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If you thought Black Friday and Cyber Monday were just relevant to b2c brands, it’s time for a rethink. With more b2b interactions than ever before taking place digitally instead of face-to-face, Black Friday is becoming more relevant to b2b eCommerce than ever before. It also provides an opportunity to focus on a sales surge before the Christmas holidays lull.

Manufacturers, wholesalers and distributors can use Black Friday to launch a new product or create a special offer on existing stock. B2B brands could even use the opportunity to focus sales at the beginning of November to prepare their own clients for a Black Friday sales surge.

Here are a few tips to get your eCommerce platform prepared for a Black Friday rush and some strategies to get in place to help you drive traffic and online sales.

1. Get your website up to speed

If your business decides to embrace the Black Friday and Cyber Monday period, your website (and stock levels!) need to be ready. Your eCommerce platform needs to have an intuitive user interface and a seamless checkout experience offering multiple payment options. You also need to have a high level of mobile functionality.

Even though final b2b purchases may be ordered through a desktop or laptop, your clients may well be casually browsing for offers and deals on smartphones. People are short on time and used to quick and easy fulfilment. This goes for b2b clients as well as b2c customers. 

2. Fast and efficient checkout

If you want to take advantage of the opportunity to make as many sales as possible over the Black Friday/Cyber Monday period you don’t want to lose people because your check out process is too complicated.

Test your checkout process. Go through it yourself as if you were a buyer and note any potential problems along the way. Then optimise it for the best results. Improvements could include consolidating your checkout to one page and offering more payment options. You could also try and bring buyers back who got distracted along the way with automated cart abandonment notifications. This won’t only benefit you on Black Friday, but it will also help you throughout the year.

3. Excellent Customer Service

If you’re expecting your eCommerce website to experience a higher volume of sales over the Black Friday period, prepare your customer service team. Make sure your team are aware of the offers you are running so they can effectively help with customer enquiries. Have several ways – clearly identified on your site – for shoppers to reach you for customer support. Ensure knowledgeable members of your team are available to help with queries.

4. Promotion

You’ve decided on your Black Friday/Cyber Monday offers and displayed them on your website. Now what? First up you need to let your customers know about your offers through social media, email marketing lists and any other marketing channels you use. Inject a sense of urgency (without going overboard) to let people know the offer is limited.

Make sure you use retargeting strategies to bring people back to your site who left without buying. Some people might browse your site, look through your offerings and leave without making a purchase. Sometimes because they’re not interested but often because they got distracted or want to come back later. With the right retargeting strategies, you can follow up with people who never checked out online.

5. Upsell and Cross-sell

Whilst you’ve driven all this extra traffic to your eCommerce site it’s a great opportunity to upsell and cross-sell your products. If someone is looking to buy 250 items, let them know the price for 500. If there are related products that compliment their purchase, make sure they are displayed. It can also be helpful to show ‘customers who bought this also like’ type products. If your eCommerce platform isn’t set up to offer this capability it’s probably time to upgrade.

If you need help with your b2b eCommerce website, find out more about GOb2b, our integrated eCommerce platform.