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Black Friday Cyber Monday (BFCM) is one of the most important shopping events of the year, with shoppers spending billions of dollars on gifts for themselves and loved ones. In 2022, BFCM generated over $11 billion in online revenue on Cyber Monday and $9.12 billion on Black Friday.
With so many brands vying for the attention of BFCM shoppers, how can your store stand out from the crowd? The answer lies in thinking beyond conventional tactics and seamlessly integrating gifting features into your online store.
By integrating gifting features into your online store, you can make it easier for shoppers to buy and give gifts and differentiate your brand from competitors. This will increase sales and customer loyalty during the BFCM season and beyond.
How To Integrate Gifting Features On Your Shopify Store?
In case you’re wondering why you should care about this strategy, read our previous post on the rise of digital gifting.
But if you're looking for a way to make your store more gifting-ready for BFCM and the holiday season sale, here are a few strategies to get you started:
1. Offer Gift Bundles
Offering gift bundles is a great start to boost sales during BFCM because it gives customers a convenient and affordable option to buy multiple items. When looking for gifts, the pre-bundles make it easy for customers to find gifts for their loved ones.
You can bundle popular products at a discounted rate to create these gifting options. Adding a theme to them further makes them easier to pick based on the different demographics your products cater to.
For example, you can offer a "Home Spa Day" gift bundle with a bathrobe, slippers, and a candle. Or a ‘Tech Lover’s Delight’ bundle that includes wireless chargers, cable organizers and more.
Here’s a similar example from Express Gift Baskets:
2. Exclusive Gifting Range
Another way to bring in gifting is to launch an exclusive range of gifts during the BFCM sale. These are not just products available at a discount, but also available only for a limited period of time.
The strategy hence creates both exclusivity and urgency amongst BFCM shoppers. FOMO marketing is known to be the most effective tactic to nudge buyers to take an action almost immediately.
Here’s an example from Bath and Body Works:
3. Offer Gift Wrapping
67% of people hate wrapping gifts. Hence offering gift wrapping during BFCM is a convenient and quick service highly appreciated by customers, especially during the holidays.
To streamline gift wrapping, offer customers some unique and festive wrapping options. This way, you can avoid offering a wide variety of wrapping papers and ribbons, which can be time-consuming and expensive.
You can also offer free gift wrapping for orders over a certain amount. This is a great way to encourage customers to spend more money and increase your AOV.
4. Extended Return Policies
No matter how thoughtfully a product is picked, gifts may not always be a perfect fit. Make it simpler for both the gift shopper and recipient to enjoy the purchase by offering an extended return/ exchange period.
This can also encourage customers to make more purchases because they know they can return any items they are not happy with - which is usually not the case during mass-sale seasons like BFCM.
5. Offer Personalized Gifts
Another great strategy to make your store gifting-ready for BFCM is offering personalized gifts. A study found that 58% of consumers are more likely to tell others about a personalized gift they received. This is because personalized gifts show that the giver has put extra thought and effort into their gift.
The key benefit of offering personalized gifts is consumers are likely to spend more and also order early, especially if they buy them for a special occasion. And that's not all, you also get to tap into word of mouth marketing to reach more customers.
For example, you can launch products like engraved jewelry, monogrammed towels and linens, custom-designed clothing and accessories, personalized home decor, pet accessories, etc - all at BFCM discounts!
6. Implement Gift Finder Tool
During BFCM, customers are often overwhelmed by so many deals and promotions available. Having a gift finder tool on your website can help them navigate the options available to them easily.
You can encourage them to input details like the recipient’s age, interests and preferences, using them as cues for product recommendations. This strategy also helps you boost product discovery on your website, leading shoppers to items they may not have thought of before.
For example, Sephora has set up a gift finder on their online store that walks the online shopper through a series of questions that gauge their gifting preferences:
7. Provide E-Gift Options
E-gift or electronic gifts are a convenient and flexible gift option for the last-minute shoppers. These are products that can be purchased and delivered instantly, also offering instant gratification.
