BFCM in 2020 is sure to look a lot more different this year with more financial constraints among consumers and with major shifts in the kinds of items shoppers are buying. There is also a change in how people are shopping, whether this is opting for curbside pickup or choosing to pay later with smart credit solutions.
We’ve compiled these changes and listed the 13 optimizations you need to do on your Shopify store to increase conversions this BFCM and cater to shoppers in the post-COVID world.
Also read: Why You Need A BFCM Pre-Launch Page To Make More Sales
13 Ways to Optimize Your Shopify Store for Conversions During Your Post-COVID BFCM Sale
1. Understand what deals and discounts your customers are expecting
Just setting up any offer on your Shopify store won't do. By understanding your customers' expectations, you can set up discounts that your customers will be happy to engage with and shop using.
Before you start analyzing discount preferences, you need to be well-versed with the different types of offers you can give shoppers. Read this blog about the 10 types of sales, discounts, and deals you can set up for BFCM.
Once you've learnt about the options you have, you can analyze how different types of discounts have performed in the past. Using an analytics tool like RevTap, you can understand which discount coupons have higher revenue and how many times they have been used.
This insight can help you understand which kind of discount your customers prefer. You may find that shoppers prefer a BOGO offer on your Shopify store if you sell beauty products but a furniture store may get more conversions with a large discount like 50% off.
2. Allow later payments with tools like Klarna
Shoppers love the option to buy now and pay later, giving them more financial flexibility in how they shop. Such an option is especially helpful now, with budget constraints and the need to shop in the moment.
Pay later solutions like Klarna are perfect, allowing shoppers to buy without any worries. Shoppers can later pay back the credit solutions app in 4 installments, without any interest due. It’s crucial to set up such a pay later scheme on your Shopify store so that interested shoppers don’t have to abandon their purchase just because of financial limitations.
3. Set up flexible return policies
With more stores going online, one of the elements of BFCM shopping in-store that consumers are missing out on when shopping online is the ability to try out items and test the item. Without this experience, consumers are hesitant to buy online since they might find that the item doesn’t meet their expectations and they may not be able to return the item.
Return policies on Shopify stores are usually highly strict during sales like BFCM. However, due to the major shopping shifts due to COVID, you may want to reconsider your return policies and make them more flexible to make new online consumers feel more welcome.
A flexible return policy would mean longer return periods, no questions asked returns, and refunds to source wallets (rather than credits to the store). This is sure to make shoppers more confident about shopping from you during this sale period.
4. Allow post-purchase tracking
Shoppers want more control over their order information, especially being able to track their orders by the minute. This is especially important during the BFCM sale since a large number of your BFCM shoppers may be new to your Shopify store and would want a more thorough post-purchase experience. Set up a tracking number to allow shoppers to track their orders and view every logistic touchpoint for your order.
Solutions like Clickpost are perfect for this, efficiently tracking the order and updating your customers about it.
5. Strategize how you will sell your deadstock
Due to COVID, many sellers have deadstock that has been sitting in their warehouse for months. You can use this sale period as an opportunity to sell this deadstock using some smart tactics, either by marking down their price or giving them away.
There are a few ways to smartly sell your deadstock:
- Markdown the price of the item and feature it on your homepage. You can add a product label like ‘Clearance’ or ‘60% off’ to attract shoppers' attention.
- Run a giveaway on social media to bring more visibility to your sale while also getting rid of this deadstock.
- Create bundles and promote the bundle on the product or cart page so that shoppers end up buying this item along with other products they were interested in.
- Send these items as gifts to your shoppers along with their orders. This heartwarming gesture is sure to make shoppers eager to visit your store again, post-BFCM!
6. Set up subscription boxes (where relevant)
In the past 5 years, subscription boxes services have grown by almost 800%. With $2.6billion in revenue from subscription boxes, it's easier for eCommerce brands to assure repeat purchases on their Shopify store.
If you sell items that shoppers buy frequently— coffee, food items, skincare items, books, etc— you may want to consider setting up a subscription box on your store. What's more, such boxes don't just apply for items that are purchased frequently. For instance, clothing brands can create style boxes for WFH loungewear that shoppers can subscribe to.
If you’re considering setting up a subscription box, BFCM might just be the best time to debut it. People are anyway flocking to your Shopify store during this sale period and by providing this new experiential way of purchasing your products, you’ll be able to successfully convert visitors into subscribed customers.
You can set up subscription boxes using smart apps like BOLD.
7. Flexibility in delivery
With newer options for delivery, consumers are enjoying more flexibility in how they get their purchases. This means that consumers will choose online stores that are providing such flexibility in their deliveries over their competitors.
This is why you need to set up different delivery options to cater to different consumers and their needs. This includes ‘buy now, pick up in-store’ to shoppers who are based locally as well as add contactless delivery to give online shoppers more options to choose from.
