Preparing for BFCM Sales 2024: Tips to Drive Record-Breaking Revenue

Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM) are the grandest shopping events of the year. People eagerly wait for these two days to get their hands on their desired products. BFCM offers a perfect opportunity for eCommerce businesses to boost sales, acquire new customers, and reinforce brand loyalty. However, simply offering a BFCM discounts won’t get your store anywhere. Instead, you need to have a well thought out strategy that considers every aspect.

In this article, we will discuss everything there is to know about boosting your Magento 2 store sales with BFCM strategies.

Why Focus on BFCM Sales?

According to Future Market Insights, the global value of Black Friday sales alone is expected to reach USD 278.645 billion in 2024, while Adobe noted that customers spent $109.8 billion online on Cyber Monday. It clearly highlights how the weekend from Black Friday to Cyber Monday is easily a golden opportunity for every business owner, including eCommerce businesses. If you are still unconvinced, just look at the below statistic.

It shows the average increase in sales for Amazon in selected countries on Black Friday. Thus, with the right strategies, your business can easily achieve a 50 – 200% increase in sales.

When are BFCM Sales 2024?

Black Friday -> November 29

Cyber Monday -> December 2

However, you can avail exciting deals and discounts over the weekend period as well. Do note that Muslim-majority countries prefer to use ‘Blessed Friday’ instead of ‘Black Friday’. So, if you are catering to Muslim users, replace black with blessed. This will show how much you value your customers, resulting in greater brand loyalty.

FME Extensions BFCM Deals 2024

We are offering exciting discounts to our users during BFCM 2024. So, keep checking our website and your email for the latest updates. For now, we are offering a flat 20% Magento 2 discount coupon as part of our pre–Black Friday sale. So, hurry up and get your favourite Magento 2 Extensions right away.

Top Challenges with BFCM Deals

While there’s no doubt regarding the importance of BFCM deals, businesses need to be aware of the challenges as well.

1. Increased Competition

The most notable challenge for businesses is the increased competition. An online store is competing with physical stores and online stores based in the same country as well as abroad. Therefore, it can be quite difficult to boost sales despite offering discounts. It puts extra pressure on store owners to lower prices even further.

This may result in losses rather than profit. For instance, as we also offer Magento Consultancy Services, we work with different clients. One client remarked that they achieved a 250% increase in sales during the 2022 BFCM period. However, the profit increase was only 7%. The reason is that they lowered the prices too much.

2. Inventory Management

Another challenge during this period is inventory management. Due to a sudden increase in demand, businesses may fail to restock the products on time. Stockouts are not only frustrating for the customers, but they also lead to lost sales. Therefore, it is highly recommended that store owners set up out of stock notifications. This allows users to sign up for an alert, informing them as soon as the product is restocked.

This allows store owners to recover lost sales to a great extent. At the same time, there’s also a risk of overstocking as store owners may overestimate demand for a product. Therefore, admins must utilise historical data, especially from past BFCM period to calculate the right amount of inventory. You can also offer a pre order option to customers to determine the demand.

3. Website Traffic Spikes and Downtime

During sudden traffic surges, your website may slowdown or even crash. This is one the top issues online businesses face during BFCM period. This leads to lost revenue and poor customer reviews. In the future, customers are unlikely to shop at your store, preferring to stick with merchants that offer a seamless online experience.

To avoid this situation altogether, store owners should set up a content delivery network. This helps reduce the load on the primary server by serving users from servers closest to their location. Apart from this, using cache warmer and Magento 2 WebP Images can boost page loading times.

4. Cart Abandonment

Despite having lucrative Magento 2 discount coupons, users may not complete their purchase. Cart abandonment is a real concern for store owners, and it is due to various reasons as shown below.

To reduce the cart abandonment rates, store owners need to have a multifaceted strategy, including implementing guest checkout option and custom checkout fields.

5. Overburdened Customer Service Team

With an increase in number of sales, store owners must contend with increase customer enquiries. There is a risk that certain messages may be overlooked altogether while customers will face higher response times. All these can undermine a brand’s reputation.

There are various ways to reduce the burden on the customer service team. First option involves hiring temporary staff solely for the BFCM period. However, you need to ensure they are well-versed in customer service and are familiar with your store’s working, including product catalog.

The second option is to use an AI-powered chatbot. These advanced chatbots can handle complex queries in a human-like manner. The third option is to update the FAQ section, ensuring FAQs are adequately addressed. This will reduce the number of people who reach out to the customer service team.

6. Last-Minute Technical Glitches

It is common for online businesses to introduce new features during the BFCM period. For instance, they may have set up custom checkout fields or set up a guest checkout option. This increases the risk of website errors. Imagine customers going through all the effort, only to find out they cannot complete the purchase due to an error.

This is why we recommend merchants undertake quality checks to ensure the website is free of errors. If you don’t have technical knowledge yourself, considering hiring a dedicated Magento team. They will be on hand to handle sudden and unexpected issues, ensuring a smooth shopping experience.

7. Order Management Constraints

Due to a sudden increase in order volume, businesses face challenges related to order fulfilment and shipping. Delays can lead to dissatisfied customers and even order cancellations. The best way to overcome this challenge is to partner with local shipping providers to avoid reliance on a handful of companies alone. Apart from this, store owners must consider investing in Magento 2 shipping restrictions.

These restrictions ensure that only the most efficient shipping providers are available to the customer for order fulfilment. This not only streamlines order fulfilment, but also ensures that the customers receive their products on time. Lastly, when sending the order confirmation email, try to include the shipping estimates. This reduces queries to the customer service department.

