4 essential last-minute checks to maximize conversion rate this Black Friday & Cyber Monday

With only a few days left before the launch of Black Friday & Cyber Monday deals, it's paramount for e-commerce teams to fine-tune their website's landing and product pages. During these significant shopping periods like Black Friday and Christmas, the focus often lies heavily on driving traffic. However, the real impact on sales comes from how well your website converts this traffic.

This article will delve into vital Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) steps, offering practical ideas and quick win examples to enhance your sales this season. Before diving into our four last-minute quick wins, let's assume you have already covered the general campaign recommendations:

1. Pre-BFCM campaign completion: Engaging marketing campaigns, including social media buzz and email marketing, should already be in motion.
2. Site Speed optimization: Regular checks to ensure fast and responsive load times, using tools like Google PageSpeed Insights.
3. Black Friday & Cyber Monday deals finalization: Uniquely appealing deals should be finalized and prominently displayed on your site.
4. Website traffic preparedness: Technical preparations should be in place to efficiently handle high traffic volumes.
5. Black Friday & Cyber Monday specific landing pages: Special pages dedicated to Black Friday deals, focusing on the customer journey from discovery to purchase.
6. Social roof integration: Displaying recent, positive reviews and ratings, especially on landing pages.
7. Personalized email campaigns: Active, tailored email marketing targeting various customer segments.
8. Re-targeting strategies activation: Engaging previous visitors who have shown interest in your products.
9. Customer support readiness: A well-prepared customer service team ready to handle increased inquiries.

Elevating your conversion rates to the next level often hinges on the little details. Based on our experience with numerous top-tier e-commerce brands, these are practical, impactful strategies that anyone in your team—from a data analyst to a digital marketing manager can implement.

1. Create your control tower: Comprehensive tracking of the User Journey

Objective: Gain a holistic view of the user's journey throughout the campaign.

Action: Deploy analytics tools to track the user's path, starting from when they land on your website, through campaign and category landing pages, to product pages and checkout pages. Identify points where users are dropping off and prioritize these areas for immediate optimization and A/B testing.

Key Points:

• Ensure your funnels are set up correctly for clear visibility.
• Keep a close eye on campaign landing pages and category pages.
• Utilize a robust analytics solution as a vital tool in your campaign, allowing you to focus and act swiftly on critical areas.
• If significant drop-offs are observed on specific pages, address them immediately through fixes or A/B testing.
• Understand and track your metrics comprehensively to have a benchmark for your general purchase funnel.

These steps are crucial for in-situ optimizations during the campaign and can prevent post-campaign regrets. By paying attention to these details, you can significantly enhance the conversion potential of your campaigns, ensuring that you're not just attracting traffic but effectively converting it into sales.

2. Be consistent with every page goal: Specific fixes for each Page Type

Consistency in page goals is crucial for a successful e-commerce campaign, especially during high-traffic events like Black Friday and Christmas. Each type of page within your website serves a specific purpose in guiding the user through the purchase funnel. Here are some tailored recommendations and reminders for optimizing different page types during this busy season.

Home Page Optimization

Goal: To resonate emotionally with visitors, build trust, and efficiently guide them towards profitable sections.

Actions:

• Implement a prominent Black Friday banner with compelling imagery and messaging.
• Ensure the banner directs users to Black Friday deals or categories.
• Aim for a low bounce rate; anything above 40% needs optimization and A/B testing.

Optimizing Listing (Category) Pages

Goal: Guide users effectively towards products or services they're interested in without distractions.

Actions:

• Make sure general ads lead users to category/landing pages where Black Friday deals are clearly marked.
• Use distinct banners or design elements to highlight Black Friday deals.
• Add Black Friday tags to products to clarify the deals.

Product Page Enhancements

Goal: Provide comprehensive and appealing information, encouraging users to add items to their cart.

Actions:

• CTA visibility: Position the 'Add to Cart' button above the fold, making it immediately visible without scrolling.

• Avoid ”Dark Patterns”: Avoid deceptive practices in purchase options and be transparent, like default selections that might trick users into subscribing to a product when they intend to make a one-time purchase.

• Product tags: Don’t forget to add Black Friday tags to the products! This makes It easy for users to understand they are buying the best deal and that the product they are buying is part of your black Friday.

Cart Page Refinement

Goal: The cart page should present a clear and concise summary of what the user is purchasing, including prices, quantities, and benefits, to reinforce their buying decision.

Actions:

• Coupons: Streamline the coupon application experience. Instead of placing the coupon code entry at the end of the checkout process, integrate it at the beginning or within the cart page itself. This positioning makes it more user- friendly and can prevent cart abandonment due to users searching for coupon codes at the last minute.

