With the promise of BFCM profits on the horizon, the season eagerly awaited by shoppers is not far. As consumers prepare their wish lists, featuring both “must-buy” and “buy if there is a discount” items, online sellers find themselves immersed in preparations for this shopping event
BFCM is known for bumper discounts, But discounting items gives a negative message to shoppers. It creates an impression that one should always wait for things to go on sale. While events like BFCM or big billion sales are suitable for shoppers and sellers to move inventory, the e-commerce industry should strive to change the narrative around the excitement of buying things at discounted prices.
E-commerce must start encouraging and focusing on cashback, rewards, and credits instead of discounts and price cuts. And the right time to start this is now.
Most customers are already aware of the BFCM event, so they start looking for offers way before the event. They will pay attention to any campaign that mentions ‘BFCM offers.’ Since sellers can easily attract shoppers’ attention, they can start marketing reward offers before BFCM.
How can Shopify stores use store credits to attract shoppers for BFCM and increase BFCM profits?
To implement any campaign, sellers must have a strategy to approach it and reap maximum BFCM profits. The following steps can help you create an efficient campaign-
- Give Rewards on Best Selling Items and Day-to-Day Products
- Offer Rewards that Align with BFCM
- Set Reward Expiry Post-BFCM
- Provide Post-BFCM Rewards
- Communicate Rewards Before Launching the Campaign
Before putting these reward strategies into action, sellers should start by defining clear campaign objectives and allocating a budget that covers various expenses, including advertising and promotions.
Identify the products or services they want to promote and decide on a pricing strategy that aligns with your financial goals. Ensure that the website is optimized for increased traffic and transactions, and prepare marketing materials and email lists.
Develop a digital advertising strategy, optimize shipping and fulfillment processes, and prepare the customer support team for increased inquiries. Implement tracking and analytics tools for performance measurement and have a contingency plan in place for unforeseen challenges.
These prerequisites lay the foundation for a well-executed BFCM campaign
Now let’s dive into the steps!
Step 1
Give Rewards on Best Selling Items and Day-to-Day Products
Sellers should identify their best-selling items and everyday products to implement a successful cashback campaign. Cashback incentives can be strategically applied to these products to maximize customer engagement and enhance BFCM profit. By offering cashback on things that shoppers already want or need, sellers increase the appeal of their offers.
You can also reward customers with bonus credits based on their past purchase activities.
Step 2
Offer Rewards that Align with BFCM
The rewards should be substantial enough to capture the attention of shoppers. Online sellers can differentiate themselves by offering generous cashback/credit rewards that make a real impact. These rewards can serve as a powerful incentive for customers to choose their store over competitors, ensuring high interest and engagement.
Step 3
Set Reward Expiry Post-BFCM
Creating a sense of urgency is essential during BFCM. Sellers can implement this by ensuring the cashback reward has a precise expiration date, ideally a few days after the BFCM sale period ends. This limited-time offer encourages shoppers to act swiftly, driving more sales during this critical period.
Step 4
Provide Post-BFCM Rewards
BFCM is an excellent opportunity for sellers to acquire new customers, but it’s equally important to retain them. After BFCM ends, sellers can further engage their customers by offering additional cashback or rewards for their next purchase. This approach encourages customers to return to the store and enhances their loyalty by providing ongoing value.
Step 5
Communicate Rewards Before Launching the Campaign
Effective communication is a prerequisite to any successful cashback campaign. Sellers should create excitement among their audience by proactively informing them about the upcoming BFCM cashback campaign.
Leading up to BFCM, sellers should use various marketing channels like email, social media, push notifications, and your website to create teasers and announcements about the cashback campaign.
In the communications, emphasize the benefits of participating in the cashback campaign. Mention the types of products or categories included in the offer and the potential rewards they can earn. Provide clear instructions on how customers can redeem their cashback rewards. This includes explaining any requirements, such as a minimum purchase threshold and the timeframe for customers to use the rewards.
Supercharge Your BFCM profits with Flits App’s Store Credit Add-On
Flits store credit module is built for all categories of store credits, be it credit on orders, birthdays, referral credits, or bonus credits.
You can set up the following credit-earning rules for the occasion-
Credit on orders
The credit-on-order rule allows you to reward customers for making purchases; under this rule, you can set up rewards for a specific count and continued count or a combination of both. For example, you can set up credit on the first order as X, the second order as 2x, 3rd and subsequent orders as 3x.
If you wish to reward new customers before BFCM, you should set up credits on orders on the initial order count; if you want to reward only old/returning customers, you can set credits for more significant counts. Tweak the rules as per your goal.
Tagged product credits
Under this rule, you can create a collection by tagging the items. Give credits specifically on the items with a tag. You can create multiple groups and give credits based on the collection type.
Bonus credits
This rule helps you give bonus rewards to customers by filtering them with conditions (tagged customers, customers spending, customer’s number of orders, and customer’s spent credit).
With this, you can reward customers based on the actions they have taken or tags given by you.
Bulk credits
Bulk credits allow you to upload a list of customers and the credits you wish to give in CSV format to process credits to your customers’ store credit balance.
We recommend credit on orders and tagged product credit are over bonus and bulk credits, as the former is based on real-time activities. You can also use a combination of these rules to cover all types of customers.
One of the primary advantages of utilizing credits as incentives is that it encourages customers to come back and redeem those credits. In contrast, when offering significant discounts, customers tend to opt for the maximum savings, make a one-time purchase and are less likely to return. Credits give sellers an upselling opportunity for when the buyers return to redeem the credits they have earned.
Although one might initially equate credits with discounts in terms of impacting the total price, the underlying psychology and advantages of providing credits are far greater than discounts.
Credits are often perceived as more valuable and can foster customer loyalty by encouraging repeat business. They can also incentivize larger purchases and create a psychological commitment to return and use the credit. By collecting customer data through credits, businesses can also enhance their marketing efforts.
Using credits maintains the premium perception of products while reducing immediate revenue loss, which is a common drawback of discounts. This strategy also provides flexibility for customizing rewards and can differentiate a business in a competitive market. In sum, credits offer a unique and multifaceted approach to pricing that can yield numerous strategic advantages.
Explore Flits for your next BFCM campaign and get started with a successful BFCM campaign strategy.
