5 CS-Cart Features to Boost Your Black Friday Profits

Black Friday is around the corner. It is a critical time of the year for online stores and marketplaces.

A well-thought-out promotional strategy can help you reach a wider audience, attract new customers, and boost sales.

Here’s a comprehensive Black Friday checklist to help you prepare your CS-Cart store or marketplace focusing on key aspects of successful marketing campaigns.

1. Ad Banners: Create Eye-Catching Black Friday Designs

It all starts with ad banners. They appear to be one of the most effective tools for increasing conversions during Black Friday promotional campaigns.

A good banner grabs attention and drives traffic to your online store.

Essential Steps to Make a Good Black Friday Banner

• Bold Colors: Use black, red, and gold, as they are commonly associated with Black Friday sales. Do not be afraid to experiment with the color palette. It is your chance to stand out and grab the attention of your buyers. Black Friday is the very time you can ignore your marketplace brand book.
• Clear Messaging: Keep your message short, sharp, and transparent. Do not forget to add phrases like “Up to 50% off” or “Limited Time Offer.” Avoid long and complex teasers.
• Call-to-Action (CTA): Encourage users to click by using phrases like “Shop Now” or “Don’t Miss Out.“
• High-Quality Images: Make sure your product images are clear and visually appealing. This step is essential, as you need to showcase your items from the best possible angles.

CS-Cart Black Friday Tools You Might Need

With a built-in CS-Cart Banner Management add-on, you can easily create and customize banners to highlight products, special offers, discounts, or product lists.

This tool lets you easily create and manage banners, set baseline settings, upload custom images, set URLs, and update banner status. 

Steps to add a Banner to your Storefront

1. Click Create a new banner in the admin panel. 
2. Type in the name for the campaign and select the banner type (text or graphical). 
3. Upload an image, set URL and status.
4. Click Create. 

Now, you are all set for launching a visual ad campaign in just a few minutes. 

Banner management section in CS-Cart

Extra Add-Ons for Banner Placement

For enhanced flexibility and a more diverse approach to your ad campaign, you may use Banner for Categories add-on. It lets you place visuals in the most unexpected locations. 

What you can do with this add-on:

• Add and edit banner names and descriptions making them catchy
• Specify the list of active product categories for the banner placement
• Set banner display in subcategories of the specified product lists

2. Black Friday Promotion: Effective Campaigns for Higher Conversions

Running well-planned promos is vital for a successful Black Friday sale. Marketing campaigns can significantly increase traffic and conversions, but they need to be configured correctly to maximize their potential.

Types of Black Friday Promotions That Work

• Flash Sales: Flash sales offer deep Black Friday discounts on selected items for a short period. This creates urgency and encourages quick purchases, making them ideal for boosting sales during high-traffic periods like Black Friday.
• Bundle Deals: Bundle deals provide discounts when customers buy several products at a time. Sellers get a chance to increase an average Black Friday order value. Besides, they can encourage shoppers to purchase more items at a reduced price.
• Buy One, Get One Free (BOGO): BOGO promotions offer a free item with the purchase of another. The idea is to encourage customers to buy more. This strategy helps move inventory while increasing Black Friday sales volume.

 How to Configure and Launch Black Friday Promotions

• Set Clear Goals: Configure every Black Friday promotion depending on your key business objectives. Decide whether you want to increase traffic, boost sales, or reduce inventory.
• Create a Scheduled Promo: Flash sales work best when customers know when to expect them. Promote the Black Friday start and end times instead of focusing on price or discount offers.
• Use Targeted Discounts: Tailor Black Friday promotions to specific audience segments for higher engagement. It helps to sort out different customer flows and focus on the one with the best purchasing potential.

CS-Cart Black Friday Tools You Might Need

The built-in Promotions feature makes it possible to create different types of campaigns. You can promote catalogs, setting discounts and special offers on specific goods or product collections. The second scenario is to launch cart promotions offering coupons, bonuses, free shipping, and other options.

Setting Up Your Black Friday Promotion with CS-Cart

To set up a promotion in CS-Cart, you need to do the following:

1. Go to Marketing → Promotions in the Administration panel and click “Add promotion”.
2. Choose between a promotion type (cart or catalog).
3. Fill in the promotion creation form (name, descriptions, image).
4. Specify the active period, priority, and status.
5. Set specific conditions that will trigger bonuses and special offers to your customers.
6. Click Create to activate the promotion, once everything is set.

Marketplace owners get an extra bonus available in CS-Cart Multi-Vendor. Sellers get a chance to launch and manage their own promotions independently. 

3. Landing Pages: Build Effective and Conversion-Oriented Pages

Your landing page is the first place potential buyers will visit. So, make sure you’ve designed it properly to convert visitors into customers.

Features of a Successful Black Friday Landing Page

• Clear Headline: Communicate the Black Friday promotion main offer using a clear headline. It may involve discounts, limited-time deals, exclusive product collections, and more. This grabs the user’s attention and sets the tone for the rest of the page.
• Engaging Visuals: Use high-quality product images or videos to captivate users and highlight what’s on sale. Visuals help convey the value of the promotion and make the Black Friday page more appealing.
• Call-to-Action Buttons: Place strong CTAs like “Shop Now” or “Grab the Deal” prominently. It will guide users toward making a Black Friday purchase and increase conversion rates.
• Minimal Distractions: Keep the page clean by removing unnecessary elements, ensuring that users stay focused on the promotion and are not distracted from making a purchase.

How to Make It Work for Your Store

The first thing to do is to ensure the landing page loads quickly. Slow pages cause higher bounce rates. Mobile optimization is another vital aspect to consider.

