Get your website ready for BFCM

During the busiest time of year, you have to make sure your website is set up for a seamless user experience from browse to purchase—and that it can be done at scale.

Optimise your website

If your website cannot handle the surge in traffic, your customers will go to your competitor’s site. A case study by Skilled found that:

• 79% of customers who are dissatisfied with website performance are less likely to buy again

• 64% of smartphone users expect a website to load in four seconds or less

• 47% of online shoppers expect webpages to load in two seconds or less

Luckily, those with Shopify websites are able to handle massive influxes of traffic and over 10,000 transactions per minute. You can improve your site’s performance and page speeds even further with Shopify’s list of 13 ways to optimise your website.

Review all your apps

The apps available in the Shopify ecosystem are certainly one of its strong points. However, if you are planning to have more than 5,000 users on the site at once we suggest you check to make sure the apps you have can handle that amount of traffic.

Some apps are more robust than others. It’s also important to make sure they are compatible with each other.

If you’re expecting more than 10,000 users, then you should really be on Shopify Plus which will allow you to use Shopify Scripts for complex bundles and discounting rules. Check out how it helped Muscle Nation.

Shopify Scripts allow you to have multiple discounting rules running at the same time—all fully automated.

Automate where possible

Shopify apps

For Shopify Plus merchants, you can utilise the power of Shopify Flow to automate tasks to allow you to handle the volume.

Shipping

Using a product like StarShipIT will help you automate a lot of your shipping and fulfilment process, which essentially allows you to get more orders in the hands of your customers faster.

Customer Service

You likely have a kickass customer service system in place already. However, during BFCM you’ll be handling 20-50 times your normal volume of requests. It’s not just the number of visitors, it’s also the sheer amount of questions they’ll have for you.

We highly recommend looking at an automated customer service product like Gorgias, so you can manage all your customer communication on one platform, and automate up to 20% of commonly asked questions for increased productivity.

Brands spend a lot of money to ensure customers land on their site or purchase a product. Once you’ve captured these customers, it is vital for brands to provide the best possible customer experience. On average, 80% of online shoppers are more likely to purchase a product if they receive a personalised customer service response.

Once you’ve ensured all things are tight on the technical side of things, you’ll want to make sure you get the right people to your website.

Get your marketing BFCM-ready

Promotional messages flood everyone’s inbox and social channels during BFCM, and in the lead up. According to a Shopify survey, 82% of merchants are planning to market their BFCM promotions through Facebook and Instagram.

Finding ways to make your brand stand out on these platforms is crucial. Here are some tips for getting the most traffic and conversions, and the best return on ad spend.

Make creative that stands out

Create killer organic and paid content. This is important all year round, but even more so during the biggest online shopping event of the year. Your ads will be competing more than ever.

Create ads that are visually striking and, more importantly, memorable. Think about what will resonate with your audience and communicate in a creative way, making sure your message is simple and clear.

Be as ‘on brand’ as ever

During BFCM, it’s more important than ever to keep your brand messaging and language consistent across every platform. Promotions bring new customers, and having a strong brand with a strong voice (link to brand blog) can be the difference between a one-off purchase and a loyal customer.

Consider creating a brand guide, if you haven’t already, so when it’s time to launch your brand further into the world during BFCM, your messaging remains consistent across all your touchpoints: website, socials, emails, paid ads and even packaging.

You can use a brand guide to audit your existing language or as a reference point when creating new content. This is especially important when you have multiple people, or an external agency, writing for your brand.

Use retargeting audiences for an efficient ad spend

During BFCM, you’ll be paying top dollar to get people to your website. Using retargeting audiences means you know your ads are getting in front of those who are already interested, engaged and thinking about your brand and products. This will likely lead to more conversions and your money will be spent efficiently.

At a minimum, make sure your website visitors, add to cart and social engagement audiences are set up and ready to go. However, for an even greater competitive edge, you can segment your audiences further.

Depending on your business and what type of sale you’re running, you might want to send a number of emails or Facebook ads based on what each customer has previously shown interest in. This will likely increase conversions and ROAS, because you know you’re sending your ads to the right people.

Make sure your Facebook pixel is set up correctly

By setting the data-sharing level to Maximum within Facebook settings in Shopify, you will enable the Conversions API as well as the Facebook pixel, meaning you’ll have the best possible remarketing available for your Facebook ads.

Do this today so when it’s time to advertise your special BFCM promotions, you’re ready.

Tease your promotions early

With most businesses now partaking in BFCM, it’s a good idea to tease your promotions in the weeks leading up to it. Customers will be planning where to spend their cash ahead of time, and making sure your brand stays top of mind is really important to ensure strong results.

If you have their email, they have already shown interest in your brand so getting in front of your database is the easiest—and sometimes the cheapest—way to capture an already engaged audience.

Set up email flows

You’ll likely have an influx of new users. Ensure their experience is great from the start by having all your basics set up, like welcome emails, abandoned cart and abandonment emails. Using a platform like Klaviyo makes this setup nice and easy and allows you to be really specific with your messaging, depending on what actions a user has taken.

If a sale is only running for a few days, outlining the limited time left within an email should help to bring that user back to complete their purchase.

If you’re looking for further material to aid you with email & SMS preparations for BFCM, we recommend taking this 30 minute Klaviyo course on BFCM prep!

Are you BFCM-ready?

If you start planning for BFCM now, you’re much less likely to run into problems. However, it can still happen. Having a plan and a team of experts behind you will give you even more peace of mind.

Shopify offers 24/7 support and can partner you with a Shopify Plus partner, like Stead Lane, when you can’t do it all yourself.

Arkhi can help you with ad content, marketing strategies, website optimisation and Shopify/Shopify Plus migration, so you can deliver an unmatched digital experience for what will likely be the biggest Black Friday Cyber Monday for eCommerce ever. Let’s chat!