Dropshipping On Black Friday: 11 Tips To Get Ready For This

Black Friday is the hottest end-of-the-year shopping event, and it's just around the corner! You know what that means - it's a big opportunity for your dropshipping store to cross your sales target and rake in more revenue. Many shoppers will be rushing to make purchases, and you want to position your store to attract as many customers as possible. 

If you've not gotten ready for this year's Black Friday, this article will guide you to prepare to hit the ground running and break your revenue records. 

1. Offer irresistible deals 

One of the ways to prepare for Black Friday is to craft 'can't miss' deals for your audience. People love deals, especially the attractive ones that they perceive will help them get the best bang for their bucks. Offering jaw-dropping deals can serve as an effective tool to get your followers to your site, and there's a good chance that they may add more items to their cart when they do. 

There are different ways to offer amazing deals to your followers. One of them is to have a time-limited deal such that it offers a higher discount than regular deals. Also, you can offer bundle deals where you sell more of the same product. In all, 

don't follow the crowd. Offer real deals that your followers won't want to miss. 

2. Avoid underpricing your product 

As a direct follow-up to the point above, make sure you keep an eye on your pricing. Many dropshippers make the mistake of offering ridiculous deals that end up incurring losses. As a dropshipper, you can't afford huge cuts. If other brands are undercutting their products, don't undercut your simply because it is not necessary. 

It;'s important to keep in mind that discounts are not the only motivation for customers during Black Friday. Other factors like marketing, attractive designs, thematic ads, and even emotions on the part of potential customers during major shopping events drive purchases. Strive to keep your prices fair so you can maintain profitability. 

3. Focus on mastering marketing 

Another important aspect you want to focus on as you prepare for Black Friday is your store's marketing and branding. There are several ways to do this. For instance, you can hone your marketing message to encourage people to shop for more products in your store. Rather than emphasize buying smart and saving money as your black marketing slogan, you can instead promote the idea of 'buying gifts for yourself and your loved ones because the holiday is just around the corner. 

Furthermore, you will need to improve your designs and make them catchy and bright than usual. Don't just put a simple 'Black Friday' banner on your website when you can employ a variety of design tactics, such as creating colorful product collages that showcase your bestselling items and highly popular offers. Don't forget to also create visually appealing Black Friday-themed ads and cover photos for your social media handles. 

4. Create a gift guide 

Following the tip above, you can create a holiday gift guide that can help customers know what to buy. Sometimes, most eCommerce stores assume that customers always know what to get when all they actually know for sure is that they need to get a gift for their nearest and dearest. 

You can create a gift guide by assembling a collection of some of your products, give them a product tag and write an article about it. You could even create a video for it. The idea is to make a list of the best products that are suitable for different categories of people as well as price range and then feature the lists on your homepage or email newsletter for more traffic. 

5. Offer a sneak peek

Black Friday might still be days away, but it doesn't hurt to build anticipation by offering a good teaser for customers to look forward to shopping from you. The sneak peeks should highlight some of the best offers for products that are highly in demand to get people excited as the sale day draws closer. 

You can create a slideshow with trendy music while showing all the items you're offering for Back Friday. Don't forget to post the video (and images) on your social media channels to let your audience know what they will be spending on so they can prepare their wallet. You can even encourage them to sign up for deals in advance by running a pre-sale (at a lower discount.) 

6. Test and ensure your website is ready 

Since your website is critical to your success on Black Friday, it's important to ensure that your website is ready. First, you want to test that your site is mobile-friendly, especially since most shoppers today access their favorite stores from their mobile devices. 

Also, evaluate your site's technical performance and improve it if necessary. The goal here is to make shopping a swift and pleasurable experience for your potential customers. So check to ensure that the integrated payment gateways are working perfectly fine. Conduct a load test to confirm that your site that can handle the surge in traffic. Error messages and slow load time can negatively affect the shopping experience, which in turn translates to low sales. 

7. Monitor your competition 

Don't get carried away! Your competitors are preparing for Black Friday, too, and you want to keep an eye on what they're doing so you can learn from their marketing strategies and the products you should be selling on your store so you can draw inspiration from them and use the information to improve your preparations. 

To keep an eye on your competition, you need to subscribe to their newsletters so you can be one of the first to know what they're planning to do and when. Like their social media pages and watch out for their promotional posts. Don't forget to track their ads, too, so you can have a clear idea of how they advertise their Black Friday campaigns. 

8. Review your policies 

Major shopping events like Black Friday often come with different issues like sorting out exchanges and returns, and you want to avoid this as much as possible. The way out is to modify your policies for Black Friday to spell out how customers are to proceed with refunds and returns during sales. 

Among other things, consider adjusting your refund and return policy since products are already discounted, and shipping and logistics involved may be involved. Also, you want to extend shipping time if you're expecting a surge but make sure you speak to your suppliers first. In all, ensure you're transparent about everything. 

9. Talk with your suppliers in advance 

It's always a good idea to carry your suppliers along as you prepare for Black Friday. One of the biggest challenges dropshippers struggle with during major shopping events is managing the status of their inventory. Surge in the number of orders without adequate preparation might lead to a terrible shopping experience and even loss of customers. 

You want to ensure that your suppliers are not caught off guard by the sudden influx of orders. Talk to them to determine how many orders they can handle and set up a process for an organization. Make sure you do this week in advance, so you have everything sorted out before Black Friday. 

10. Offer exceptional customer service

How you handle the complaints and inquiries of your customers plays a vital role in whether or not they will shop more products from your store. Be sure to respond to their inquiries promptly, but this isn't still enough to separate you from your competitors. 

Take your game a notch higher by joking around with your customers, writing them 'thank you cards if they order different products from your store, and offer giveaways exclusive to customers that shop from you multiple times. The idea is to appreciate your customer and connect with them, as this will encourage loyalty to your brand. Customers may not always remember what they bought from your store, but they will always remember how you treated them. 

11. Prepare for a busier Cyber Monday

Black Friday has grown in size that it gave birth to Cyber Monday, and it's recommended to extend your sale offer for it. Customers are going to anticipate that shopping event too, so you want to make sure that your preparations can cover the extended sale. 

Furthermore, many stores extend their sale to several days after Black Friday, so you can do the same so you can draw in more customers with deals. Work to ensure a smooth shopping experience for that day too, and don't forget to communicate your offers early to your audience. 

Final words

There you have it! The strategies above can help you start gearing up in advance for this year's edition of Black Friday and rake in more people to buy your products. If you're expecting a traffic surge and massive orders, you need to prepare well by reaching high-quality suppliers so your business doesn't get overwhelmed, and there's no better place to look than Doba. 

Doba has been a leading dropshipping website since 2002, dedicated to providing high-quality dropshipping suppliers and products for online sellers to dropship. Doba provides integrations with top marketplaces and e-commerce platforms, including Amazon, eBay, Shopify, and more allowing sellers to add products to their stores and sync orders to the suppliers to fulfill efficiently.