WooCommerce survey offers insights into the strategies that online retailers are using to prepare for Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM) and why it’s important to be proactive.

Online Sales Is Most Important Sales Channel

One of the important takeaways from the survey is that 76% of respondents confirmed that their online sales are the primary revenue channel during the holidays, highlighting the importance of a high performance website that’s optimized for sales.

46% of stores answered that up to 30% of their annual sales volume happens during a combination of the BFCM and holiday period, while 24% answered that over 30% of sales occurred during that period. 8% of stores reported that over 50% were accounted for during the BFCM and holiday season.

Top Merchants Prepare Early

Interestingly, almost 20% prepare for BFCM three to over six months ahead of time, although most merchants tend to prepare closer to the holiday season. Online stores with revenues of $250K or more were 12% likelier to prepare ahead of time, with 34% preparing 3- 6 months in advance.

This is the breakdown of how early merchants are preparing:

• 26% prepare 1 to 4 weeks ahead
• 27% prepare 1 to 3 months ahead
• 13% prepared 3 to 6 months ahead
• 4% prepare 6+ months ahead

Strategies Merchants Plan To Use

Many online merchants are planning for a strong holiday season, with 26% of stores increasing inventory as a main part of their strategy.

The top strategies reported by merchants are:

• Increase inventory
• Marketing
• Promotions
• Website optimization

Email outreach was reported by 29% of merchants to be their most effective marketing channel. The next top marketing channel is organic search at 25%. Content marketing was reported by 6% and the balance is social, and search ads.

34% of merchants plan to change alter their strategies in the following ways:

• 26% will add new products.
• 24% are making marketing enhancements.
• 16% are making website improvements.
• 10% are focusing on early sales.
• 9% are offering special discounts.

Changes to customer engagement, social media, and inventory management round out the list of changes.

Takeaway:

It’s important to understand what other merchants are doing to prepare for the competitive BFCM shopping season and to make sure that you or your clients are considering all available opportunities to make take a greater share of the sales and not leaving anything behind due to a lack of planning.

Read the report by WooCommerce:

WooCommerce Black Friday Trends

Featured Image by Shutterstock/Red Vector