• Product recommendations: Position cross/up-selling recommendations on this page to encourage additional purchases without leading to cart abandonment.

• Shipping threshold: If applicable, highlight shipping thresholds on this page, and place relevant product recommendations to encourage users to add more products without leaving the cart.

Streamlining the Checkout Process

Goal: The checkout process should be straightforward, clear, and specifically focused on completing the purchase without distractions or confusion.

Actions:

• Clear information display: Display all necessary information like order summary, delivery date, shipping costs, and taxes clearly at this point. This transparency helps in building trust and reduces the likelihood of customers abandoning the checkout due to uncertainty or surprises.
• No distractions or Threshold messages: Eliminate any distractions, including navigation to other store sections and threshold messages that encourage adding more items to reach a certain goal (like free shipping). Such prompts can lead customers away from completing their checkout, increasing the risk of cart abandonment.
• Visible progress indicator: A clear progress indicator should show the steps in the checkout process, helping users understand their current position and what remains, reducing confusion and anxiety.

Remember, it's these small adjustments and attention to detail that can significantly impact your campaign's conversion potential.

3. Prioritizing A/B Testing Based on User Journey Analysis

Having the ability to track the full user journey and campaign experience is invaluable, especially during peak traffic times. It allows for real-time identification of critical areas in the conversion funnel, such as pages with high traffic, high conversions, or significant drop-off rates. This insight is crucial for on-the-fly optimizations.

In-Situ Optimization Strategy

For instance, if you notice a high drop-off rate on specific product pages during the Christmas period, where ads like Google search and social media are directing traffic, it's a clear signal to prioritize these pages for immediate optimization and A/B testing. By analyzing user behavior on these pages, such as time spent and interaction with purchase buttons, you can quickly implement changes. If these tweaks lead to improved performance, consider extending them across similar pages to maximize overall conversions.

This approach, facilitated by a robust analytics tool, ensures you're not just collecting data but actively using it to enhance user experience and increase conversions as the campaign unfolds.

• Other Experiments good to test during peak season: The high-traffic period of the year is an excellent opportunity to conduct experiments to boost your campaign performance. Here are some strategic tests you can try.
• Simple Product Image First: Start with a clear, simple product image against a white background. This approach helps customers immediately understand what they are purchasing, reducing confusion and potentially improving conversion rates.

Up-sell Visibility: Ensure that up-sells are prominently displayed on your site. Effective placement of up-sells not only increases the average order value but also introduces customers to additional products they might be interested in.

• Elevate Social Proof: Place customer reviews higher on your product pages. An experiment by Oodie showed a positive increase in conversions, with reviews being more visible. This makes it easier for customers to find and read reviews, enhancing trust and potentially boosting sales. This test from Oodie saw a positive response with an increase of 0.45%, which annually estimates to an increased revenue of $500K People LOVE reviews, and usually, they’re hidden away under all of the product information, or users may need to click to expand reviews. Make seeing reviews easier for them by testing different placements.

Incorporating these changes and then closely monitoring their impact can provide valuable insights into customer preferences and behaviors, allowing you to refine your strategy for even better results.

4. Build a BF & CM Post Purchase Funnel

Building a post-purchase funnel for Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM) is an effective strategy to increase the average order value. This approach focuses on cross-selling and up-selling to customers who have already made a purchase, targeting them with offers that are more likely to convert since they're already engaged and interested in your products.

For BF & CM, you can enhance this strategy by:

• Offering High-Margin Items: Cross-sell items like gift-wrapping services or offer discounted gift cards. These high-margin add-ons can be attractive to customers looking for convenience or planning future purchases.
• Segmentation Based on Customer Behavior: Use the data from your customers' shopping behavior to segment them effectively. This segmentation allows for more personalized and targeted post-purchase marketing efforts.
• Leveraging Marketing Automation: Integrate these customer segments into your marketing automation system. Send personalized messages tailored to their shopping preferences and behavior. This personal touch can significantly increase the likelihood of additional purchases.

Such a post-purchase strategy not only boosts your revenue but also enhances the customer experience by offering them relevant and valuable products or services after their initial purchase.

As Black Friday and Cyber Monday are almost here, it's crucial to fine-tune your campaign user journey not just to attract traffic but to convert it into sales. So...

• Focus on implementing last-minute checks to optimize your site for success.
• Remember, avoid attempting to increase the Average Order Value (AOV) during checkout, as it could distract customers.
• Rely on a robust tech stack, especially a competent analytics tool, which is vital throughout the campaign for preparation, tackling issues in real-time, re-engaging users, and gathering insights for future improvements.

Now you are ready to thrive, good luck on this crazy peak season!