8. Balancing Profitability with Discounts

There is no doubt that Magento 2 discount coupons are a tried and tested way to boost your store’s sales. However, there is a need to understand that discounts undermine long-term financial stability. For example, customers will always be expecting discounts, thus avoiding purchases at full prices.

Hence, store owners need to be careful whilst offering Magento 2 discount coupons. One strategy is to offer them only to loyal customers. Another strategy is to set up a minimum order value, ensuring coupons can only be used once the order amount is at a certain value.

Merchants must consider upselling and cross-selling opportunities to further increase the average order value. But don’t be too aggressive in upselling and cross-selling as this can send the wrong message. The customers may think that the store only values their profitability and the user’s requirements.

9. Return Management

With an increase in the number of orders, there will be increase in returns too for various reasons. Customers may have a change of mind or wish to exchange the product in return for a lower-value product. The returns are a nightmare in terms of revenue loss and logistical challenges.

The best way to navigate this challenge while balancing customer satisfaction is to set up a clear, concise return policy. Apart from this, store owners can consider implementing a return policy specifically for BFCM period. A general recommendation to avoid returns is to provide clear product descriptions and accurate size guides.

Lastly, we recommend making customer reviews more prominent, especially those featuring user-generated content. This will give a clearer picture of the product to potential buyers. Customer reviews and testimonials are proven strategy to boost sales and reinforce trust in your brand.

10. Engage Users After BFCM Deals

The BFCM should not be considered as the end. Instead, consider it as a new beginning. Therefore, it is imperative to try and maintain post-BFCM loyalty. However, we acknowledge that it can be a challenge, especially when customers are solely interested in Magento 2 discount coupons. Our experience tells us that the best way to manage the situation is by setting up loyalty programs and sending personalised emails. This can help convert one-time buyers into long-term customers.

Best Practices for Magento 2 Discount Coupons BFCM 2024

Define Clear Goals and Discounts Strategy

First of all, it is important to determine what goals you are trying to achieve through the Magento 2 discount coupons. Is the purpose solely to increase your Magento sales, clear out older inventory, or boost the average order value. You will need to set up Magento 2 discount coupons based on your goals. For example, if the goal is to increase the average order value, consider offering tiered discounts. 10% off on all orders over $100 and 20% off on $150.

Segment Coupons for Different Customer Groups

It is important for store owners to understand that no customer is the same. It is important to segment them based on their unique characteristics. For example, you may have returning customers, high-value customers, and new customers. Magento 2 discount coupons should vary for each customer group. You can offer higher discounts to loyal customers and a lesser discount to newer ones.

Set Clear Coupon Expiry Dates

The coupon must have a clear expiry date. This will encourage customers to complete the order quickly as they wish to avoid letting the coupon go to waste. By creating a sense of urgency, you will see a noticeable increase in Magento 2 sales. We recommend displaying a countdown timer on the website for logged in customers and in the emails to remind customers when their coupon will expire.

Use Unique Codes for Tracking and Attribution

We do recommend creating unique codes for different channels. For instance, coupons sent in email should be different from the affiliate channels. This serves multiple benefits, including allowing store owners to understand which discount channel is the most effective.

Set Minimum Order Values to Increase AOV

To avoid compromising on your long-term profitability, set a minimum order value to increase the average order value. For example, the Magento 2 discount coupon should only be applicable for orders that meet a minimum threshold.

Limit Coupon Usage Per Customer

It is important to understand that customers have a tendency to abuse the discount coupons. For instance, they may combine different coupons to get a larger discount. To avoid this situation, store owners should consider limiting the number of coupons per transaction. For instance, a maximum of 2 coupons per transaction.

Offer Exclusive, Pre-Sale Access for VIPs

To reward your most loyal customers, consider offering them an early access to BFCM deals. This will reinforce their trust in your brand, leading to long-term loyalty. Do ensure to inform the customers that this discount is exclusive.

Promote Coupons Across Multiple Channels

The best way to increase awareness regarding Magento 2 discount coupons is by offering them across multiple channels. Don’t forget to utilise social media as it remains one of the best tools for this purpose. Also, set up a banner on your website to increase coupon visibility. The below image provides an example.

Optimize Magento 2 Checkout Experience to Maximise Magento 2 Discount Coupons

There’s no point in offering coupons when your checkout experience is poorly optimised. When offering coupons, it is important to ensure that there is no friction in the checkout experience. For instance, keep the checkout fields to a minimum and consider setting up a single stage checkout.

Monitor Real-Time Performance

Offering Magento 2 discount coupons should not be something you forget after implementing. Instead, store owners need to monitor their real-time performance. Therefore, utilise Magento 2’s in-built and third-party tools to monitor coupon usage, impact on revenue, and other metrics. It ensures that the coupons add value to the overall strategy i.e. complement it.

Implement Abandoned Cart Magento 2 Discount Coupons

Lastly, offer Magento 2 discount coupons specifically for users that abandoned their cart. The email or notification should be sent after a day or two, no later. The discount can help convince shoppers to complete the purchase.

Final Thoughts on BFCM Deals 2024

Black Friday and Cyber Monday are two of the biggest shopping events in the year. To ensure that your Magento 2 store benefits from this period, it is important to have the right extensions and Magento 2 discount coupon strategies. If you require help with setting up a BFCM strategy for your store, don’t hesitate to reach out to our team.