 24 in 2023:

• Average basket amount of member merchants increased by 75 percent
• Women accounted for 61 percent of the transaction volume
• While women preferred ready-to-wear clothing and cosmetics, men preferred computers and auto accessories
• The most shopped categories were clothing, food and entertainment
• Of the 4 transactions, 3 were single withdrawals and 1 was in installments. 

According to data from the Ministry of Trade, the secret to success for brands in the e-commerce sector, which reached a volume of 1.85 trillion liras last year, is to catch the trend. Of course, Black Friday, which has turned into a shopping festival, is also the right time to make special campaigns.

What is Black Friday? How did it become popular in Turkey?

The birth story of Black Friday, which can be translated into Turkish as Black Friday, is actually based on a tragic event. The intensity, traffic and events that occurred after shopping in the USA in the early 1960s are the reason why this day is called "black". This day, which has been a tradition since the 1930s, is the first Friday after Thanksgiving. It marks the beginning of the Christmas shopping season.

Of course, in the US and European countries, serious discounts and incredible campaigns by the stores caused this trend to spread around the world over time. In Turkey, both online shopping and retail brands have been offering serious discounts in the last week of November for years. 

Although this concept goes back a long way, today there is also the concept of Cyber Monday. Cyber Monday emerged 20 years ago and refers to the first Monday after Black Friday. The peculiarity of Cyber Monday is that it is exclusively for online shopping. 

Çin’de ortaya çıkan 11.11 Bekarlar Günü’nü de hesaba katarsanız, Kasım ayının büyük bir kısmı indirim kampanyaları ile geçiyor. E-ticaret siteleri için Black Friday rehberi ile nasıl bir yol izlenmeli, bakalım.

What is the importance of Black Friday for e-commerce sites?

The shopping spree in the last week of November has important advantages for businesses. In general, the motivation of businesses when making serious discounts is to melt old stocks and make room in stocks for new season products. But on this day, also called Black Friday, discounts have another plus. Gaining new customers!

E-commerce sites also aim to gain new customers while gearing up to meet annual targets as they enter December. It is aimed to increase the bond and loyalty of existing customers to the brand. 

While it is aimed to increase brand awareness with the advertisements, it should also be acknowledged that the result provides important data and insights for marketing efforts. In short, e-commerce sites gain significant benefits with their discounts. 

Now let's come to the most important part, how should e-commerce sites prepare for Black Friday, what should they do?

E-commerce sites Black Friday guide 

n 2024, Black Friday will take place on Friday, November 29th. However, dozens of internet giants, especially marketplace giants such as Trendyol Trendyol and Hepsiburada will start their communication activities with the start of November. 

Here are the steps to follow Black Friday before and after Black Friday for e-commerce sites.

Analyze market trends and competitors

No matter which sector you are in in the field of online sales, you should read the prominent trends correctly. In general, it can be advantageous for medium and small segmented e-commerce sites to focus on niches rather than highly competitive products. For example, to stand out in product groups where many big brands compete, such as shoes, watches or t-shirts, a serious advertising expenditure may be required. Moreover, even if you reach the customer, it is difficult to offer an advantageous price against textile giants.

New needs that may emerge in the market create trends. You can achieve serious success if you capture new product groups that may attract attention, which are not yet very common in the Turkish market. For this reason, analyze trends, identify new products that you can be competitive with, focus on them and make a plan.

Of course, the path of competitors can also give you an idea. Try to figure out which products competitors are focusing on before Black Friday and what kind of discount policy they will follow. By putting all this data on top of each other, you can come up with a plan.

Perform stock checks and set discount rates

As soon as the shopping spree starts, the worst case scenario for an e-commerce site is probably running out of stock! For this reason, you should check the stocks of the products you will feature before November and complete your preparations. If a customer cannot find the product they came to buy, this is SEO a negative experience and a negative point for SEO.

Let's come to the most crucial part, the discount rates. The discounts on Good Friday and Good Friday make shopping attractive. But in recent years, customers have become more price conscious. In other words, it does not take long for a business that increases the price of a 10 lira product to 15 lira and sells it for 9 lira with a 40 percent discount to be deciphered.Therefore,always make “real discounts”.

It is not necessary to campaign on every product. However, be competitive in the products you campaign on. 

Black Friday indirimleri, en az yüzde 10-20 bandında oluyor. Fakat bazı markalar, özellikle stok eritmek istedikleri veya maliyet avantajına sahip oldukları ürünlerde cüretkar indirimler de yapabilir. Bu indirim oranları yüzde 50’yi dahi geçebiliyor. 

Here, marketing strategies come to the fore. For example, a brand may offer a really serious discount on product A, selling at cost or even at a loss. Here, the brand's strategy may be to acquire new customers rather than selling products, or to sell product B or C to the customer who bought product A. 

Is your digital marketing plan and sales site ready?

Discounts for Singles' Day (11.11) or Black Friday are only meaningful when they reach a customer. That's why you need to plan which channels will attract those customers. Each Digital marketing channel can offer different advantages for driving traffic:

• Meta ads: Sponsored products suitable for the Facebook-Instagram audience and their interests
• Google ADS: With Google ADS, try to attract users looking for the product to your site
• Blog: Make content plans for the blog that include the products you will focus on during this period.
• SMS and e-mail: Once the details of your campaign are clear, announce it to your target audience.
• Influencer work: Make deals with influencers who can bring traffic to your site.
• Affiliate: For products where your profit rate is favorable, consider the affiliate model. 

Apart from these, there are also some things to be done on the technical side of e-commerce sites:

• SEO: Test things like site speed and server optimization so your site is ready for high traffic.
• Landing page: Bu döneme özel, siteye gelen ziyaretçilere bir açılış sayfası tasarlayabilirsiniz.
• CRM: Use plugins such as Chatbot, WhatsApp, etc. that will find solutions to customers' potential problems.
• Countdown: On Black Friday, the perception of limited time left can boost sales, so use counters.
• Payment: Check the payment infrastructure and integrations to avoid any problems.

Plan your budget

Every brand increases its marketing budget during this period to make its products and services visible. Industry giants even take part in high-budget advertising channels such as television and outdoor. However, by using the right digital marketing channels, you can get results even with an average budget. 

Advertising budget is the most important item for e-commerce sites in this period. Clarify how much budget you will allocate for which medium and how many visitors you target based on past data. During this period, you should also take into account the possible additional overtime wages waiting for your company's permanent employees. 

When you make a budget plan for the November shopping season, you can arrive at the overall picture by taking into account your profit margin and the discount rate on products. 

In addition to the turnover and profit you will achieve, increased brand awareness and new customers will be written in your business's bottom line. In general, the Black Friday period for e-commerce sites is a period of significant gains. Records broken in turnover, increased visitor numbers and new customers add strength to your strength for the new period. 

E-commerce sites can prepare for the new year by analyzing the traffic in November correctly. The products of interest, the rate of visitors staying on the page according to the products and many analytical data are the main value in this process. Therefore, the Black Friday guide can give you important tips.