Effective Black Friday marketing strategies for home gym product online sellers

Due to the mandatory closing of most gyms worldwide during the COVID-crisis, online sales of home gym equipment skyrocketed, and this trend is likely to continue for quite some time. So, if your online store is targeting this niche, you have probably seen a significant rise in demand already, but have you considered what will be happening in the upcoming holiday sales season?

Are you getting your online store ready for Black Friday & Cyber Monday? (BFCM)

If the answer is no, the time is now. The current global health situation has led to retail closures and shifted consumer spending online. This is a reality for this holiday season, but quite possibly for the next few years also. So this year, online shop owners, big and small, need to be ready for a rush of shoppers that might present a challenge for inventory and shipping constraints.

But don’t worry; you still have some time to jump on the train. We are sharing a list of tips and tricks to increase your profit and make some long-term loyal customers. We’ll get to everything from optimizing your store to an effective marketing strategy for a campaign in the days leading up to the holiday season. But if you are still unsure of how much effort you should put in, let’s start with some numbers that might convince you. 

Black Friday 2019 has seen a considerable rise in traffic for shopping apps. Shoppers spent astounding 387,336 hours in shopping apps on Black Friday, which is a rise of 105% from 2018. They spent 2.1 times more time in mobile apps than on desktop and 3.7x more than on the mobile web during the weekend from Black Friday to Cyber Monday. What’s even better, the research shows that they also prepared for this period in advance. In the weeks leading to Black Friday and Cyber Monday, shoppers often used the wish list function in apps to save the products they would purchase. 

The trend of spending more time in m-commerce apps and engaging with in-app content will grow significantly in 2020. It is highly likely that this year the apps will take over desktop both in terms of traffic and revenue. But preparation is vital, so check out what you should be doing right now to boost your sales in the holiday season of 2020.

The History of Black Friday & Cyber Monday 

But first, let’s go a bit more further back in time. So, how did it all start? The term Black Friday was initially related to the financial crisis, not sales shopping. Two Wall Street financiers Jim Fisk and Jay Gould, bought a significant amount of US gold, hoping it will cause the price of gold to skyrocket, enabling them to make an enormous profit. On Friday, 24 September 1869, the conspiracy was unveiled, leading the stock market to collapse and leaving countless Wall Street barons bankrupt.

The term was connected to the end-of-year holiday shopping craze much later, in the 1950s and 60s. In Philadelphia, the police officers used the term for the chaos that they’d encounter on the streets the day after Thanksgiving. Large crowds of tourists and shoppers visiting the city for the Army-Navy football game created huge crowds, traffic jams, and many shoplifting opportunities. The police officers weren’t able to take time off and often had to work long shifts to control the situation.

Store owners and merchants disliked the negative connotations of the term and tried to change it to Big Friday. It became known in print in 1966, after an advertisement in a magazine. By the 1980s, it was accepted across the nation and linked to the post-Thanksgiving sales. 

Another story says that the name Black Friday comes from the fact that merchants spent most of the year until Thanksgiving “in the red.” The situation changed around the holiday season when their finances finally got into the “black.”

Cyber Monday

The term Cyber Monday is obviously more recent. It was first used in 2005 by Ellen Davis, senior vice president of the National Retail Federation in the US, to refer to an increase in online sales on the Monday after Thanksgiving. Along with the UK and USA, the Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales concept has become known in other countries worldwide in recent decades.

Maximizing sales on Black Friday and Cyber Monday

Optimize your online store for the best user experience

It would be best to go into the holiday season with an intuitive user interface, a seamless checkout experience offering multiple payment methods, and a high mobile functionality level. 

1. Give people the reason to download your app

You have several options to offer an incentive to first-time downloaders. Give them a discount or free shipping on the first purchase. Offer them a chance to win a prize if they download the app. You can also reward existing users for referring their friends to download your app in the days leading up to Black Friday.

2. Create specific in-app deals

By offering deals that are available in-app only, you can stimulate users to download your app and make more purchases through it. If you have a physical store, you can provide app users with discount coupons or loyalty cards. All of this will increase your app engagement.

3. Optimize the checkout experience

The surveys show that you might lose half of your users due to slow or overly complicated checkout experience. Provide your users with a one-click checkout process and an option to have their payment information saved for future purchases. By providing simple payment options like Android Pay, Apple Pay, PayPal, or Stripe, you can increase conversion rates 2-3 times.

4. Assess your inventory and have a contingency plan

Be aware of what products might be in the highest demand and make sure you’re supplied or that suppliers will be able to fulfill the needs of your store. Make a clear plan of what happens if things go south at any point. Due to the pandemic, there might be delays with shipping companies, so your orders might be late, or your inventory might not be ready in time.

