Eric Javits

 Industry: Apparel and Accessories         Platform: Shopify

‍

About the Brand

Eric Javits is an online store that sells premium apparel and accessories for women and men.  

The legacy brand's claim to fame is in its unique and patented durable braiding technique, which makes for its trademark of high fashion that does not crack under pressure.

Having successfully combined intelligent design and luxury, Eric Javits is a brand sought-after by celebrities and a diverse fashion-forward clientele.

The Challenge

The client signed up for eCom Maniacs BFCM Offer with the following objectives in mind:

• Stabilize revenue as it fluctuated from month to month;
• Optimize flows and update them according to BFCM 2021;
• Develop a robust plan for the BFCM 2021 Sale with offers;
• Prevent a sale downturn in the winter months (the weakest market for the brand) by increasing BFCM sales;
• Reduce unsubscribe rates, bounce rates, and low open rates due to the lack of segmentation;
• Update automated flows so they are on-brand in design and copy.

Before BFCM

‍

‍

After eCom Maniacs

‍

‍

Open rates increased by 20.66% over the last 30 days. Average click rate also increased by 2.64% in the last 30 days.

Wanna know how we did it? Check out our BFCM Playbook after the jump.

‍

OUR BFCM PLAYBOOK

Pre-BFCM Segmentation

In preparation for BFCM, we sent different content to different segments throughout the month of October. This helped maximize email placement during the high sale season.

Advanced Acquisition Strategy

We used the weeks before the holidays to increase excitement and acquire potential shoppers by using scarcity, urgency, and a strategically placed valuable offer.

● Subscribe to Early Access - Targeted VIP customers or net new profiles and asked them to opt-in to receive BFCM discounts before the rest of the regular subscribers.

● Subscribe to SMS - “Join our SMS list and never miss a deal!” or “Join our SMS list for an exclusive BFCM offer!”

● Subscribe to Exclusive Content - For those looking to educate subscribers before the holidays, “Get our healthy holiday cookbook” “Get our guide on how to save for the holidays.”

Offers

Instead of relying on a typical 50% off discount for Black Friday Campaigns, we provided a range of high-value offers that the client could choose from, in accordance with which option would suit the business best:

Bundle Deals

This offer is best for businesses with multiple SKUs. A bundle is usually comprised of best sellers or a combination of flagship and new products sold as a single package at a collective rate.

Long-Term Discounts

Instead of discounting products or services for one-off purchases, customers can be encouraged to sign up for a yearly or monthly subscription at a significantly lower price. This forms the basis for various VIP programs.

BOGO (Buy One, Get One)

A classic, where the customer gets two products for the price of one.

Holiday Perks

These perks are often cyclical and seasonal in nature. The offers usually go live in time for major holiday events. Some examples include free shipping, free gift wrapping, and guaranteed delivery date.

Loyalty Perks

Loyalty offers, such as cash-back and rewards points, provide customers with incentives and benefits and may help foster long-lasting B2C relationships. In fact, 78% of buyers are more likely to buy from a company that offers a loyalty program.

Creative Offers

Offers that are typically customized to the business' production and inventory pipeline schedule. Some examples include "Kick-off the Season Sale," "Early Bird Sale," "VIP Access Sale," and so on.

‍Here are other types of offer structures you can use for BFCM:‍

• Flat % off
• Flat $ off
• Tiered % or $ off
• Gift With Purchase
• Free Shipping
• Buy 1 Get 1
• Price Change Offer

‍A Multi-Channel Strategy

eCom Maniacs recommend a multichannel approach as it is the most effective way to engage with prospects and maintain top of mind with consumers through a variety of platforms.

What we recommended:

• Warm-up cold traffic in October and early November before the Cost Per Impression (CPM) spikes as BFCM approaches
• Launch primer Campaigns 21 days prior to Black Friday
• Decide on, and roll out, discount Campaigns
• Host offers on a dedicated landing page

The Dedicated Landing Page

A BFCM-dedicated landing page was essential to converting traffic for this project for the following reasons:

A clear and concise message allowed us to funnel the audience to a page solely focused on a single message/call to action.

A straightforward UX design helped visitors stay focused on the goal rather than distracted by numerous links leading them away from the page.

A focused landing page allowed for quick loading time. The average person takes only 3 seconds to decide whether they will remain on a web page and explore its content.

The targeted focus on the unique selling points helped highlight the offer's key benefits.

A countdown timer encouraged a sense of urgency and created FOMO (fear of missing out). This tool grabs users' attention and functions as a highly-effective scroll stopper.

Black Friday weekend is one of the busiest shopping periods. So, capture customers' attention with bold banners showing off your giveaways, offers, and exclusive deals.

