The Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM) weekend is coming up quick! Thanksgiving happens on November 23 – followed immediately by Black Friday on the 24th and Cyber Monday on the 27th. Is your Amazon business prepared to handle the influx?
We’re pretty sure you’ve already prepared your Black Friday deals and prepared your inventory to make sure you’re in stock for this massive shopping event. But have you thought about localizing your global listings as well? The marketing strategies you plan to use in the United States may not work as well in your online store in Germany or Japan.
The 2023 holiday shopping season is a wonderful opportunity to charm potential customers and encourage customer loyalty from repeat shoppers – all over the world. Make sure you localize your eCommerce businesses all over the world to take advantage of the increased traffic and provide a seamless customer experience across all your listings – not just the ones in the USA.
Here’s a last minute guide to improving your listings with a focus on localization. Make your Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales pop this 2023!
By the way – in case you’re still exploring Amazon Europe expansion, we’ve got a helpful guide to assist you in making the best decisions for your business goals.
Analyze the Market Before You Start Promoting
First of all, the Black Friday Cyber Monday weekend did begin in the USA, but it’s gotten big in Europe as well. Although a distinctly American phenomenon, many shoppers all over the world have started to look forward to the Black Friday Cyber Monday weekend, even in countries where they don’t celebrate Thanksgiving.
- Germany: According to muenchen.de, there are 69 million online shoppers in Germany, with the bulk in Munich. They’re definitely looking forward to the Black Friday Cyber Monday weekend.
- UK: Business4Beginners reports that 53% of UK consumers have saved up for BFCM.
- France: Statista showed in 2022 that French Gen Z was the most excited for BFCM, followed by millennials.
- Japan: According to Live Japan, although Cyber Monday isn’t as huge in Japan as in the USA, amazon.co.jp still goes on sale, and is usually held 2 weeks after the American Cyber Monday.
- India: Cyber Monday Global tells us that Indians shop massively during Black Friday – but they’re on the lookout for attractive deals and discounts, relevant products on sale, and in-stock products. Plus, the checkout process should be as easy and seamless as possible, and if shoppers frequent it, a business’s e-Commerce website should be up and running to accommodate the holiday rush of traffic.
In short, time is of the essence, and understanding your local market quickly is crucial. Utilize existing sales data, social media insights, and customer feedback to gauge what your local customers are looking for. Look at what worked in the past and how those strategies can be adapted for this year’s Black Friday Cyber Monday weekend.
Optimize Your Website and Employ Email Marketing
Your website should reflect local preferences. This means updating language settings, currency options, and even imagery to resonate with the local audience. Tools like Google Analytics can provide insights into where your traffic is coming from, helping to prioritize which markets to focus on for localization. Even if most customers complete their purchase on your Amazon store, it still helps to have a solid eCommerce website to enforce brand identity – all throughout the year, not just around Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Make sure your website has attractive photographs and optimized product descriptions, with an easy checkout system in each country’s currency with their preferred payment methods.
Make Sure Your Listings are Primed for Holiday Sales
Product descriptions are not just about SEO; they need to speak the local language, literally and culturally. Use tools like SEMrush to find local keywords and incorporate them into your product descriptions. Make sure these descriptions address local nuances and preferences.
Also, it’s absolutely crucial to localize your keywords per market. The right keywords will make or break your listing – this means the wrong keywords can be detrimental to your selling experience. At best, your customers won’t find you. At worst, the wrong keywords can even offend customers.
The right keywords enhance the customer experience – because those pretty images and glorious A+ won’t do anything for fostering customer loyalty if your customers can’t even find you in the first place.
Here’s an article on keywords & SEO localization, and why it’s so important.
Implement a Holiday Season Promotion or Discount Offering
Localized discounts can be a game-changer. Consider what types of products are popular in specific regions and offer discounts that resonate with those markets. Time-sensitive flash sales can create urgency and drive quick conversions. Which categories did best during last year’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday weekend? How are your competitors doing? What about offline retail – what innovative strategies are they implementing this coming weekend? Think about what works best for you, and research the categories that are doing the best. See how your business fits in and what are the best deals that can augur improved conversion rates.
