Beyond discounts: Black Friday strategies for multichannel sales

Black Friday is one of the most active days in commerce, so taking advantage of it can get very rewarding. Shoppers expect big discounts and free shipping during this season, so you might want to consider additional strategies to capture more attention.

Let’s review what online merchants can do at this time of the year to maximize the sales.

Offer time-limited discounts

This is what Black Friday is all about: great deals and big discounts. For Salestio users, applying a discount is simple: Reduce the Price Ratio in the Global Profile and start a price update for all items.

Instead of percentages, you can market flat discounts such as “$10 off each item.” To learn how to do it in Salestio via Price Templates, check out the guide below:
Custom Pricing Rules for Ebay and Amazon Listings

When planning out discounts for the season, consider which deals work better for different kinds of items in your store. For example, 20% off laptops, 10% off phones, and $10 off all accessories.

Segmenting prices in Salestio can be done in different ways depending on your app settings:

• In Selling Lists mode, sort the different item segments into their own list. By organizing the inventory this way, you can apply a different Global Profile to each Selling List.
• When working in the Selling Products mode, adjust the Syncing Rules to set the prices. Each rule in the “Price & QTY” tab can be set for a specific product group in the store (by collections, product types, or categories.)

Free Shipping

Many retailers offer free shipping for a boost to sales during the Black Friday season. For a low-margin business, this can be a great alternative to direct item discounts.

The viability of free shipping depends on your markup, fulfillment, and marketing expenses. When picking the promotional strategies, consider your real shipping costs and marketplace fees to decide whether this option works for you.

A common practice is setting an order threshold for free shipping eligibility. This strategy encourages the shoppers to include more items with their initial purchase, boosting your sales.

To get better value out of this promotion, include shipping costs in the product price. You can use the Salestio tools mentioned in the previous section to set the marketplace prices accordingly (Global Profiles and Price Templates.)

eBay: use Best Offer to attract shoppers

Best Offer is an eBay feature that lets buyers offer their own price that they are willing to pay. Letting your customers negotiate can attract more interest to your listings.

Utilizing Best Offer is great for a clearance promotion. If you have any slow-moving stock, consider this way to offer some bargains on Black Friday and make room for new items at the warehouse.

Add a Best Offer button through Salestio

Salestio users can update their eBay listings with a Best Offer option through the eBay Profile in the app.

To set this up, enable the Best Offer option and set the price thresholds using percentages of the base price. When Best Offer is enabled, the Make Offer button will appear on the eBay listing, letting the shoppers suggest their price.

• Offers below the Minimum price will be automatically rejected. When set to 0, Salestio will not send a minimum value, so each offer will be up to the seller to review.
• Offers above the Auto Accept price are automatically accepted, and an order is placed. When set to 0, Salestio will not send an auto-accept value, so you will have to manually accept offers in all cases.

After setting up the Best Offer settings, update the items from the Selling List: select the items and run the Revise Price action.

Cross-selling and bundling

Some items are often bought together (canvas and paint, laundry detergent and softener, etc.) On eBay, it is easy to edit your description and link some of the promoted items on popular listings. Shoppers of the more popular items can get enticed by other sales in your store to go with their purchase, such as materials, matching accessories, or related items.

When considering groups of items, bundles can help make a unique offering. By offering an interesting combination of products as a special Black Friday deal, you can stand out among other sellers. Some ideas for a bundle:

• Multi-pack of the same item to encourage bulk purchases.
• Common item pairings, such as a skincare bundle or a game console with a set of game cartridges/discs.
• Upgrade bundles to help the shoppers go an extra mile with the purchase. This can be a camera + professional lens + bag or a coffee machine + premium grinder.

See our previous guide for more bundle ideas and Shopify integration help

Black Friday is a fantastic time for sales that also brings an extra push from the competition. Using the marketing strategies creatively will help you to stay on top. Check out Salestio for your platform for help managing your marketplace storefronts and keeping up with the sales.