E-gift options can include gift cards that can be personalized to match a certain look and feel, or occasion. You can also give shoppers the ability to further add a personal message or video message alongside the gift card or the product being purchased, with a Shopify app like GiftLab that gives you complete control over the options you want to set up during this sale period.
8. Preview Sales For Loyalty Members
Another way to bring in the same excitement of gifting on your Shopify store is to set up a preview sale. This sale opens up the deals and discounts during BFCM earlier to loyal customers and email subscribers.
The strategy is effective at helping you secure BFCM sales early, before the competition for consumer attention even begins. And the exclusivity created around the same, further boosts customer loyalty.
9. Create Gift Guides
Gift guides help shoppers find the perfect gifts for their loved ones without spending hours looking through product catalogs. When creating a gift guide for BFCM, it's essential to keep the following tips in mind:
- Segment your gift guide by price (i.e., gifts under $50), recipient type (i.e., gifts for him, her, or kids), or interests (i.e., gifts for gamers and book lovers).
- Include your new and best-selling products in your gift guide.
- Include high-quality images and videos to help shoppers visualize the products you feature in your gift guide.
- Write informative and engaging descriptions for each product you feature in your gift guide.
Another way is to promote these gift guides as collections on your store like Vahdam Teas:
10. Cross-sell and Upsell
Prepare your Shopify store to use shopper intent to cross-sell and upsell products from similar or related categories. Since most of your products are on discount during the BFCM, introducing buyers to items complementary to the gift they intend to purchase, can get them to add more items to the cart.
For example, you can upsell premium gift wraps and gift boxes on certain product collections that are well suited for gifting.
Similarly, if someone is purchasing a bottle of wine, you can nudge them to add a pack of assorted nuts to the purchase to create a gift by recommending the product to them. You can do this easily by using a Shopify gifting app like GiftLabs that triggered a popup to make the product recommendation.
Or you can nudge them to add a little extras to create a gift hamper for the person they’re purchasing for by showing them lesser value items that can enhance the overall experience:
11. Promotions On Social Media
Social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook have billions of active users, many looking for gift ideas. You can use social media to showcase gift offerings in a visually appealing way.
You can post photos and videos of your gift bundles, showcase gift-wrapping tutorials, and even unboxing videos to give potential customers a better idea of what they are buying.
Social proof is a strong factor in influencing purchasing decisions. You can use social media to promote user-generated content, such as photos and reviews of customers who have used the gifting feature, to show potential customers that others have had a positive experience. This can help to build trust and confidence and ultimately lead to more sales.
12. Fast and Reliable Shipping
Guaranteed delivery dates and expedited shipping options are essential for shoppers who need their gifts to arrive on time. Offer these shipping modes to attract more customers to your Shopify store.
Also offer a "ship later" option for those who want to purchase gifts for a later date. This option can also be helpful for shoppers who want to purchase gifts on a budget by availing BFCM discounts but don’t need them sent out at the time. With our gifting app, GiftLabs, you can set up a delivery scheduler on your store that gives the shopper the ability to set the day, date and time they want the order to reach a recipient.
13. Gift Receipt Options
Offer receipt options to shoppers purchasing gifts from your store during BFCM for the holidays. This typically includes giving them the ability to remove pricing from the recipient.
Doing so also makes it easy for the gift recipient to return or exchange the product themselves.
Ready to turn gifting into a sales strategy?
Gifting is a powerful way to connect with customers and build loyalty. By making your store gifting-ready, you can create a more seamless and enjoyable shopping experience for your customers while boosting sales and profits.
But remember that gifting should not be a passive strategy. There's so much more than plain boring discounts that you can use to make your store gifting-ready.
And there’s certainly a lot more that you can do than offer gift cards.
With our Shopify app - GiftLabs, your brand can set up a personalized gift shopping experience on your online store in no time. The app is an all-in-one gifting suite with which you can implement all the above strategies - gift wrapping, gift message, video message, greeting cards, gift box and product upsell, and a lot more in just a few clicks.
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