5. Have a clear returns policy

Your returns policy might be the thing that will convince a shopper to buy the item they are on the fence about. Having a clear and well-communicated returns policy and even free returns when possible, shows that you have confidence in your products. 72% of consumers said they would spend more and buy more often with merchants that make the return experience simple, and 89% of customers who had a good return experience are likely to buy again.

Effective Marketing Strategies for Black Friday & Cyber Monday 

Aim all your tactics at creating a meaningful relationship with your customers that will last beyond this holiday season.

Assess your timeline

We’ve already mentioned that shoppers start researching and looking for the best deals way in advance. So your first job is to be visible. Make sure you are where your shoppers are and reach out to them with your holiday offer as soon as possible. Create a list of things that need to be designed or written, like banners, unique holiday theme for your app, or email campaigns, create a clear timeline with milestones of when things will be happening. And most importantly, if you haven’t already started working on the holiday promotion ASAP.

Create social proof

Ensure you have product reviews on your store as at least 95% of shoppers read online reviews before deciding whether to buy a product. Having five reviews on a product increases the chance of purchase by 270%, opposing to having no reviews. 

Another thing that builds strong social proof is testimonials from your customers. These concise recommendations in a call-out format create trust and credibility with the audience, especially if you can get them in video format.

Create a sense of urgency

Users will take time and be patient in waiting for the best possible deals during Black Friday and Cyber Monday period. Give them a time-limited offer, display Limited offer, Last items, or Almost out of stock banners on product pages to create. You can also inspire action by offering a time-bound offer of free shipping. 

Personalize the shopping experience

To increase the chance of conversion, create tailored marketing messages that will target the right people at the right times. Depending on the target audience, you can offer different deals to new customers versus long-time buyers. You can also provide personalized suggestions on product pages besides the product a shopper is viewing. Personalization makes even more sense when you know that 65% of shoppers expect a personalized shopping experience guided by the previous purchases. 

Give them a reason to stay with you

Create a plan on how to turn your Black Friday and Cyber Monday buyers into long-term loyal customers. Offer loyalty programs, gift cards, exclusive gifts with the purchase, discount coupons that shoppers can use on the next purchases. This way, they won’t just take advantage of your best holiday deals; they’ll have a reason to shop at your store again. 

And bear in mind that according to Gift Card Granny, 65% of gift card holders spend an extra 38% beyond the value of the card and that customers who redeem loyalty rewards spend twice as much as those who don’t.

Turn abandoned carts into a new opportunity

Be aware that shoppers will have endless offers and distractions during the BFCM period. Many of them will likely fill their carts with products only to abandon them and finish an order from another shop that’s expiring or a better deal. But this doesn’t have to mean a lost sale for you. You can create abandoned cart emails in advance and send them to shoppers who leave their carts. Create a message with a clear CTA and incentive to remind users to pick up where they left off.

Show your charitable side

The holiday season is when people spend a lot but show your customers that it’s not all about buying and create a deeper connection. Give part of your earnings or percentage of every purchase as a donation. In 2018 Everlane, a fashion brand donated a portion of their Black Friday proceeds to remove 20,000 pounds of plastic from our beaches. So, find a cause that is important to you and your customers and a way to support it.

5 home gym products that will be best-sellers this BFCM

Many shoppers will use the best BFCM deals to update their home gym, but shop owners need to know what items are most in demand. So, let’s see some of the trending items in the previous period.

1. Exercise bands
2. Jump ropes
3. Dumbbells
4. Yoga mats
5. Ankle and wrist weights

But some products that are not gym equipment can be added to this list. People always need quality headphones to boost their workout. Beauty products may seem a long way from work out equipment, but they are not. Working out takes a lot out of us, and good facial mists are becoming a must in post-workout skincare. Finally, well-made workout clothes can never be a miss, and offering all these additional products means that your customers can do all their workout-related shopping in one place. This means that the shoppers will stay in your shop longer and purchase more items.

Conclusion

Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2020 will definitely be so much different than ever in recent history. The world is on the lockdown due to the global pandemic, and the needs of the population have shifted. Most of the sales are moving away from brick-and-mortar stores to online commerce platforms and mobile commerce apps. Sellers need to prepare their online stores for high traffic and a surge of purchases in advance. Speed, inventory, quick checkout, free shipping, clear return policies, effective marketing strategy designed and launched on time are what make or break your business. 

Home workout equipment will undoubtedly be on the best-seller list for this year’s BFCM season. But that does not mean that the sales are guaranteed. Be ready to improve and adjust your strategy to meet changing needs and demands. Preparation will be crucial to success. But the most important thing is to keep the focus on your customers and create a long-term relationship with them. 

