Reviewed and updated for BFCM 2018.
As you ready your Shopify theme for Black Friday and Cyber Monday, affectionately known as BFCM, one great way to add special content promoting sales or products for this busy holiday shopping season is to use the power of Shopify sections.
All of the latest versions of Out of the Sandbox’s Shopify themes come stocked with numerous options for sections, but here are some great ways to use the drag-and-drop feature to sprinkle in new messaging and marketing for the holidays:
- Slideshow: Use one or more slide to promote any sales, specials or new and featured products. Because Shopify allows you to easily change the order of slides and remove or add slides, it’s easy to add a temporary slide for the holiday and then replace or update it later.
- Logo List: If your store or products have been featured in any holiday shopping guides or lookbooks, consider adding the publication or site logos here. Alternatively, the logo list is also a great way to get a high number of special offers or featured content into a relatively small amount of space.
- Image with text: This section is a great way to add a larger, more eye-catching promo to spotlight products or offers. Use the built in call to action button to encourage clicks.
- Testimonials: In addition to being used to spotlight general or holiday-specific testimonials, this section can also be used as an easy way to create an alternative promotion look.
- Featured promotions: As the name implies, these sections are a great way to quickly add BFCM promotions to your site, but are also a great way to spotlight product features and other content.
- Rich type and image: This section is a fast and easy way to add a last minute promotion. Since it can be text only or have an optional image, it’s an easy way to quickly add special messaging or promotions without needing to rely on an image or designer.
- Page section: These sections give you the flexibility to add more advanced custom layouts to your page (link). Use them to create holiday themed featurettes on your homepage, gift guides or spotlight specific holiday themed blog posts using the column framework to create dynamic layouts (link).
- Contact: Make it easy for customers with questions to contact you right from the homepage with this form based section. It’s also a good idea to include alternate contact methods, including a phone number if available.
- Search section: Strategically placing a search box on your homepage can be a great way to grab shoppers who might have scrolled through all the content your homepage has to offer but haven’t found what they are looking for.
- Featured collections and products: Use these sections to spotlight products most likely to attract the attention of BFCM crowds, as well as prime gift-giving opportunities that shoppers will be looking for.
- Advanced product layouts: You can also use product.details to create advanced product page layouts for your most popular products, giving you more freedom to highlight features and tell your story to draw shoppers into and encourage them to buy. If you’re pressed for time, create a single advanced layout that tells your company’s story and spotlights overall advantages of buying from you and add it to every product page on your site. If you need more than one unique product layout, you can change some code to make that happen.
