After another mammoth Black Friday or Cyber Weekend, a lot of brands are left working out if this delivered the sales boost they were looking for or if this sale weekend has had it’s day? In a bid for us to understand, let’s breakdown this event and understand what your brand can take from it
Analyzing Sales vs. Profits
The first step post-Black Friday, apart from complete your orders and replenish stock, it's crucial to dissect not just your sales and also your profits. This involves a comprehensive review of several key factors:
Cost of Goods Sold (COGS): Evaluate the direct costs of producing the products sold during Black Friday. This includes material and labor costs. This is ideally something that should be understood before any promotion, to ensure that it wont eat into your bottom line but if your sales were disappointing, perhaps you can find the positive in the profits.
Sales Forecasts: Did you forecast right? Were your targets achievable and did they factor in economic situations impacting the market and consumers? Sometimes we can target to high and put too much pressure on sale weekends and promotions, over working on full price sales, new launches and best seller sales.
Marketing Expenditure: Calculate the total investment in Black Friday marketing and promotions. Was there a positive return on this investment? Did you play this instagram game? Are there any changes you can make to the way you post or promote your brand so it’s more effective/. If you aren’t pushing or promoting your posts, your content won’t reach a new audience or followers.
Compare these costs against your sales to understand your true profit margins. Have the results highlighted some opportunities in your numbers? Maybe some weakness in your operations? Can you use this business review to strengthen your overall business?
Operational Expenses: Consider the costs of running your business, such as rent, utilities, and staff salaries.
Logistics: Assess the expenses related to shipping, handling, and delivery. Were there any inefficiencies or unexpected costs?
Marketing Strategy: Is this truly working for your brand? Or are you using the same strategy you always have? Can you review this with fresh eyes and access if this is truly working for your brand.
What Do You Do, If Yours Sales Targets Were Not Met
If your Black Friday didn't meet expectations? It's time to pivot and strategize for the remainder of the year:
Review whats left in your targets: Are they achievable Have you broken them down into manageable chunks. Break these down by week, into your retail partners or even down to how many lash serums you need to sell to make it. This can inspire link selling, promotions or campaigns to support this. If you feel that you are going to miss the targets, re-forecast, make it realistic but ensure it’s still enough to cover your costs and give some profits. A simple reframe can make your sales achievable
Revamp Your Marketing: Analyze which aspects of your Black Friday marketing didn't resonate with your audience. Use customer feedback and sales data to tailor your messaging. Was it your offer? Was it the same as previous sales? Did you boost your post or run an advert so new followers would find you? What can you learn to form your strategy next time.
Reconnect with Your Customers: Do you know them? Do you know where they spend their time? How they shop? How they live online? When was the last time you checked in with what the expect from brands and if you are meeting that. Ensuring your brand is consumer centric and lead by what your consumer wants is something we can forget when we are growing our brand.
Position Your Next Promotion Carefully: Plan your next promotion to attract customers without significantly undercutting your profits. Consider value-added offers instead of straight discounts, like bundle deals or loyalty rewards. Make sure this is something that truly benefits your brand and your consumer, otherwise it’s unlikely to lead to the results you desire.
Avoid Perpetual Discounts: Constant discounts can devalue your brand. If you are constantly discounting your products consumers won’t see the value and just wait till the next inevitable sale. Focus on building brand value and customer loyalty through quality and service of your product.
Making the Most of the Holiday Season
With Christmas around the corner, there's still an opportunity to boost sales. Ensuring that you make the most of this period, in a tough retail year is key. This is the last mile, before some much needed time off this holiday seasons so let’s make the most of it. These steps below can sure up your offer for these final sales.
Understand Customer Spending Habits: Use customer data and market research to tailor your offerings to their holiday needs and preferences. When will they be making gifting purchases? Do you have products they can gift themselves, to break the chaos of this season.
Create Targeted Promotions: Develop offers that appeal to your communities’ holiday shopping motivations, such as exclusive deals or limited-time offers. Can you offer Christmas bundles over big discounts and drive volume and sales? Can you run any gift style promos where you send the community exclusive offers to them and that feel specially curated to them.
Enhance Online Experience: Optimize your website for holiday traffic, ensuring it's user-friendly and festive. When was the last time you shopped your brand? When you build your campaigns, do you look at how they live online? Making them but functional
Leverage Social Media: We know content is queen but it can be exhausting to consistently churning it out. How is your content landing? Is it connecting to your community? Does it educate and engage? Does it highlight who your brand is and the benefits of your products? Would it stop scrolling or lead you to click through? We get lost in the mammoth task of churning consistent content out, we sometimes don’t review it from our consumer or communities perspective
Understanding your Black Friday performance is about more than just tallying sales; it's about analyzing every aspect of your business operations. If your Black Friday didn't meet expectations, use this as a learning opportunity to pivot your strategy for the holiday season, focusing on understanding and connecting with your customers to maximize year-end success. Remember, the goal is to end the year on a high note, setting a positive tone for the year ahead.
Need some help with your strategy? In a sales slump? Relying on promotions to make sales? Let's change that! Drop us an email hello@wearealtitude.co.uk or drop us a DM @weare_altitude. We'd love to jump on a call and help your brand sore in sales
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