Black Friday shoppers often use mobile devices, so ensure your page is responsive. Last but not least, social proof Involves adding customer reviews or testimonials to build trust.

CS-Cart Black Friday Tools You Might Need

Building a catchy and well-structured landing page can boost sales. CS-Cart users do not have to be coding experts to create their own landing pages to maximize conversions. The CMS comes with a built-in add-on that lets you easily integrate already existing or brand new Tilda layouts. 

If you do not have one, Tilda helps you create one with no effort and zero coding skills in minutes. The add-on saves time. It is always great to have a pool of ready-made templates that you can connect anytime for different campaigns instead of redeveloping and coding from scratch.

How to connect Tilda landing page with your CS-Cart Store

1. Go to the Add-ons section in your admin panel. 
2. In the Downloaded Add-ons menu, find the Landing pages from Tilda add-on and activate it.
3. Copy and paste public and private API keys in the spaces provided.
4. Complete settings.

Now, your page will appear in the Website → Pages. Here you may choose a needed layout and connect it to a running project. 

Key add-on features:

• Simple synchronization with CS-Cart.
• Ability to remove or connect ready-made pages.
• Tools to embed landing pages into individual blocks.

Connecting your Tilda account to CS-Cart with API

4. VIP Black Friday User Groups: Reward Your Loyal Customers

Creating VIP user groups for Black Friday promotion can help you build stronger relationships with your most loyal customers. The most effective way to engage is to offer exclusive deals or early access to sales. These steps will encourage them to spend more.

Why Use Black Friday VIP Groups

• Exclusive Access: Let your loyal buyers stay ahead. Giving VIP customers early access to sales lets them shop before the general public. It makes them feel valued and increases the chances of early sales. This strategy also creates a sense of exclusivity.
• Personalized Offers: Bring personalized offers specifically tailored to VIP customers. When configuring this Black Friday promotion type, consider their previous purchase history and sales data. It will make your marketing campaigns more relevant and appealing. Besides, this increases engagement and encourages repeat purchases.
• Loyalty Discounts: Offer larger discounts to reward your VIPs’ loyalty. Encourage them to return and shop more frequently. This helps build long-term customer relationships and enhances retention.

CS-Cart Black Friday Tools You Might Need

Splitting your customers into groups is a powerful tool for eCommerce promotion. It allows you to offer personalized experiences and target your marketing more effectively. For example, you can set different prices for each group, which is useful for rewarding loyal customers or offering exclusive deals to new ones.

With CS-Cart, you can also control what shipping and payment options each group sees, and offer group-specific discounts. This flexibility helps you create tailored promotions, improving customer satisfaction and increasing sales by catering to different customer needs and preferences.

To create a new user group in CS-Cart, you need to do the following:

1. Go to Customers → User groups in the Administration panel.
2. Click the + button, enter a name for the group, set the type to Customer, and click Create.
3. Go to Customers → Customers and select a customer’s profile.
4. In the User groups tab, set the status to Active for the group you created.
5. After assigning the group, confirm the changes to finalize the setup.

Activating a VIP user group for a customer

Set Rewards for Customer Groups

With Reward Points add-on, administrators may grant points for purchasing specific products or categories. And it is you who decides when and how buyers will earn those points. CS-Cart lets you easily set specific conditions that define the number of points customers can get.

Administrators can enable or disable the option to pay for a specific product with points that are set automatically or individually for each product. Customers can use earned points for new purchases or get a discount during checkout.

Setting reward points value for a VIP user group

5. Black Friday Deals and Product Compilations and Lists: Create Attractive Collections

Product bundles and curated lists are a great way to showcase your best deals and guide customers to what they want to buy. They can help you highlight specific product categories for Black Friday.

How to Create Effective Black Friday Deals and Product Compilations

• Themed Collections: Create product groups like “Top Black Friday Deals” or “Best Gifts Under $50” to guide shoppers toward curated selections. These collections make it easier for customers to find relevant deals quickly.
• Highlight Bestsellers: Featuring best-selling items in a dedicated list draws attention to popular products. It increases trust and encourages more purchases. Shoppers often feel more confident buying items that others are already choosing.
• Seasonal Bundles: Offer specially curated bundles of products that align with Black Friday sales and online shopping trends. These bundles provide added value and convenience, making it more attractive for loyal customers to purchase multiple items at once.

CS-Cart Black Friday Tools You Might Need

• Category Editing: You can add unlimited child categories within each bigger category. These subcategories can also have their own subs. CS-Cart functionality lets you easily add new categories, set their properties, edit or delete them, when the promotion is over.
• Bestsellers & On-Sale Products: add-on allows you to showcase bestsellers, discounted, and new products on your storefront. You can set a minimum discount percentage for products to appear on the Final Sale page. You can also define a minimum sales amount to classify products as Bestsellers. The Newest section lets you display recently added products, with options to show items added on Any date, Today, or within the Last Days period. This add-on helps highlight key product categories to attract customer attention.

Creating a new product bundle in CS-Cart

Final Tips

Preparing for Black Friday requires strategic planning and effective promotional steps. You should focus on creating engaging ad banners, running targeted promotions, and optimizing landing pages to convert visitors.

VIP user groups, personalized offers, improved filtering, and well-curated product lists can make your Black Friday campaign a success.

With this Black Friday checklist, your online store or marketplace will be ready to attract more buyers and maximize sales.

Our Customer Care team is ready to help and get your online store ready for the Black Friday showdown. Feel free to contact us via Help Desk.

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