The Email Flows

Otherwise known as the bread and butter of the eCom Maniacs BFCM strategy. Our email Flows are designed to deliver persuasive messaging that helps increase audience engagement.

Here's our simple but effective formula:

1. A header that highlights seasonal deals
2. A template that you can swap out in high volume/high engagement Flows (Welcome, Abandoned Cart, Browse Abandonment, etc.)
3. Decreased time delays for Abandonment Flows (from 2 hours → 30 minutes)
4. Updated subject lines to call out deals, add urgency, and highlight scarcity
5. Countdown timers
6. If someone viewed many pages, appeal to their indecision — if you offer gift cards, consider this option for a Browse Abandonment email: “How about a last-minute gift card?”

The eCom Maniacs 6-Step BFCM Sequence

Based on our market research and data insights, we predict that BFCM shopping will kick off earlier and last longer each coming year.

With almost half of all consumers purchasing early, we predict that more and more deals will appear earlier and extend well beyond December 24th.

A quick Google search for “Black Friday 2021” serves up plenty of content offering “early” deals to shoppers, many of whom are eager to get their hands on items that were in short supply in 2021 due to the market disruptions of 2020.

‍

In this regard, we strategized and created a 6-Step BFCM Email Sequence:

The Hype Builder

We started with a timely launch of “warm-up Campaigns," such as Testimonial and Win-Back Campaigns.

Testimonials are a form of social proof and are an effective marketing tactic for several reasons. Social proof is powerful due to the motivating force known as the bandwagon effect, a social-psychological concept that states that people are more likely to engage in action if others are already doing it.

Previously unengaged customers feel assured by the testimonials of people just like them.

In this right, Eric Javits can begin building trust and encourage new customers to buy from them with confidence.

Aside from social proof, the main objective of these Campaigns was to notify unengaged subscribers about Eric Javits' upcoming Black Friday sale.

We followed the social proof series with more BCFM teasers to build hype. The teasers were released until November 22nd, when the BFCM sale officially began.

‍

Priority List

The BFCM teasers were complemented by an Early Access Popup lead magnet that launched 3 days before the Black Friday sale.

This was scheduled to go out fiveive days before the main event. For this sequence, opt-ins are encouraged.

In Eric Javits' case, we offered early access to the BFCM sale.

This strategy entices prospective customers and plays on FOMO. The Early Access opt-in allowed exclusive access to those who signed up a full 24 hours before the main Black Friday sale.

On the back end, eCom Maniacs slightly updated the existing Popup and Abandoned Cart Flows by removing all ongoing discounts.

We did this to make sure of two things:

• That we were still collecting email subscribers with an attractive BFCM deal
• That we were protecting the client's revenue health by ensuring we weren’t offering unsustainable discounts, given the incoming BFCM offers.

Priority Launch

This sequence was scheduled to go out a day before the general launch with messaging that reminded the customer of their wise decision to sign up and thanked them for doing so.

More importantly, this sequence highlighted the reward of a VIP-only discount to emphasize that this was an exclusive perk made available only to a select few.

To cap things off, we included an expiration date for the VIP discount to inspire immediate action.

Main Launch

The main launch was released on the sale day.

We segmented the client's list according to interest, price sensitivity, customer value, and level of engagement. In addition, we prioritized Eric Javits' most engaged segments since they would likely bring the best results.

The email highlights the offer and the duration of the sale. For this sequence, we highly recommend showcasing best-selling products.

Social Reminder

This email's purpose is to remind customers that the sale is ending.

At this stage, we continued to use urgency by including a countdown timer. This would provide an extra push that would encourage the customer to take action and participate in the sale if they hadn't yet.

One unique feature of this email sequence is that it also highlights social proof - through testimonials or the power of numbers (or, in this case, how many customers had purchased throughout the sale).

Sales Closing

Think of this sequence as a "last call." This final email highlights the sense of urgency on the last day of the sale.

Here, we re-emphasize the discounts, indicate product scarcity, and include positive customer reviews.

Wondering what this BFCM strategy looked like? Here is the email schedule we developed for our client:

THE END RESULT

The numbers say it all. eCom Maniacs' collaboration with Eric Javits increased Business Revenue for the company by over 100% within just 1 month.

Even more impactful is that this massive revenue increase came during what would've been the leanest sales month for their business.

The graph below shows the sharp increase in revenue from October to November, when the client began services with eCom Maniacs.

With regard to email Campaigns, we experienced excellent performance across the board—from high Click Rates to increased Open Rates.

‍

Ready to talk strategy?

If you are serious about hitting record-breaking sales with retention marketing, contact us for a strategy call, where we'll share the most effective and advanced strategies we're using.