Many readers might wonder why all the blogs are so focused on BFCM when it’s two months away. BFCM is the Christmas of all sales, and it’s an event that most customers and merchants await. It needs extra effort and a lot of preparation. Some brands might be ready with their BFCM schedules already, so why should you lag?

Why start early for BFCM?

Preparing early for any significant task is never a bad idea, be it a flight or an exam. The same goes for BFCM; preparing early means not only getting ahead of your competition but avoiding last-minute jitters and glitches. 

Following are the reasons one should start early-

• You can lay out a detailed plan, work out multiple strategies that will be helpful. 
• You can make campaigns based on the past behaviour of your customers on events such as BFCM.
• You can send out emails and polls asking customers what they would wish to buy this BFCM. This activity will help you gauge their interest, and you can promote products accordingly.
• Schedule activities for pre-BFCM sale and post-BFCM sale as well.
• Stores can start working on creatives, ad campaigns etc., starting early would mean that you will have ample time to edit, improve or change your ad copies.
• Starting early with your campaign and schedule will leave you with free time during the sale season to handle customer issues, track customer activity and run future promotions based on that.  
• Pre-promote your promotions before BFCM for awareness.

BFCM Strategies with Flits Store credits 

• Set up your reward strategy now

BFCM is at least a few weeks away; for a reward strategy to work at a later stage, it is crucial to start working on it as soon as possible. This also gives time to customers to become aware of the rewards, and they can utilize the rewards during the BFCM event.

Set up rewards for every step such as signing up, subscribing, placing first order etc. This will ensure that your customers have store credits in hand for future purchases, specially BFCM.

If you don’t want to give multiple rewards, you can focus on the Credit on order feature. You can set a credit rule where customers will get Credit on the number of orders.

This strategy will work not only for new customers but old customers as well. You can set multiple rules such as Credit on 1st order, 3rd order, 50th order and so on.
The rule for initial orders will benefit your new customers, and later orders will work for old customers.

•  Please make a list of last year’s shoppers and offer them rewards.

Last year’s Shoppers can be a perfect place to start with, given they engaged with you during the same season. 

1. You can reward them with monthly Credit for November.
2. You can reward them with a minimum credit with bulk credit feature

Rewarding them in advance will nudge them to come to your website and shop during BFCM. 

This strategy replaces discounts on each product and gives customers a handful of credits that they can use conveniently.

• Give BFCM rewards on specific products.

BFCM does not mean you need to put everything on sale; you can select a specific range of products you know are in high demand during BFCM and reward customers for purchasing the same. You can use the Credit on specific products rule in our store credit module to reward customers who buy particular products.

• Create a sense of urgency with Bonus credit

Bonus credit feature is a highly underrated feature in our credit module. You can give bonus credit for a limited time under various conditions; you can also give bonus credit to specific customers by giving them a tag. 

• Give rewards for photo/video reviews.

With integration, you can give rewards to customers who review your products during BFCM. Given there will be a massive influx of new customers who have never bought from you, you need to showcase the trustworthiness of your product. 

This will not only improve brand awareness but will be helpful in the long run as well. You can also use manual credit settings if you don’t wish to use the integrated apps.

Promote your store with our Referral program 

Referrals are a great way of finding new customers. Your loyal customers might already be raving about your products, but you must reward them for the same. Referral credits are the best way to do that.

With the Flits referral program, you can reward both the referrer and the referee. You can also ensure that the referrer gets Credit only after the referee has placed an order. 

You can start sending out messages and emails offering special referral credits at least a month before BFCM so that your customers have ample time to send invites to their friends and family. This will also give the referees enough time to check out your stores, products and offers, and remind them via text, emails and pop-ups. 

Few tips to keep in mind for BFCM

• Don’t forget your customers after BFCM.

BFCM means bumper sales, but that does mean you should abandon your customers once the event is over. You must follow up with rewards, emails, texts etc. You can reward customers post BFCM who bought a minimum amount during BFCM.

You can offer them some other incentives like a membership or free shipping for the next few orders. You can also prepare a campaign where the rewards earned during BFCM can be used after BFCM ends.

• Filter out customers who already bought

Avoid sending identical promotional mail to customers who already availed of the offer. The inboxes are already swamped with offers; you don’t want customers to open the mail only to be disappointed. 

• Don’t keep fluctuating discounts/rewards on the identical product

If you gave a 20$ credit on a t-shirt today, avoid giving 20$ the very next day as it may disappoint the customer who bought from you today. Many online stores keep changing offers which can confuse customers, and they may abandon carts hoping for better offers in future.

• Don’t treat BFCM as a final destination.

Customers shop till the end of the year, so don’t mistake stopping all your campaigns once BFCM is over. It would help if you continued them till the end of the year. Yes, you don’t need to be as aggressive as during BFCM, but do surprise your customers with daily/weekly/monthly offers depending on your strategy and products. 

Rewards can serve as a gateway to customer retention because they ensure that your customer will come back to utilize the rewards. But the key is to start early. Starting early isn’t a tip for just BFCM but a general tip after starting your online store. The earlier you start rewarding your customers, the earlier you begin retaining them. 

Since BFCM is a mega shopping event, it guarantees you some customers, but that should not be a goal but an opportunity to grow your customer count and what better way to do that than giving them credits with Flits store credit add-on. This add-on will add more value to your BFCM campaign.