How to maximise sales this Afterpay Day
Tips and tactics to drive meaningful results this Afterpay Day.
The countdown is on. Soon, more than a million1 customers will start shopping Afterpay Day. Which means that just as soon many brands and retailers will enjoy a revenue bump.
But driving sales during Afterpay Day takes more than simply announcing your offer and waiting for the customers to roll in. Here are our top tips to drive meaningful results during Afterpay Day…
Start planning for Afterpay Day early
It might seem obvious, but it pays to make an Afterpay Day strategy – and to make it early.
That way, you’ll have enough time to craft a compelling offer (read more on this below) and promote it before the event begins.
Remember: you can start promoting your offer (or, if you prefer, your participation in Afterpay Day) from March 10 onwards.
Leverage all your channels
For the best results, use multiple channels to promote your Afterpay Day offer. “You have to use all your marketing channels,” says Laura Li of UGGExpress, which promotes Afterpay Day via email campaigns, social media and a home page takeover.
Keep your Afterpay Day offer clear
When creating promotional assets like social media posts and emails, ensure your offer is communicated clearly. Inboxes and social media feeds are crowded spaces and your (likely time-poor) customers need to understand your promotion at a glance.
TIP
Don’t have a graphic designer on staff to create social media posts about Afterpay Day? Don’t worry. We’ve compiled a range of customisable templates that make creating social media posts and emails simple here.
Look back on last year
Last year’s data is a great place to start for this year’s strategy. For example, consider:
- Which Afterpay Day emails performed the best and worst – and why? (Hint: look at subject lines, send times and content.)
- Was your abandoned cart rate high? Is there anything you could tweak to bring this down? (For example, free shipping above a certain price.)
- What search terms led customers to your website? Can you boost your search engine optimisation for these terms?
- What performed better – online or in-store? Is there anything you could do to improve either?
Start collecting customer reviews now
Customer reviews are a tried and tested way to convert customers, and they can also help drive sales during Afterpay Day. If you’re considering incorporating customer reviews into your Afterpay Day promotional strategy, start collecting them early. One way to generate a stockpile of reviews is to incentivise customers with loyalty points or a discount off their next purchase.
Automate (nearly) everything!
Work smarter not harder by identifying opportunities for automation during Afterpay Day. Automated emails can be sent to shoppers when they’ve abandoned their cart or simply spent time browsing your site without adding anything to their cart to remind them to return to your website to complete their purchase.
Similarly, automated emails can be sent to customers once they’ve purchased to request a product review (which can later be used as a customer testimonial and sales tool).
How to win new customers this Afterpay Day
Afterpay Day is a great way to reach new customers; in fact, last year, 732 customers shopped with a new merchant every minute. Here are our tips to increase your chances of connecting with new customers during Afterpay Day…
Invest in paid advertising
Customers could well be searching for your products in the days and weeks leading up to Afterpay Day. (In fact, last year 361,000 consumers3 searched for the word “Afterpay” during Afterpay Day.) The big question is whether they’ll find your brand – or your competitor’s.
Want to stand out? Consider pay-per-click (PPC) advertising to amplify your Afterpay Day offer. “During promotional periods we put a lot more budget towards PPC Google ads, which we’ve found can be really good for short-term events like sales,” says Vanessa Chui of Boori, which takes part in Afterpay Day every year.
Yes, there’s costs associated with paid advertising – and some of the buyers who attract will be “one-time” bargain hunters. But others could turn out to be valuable long-term customers.
Influencer campaigns or social media advertising are other ways to amplify your offer.
Build your organic audience early
Don’t want to spend on paid advertising? Focus on customers who have entered your marketing funnel but haven’t yet purchased. After all, an attractive Afterpay Day offer could be enough to get them over the line.
Supercharge this strategy by filling your funnel as much as possible before Afterpay Day. Social media competitions, giveaways and discounts for new email subscribers are all ways to help grow your audience ahead of Afterpay Day – and ultimately convert more browsers into buyers. You could even persuade social media followers to sign up to your newsletter to secure first access to your Afterpay Day deal.
Remember to include Afterpay in your promotion
It might sound obvious but don’t forget to remind customers they can pay with Afterpay in any Afterpay Day promotions. For budget-conscious customers, the opportunity to pay in instalments while also taking advantage of a discount or promotion, can be enough to close the sale.
How to increase basket size during Afterpay Day
Want to drive up your average order value (AOV) during Afterpay Day? Consider these tips...
Up-sell to increase AOV
Encouraging customers to purchase higher-end products (up-selling) is one way to increase basket size.
Online, this might involve offering customers free shipping if they spend more. In-store, staff need an in-depth understanding of your product range in order to recommend more valuable options.
Want to train your staff in up-selling? Start by checking out these tips included in our e-learning module.
Cross-sell to boost basket size
Cross-selling is another way to boost revenue – this time by recommending a complementary product. For example, a shoe salesperson might recommend purchasing a pair of socks with their footwear purchase.
Online, the key to cross-selling is artificial intelligence (AI) tools that offer automated sales suggestions, such as “related products you might like” or “people who buy this, usually buy this”.
In-store, cross-selling, like up-selling, comes down to sales staff establishing a rapport with their customer and making useful recommendations.
Offer bundle discounts
Make larger purchases more appealing by grouping together multiple products into a bundle. Consider which products are typically bought together and create convenient one-click bundles. Alternatively, consider bundling old stock with fresh products to emphasise value.
How to craft a compelling Afterpay Day offer
Start with a strong offer
A successful Afterpay Day campaign starts with a strong offer or discount. Afterpay data shows that “percentage off” discounts (for example, 20% off a product) perform significantly better than any other type of offer, across all types of businesses.
Take advantage of Afterpay’s assets
Every year, we create a toolkit featuring customisable assets, from social media posts to email templates, to help you promote your offer. You can find everything you need here.
Target key shoppers
While a blanket promotion of your Afterpay Day offer is a great place to start, it’s worth identifying your key shopping demographics and identifying which types of messaging and creative, and which channels, will engage them.
Look through Google Analytics to pinpoint the location, age and demographic of your shoppers and consider whether your promotion (and your Afterpay Day campaign) will engage them. This is especially important if you’re considering paid advertising.
All references to any registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Afterpay does not endorse or recommend any one particular supplier and the information provided is for educational purposes only.
Sources: 1: Afterpay August 2024 data 2: Afterpay Day August data 2024 3: Afterpay Day August data 2024
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