How are you preparing for Black Friday sales surge?

[Criterion_WA]

Katana, the ERP we use connected to Shopify just posted some cool stats on Black Friday and that got me thinking already about the spike in sales that comes soon.

Last year we got caught short on some stock which has a 6 week lead time (intl. container stuff). This year I think our inventory will survive but my boss wants to double down on BF this year with even more promotions.

What are you doing now to prepare for Black Friday? 
What are the best apps out there that can help manage things, especially from email marketing standpoint? 
Any other good tips? 

Cheers! 

[Daniel]

Hi there, @Criterion_WA! 

Welcome to the Community! Definitely a great place to gather some input regarding anything about the platform! Definitely a great idea to gather some insight regarding how other businesses are preparing for Black Friday!

Our Marketing Team has compiled a microsite containing all sorts of juicy BFCM content, including webinars, suggested reading, and various analytics tools. 

We also have this great blog post that provides you with a checklist to ensure you folks are fully prepared for this BFCM weekend. 

Feel free to also share more about your business and product as this can also give us more options on how to help you prepare for this sale season. 

Looking forward to hearing more from you. 

[Criterion_WA]

Thanks Daniel! 

The content links you sent are very helpful overall thanks very much! 

What I'm looking for is a more powerful email marketing app than Shopify Email. I found that that one didn't have enough power to segment audiences last time I tried it, maybe I'll try again and see if it's there. 

We sell to different types of customers, e.g. from architects to builders to sub-contractors and I'm looking for an email marketing tool that integrates with Shopify and best-in-class... of course happy to pay for such a thing. 

Looking for any recommendations of favs people have to start my research? 

Cheers! 

[Daniel]

Thanks for the added information, @Criterion_WA. 

Check out some of these highly rated apps (and most reviewed) from the Shopify App Store that can help you in this email marketing query: 

• Privy ‑ Pop Ups, Email, & SMS : this app allows advanced targeting to deliver the right message to the right visitor on your store.
• Email Marketing by CM Commerce : this app is an email campaign builder with powerful segmentation that gives you access to your customer's purchase, demographic, preference, and engagement data.
• Seguno: Email Marketing : a marketing app specifically made to work seamlessly with your Shopify admin. 

These are only some of the choices from the app store. Definitely give these a look over and try to see how it works to what you are looking for then we can go from there. 

I look forward to hearing more from you and assisting you further in this.