Days before Black Friday or Cyber Monday, shoppers are inundated with emails and offers from hundreds, if not thousands of brands. It can be overwhelming. So how do you stand out from the many online stores seeking their attention?

We spoke with 3 Shopify merchants at the top of their BFCM game, and here is their advice for getting ahead of BFCM and making sales rein! 

Start early 

Begin your BFCM campaigns early, advises Donata Joseph, founder, and owner of Donata.co which specializes in skincare and haircare products. “Use September and October as a time to engage with your community in high-value, non-sales messaging strategies,” she stresses, noting how educational content and posts on the sector relevant to the brand should be considered.

Joseph adds: “With BFCM being such a congested week of communication from various brands at one time across all digital touchpoints, staying active and engaging with your community in a meaningful way that drives value and community leading up to BFCM will help cut through the noise and drive more traffic to your sales content - since they are used to checking it ahead of time and feel part of your community.”

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Lean into digital downloads to bolster your offering 

Mesha Bazemore, of Coco Twins, recommended a holiday-themed section on your website for digital holiday products. “This will save them search time and give you an opportunity to present and sell coordinating digital products, for their crafting needs,” Bazemore says. Apps like Sky Pilot have helped Coco Twins optimize and manage their digital downloads. 

Advertise early 

We all know the importance of advertising during the holiday season, but timing is important as Karin Lickers, of Flickerbug, points out. Karin recommends advertising no less than 7 days before your sale to warm up your audience. Additionally, be sure to run an advanced and exclusive sale for your best customers 24 hours before everyone else to make them feel like the VIPs they are. 

Test, test, test 

Donata Joseph also offers a tip to Shopify store owners who may want to introduce customers to a mobile app to make their shopping journey easier to manage. Be sure to test the app weeks if not months before your BFCM projects. “We installed a product order maximum application to prevent users from misusing our discount with stock-piling many of our products at once. Unfortunately, the application blocked our customers from completing their purchase entirely versus just limiting their cart.”

The takeaway is simple: The more you can test any new tool, initiative, and warm up your audience for your BCFM campaigns, the more prepared you’ll be for traffic surges or bugs.

With that in mind, begin your marketing campaigns for the holiday shopping season early enough, but refrain from inserting sales messaging into every communication. You want customers to feel comfortable engaging with your brand, as opposed to feeling like they’re being sold to at every turn.