Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM) fall on November 25th and 28th this year.
During the span of these 4 days, online sellers of all sizes have the opportunity to be part of one of the biggest sales events of the year.
In fact, over 25% of all sales that our merchants made in November 2015 took place during the 4 days that make up BFCM weekend.
But it's not enough to just put your products on sale and hope for the best. You need to equip your store and design your customer experience in a way that capitalizes on the potential traffic and buying intent that comes with this time of year.
If you're planning to go all-out with your BFCM campaigns, here's a roundup of some of the best Shopify apps to help you sell more this November.
Be at your best this Black Friday and Cyber Monday!
Get our 26-point checklist of everything you need to cover to ensure your BFCM weekend is a success.
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FOMO: Social Proof in Real-Time
Price: $14.99/month
When new visitors come across your store, social proof is what puts their minds at ease by showing off past customers who have bought from you and enjoyed your products.
That's why FOMO (formerly known as Notify) is a must if you want to maximize your selling potential.
The name is a nod at the "Fear Of Missing Out" that compels people to want things because other people want them too.
FOMO accomplishes this by showcasing recent purchases in a small notification that pops up in the corner of your store.
These notifications can show your past customer's names, location, the product they purchased and more to tell new customers that they're not alone.
Why FOMO?
Allow notifications to appear in real-time or loop a handful of them again and again to create the impression of a buying frenzy (perfect for newer stores).
Customize the look, placement, frequency and what products get shown.
Integrates with Yotpo to surface positive 5-star reviews as well.
Get FOMO
Product Discount: An Easier Way to Run a Sale
Price: $99 one time charge
Part of the appeal of BFCM is the promise of deals you don't get at any other time of the year. Chances are you'll be putting a lot of your products on sale at once, and need an app for managing store-wide sales.
Product Discount makes it easy to set up a variety of complex offers and even schedule them to go live during a specific time. It's a lot easier than having to create discount codes for every item and hoping your customers find them so they can apply them.
But taking a percentage off of your price isn't the only way to put your products on sale.
By combining Product Discount and Product Upsell, two apps by Bold Commerce, you can create more complex sales offers such as a free gift for customers who spend a certain amount, a discount for buying multiple items, "buy one get one free", and more.
Why Product Discount?
Create and schedule sales without creating coupon codes.
With Product Upsell (starting at $9.99/month) you can do "Buy One Get One Free", "Buy One Get 75% off" and other offers.
Save time by putting all, some segments, or specific products on sale at once.
Get Product Discount
Privy: Pop-Ups Your Customers Can't Ignore
Price: Starting at $0/month
If you hate pop-ups because you see them everywhere, it's only because they're so effective.
Privy lets you easily add pop-ups to your store, customize their look, and set when and where they "pop up".
But there's a specific type of pop-up that Privy enables that's perfect for BFCM: exit intent pop-ups.
With these pop-ups, you can present visitors who are about to leave your store without buying with some kind of offer in exchange for an email.
This way, even if a prospective customer isn't ready to buy on the spot, you can continue to market to them in the future via email.
Why Privy?
Triggers include exit intent, scroll-based, time on site, cart abandonment and more.
Integrates with MailChimp, Klaviyo, Soundest, AdRoll, and more.
Built-in offers in your pop-ups will help you capture more emails than ever before.
Get Privy
Referral Candy: Turn New Customers Into More Customers
Price: Starting at $25/month
If you succeed with your BFCM campaign, you're bound to have a lot of new customers.
What's better than new customers? More new customers.
Referral Candy lets you offer referral-based discounts to tap into the personal networks (friends, family, co-workers) of your customers.
This incentive turns your customers into advocates that will help you sell more because there's something in it for both them and the person they refer.
Think about how Uber and Dropbox, among others, have grown their user base through their referral programs—Referral Candy lets you implement a similar growth strategy for your own online store.
Why Referral Candy?
One of the easiest ways to set up and run a referral program.
Reward new customers for referring their friends.
Referral tracking and rewards distribution are handled by the app.
Get Referral Candy
Back In Stock: "Sold Out" Doesn't Mean "Stop Selling"
Price: Starting at $19/month
Selling out might sound good to you, but it's unfortunate for the customers who really wanted one of your products.
You can let them leave empty-handed, or you can let them opt in to get notified when you have more in stock.
Back In Stock adds a tab next to sold out products that visitors can click to fill out a form and get notified when they revisit your site to buy the item they wanted.
With this app, you get to generate new leads for your email list and bring prospective customers back to your store.
Why Back In Stock?
Understand what products have the most demand, even if they're not available for purchase (a great way to test product ideas).
Sold out items become an opportunity to generate new leads.
Integrates with MailChimp, Campaign Monitor, Klaviyo, and Constant Contact
Get Back In Stock
Boost Sales: Upsell and Cross-Sell During Checkout
Price: Starting at $29/month
When's the best time to sell something to someone?
When they've already got their credit card in hand.
Upselling and cross-selling lets you increase the value of each order by presenting customers with the option to buy complementary products or "upgrade" their order in some way (e.g. offering a belt to go with a purchase of pants).
Boost Sales is the perfect app for giving your customers these options during the checkout process.
Why Boost Sales?
Increasing the potential value of every order means this app easily pays for itself.
Incorporate discounts into your upsell/cross-sell offers.
Responsive design means you can sell more regardless of the device your customers are using.
Get Boost Sales
Hurrify: Show Customers That The Clock is Ticking (Literally)
Price: $6.99/month
BFCM weekend already does a great job of creating a sense of urgency for customers—the event only happens once a year, after all.
Nothing gives customers the sense that time is running out to act on an offer quite like putting an actual timer in front of them.
With Hurrify, you can count down the seconds to the end of your sale to convince customers who might put off purchasing for later that there might not be a "later".
Why Hurrify?
Add urgency and scarcity to your sales by showing time left, inventory left or both.
Perfect for reinforcing the rush of BFCM shopping.
If the timer ever runs out before the sale's done, it simply resets.
Get Hurrify
Ready, Set...Sell!
These apps are great all year round, but they're especially powerful during high-traffic events such as BFCM.
If you plan on participating in Black Friday and Cyber Monday, you should start preparing your campaigns sooner rather than later.
What products will you push? Which channels will you use to get the word out? How will you get as much value as you can out of your efforts?
There's a lot to consider in order to make your BFCM weekend a success.
Are you ready for it?