Due to the mandatory closing of most gyms worldwide during the COVID-crisis, online sales of home gym equipment skyrocketed, and this trend is likely to continue for quite some time. So, if your online store is targeting this niche, you have probably seen a significant rise in demand already, but have you considered what will be happening in the upcoming holiday sales season?

Are you getting your online store ready for Black Friday & Cyber Monday? (BFCM)

If the answer is no, the time is now. The current global health situation has led to retail closures and shifted consumer spending online. This is a reality for this holiday season, but quite possibly for the next few years also. So this year, online shop owners, big and small, need to be ready for a rush of shoppers that might present a challenge for inventory and shipping constraints.

But don’t worry; you still have some time to jump on the train. We are sharing a list of tips and tricks to increase your profit and make some long-term loyal customers. We’ll get to everything from optimizing your store to an effective marketing strategy for a campaign in the days leading up to the holiday season. But if you are still unsure of how much effort you should put in, let’s start with some numbers that might convince you. 

Black Friday 2019 has seen a considerable rise in traffic for shopping apps. Shoppers spent astounding 387,336 hours in shopping apps on Black Friday, which is a rise of 105% from 2018. They spent 2.1 times more time in mobile apps than on desktop and 3.7x more than on the mobile web during the weekend from Black Friday to Cyber Monday. What’s even better, the research shows that they also prepared for this period in advance. In the weeks leading to Black Friday and Cyber Monday, shoppers often used the wish list function in apps to save the products they would purchase. 

The trend of spending more time in m-commerce apps and engaging with in-app content will grow significantly in 2020. It is highly likely that this year the apps will take over desktop both in terms of traffic and revenue. But preparation is vital, so check out what you should be doing right now to boost your sales in the holiday season of 2020.

The History of Black Friday & Cyber Monday 

But first, let’s go a bit more further back in time. So, how did it all start? The term Black Friday was initially related to the financial crisis, not sales shopping. Two Wall Street financiers Jim Fisk and Jay Gould, bought a significant amount of US gold, hoping it will cause the price of gold to skyrocket, enabling them to make an enormous profit. On Friday, 24 September 1869, the conspiracy was unveiled, leading the stock market to collapse and leaving countless Wall Street barons bankrupt.

The term was connected to the end-of-year holiday shopping craze much later, in the 1950s and 60s. In Philadelphia, the police officers used the term for the chaos that they’d encounter on the streets the day after Thanksgiving. Large crowds of tourists and shoppers visiting the city for the Army-Navy football game created huge crowds, traffic jams, and many shoplifting opportunities. The police officers weren’t able to take time off and often had to work long shifts to control the situation.

Store owners and merchants disliked the negative connotations of the term and tried to change it to Big Friday. It became known in print in 1966, after an advertisement in a magazine. By the 1980s, it was accepted across the nation and linked to the post-Thanksgiving sales. 

Another story says that the name Black Friday comes from the fact that merchants spent most of the year until Thanksgiving “in the red.” The situation changed around the holiday season when their finances finally got into the “black.”

Cyber Monday

The term Cyber Monday is obviously more recent. It was first used in 2005 by Ellen Davis, senior vice president of the National Retail Federation in the US, to refer to an increase in online sales on the Monday after Thanksgiving. Along with the UK and USA, the Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales concept has become known in other countries worldwide in recent decades.

Maximizing sales on Black Friday and Cyber Monday

Optimize your online store for the best user experience

It would be best to go into the holiday season with an intuitive user interface, a seamless checkout experience offering multiple payment methods, and a high mobile functionality level. 

1. Give people the reason to download your app

You have several options to offer an incentive to first-time downloaders. Give them a discount or free shipping on the first purchase. Offer them a chance to win a prize if they download the app. You can also reward existing users for referring their friends to download your app in the days leading up to Black Friday.

2. Create specific in-app deals

By offering deals that are available in-app only, you can stimulate users to download your app and make more purchases through it. If you have a physical store, you can provide app users with discount coupons or loyalty cards. All of this will increase your app engagement.

3. Optimize the checkout experience

The surveys show that you might lose half of your users due to slow or overly complicated checkout experience. Provide your users with a one-click checkout process and an option to have their payment information saved for future purchases. By providing simple payment options like Android Pay, Apple Pay, PayPal, or Stripe, you can increase conversion rates 2-3 times.

4. Assess your inventory and have a contingency plan

Be aware of what products might be in the highest demand and make sure you’re supplied or that suppliers will be able to fulfill the needs of your store. Make a clear plan of what happens if things go south at any point. Due to the pandemic, there might be delays with shipping companies, so your orders might be late, or your inventory might not be ready in time.

