In less than 10 years, Black Friday has become a significant sales day to reckon with in South Africa. Bricks and mortar stores were the first to bring the originally American concept to our shores in 2016 and it didn’t take long for online retailers to implement key Black Friday strategies. After the relative quiet of 2020, Black Friday sales have risen steadily and 2023 looks set to be a bumper year. But is it all it’s cracked up to be? Yes and no, says Duncan Colville, Shopify expert and Development Director at The Digital Media Collective (TDMC), one of South Africa’s leading e-commerce agencies. He shares his insights:

Data is as valuable as sales

As we see the images in the media of consumers jostling to get the Smart TV they’ve been eyeing all year for a discounted price, it’s hard to consider that Black Friday could be about anything other than crazy sales and fantastic discounts, but key to this period is building a powerful customer base, says Colville. “Getting people onto your platform and trying to loop them into your customer journey should be your primary goal, that’s why we often tell our e-comm clients that the data they gain is so much more valuable than the sales they might make at often unsustainable discounts,” he says. “This is because your chances of converting visitors to loyal customers is higher using effective communications once they’re on site.”

Optimise sales with bundle deals

Consumers are savvy and at this time of year are hungry for what they perceive as real deals. “One of the easiest and most effective ways to increase sales is to offer bundle deals or cross-selling options that unlock discounts according to basket size,” says Colville. He adds that Black Friday is an opportunity to move product while at the same time mining for valuable data. “If you can sell excess stock at a lower price point and still gain potential future customers, that’s a good sale,” he says.

This article was first published on Marketing Spread.