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How Your Ecommerce Business Can Avoid the Black Friday Trap

Black Friday, Cyber Monday and a string of other major online sales events are worth billions to UK businesses. As we emerge from the biggest Black Friday event ever, we take a look at some of the mistakes ecommerce brands made this year. If your sales didn’t hit the heights you expected, you may have relied too heavily on the words ‘Black Friday’ and overlooked what it’s all about.

As consumers and B2B buyers braced themselves for bargain after bargain last week, they were hit with a reality check. Regulators waded in, warning consumers that some Black Friday deals were not quite the steals they were dressed up to be. The Advertising Standards Authority said some deals were misleading and pointed to consumers’ growing mistrust over offers.

So, how can you cash in on major sale events and offer your customers great value for money? Comgem, the developer of cloud-based B2B ecommerce platform Gemsuite, has some top tips.

Focus on genuine deals

Dani Attard, commercial director of Comgem, says:

“Make sure you offer genuine deals. You can boost engagement and shift stock quickly by limiting the number of ‘special offer’ products available.
“You could consider having a small number of products sold at just above cost value and hook customers into spending more with cross-selling. Other ways to increase sales is to offer free shipping over a set spend. The important thing to remember is that any headline deals should offer great savings and demonstrate to the customer that you are delivering genuine bargains.”

Don’t sell what you haven’t got

Your brand’s reputation matters. That is why you need to keep on top of stock control during major online events. Dani says:

“Ensure your website is integrated with your stock system. This way, you won’t disappoint customers by selling items you no longer have. If you can’t afford to make a loss on products during Black Friday, make sure your ecommerce platform is integrated with your suppliers.
“Wholesale prices can fluctuate - sometimes from hour to hour. By integrating with your suppliers, you can use real-time data and automation to ensure your website shows prices based on the latest information. This is especially important if you are dropshipping. Be careful to stick to advertised prices for headline deals.”

Ensure your ecommerce solution can cope

Some websites have been known to crash during Black Friday and Cyber Monday. That is because their ecommerce solution cannot take the strain of extra visitors. Avoid giving your website users a bad experience by investing in tech that guarantees a seamless experience every time.

Discover how Gemsuite helps B2B businesses sell more online with less effort. Read more here.