You’ve heard of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, but what about Gray November? Consumers are increasingly spacing their online shopping out over the course of the month leading up to typical ultra-concentrated holiday sales days. In fact, 40 percent of online shoppers actually begin their holiday shopping before Halloween, according to the National Retail Federation.
What Is Gray November?
If you run an ecommerce store, you’re probably actively preparing for Black Friday and Cyber Monday with online “door busters,” limited-time offers and deep discounts. But is your ecommerce store ready for Gray November? Capitalizing on this “month-long extension of the traditional holiday shopping season” is a great way to boost overall holiday revenue and keep customers engaged over time. Plus, your store will even stand out from the pack by decentralizing the timing and cadence of your offers.
Daily Promotions Attract Interest
Many customers wait specifically until November to buy items they’ve long had their eyes on, either as a gift or for themselves. Running daily promotions throughout the entirety of the month gives people a good incentive to actually make the purchase. For example, last year, Target ran a daily promotion on their Cartwheel app: A different half-priced toy each day, starting on November 1. Coupons, percentage discounts and daily offers on specific products are great ways to drum up consistent customer engagement.
Content Marketing Opportunities
But it can get expensive and tedious to start slashing prices so early in the month, especially considering you’ll be doing so for Black Friday and Cyber Monday later on. How can ecommerce brands use Gray November to prime their holiday sales and engagement beyond merely offering deals?
Providing quality, holiday-themed content is always a plus—provided it’s genuinely interesting and informative, reaching beyond just an obvious Call to Action. For example, if you sell ebooks online in your store, you could schedule daily blog posts featuring content like:
- Interviews with authors
- Listicles outlining new releases across popular genres
- “If you liked X, you’ll love Y and Z” reader recommendations
- Digital stocking stuffer gift recommendations
- Hints about mystery freebie downloads accompanying purchases
- Interesting holiday-themed content
In other words, November is a great time to focus on providing your target audience with consistent, quality content. In addition to using your blog roll to give your shoppers value, you can drive traffic by posting excerpts and links across social media. With or without discounts, your content may prompt a new customer to download an ebook in a genre they haven’t read before, or cause them to stumble upon their favorite new writer. Delivering excellent content builds your site’s authority and increases traffic flowing to your website during this critical time of year.
Offer Favorable Shipping Terms
Another way to make Gray November work for your ecommerce store is by changing up your shipping policy to make it more favorable for customers to buy before Black Friday and Cyber Monday even roll around. One Deloitte survey reveals 87 percent of respondents consider free shipping more important than fast shipping. If they’re buying a product during the first week of November, it’s generally fine if the delivery estimate is more than a few days. This is especially true if the shipping was free or discounted.
Of course, a free shipping promotion may require your brand to absorb some of those costs, so it’s smart to set a threshold shoppers must surpass before unlocking special seasonal shipping offer. Then the boost in average order value will offset the cost of delivery.
Above all, Gray November is a state of mind. The principles center around engaging meaningfully with customers, offering tempting discounts and driving sales throughout the entire month rather than during just a few of its days. Is your ecommerce store ready for Gray November? If not, it’s time to prepare.
