This years Black Friday and Cyber Monday are set to break all records as the boom in online sales continues. But how can online retailers ensure they take full advantage of this boom? Today, Richard Falconer, COO at ecommerce experts Optiseller, shares his top five tips on how online retailers can maximise Black Friday sales.
5 Tips to maximise Black Friday sales
- Grab the buyer’s attention
Ensure listing titles, descriptions and images are going to grab the buyer’s attention and are as detailed as possible. Optimise your listings by ensuring Item Specifics and values are accurate. Item Specifics help buyers narrow down their choices by using filters. According to eBay, filters are used by some 65% of purchasers. Use all 80 characters for listings and remember, you can have up to 12 images per listing.
- Don’t duplicate
Ensure you are complying with the marketplace rules and policies to avoid penalties. In the past year, for example, eBay has been cracking down on duplicate listings. Sellers breaking these rules can find their items being pushed down the search rankings. Where a vendor has many thousands of SKUs it can be a difficult task to spot and take out duplicates, so use tools such as Optiseller to automate the process.
- Promote listings
All the marketplaces step up their promotional activity in the lead up to Black Friday and Cyber Monday. It is vital for sellers to take full advantage of voucher/sale events, order discount, multi-buy and sales events, so keep an eye out for those. Again, tools like Optiseller can help.
- Free postage
Free shipping can be a decisive factor for buyers. Unlike other major marketplaces eBay, gives the option of offering free shipping or not, so consider whether it is something want to try. Giving customers free shipping on eBay could give you a competitive edge.
- Review and refresh
Constantly review your inventory for sluggish items. If an item hasn’t sold in 90 days, maybe you need to change the image, description or item specifics to refresh interest. With regards to pricing, make sure you are competitive, monitor competition prices and see if there is anything you can do to add value.
“With Black Friday and Cyber Monday predicted to break all records this year, the competition for sales is going to be fierce, so we are urging sellers to make their site as effective as possible. By following these five easy tips, sellers will ensure their products are visible and attractive. My advice is don’t leave it to chance and optimise your listings now.”
If, like many, you are worried about missing out on much-needed sales, Optiseller has a range of online tools designed to take the pain out of optimising an online store. The platform carries out a full audit of online inventory and automatically remove duplicates, check item specifics and highlight breaches of marketplace policies and other anomalies.”
– Richard Falconer, COO, OptisellereBay sellers can access the Aspect Finder tool free of charge to optimise their eBay listings and maximise Black Friday sales until the 31st of December 2020.