8. Allow shoppers to escape in your BFCM sale
2020 has surely been the year of gamified content. So, it only makes sense to deliver such a unique experience on your Shopify store as well. By gamifying your online store’s shopping experience, you can make shoppers spend more time on your store, delivering a positive experience.
You can gamify the experience on your online store in a number of different ways:
- Allow discounts to ‘win’ discounts using a spin wheel. Shoppers can spin a wheel to land on a discount and unlock it on their next order. This can also tie into your BFCM discount so that each shopper gets a different BFCM discount on their order during this time.
- Create quizzes to help shoppers find the right product on your Shopify store. This could be to find the right skin care product for themselves or to find the right clothing style.
- Many stores set up treasure hunts on their Shopify store to make it a little more fun for shoppers while browsing your products.
9. Elevate the experience with virtual try-ons and AI filters
Shoppers want to experience and try out items before they shop. With virtual experiences like try-ons, it’s not hard to implement such an intimate experience. In fact, brands like Kylie Cosmetics and Magnolia Market, have been able to set up AR experiences to let shoppers try out their products.
There are a few ways you can easily set up virtual experiences, without having to spend too much! For virtual try-ons, you can install apps by Virtooal to set up try-on experiences on your Shopify store. These are perfect for stores that sell clothes, glasses, wearable accessories, and even cosmetics.
You can even take this experience to social media by creating filters on Instagram to let people try out your products using these filters and make your brand more shareable. Read about how you can create Instagram filters.
10. Set up Back in Stock Alerts to recover sales lost to stockouts
During BFCM, you are sure to run out of stock on your best products. Certain shoppers who land on your Shopify store may still be interested in the item, with or without the sale. However, if you don’t have any alternatives that make it easier for them to shop the item, you’ll end up losing them.
This is why Back in Stock Alerts are crucial during BFCM. You can enable a subscription form where shoppers can choose their preferred communication channel and subscribe to the stocked out product. Once it’s back, they will receive an automated alert. You can enable these automated alerts using the Back in Stock - Restock Alerts app.
When setting up Back in Stock Alerts, ensure that you’ve taken these steps:
- Enable multiple communication channels.
- Optimize your subscription form copy to match your BFCM feel.
- Optimize copy in your alert messages to match your brand tone.
11. Inform shoppers better by blogging
Shoppers want to be informed about a product, its quality, its uses, and more before they buy the item. So, it’s no surprise that online brands who are creating content and blogging on their website are winning. These brands are being discovered better on search engines and with the transparency in their content, their readers are turning into shoppers more quickly.
Cater to these shoppers by creating content around your products, the problems they solve, and the ways they can be used. You can use blogging apps like Matcha to set up attractive and eye-catching blog pages.
With such content easy to find, you can easily convince BFCM shoppers about the benefits of owning your products.
12. Customized onsite promotions
When triggered at the right time, an on-site promotion can help you nudge shoppers to take action, from adding more items to their cart or checking out before the deal expires. What's more, promotions shown to shoppers due to specific interactions they've taken can help you convert them even better.
Wouldn't you respond better to an upsell offer for a product you have expressed interest in rather than to a generic product promotion?
Fera is a Shopify app that shows on-site messages based on specific triggers. So, shoppers who added an item to their cart can be shown a message that reminds them of the discount on your Shopify store. Or, if you have a specific deal on a product, you can use Fera to highlight the deal when shoppers are on that product page.
13. Extend the holiday sale
Many shoppers end up checking out your Shopify store towards the end of the sale. What's more, during the sale, with so many merchants pushing their discounts, many of your customers might just end up not checking out your Black Friday sale.
If you find that many of your subscribers haven't gotten back to your sale, extend it for them!
While many merchants extend the sale and leave it up on their Shopify store for a few more days, you can even do so covertly. Send an email to your customers informing them about the sale extension and give them a secret discount code they can use to unlock it once in the next 3 to 4 days.
Optimize your Shopify store for BFCM in the post-COVID world!
Shopping trends are changing by the minute. Our list of best practices for BFCM 2020 is sure to expand as we come closer to BFCM and as new shopping trends emerge. We’ll keep this list updated so that you don’t miss out on optimizing your Shopify store and cater to your shoppers’ expectations during this time.
If you’re looking for design customizations during BFCM, to provide highly specific features or transform your Shopify store to build hype about your sale, you need a Shopify design expert onboard.
Our team of design experts is specialized in Shopify to ensure that merchants can implement the highly specific features they want to show, whether it’s a pre-launch page or a unique design to gamify the experience.
Reach out to us on info@xgentech.net and we’ll help you set up your Shopify store’s BFCM design!
