Build Urgency for Black Friday and Cyber Monday
Black Friday is no longer just a one day holiday, many retailers now have deals for Black Friday and Cyber Monday leading up to the day and then may have a big sale the day of. During this time, whether you are making it Black Friday week or not, you want to build urgency with your shoppers!
There are four main ways to build urgency on your website and they’re not hard to implement!
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Cart Timers
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Promotional Timers
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Limited Stock Warnings
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Get It By Timers
Cart Timers
You’ve probably seen cart timers when you yourself are shopping online. This is an effective type of social proof that more and more eCommerce stores are using.
Cart timers creates a sense that the deal you got or the item in your cart will be gone soon if you don’t check out in a certain amount of time. A great way to get people to checkout is by telling people that they only have a certain amount of time to check out before their cart expires.
However, using a timer on all your products doesn’t always make sense! If you are selling a product that is going fast or you only made a certain amount of, then using a cart timer makes sense. But, if you have a product that your customers know is always in stock, using a cart timer may not make sense!
Promotional Timers
These are great for Black Friday, Cyber Monday and the holiday season! They create a sense of urgency and when it comes to BFCM when it is only 2 days of big deals, these can really help your bottom line. The idea of ‘get that promotion before time runs out’
So where should you place a promotional timer?
One of the best places to add a promotional timer is at the top of your website, or on the page of a specific product.
If you choose to use a promotional timer in order to create urgency, make sure that your offers are compelling!
If your competitors are offering 20% off their store, don’t offer 5% off, there needs to be an incentive for those shoppers to buy from you rather than your competitor!
Finally, if you are using promotional offers to create urgency, make sure that they are compelling offers!
Limited Stock Warnings
In our opinion, limited stock warnings are great to have year round. But, they are especially useful during BFCM and the holiday season!
Limited stock warnings show your customers that there is only a certain amount of a product left. This is sort of a ‘get it while quantities last’ pitch, if they want it, they need to get it fast!
Get it By Timers
We’ve all seen the ‘get it by’ timer when ordering on Amazon, they were really the big pioneers for using this. Before you even check out, it will let you know that you will receive your order on a certain date if you check out within so many hours.
People always want to know when they will get their items, but this is especially true during the holidays and this will be no different this year. Especially because due to the pandemic, more people are shopping online and mailing times have been on the rise since March.
Add a ‘get it by timer’ to your product page to help customers understand that if they want a product by a certain day, they have to check out in the next hour or whatever timeframe is needed!
Make sure that you aren’t displaying any super long shipping times as your ‘get it by’ date this is disincentivizing people to checkout!
A warning: make sure that you don’t display very long shipping times for your ‘get it by’ date, otherwise this will deincentivize your customers rather than incentivize.
There are many companies that allow you to add these kinds of timers to your store. Some work on Shopify, SquareSpace, and more, you just need to find the one that works best for you and your business.
Fera Commerce (fera.ai) is one that we recommend. It allows you to add social proof, timers, and reviews to your eCommerce store with ease.
Creating urgency around your website and product is essential during the holiday season, and this season in particular. With more people shopping online and trying to support local, many small eCommerce business will see an influx in sales this year.
By creating urgency, you can bring in those customers, sell to them, and by building trust, you can keep those customers past the 2020 BFCM and holiday season.
Disclaimer: Jameela works for Fera Commerce as a Marketing Manager*