Yes, it’s that time of year again. The time when retailers go absolutely crazy and offer huge discounts on just about everything. It’s a shopper’s paradise, but it can also be a minefield for retailers. With so many deals and special offers flying around, it can be tough to know how to make the most of Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

These blockbuster sale dates only come around once a year, and customers and business owners look forward to them. It is the perfect opportunity to boost sales and conversions for your company.

Just to emphasize this, Black Friday sales totaled $6.2 billion in 2018, $7.4 billion in 2019, and $9 billion in 2020. That is some serious shopping!

But never fear! We’re here to help with our 5 top conversion hacks to help you maximize sales this Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Read on to find out more.

• 1. Keep selling when out of stock with Pre-Orders
• 2. Increase average order value through Tiered Discounts
• 3. Offer free shipping
• 4. Leverage ‘Fear of Missing Out’
• 5. Offer a Free Gift with Purchase
• Final Thoughts on Black Friday and Cyber Monday Sales

1. Keep selling when out of stock with Pre-Orders

Even before Black Friday comes, many of your customers will be browsing your website, looking for deals. As demand pick’s up and sale season approaches, like most retailers, you may start experiencing delays in shipping and delivery. This is where having the option to pre-order comes in handy. Pre-orders allow you to start taking payments for backorders, for you this means increased cashflow and capturing any potentially missed sales. For customers this means, having the ability to order the products they want ASAP.

What is a pre-order?

A pre-order is an order placed for an item not yet available. Usually, customers place pre-orders so they can be sure to get their hands on a hot new product as soon as it’s released. This can be done through your website or brick-and-mortar store. You will need to consider a few things:

1. Build a pre-order plan: You’ll need to set a date for the pre-orders to go live and when the product will be released.
2. Choose your products: Obviously, you’ll need to decide which products you want to offer for pre-order. These should be items that are highly anticipated and in high demand.
3. Promote your pre-orders: Let your customers know that they can place pre-orders on your website or in-store. You can do this through social media, email marketing, or even traditional advertising.
4. Fulfill your orders: Once the product is released, make sure to ship out the pre-orders as soon as possible. You don’t want to disappoint your customers!
5. Keep track of your inventory: This is important for two reasons. First, you don’t want to oversell and end up not being able to fulfill all of the pre-orders. Second, you’ll need to know what inventory you have on hand so you can plan for future sales.

How to add Pre-Orders to your Shopify store

Adding Pre-Order functionality to your Shopify store is extremely easy with the Shopify Pre‑Order Manager app. It installs in a few clicks and makes it simple to manage pre-order’s all in one place.

The Pre-Order Manager Shopify app can be installed in just a few clicks. Simply activate the products you’d like to pre-order and our app will do the rest! No extra dev work required. Our app is designed to give you full control over how Pre-Orders look and function on your Shopify store. Configure any pre-order discounts, terms, or limits for any out of stock product with our intuitive pre-order manager dashboard.

2. Increase average order value through Tiered Discounts

A volume discount is a type of pricing where you offer a lower price per unit when a customer buys more units. This is a great way to increase sales, especially on Black Friday and Cyber Monday when people are looking to buy in bulk.

There are two ways that you can offer volume discounts:

1. Offer a fixed discount: With this type of discount, you offer a certain percentage off the regular price when the customer buys a certain amount. For example, you could offer 10% off when the customer buys 3 items, 15% off when they buy 5 items, and 20% off when they buy 10 items.
2. Offer a tiered discount: With this type of discount, you offer a different price for each unit based on the amount that the customer buys. For example, you could charge $10 per unit for 1-5 units, $9 per unit for 6-10 units, and $8 per unit for 11-20 units.

Both of these types of discounts are great ways to increase sales and encourage customers to buy more. However, you will need to make sure that your margins can absorb the discount so that you are still making a profit.

There are a few things to keep in mind when offering volume discounts:

1. Choose the right products: Not every product is suitable for a volume discount. You will need to carefully consider which products will work best with this type of pricing.
2. Set the right thresholds: The discount needs to be high enough to encourage customers to buy more, but not so high that you are losing money on the sale.
3. Promote the discount: Make sure your customers know about the volume discount to take advantage of it! You can do this through social media, email marketing, or even in-store signage.
4. Keep track of your inventory: Volume discounts can lead to a lot of inventory being sold in a short period of time. This can be difficult to keep track of, so make sure you have a system in place to do so.

Amai’s Quantity Breaks & Discounts lets you offer volume discounts on your products with just a few clicks. You can choose the type of discount (fixed or tiered) and the amount, and even create different discounts for different products or collections.

This app is a great way to increase sales on Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

3. Offer free shipping

Free shipping is one of retailers’ favorite incentives to increase sales. And it’s no wonder why. According to Forbes, 84% of customers complete their purchases if the shipping is free.

There are a few things to keep in mind when offering free shipping:

1. Make sure your margins can absorb the cost: This is important because you don’t want to lose money on the sale.
2. Set a minimum order amount: This is so that you are not losing money on small orders.
3. Promote free shipping: Customers need to know that free shipping is available in order for them to take advantage of it. You can do this through social media, email marketing, website banners, or in-store signage.
4. Keep track of your inventory: Free shipping can lead to a lot of inventory being sold in a short period of time. This can be difficult to keep track of, so make sure you have a system in place to do so.

4. Leverage ‘Fear of Missing Out’

Shoppers go crazy for Black Friday, but here’s a way to get their hearts beating even faster. A simple but neat hack is adding a countdown timer to your website. This will help increase your potential customers’ sense of urgency and excitement.

Just by adding those ticking numbers on top of your website or product pages, you are adding a layer of urgency. Urgency and excitement are great motivators for people to buy. They don’t want to risk missing out on a good deal, so they are more likely to add an item to their cart and purchase it.

Leveraging their “FOMO” (fear of missing out) is an effective way to increase sales.

You can use a Shopify Sales Countdown Timer. Aside from the fact that it does the job very straightforwardly, it’s also very easy to use. You can choose from a variety of templates and customize them to match your store’s look and feel.

You can also set the timer to count down to a specific date or time or even set it to count up from a past event.

5. Offer a Free Gift with Purchase

Another great way to increase sales is to offer a gift with purchase. This is especially effective if the gift is something that your customers really want or need. For example, if you sell beauty products, you could offer a free makeup bag with the purchase of any 3 items. This is a great way to increase sales because it incentivizes the customer to buy more.

But be careful about what to give away. You don’t want to give away something that is low quality just because it’s free. This will reflect badly on your brand and could even lead to customers returning the items they purchased. It’s important to choose something that is high quality and that your customers will actually want.

Final Thoughts on Black Friday and Cyber Monday Sales

We hope you found these 5 conversion hacks helpful and that you are able to use them to increase sales this Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Remember, it’s important to plan ahead so that you can make the most of these two big shopping days. Good luck, and make sure to check these Shopify apps before the holidays!