5. Have a clear returns policy

Your returns policy might be the thing that will convince a shopper to buy the item they are on the fence about. Having a clear and well-communicated returns policy and even free returns when possible, shows that you have confidence in your products. 72% of consumers said they would spend more and buy more often with merchants that make the return experience simple, and 89% of customers who had a good return experience are likely to buy again.

Effective Marketing Strategies for Black Friday & Cyber Monday 

Aim all your tactics at creating a meaningful relationship with your customers that will last beyond this holiday season.

Assess your timeline

We’ve already mentioned that shoppers start researching and looking for the best deals way in advance. So your first job is to be visible. Make sure you are where your shoppers are and reach out to them with your holiday offer as soon as possible. Create a list of things that need to be designed or written, like banners, unique holiday theme for your app, or email campaigns, create a clear timeline with milestones of when things will be happening. And most importantly, if you haven’t already started working on the holiday promotion ASAP.

Create social proof

Ensure you have product reviews on your store as at least 95% of shoppers read online reviews before deciding whether to buy a product. Having five reviews on a product increases the chance of purchase by 270%, opposing to having no reviews. 

Another thing that builds strong social proof is testimonials from your customers. These concise recommendations in a call-out format create trust and credibility with the audience, especially if you can get them in video format.

Create a sense of urgency

Users will take time and be patient in waiting for the best possible deals during Black Friday and Cyber Monday period. Give them a time-limited offer, display Limited offer, Last items, or Almost out of stock banners on product pages to create. You can also inspire action by offering a time-bound offer of free shipping. 

Personalize the shopping experience

To increase the chance of conversion, create tailored marketing messages that will target the right people at the right times. Depending on the target audience, you can offer different deals to new customers versus long-time buyers. You can also provide personalized suggestions on product pages besides the product a shopper is viewing. Personalization makes even more sense when you know that 65% of shoppers expect a personalized shopping experience guided by the previous purchases. 

Give them a reason to stay with you

Create a plan on how to turn your Black Friday and Cyber Monday buyers into long-term loyal customers. Offer loyalty programs, gift cards, exclusive gifts with the purchase, discount coupons that shoppers can use on the next purchases. This way, they won’t just take advantage of your best holiday deals; they’ll have a reason to shop at your store again. 

And bear in mind that according to Gift Card Granny, 65% of gift card holders spend an extra 38% beyond the value of the card and that customers who redeem loyalty rewards spend twice as much as those who don’t.

Turn abandoned carts into a new opportunity

Be aware that shoppers will have endless offers and distractions during the BFCM period. Many of them will likely fill their carts with products only to abandon them and finish an order from another shop that’s expiring or a better deal. But this doesn’t have to mean a lost sale for you. You can create abandoned cart emails in advance and send them to shoppers who leave their carts. Create a message with a clear CTA and incentive to remind users to pick up where they left off.

Show your charitable side

The holiday season is when people spend a lot but show your customers that it’s not all about buying and create a deeper connection. Give part of your earnings or percentage of every purchase as a donation. In 2018 Everlane, a fashion brand donated a portion of their Black Friday proceeds to remove 20,000 pounds of plastic from our beaches. So, find a cause that is important to you and your customers and a way to support it.

5 home gym products that will be best-sellers this BFCM

Many shoppers will use the best BFCM deals to update their home gym, but shop owners need to know what items are most in demand. So, let’s see some of the trending items in the previous period.

1. Exercise bands
2. Jump ropes
3. Dumbbells
4. Yoga mats
5. Ankle and wrist weights

But some products that are not gym equipment can be added to this list. People always need quality headphones to boost their workout. Beauty products may seem a long way from work out equipment, but they are not. Working out takes a lot out of us, and good facial mists are becoming a must in post-workout skincare. Finally, well-made workout clothes can never be a miss, and offering all these additional products means that your customers can do all their workout-related shopping in one place. This means that the shoppers will stay in your shop longer and purchase more items.

Conclusion

Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2020 will definitely be so much different than ever in recent history. The world is on the lockdown due to the global pandemic, and the needs of the population have shifted. Most of the sales are moving away from brick-and-mortar stores to online commerce platforms and mobile commerce apps. Sellers need to prepare their online stores for high traffic and a surge of purchases in advance. Speed, inventory, quick checkout, free shipping, clear return policies, effective marketing strategy designed and launched on time are what make or break your business. 

Home workout equipment will undoubtedly be on the best-seller list for this year’s BFCM season. But that does not mean that the sales are guaranteed. Be ready to improve and adjust your strategy to meet changing needs and demands. Preparation will be crucial to success. But the most important thing is to keep the focus on your customers and create a long-term relationship with them. If you want to have customers ready for Black Friday start making your own mobile app right now.