The Impact Black Friday & Cyber Monday Have on E-commerce and How to Prepare for the Big Hit
♪Shopping, shopping time is here♪
Black Friday and Cyber Monday are right around the corner and your e-commerce business must be prepared as it is expected to be one of the biggest year yet in history. Considered to be the largest online shopping weekend of the year, more and more people resort to online purchases instead of in-stores. Can you blame them with this year’s cold?! And let’s be honest, shopping in the comfort of your home is priceless. It is warm, you do not have to look for parking, spend money on gas, no line ups at the cash and you can shop at any time of the day. That said businesses must be prepared for an aggressive increase in traffic on their website. The success of this weekend depends solely on how ready you are.
Attract, attract, attract
Contrary to department store, online business can display a wider selection of products. Don’t be afraid to create special landing pages for the occasion with bold attracting colours, great deals and Christmas oriented as many web surfers will be already be on the hunt for Christmas gifts deals. Thoroughly optimized landing pages that target specific search terms will guarantee you some visibility on search engines.
Check your software
The last thing you need is a traffic jam on your website. It is essential to be certain that you can hold a large amount of members at the same time on your server. This is very easily done by your system administrator or by your hosting provider. While you are in there, also make sure your client’s personal information is protected and that there are no possible way for anyone to steal this data. Your business could suffer immensely. You can also do your research on which computer device your customers shop on. For example, IBM did a research on performance by device comparing last year’s shopping tendencies.
Stay ahead of your competition
It is essential to do your homework when it comes to pricing as it is very easy for a consumer to compare prices with the click of a mouse. Obviously you do not own a crystal ball and cannot predict what their prices will be, but you can certainly offer great incentives for choosing to buy at your business such as; free shipping. This can be an exceptional gift from you to your consumers. Black Friday and Cyber Monday will generate a lot of sales and deals are expected therefore, you should consider this incentive. This will be a huge factor in the decision making of the buyer. Also it would be best not to force any customer to create an account, give details, etc. Offer them the choice of an easy checkout.
Select product > Proceed to Checkout > Pay > Shipping Address > Done
Keep them coming back
Offer interesting email subscriptions filled with deals and specials. This is an easy way to gather emails for newsletters. It must be simple short and straight to the point in order to keep the user interested. As easy it is to arrive to your website, as easy it is to leave and not come back because of a memory of an exhaustive quiz before shopping.
Be interactive on your Social Medias. Offers special deals with the promo code (Facebook) or (Twitter), create fun contests with fun prizes, etc.
Now you have your guide to help visually and technically attract your audience as well as assure no software issues in the shopping process. You also have key points to stay ahead of your competitors and the how to’s to keep your customers coming back. In hopes that your Black Friday and Cyber Monday are a huge success!
The author
Mayghann Doyle is an earned media analyst at iProspect. Her passion for learning new things meshes well in this continually evolving marketing field. When she is not writing articles or optimizing websites, she is usually at a Jazz lounge enjoying some tunes.
