Test Your Shopify BFCM Strategy Before the Rush

BFCM are the busiest shopping events of the year. Shopify merchants must prepare early to maximize their sales potential. Testing your strategy before the rush begins allows you to avoid costly mistakes, streamline your operations, and ensure a seamless shopping experience when traffic surges. 

With a well-tested strategy in place, you can reduce cart abandonment, increase conversion rates, and provide a superior customer experience. In this blog, we will walk you through how to test your BFCM strategy using essential Shopify apps like Shopify Coupon Discount on Cart and Custom Size Price Calculator to boost sales and optimize performance.

Why Do You Need to Test Your Shopify BFCM Strategy?

Testing your Shopify BFCM strategy is a critical step that separates top-performing stores from those that struggle. By running tests, you ensure that your discounts, website functionality, checkout process, and customer experience are ready for high volumes of traffic. This proactive approach helps identify potential bottlenecks and areas of improvement before they impact your BFCM sales performance.

Testing also allows you to gauge how well your discount offers resonate with your target audience, ensuring that you maximize the effectiveness of your marketing efforts. Ultimately, the goal is to reduce friction in the buying process and provide a smooth, enjoyable shopping experience for customers during one of the busiest times of the year.

Step 1: Review Your Discount Strategy

Discounts are a cornerstone of BFCM success. However, without a carefully thought-out strategy, they can hurt your profit margins. Before the rush, review your discounting approach to make sure it aligns with your revenue and profitability goals. Offering too many discounts can erode your profits, while too few may fail to attract customers.

Start by experimenting with different types of discounts, such as percentage-based discounts, buy-one-get-one (BOGO) offers, or tiered discounts. Use apps like Shopify Coupon Discount on Cart to display available discount codes directly on the cart page, which helps customers apply discounts more easily and reduces abandonment.

Key Considerations

• Customers expect bigger discounts during BFCM. Consider offering up to 50% off to stay competitive.
• Ensure your discounts are sustainable and do not cut too deeply into your margins.
• Use time-limited offers or flash sales to create urgency and encourage faster purchases.

Related Apps

• Discounted Pricing by HulkApps is ideal for offering volume-based discounts to customers who buy in bulk.
• Bold Discounts automates discount scheduling, so you can easily set up and remove offers during BFCM.

Step 2: Set Up Automatic Discounts

Automatic discounts are a powerful way to encourage larger purchases and boost average order value (AOV). Customers appreciate the simplicity of automatic discounts because they don’t have to remember or manually input discount codes during checkout.

With Shopify Coupon Discount on Cart, you can configure automatic discounts that apply when customers meet certain conditions, such as spending a specific amount or adding particular products to their cart. This removes friction from the buying process, making it easier for customers to complete their purchases.

Benefits of Automatic Discounts

• Automatic discounts simplify the checkout experience, reducing the chances of cart abandonment.
• Encourage customers to spend more by offering discounts when they hit a certain cart value threshold.
• Reduce the hesitation around applying codes and ensure customers see their savings instantly.

Related Apps

• Ultimate Special Offers provides a range of discount options including automatic discounts, BOGO deals, and more.
• Shopify Automatic Discounts allows you to create basic automatic discount rules.

Step 3: Test Your Pricing

If your store sells products that are customized by size or measurement, ensuring that your pricing is accurate is essential during BFCM. The Custom Size Price Calculator is perfect for merchants offering personalized or made-to-measure products. It automatically calculates the price based on product dimensions, so customers can see the exact cost before checking out.

During BFCM, many customers shop for gifts or specialty items. If they see incorrect or unclear pricing, they may leave without completing their purchase. Testing this feature ensures you provide an accurate and transparent shopping experience.

Advantages of Custom Pricing Tools

• Customers know exactly what they’re paying for custom-sized items, reducing confusion or surprise charges at checkout.
• Prevent pricing errors that could lead to reduced profit margins or customer dissatisfaction.
• By offering clear and accurate pricing, customers are more likely to trust your store and complete their purchase.

Related Apps

• Wholesale Pricing Discount allows you to offer tiered pricing for bulk or wholesale orders.
• Advanced Product Options provides detailed product customization options with real-time price updates.

