7 Tips For Last Minute BFCM Planning

If you’re looking for last minute ideas to take your brand’s BFCM from good to great we’ve got you covered. We polled our team of ecommerce experts to get you these 7 last minute tips for your best BFCM yet:

1. Count Down to Sell Up

Verbal+Visual clients use this timer to create some healthy customer FOMO.

Urgency is a cornerstone of good sales, and one of the best ecommerce tools for creating urgency is a good old fashioned countdown timer. Countdown timers can also be used to amplify other consumer incentives. For example, consider a timer that alerts customers about the last day to get gifts shipped on time with standard shipping. Not only can it increase conversions, but your fulfillment team will thank you too!

–Caroline Dau, Director of Product

2. Add To Calendar

DTC beauty brand Glossier is getting on your calendar. Want to be top of mind for your customers? Get on their schedules. Save-the-dates and event reminders are great tools for helping connect customers to sales. Remember that BFCM customers have lots of brands vying for their attention, so make sure that your buyers know when to buy.

–Mya Gupta, Director of Engagement

3. Rewards, Retention, Results

Verbal+Visual client Dia & Co’s robust loyalty program helps increase retention.

The easiest customer to sell is a customer you’ve sold to before. Want to increase conversions in this valuable customer segment? Make them feel like they’re part of a community. Offer your best customers specialized communications and rewards. Incentives like early access to new items will make your customers feel valued, and special insider deals or private product offerings can keep return customers coming back for more.

-Anshey Bhatia, CEO and Founder

Tip 4. Forget That Follow Up?

It might seem counterintuitive, but consider pausing your follow-up emails during BFCM. The holiday shopping season brings a flood of emails, so it can be smart to avoid being in your customer’s inbox too often.

Even though a follow up email should be standard procedure for your brand’s outreach, inundating your customers with conflicting asks and promotions can create more agitation than conversion. Instead, pause your standard post-purchase follow up emails until after the rush and replace them with a few, well-chosen communications.

–Mya Gupta, Director of Engagement

Tip 5. Time Waits For No Dev

More sophisticated discounts, like merchandised bundles and Buy More Get More Off, can be great ways to entice customers and increase AOV. But the more complicated the discount the more time your solutions teams may need to iron out any technical limitations in your platforms. Consult with your team in advance to predict the resources they need to make your BFCM events a big success.

–Vic Lam, Associate Director of Technology

6. Simply The Best

This discount from our client Jonathan Adler is effective because it's straightforward.

When it comes to consumer incentives, gamification is the name of the, well, game. But while a creative discount structure can entice your customers, a deal that’s too hard to understand is likely to keep them away. Make sure your deals are simple and easy to follow to increase conversions and to keep your customers coming back for more. –Mya Gupta, Director of Engagement

Tip 7. Fukubukuro

As Portland Leather's website warns: “you may very well get hooked on the thrill!” Finally, if you’re looking for an outside-of-the-box way to drive conversions, consider Fukubukuro. This classic Japanese promotion consists of merchants making mystery grab-bags that are sold for a substantial discount.

While the concept is well known in Japan, more and more brands around the world are trying this unique approach to the BFCM sale. For example, check out this mystery box of cosmetics from ColourPop, or this grab bag from Portland Leather.

–Kasra Rahjerdi, Engineer

Year-Round Growth

As you finalize your BFCM strategy, don’t forget: the holiday shopping season is not just about a month of increased sales– it’s about building brand equity for a whole year’s worth of growth. If you connect with your customers, and reward them for engaging with your brand, you’ll find yourself ringing in the New Year with a whole new group of enthusiastic brand ambassadors.

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