The holidays are approaching and it's no surprise that COVID-19 will have an impact on how we holiday shop this year. While there is often a focus on in-store promotions and sales, 2020 looks like it will be the year we go digital. With 2019 online Black Friday sales upwards of $7.4 billion US (Adobe Holiday Shopping Report, 2019), we can expect that moving Black Friday online will significantly increase this number. But the question is, how do we move one of the year's biggest sales events online?
Offer incentives and rewards for online shopping during Black Friday
Black Friday is all about the deals - discounts, incentives, rebates, you name it, it's what draws consumers to purchase. Nearly 36% of consumers say that limited time offers or promotions are what influences their Black Friday purchases (National Retail Federation) With a digital Black Friday, offer virtual incentives and rebates that make it easy to redeem, save and spend.
Virtual prepaid cards are a great way to attract consumers to your product with a cashback reward for shopping with your online store. You can make online redemption easy, and build a fully branded experience helping to enhance the digital shift. Plus with virtual prepaid cards you can restrict card purchases to your brand, ensuring sales extend beyond the Black Friday period.
Make sure you have a solid online experience
Moving Black Friday online is more than just online sales and promotions though. Ensuring your website is desktop and mobile responsive is critical to success, as 88% of users said they wouldn't return to a website after having a bad experience (Amazon Web Services). By building a cohesive online presence from your website, to your virtual card redemption, to your cardholder portal, users know that they're top of mind.
Market your sales early and have extended sales periods
The key to encouraging your consumers to purchase online is to market to them ahead of time. Whether it's through digital or traditional media, marketing your online Black Friday promotions is the best way to let your consumers know how you want them to shop with you this Black Friday.
If you're promoting a virtual prepaid card rebate, you can extend redemption periods to allow consumers who made purchases during Black Friday to redeem their rebate over the next few weeks or a month. The longer you extend the redemption process, the longer you extend future sales for your business. You can also extend your prepaid program to send out rebates after a selected time period to ensure that cards are spent in the new year, helping to buffer your post-holiday sales.
At the end of the day, the key to moving Black Friday online is offering exclusive online deals, incentivizing your consumers to purchase online, and building a promotion that you can leverage in the coming months.
