Outperform your competitors this Singles Day, Black Friday and end of year shopping season

During our recent webinar, Timothée & Edouard dived into strategies to make this Singles Day, White Friday, and December shopping season the best your business has ever known. In case you missed it, here’s a recap of what they’ve shared:

Anatomy of the peak in the UAE and KSA

• November accounts for up to 30% of annual revenue for many brands we collaborate with.
• Shopping intent annually increases, showing a +20% growth rate over the past 3 years.
• Consumers begin their interest and deal search in early October.
• UAE exhibits a “Twin Peak” trend: Singles Day and Black Friday. Singles Day garners 75% of Black Friday’s interest. Singles Day is 75% as big as Black Friday in the UAE.
• In KSA, the shopping season hits three peaks: Saudi National Day (80% of White Friday’s volume), Singles Day, and White Friday.
• The final two weeks of December, often overlooked due to budget limitations post-Black Friday, remain crucial shopping periods in both countries.

Price, Convenience & Rarity should be your priorities

A good way to test your peak season strategy is to unsure you master each element of the framework.

Price: a given during this period.

• Shoppers anticipate the year’s most significant discounts during Black Friday.
• Go Crescendo: start with smaller discounts on occasions like KSA National Day or Singles Day, escalating them to culminate on Black Friday.
• Boost momentum by gradually expanding the product range eligible for discounts.
• For other seasonal events, adopt a more tactical approach using gifts with purchases and value bundling.

Convenience: Ensure a seamless purchase journey.

• Consider reducing or entirely waiving the free delivery threshold; aim for same-day delivery when feasible.
• Diversify payment methods available on your website or app. Streamline the checkout process, ensuring an option for guest checkout.
• Prepare your customer service team for peak demands.
• Integrate chatbots or pre-service options to proactively address customer concerns and reduce potential obstacles.

Rarity: Create exclusivity.

• If you distribute through resellers: maintain exclusivity on a selection of products on your website.
• Provide exclusive services, like product customization, to offer additional value.
• Leverage the season to amplify your loyalty program with special promotions.
• Engage existing customers via CRM channels like email, SMS, or WhatsApp, offering them exclusive access to private sales.

Supercharge your ads

The value of the peak season extends beyond just boosting sales. It’s about enriching your advertising platforms with invaluable data, feeding the algorithm for sustained benefits throughout the year. From this viewpoint, the peak season is crucial for optimizing online advertising platforms, and enhancing user acquisition, and retention in Q1 and Q2.

• Begin with an awareness phase with traffic campaigns. This is not only cost-efficient (lower CPCs and CPMs), it simultaneously populates your audiences across all platforms once the user has landed on your website.
• Run a lead generation campaign to get 1st party data. Offer incentives like exclusive early access to sales for users who sign up, instilling a sense of exclusivity.
• Communicating a countdown during the final 3 days of the sale can boost CTR and CR, capitalizing on the heightened sense of urgency. Refrain from revealing the exact end date, granting you the flexibility to either extend or conclude the campaign, ensuring accurate communication.
• As the peak initiates, rely on always-on conversion campaigns. Update their assets, raise budgets, and adjust targets. This sidesteps the campaign learning phase at the moment when algorithmic performance is most needed.
• White Friday goes by various names, and brands should encompass these in their search campaigns (Black Friday, November discounts, White Friday, etc.)

Creative quality & diversity is key:

1. Rotate diverse creatives to mitigate ad fatigue.
2. Combine static and video content to break through the clutter and ensure visibility.
3. Emphasize key selling points in your creative—highlight sales, gifts with purchase (GWP), delivery benefits, and other unique selling propositions (USPs) all together if possible to enhance the appeal. Don’t be afraid to change your creatives during the period if you are using AI advertising-backed products.

Optimal Budget Allocation for Search & Social Platforms:

1. Our advice is to maximize Brand Search campaigns, aiming for nearly 100% impression share.
2. Align your budget priorities with platforms that consistently yield the best results for your brand throughout the year.

Post-Peak Season Strategies:

1. Use Seasonality adjustments on platforms such as Meta and Google.
2. Gear up for the December shopping season.
3. Monitor and identify emerging competitors who gained traction during Black Friday and have since maintained a higher profile. Keep them on your radar moving forward.

As we wrap up, remember that optimizing your strategies for peak season not only maximizes immediate sales but also paves the way for sustained growth throughout the coming year.