Encourage Cross-Selling to Improve Holiday Shopping Experience
Use your understanding of local buying patterns to suggest products that complement each other. For instance, if winter gear is popular in colder regions, suggest related accessories as add-on items at checkout. Create special deals or bundles that cater to local interests. If you have physical stores, consider offering special in-store pickups for online purchases, giving customers the best of both worlds. The idea is to provide a seamless shopping experience – and often that means adjusting your business a little to improve the shopping journey. Make it easy for customers, and brand awareness will increase. Cross-selling, bundles, discounts on future purchases, and gifts with purchase are all ways that small business owners can improve sales for the holiday season.
Be a Savvy Marketer: Beef Up Your Newsletter and Social Media Marketing
Social media platforms offer powerful tools for targeted advertising. Use these to push your localized content and deals to the right audience. Email marketing can also be highly effective, especially when segmented according to the location of your subscribers. Folks, the retail holiday season is a noisy and jampacked space. You have tons of competition for customer attention. If you’re eager for a successful holiday selling period, now’s the time to go to where your customers are. Find them on social media, encourage them to follow you, get their email addresses – do what you can to beef up the communications avenues between you and your customers. The better your relationship with them is, the higher the likelihood that they’ll return to your listing and Amazon storefront, over and over again.
Look Well Past Black Friday and Cyber Monday
The relationship with your customers doesn’t end with Cyber Monday. Follow up with personalized emails or special offers based on their purchases. Use this opportunity to gather feedback that can inform your strategies for the next big sale. All over the world, consumers are eager to find good deals on products that improve their lives and solve their problems. Position your product and brand in this manner, well past the high traffic season. Don’t wait for the holiday season; employ these same tactics all throughout the year:
- Curate customer experience to ensure ease and convenience
- Target specific demographics to acquire new customers
- Take care of existing customers to enforce loyalty
- Use social media updates and emails or newsletters to keep in touch with your customers
- Tease your upcoming sales, discounts, or promos
- Provide early access to deals – especially for specific demographics, eg. the new customer, the loyal customer, the Twitter follower, and so on
And, of course, it goes without saying – stay! in! stock!
Rapid Response: Adapting to Local Market Feedback
Keep an eye on how your localized strategies are performing throughout the day. Be ready to tweak your approach based on real-time feedback and sales data. This agility can make a significant difference in your overall success. Check on metrics like your average order value and cart abandonment rate, and see what you can do to turn these metrics around to benefit you well past the holiday season.
Conclusion
Localizing your approach for Cyber Monday, even last-minute, can significantly impact your sales and customer satisfaction. By understanding and catering to local preferences, you can create a more engaging and successful shopping experience for your customers. Remember, the key is to be quick, relevant, and adaptable to the unique needs of your local market. Happy selling!
Curious about employing country-neutral marketing to help you scale your communications efforts across all the countries you sell in? Check out our guide on country-neutral and culturally-sensitive external marketing!
Frequently Asked Questions About Localizing for Black Friday and Cyber Monday
When is Black Friday 2023?
Black Friday in 2023 falls on November 24. This date is always the Friday following Thanksgiving in the United States, which is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November.
What is the significance of Cyber Monday?
Coined in 2005, “Cyber Monday” refers to the Monday immediately following Black Friday. It marks a day when individuals, after returning to work from the Black Friday weekend, engage heavily in online shopping. This day stands as the most significant online shopping day annually, offering an immense opportunity for sales in the world of eCommerce.
Why is it called Black Friday?
The term “Black Friday” originated in the early 1960s in Philadelphia, where police used it to describe the chaos as suburban tourists flooded the city for holiday shopping and, occasionally, the Army-Navy football game, leading to traffic and policing headaches. Initially a local phrase, it gained a more positive nationwide connotation in the late 1980s, promoted by retailers to signify the day they start turning a profit, moving from ‘red’ to ‘black’ in their accounting books. This day also marks the beginning of the major holiday shopping season, typically being the busiest shopping day in the United States, though historically the Saturday before Christmas saw higher sales. Black Friday now precedes other shopping-related days like Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday, and the charitable Giving Tuesday. Separately, the term also relates to an 1869 financial crisis caused by an attempt to corner the gold market, which led to a market crash on a Friday, further cementing the phrase’s association with significant events occurring on Fridays.
What is the typical discount on Black Friday?
Black Friday is known for substantial discounts, contributing to significant profits for retailers, often surpassing what they would earn selling products at regular prices. On average, Black Friday discounts hover around 25%. However, they can occasionally reach as high as 70% to 80%.
What is the duration of Cyber Monday?
Traditionally, Cyber Monday is a one-day event. However, some retailers opt to begin their sales earlier and prolong them, sometimes lasting for an entire week.