Step 4: Check Your Store’s Load Speed

Load speed is a critical factor for BFCM success. If your store takes longer than 3 seconds to load, you could lose a significant portion of visitors. With the high traffic levels expected during BFCM, a slow store can lead to frustration and abandoned carts. Before BFCM, use tools like Shopify’s speed analyzer or apps to test and optimize your store’s performance.

How to Improve Load Speed?

• Compress and reduce image sizes without compromising quality to improve loading times.
• Too many apps or plugins can slow down your site. Remove unnecessary ones before BFCM.
• Ensure that returning customers have a faster experience by caching static resources.

Related Apps

• TinyIMG SEO & Image Optimizer automatically compresses images for faster page loads.
• Flash- PageSpeed identifies performance bottlenecks and provides suggestions to improve page speed.

Step 5: Optimize for Mobile Devices

A significant portion of Shopify traffic comes from mobile devices—over 70%, to be exact. With more customers shopping on mobile, you need to ensure your store is mobile-friendly and provides a smooth user experience. Test how your store looks and functions on different devices, including smartphones and tablets.

Key Mobile Optimization Tips

• Ensure your Shopify theme adjusts seamlessly to different screen sizes.
• Test your checkout on mobile to ensure there are no issues, such as hard-to-click buttons or input errors.
• Mobile users expect fast load times. Ensure your store loads within 2-3 seconds on mobile.

Related Apps 

• Shopify Mobile App Builder builds a mobile app version of your Shopify store to enhance the mobile shopping experience.
• Tapcart creates a custom mobile app for your store, offering a seamless mobile shopping experience.

Step 6: Evaluate Your Cart Abandonment Solutions

Cart abandonment is a common issue during BFCM as customers may compare multiple stores or delay their purchases. Reducing cart abandonment is crucial for maximizing sales. One way to combat this is by showing available discounts directly on the cart page using Shopify Coupon Discount on Cart. Additionally, set up exit-intent popups or recovery emails to encourage customers to complete their purchases.

Proven Strategies to Reduce Cart Abandonment

• Use popups triggered when customers try to leave the site to offer them an additional discount or incentive.
• Send timely email reminders to customers with items left in their cart, possibly with a discount or free shipping offer.
• Make sure shipping costs are transparent early in the checkout process to avoid unpleasant surprises.

Related Apps 

• Klaviyo creates automated email campaigns to recover abandoned carts and increase sales.
• ReConvert Upsell & Cross-Sell adds post-purchase upsells and thank-you pages to enhance the customer journey.

Step 7: Test Payment Methods and Shipping Options

One of the last steps before launching your BFCM strategy is testing your store’s payment gateways and shipping options. Customers expect a range of payment options, including credit cards, PayPal, and Shopify Payments. Double-check that all payment methods work smoothly and test your shipping configurations to ensure rates are accurate.

Important Areas to Test

• Test every payment method to avoid issues at checkout.
• Ensure shipping options and costs are clearly displayed and accurate for all regions.
• The checkout process should be seamless, with no delays or error messages.

Related Apps 

• Shopify Payments integrates Shopify’s payment solution for seamless checkout.
• ShipStation automates shipping processes, label creation, and fulfillment.

Step 8: Test Analytics and Reporting Tools

Finally, ensure your analytics and reporting tools are working properly. Real-time analytics allow you to monitor the performance of your store during BFCM. Shopify’s built-in analytics offer valuable insights into traffic, conversion rates, and sales trends. Additionally, you can integrate third-party tools to get more in-depth reporting on customer behavior, email marketing, and abandoned carts.

Key Metrics to Monitor:

• Keep an eye on how much traffic is converting into actual sales.
• Track how many visitors abandon their carts and which steps are causing them to leave.
• Measure how well your discounts and upsell strategies are increasing the average order value.

Related Apps 

• Google Analytics for deeper insights into customer behavior and site performance.
• Fera to boost social proof and track customer interactions.

Conclusion

Testing your Shopify BFCM strategy is a must to ensure you’re ready for the high volume of traffic and orders that will come your way. By leveraging apps like Shopify Coupon Discount on Cart and Custom Size Price Calculator, you can optimize your discounts, pricing, and overall store experience for maximum success during BFCM.