We’ve put together our top tips to make sure your homepage is ready for the biggest e-commerce weekend of the year!
Be Clear
Got your Black Friday offer confirmed and actioned? Great! The most important thing to do on your homepage is to clearly communicate this with your customer as soon as they land on the site to get them engaged and into your sales funnel.
Push no more than two messages in your navigation and top image e.g. your discount offer and your shipping offer.
Tell them everything they need to know on your hero banner – offer, code, time period & any terms and conditions need to be visible.
Make sure you have an announcement banner, this can house your main promotion or a delivery promotion.
Make sure your best offer is the first thing the customer sees.
Good!
Not so good
Be Simple
Your homepage design should be easy to read, easy to follow and easy to use. Limit animations and other distracting elements, don’t push too many categories or products. Be considered with what you present to the customer and don’t overwhelm them with choice.
Make sure your text is clear – be mindful of overlaying text on busy images that will impair the legibility of the offer.
Limit product carousels to no more than two (one is better).
Don’t push too many categories at once. Remember most users go straight to search or to the menu to navigate through the website. Only push the categories and products you want extra focus on.
Be Bold, But Branded
It’s very tempting on Black Friday or during sale periods to opt for the trusted black and red or black and yellow theme. There’s no denying it’s attention-grabbing and says ‘discount’ to the customer, so what’s the problem? Everyone else does it. Make sure you stand out from the crowd but also don’t forget to still promote your brand aesthetic. It’s what sets you apart from other businesses after all.
Opt for an enhanced colour scheme of your usual brand aesthetic if you want to still have a ‘sale look’.
If you use handwritten typefaces, ditch these for the sale. They look great but aren’t easy to read; we suggest switching to a sans serif typeface that still fits with your brand.
Keep your tone of voice. If you’re a friendly brand, don’t lose that in your Black Friday messaging. You can keep your personality throughout the website and still convey your offer efficiently.
Keep some imagery. A lot of brands will go totally graphics-based for Black Friday, although this can help with clarity it can also mean any new customers will have to look a little harder to see what you’re offering. We suggest using a mix of graphics and imagery to have the best of both worlds.
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Not so good
Be Reactive
Being successful during Black Friday is all down to clear messaging, a good offer and a good range of products. We need to make sure this is always being sold to the customer. Rotating high stock items and refreshing the homepage keeps returning customers interested and engaged and evokes the feeling that there’s something new on offer each time they land on site. We recommend changing some graphics and products daily to keep everything fresh and interesting.
Check promoted products on the homepage are high stocked.
Rotate imagery regularly to keep your homepage looking fresh.
Rotate graphics and imagery but always keep the theme and look consistent.
Refreshed hero image
Be Quick
Your site speed is always important but it’s even more of a priority during Black Friday. A speedy homepage will decrease your bounce rate and get customers into your sales funnel quicker. Limiting what is on your homepage, turning off unnecessary pop-ups, optimising your images as much as possible and running a speed test on your website (and fixing the issues) will result in a more successful Black Friday.
No videos or gifs. Optimise all imagery.
Don’t overfill your homepage. Keep it short and sweet, this helps with clear communication with the customer but also decreases load time.
Test your homepage speed with an online service and address any easy to fix that will help increase your site speed.
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