How to Get More Shoppers this BFCM Without Discounting

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Is your eCommerce store ready for the BUSIEST SALE OF THE YEAR?!

Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM) are synonymous with deep discounts and huge sales. While offering discounts can drive a significant amount of traffic, it’s not the only way to attract shoppers.

What if there was a way to stand out in the crowded marketplace without sacrificing your profit margins while maintaining a high AOV?

The good news is that there are many strategies that don’t need discounts, yet still help attract and retain customers.

From gift guides and exclusive product offerings to strengthening your loyalty program and early access offers, these strategies will help you attract shoppers and build lasting relationships with them.

Dive in to discover how you can make this BFCM your most successful yet, without compromising on your pricing strategy.

1. Buy One Get One (BOGO) Deals 

One of the most popular strategies to increase AOV during BFCM.

Why does this strategy work? Simply, because people love getting a free product! You end up selling much more than if you were offering a discount.

Moreover, you clear your inventory/stock space if you’ve got a lot of surplus inventory to make way for new products, or to restock more popular ones!

Take a look at Blume’s BFCM sale — a simple coupon code to avail the Buy 2 get 1 deal paired with a straightforward line on stocking up with your favorites is enough to make you want to stop and checkout the ad while casually scrolling through your social feed.

A dynamic ad by skincare brand Blume highlighting the buy two get one free sale messaging for Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
Buy 2 get 1 free sale ad for BFCM by Blume

TIP: Try creating a Dynamic Product Ad, using the BOGO strategy + the right messaging, to retarget your cart abandoners or 90-day website visitors.

Ready to see the difference with Socioh? Socioh’s Branded Catalogs offers brands a massive opportunity to create on-brand templates along with a creative toolkit for dynamic ads.

2. Early Access

BFCM doesn’t just mark calendar dates but a whole shopping season starting from October until Christmas.

An early access to limited edition products, seasonal releases, or limited special services creates FOMO and drives strong engagement.

Early access promotions/deals are a great way to:

1. Entice visitors to sign up for your emails and get a unique set of deals that only they have access to.

2. Excite existing users of new products, awareness of the potential savings and older stock, and getting a feeling of exclusivity in getting eyes on the deals, that may even garner sales at full price, or even way before BFCMs crazy deals drop.

Look at TULA’s ad — a limited edition collab sticker, in the first few seconds of the video, gives the FOMO feels. While the 3-point product messaging adds value to the ad.

A dynamic ad by skincare brand TULA highlighting a limited edition collab along with early access messaging for BFCM.
Early access and limited-edition collab ad for BFCM by TULA

Now, with the right early access messaging (in your ad post/ ad creative) for either of your audience is bound to make them go bananas this BFCM!

3. Free Gift with Every Purchase

Don’t want cart abandoners at this BFCM?

Adding gifts for a purchase is a great way to incentivize shoppers to complete checkouts.

It’s not just cart abandonment, you can also use this opportunity for shoppers to test out a new product.

See how Kizik does it for their campaign — the first word on their post is ‘FREE’. This captures your attention instantly and you want to know, “What’s  free?”. For a brand selling shoes, socks are the perfect choice for a free gift. That’s a genius strategy for BFCM!

Kizik has also created a sense of urgency by adding scarcity to the offer. A simple ‘While supplies last’ message does the trick!

A dynamic ad by shoe brand Kizik highlighting a free pair of socks with every purchase messaging for BFCM.
Free gift with every purchase ad for BFCM by Kizik

TIP: Try adding a limited-time deal or a minimum order value to avail the free gift. This creates FOMO helping enhance this strategy.

4. Gift Guides

This is a great way to highlight specific products to customers, with context. Especially since Christmas is right around the corner, Black Friday is the perfect time to grab gifts for your friends & family.

You can categorize your gift guide based on — interests, website activity, type, gender, etc.

Supergoop has mastered the perfect gift guide category — their SPF range. No matter what time of the year, SPF is your best friend for life! And, that’s exactly what they monetized.

A dynamic ad by skincare brand Super Goop highlighting SPF-themed gift guide messaging for Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
SPF-themed gift guide ad by Super Goop

The idea is to drive sales and capitalize on sale shopping.

5. Free Shipping

Consumers expect free shipping especially if their order value is over a certain amount.

Let’s not forget — the unexpected cost of shipping is usually the culprit for purchases remaining incomplete.

Leveraging this strategy during BFCM is a great way to incentivize customers to buy.

See how Faithful the Brand caught the attention of shoppers — not only did they provide a sale on their products but they also promoted ‘Free shipping over $150’.

This clever strategy of attracting shoppers with a sale but subtly encouraging them to add more items to avail free shipping simply boosts the average order value of the cart without the shopper giving it too much thought.

A dynamic video ad by apparel brand Faithful the Brand highlighting free shipping and sale messaging for BFCM.
Free shipping and sale ad by Faithful the Brand

TIP: Free Shipping + DABA Ads = The perfect prospecting campaign. Every shopper looks for free shipping and leveraging this combination is a good option for BFCM.

Discounts aren’t for everyone. Offering a well-designed, highly targeted, non-discounted incentive can never go off-brand!

This BFCM you do not want visitors to drop off without buying anything. Thankfully, Socioh solves this issue by offering customized creatives to target the right audience through branded catalog ads.

What are you waiting for? Login to Socioh and get started right away!

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