Cyber Monday is the day retailers love and hate. They love the huge revenue potential, but hate the pressure to perform.
However, the phenomenon is now a well-established consumer holiday, so it's important to avoid a technical meltdown. And even if your site is stable and responsive, there are still ways to grow your sales on Cyber Monday.
See also: 14 Tips to Avoid Cyber Monday Scams
Assuming you’ve got the basics in place, these seven practices can maximize sales in this critical period.
Trends and fashions develop fast during this intense shopping movement. The latest gift craze or must-have toy can change in a matter of hours. If you want to maximize sales, track activity in real time and respond in immediately with creative merchandising and offers. If you’re only reviewing analytics occasionally, you’re going to miss a trick. And if your competitors see the trends first, you could lose out badly.
Weather can have a huge impact on shopping habits at any time of year, but it's particularly important during the holiday season. Simple trends, such as increased reliance on online shopping during heavy snow, can be leveraged to drive sales. More subtly, a colder than normal holiday period will lead to increased demand for wintry gifts, which you can match through creative marketing and product presentation.
Offline stores have long taken it for granted that they serve local shoppers, not some imaginary national archetype. After all, a shopper in California might have a different gift list from one in New York, and you’ve got to recognize and respond to those demands. But the ability to serve different sites to users in different locations is a must if you want to increase your conversions over this competitive period.
Holiday shopping is one of the least focused retail missions of the year; shoppers roam virtual aisles in search of the ideal gift. Therefore, it's the time of year when retailers can influence a shopping mission through content and merchandizing. Preparing creative and colorful gift guides via video or text can help the confused shopper make his retail choices on your site, rather than your competitor's.
With the lack of shopper focus, basket abandonment can be a real issue; indecisive shoppers put products in their virtual baskets before heading elsewhere, many times without completing the purchase. However, abandonment doesn’t necessarily mean a lost customer — follow up with registered users via email. On-screen messages might jog their memory, too, reminding them to come back and complete their shopping journey.
Cyber Monday shoppers aren’t necessarily a single-channel phenomenon. Online shopping is becoming ever more a dual-channel experience. Align your marketing and offers between your on- and offline presences to ensure shoppers get the same experience and value wherever they interact with you. If a user sees a product on special offer in your store, they’ll expect the same when they go to your website. A failure to deliver could cost a valuable sale.
Delivery times are most critical around the holiday season, as shoppers will only purchase those products that will arrive in plenty of time for the big day. Clear and concise delivery information is good retail hygiene any time of year, but on Cyber Monday it's critical. Give your shoppers clear, accurate and regularly updated information about when products will arrive and you’ll clear a significant retail hurdle.
Clearly, the intense pressure on every retailer around Cyber Monday means a huge amount of effort goes into just staying afloat and keeping everything going. However, if you’re well-prepared and have the infrastructure to cope with the seasonal surge, spending some of your time on these simple tricks can boost your sales and make it a holiday to remember.
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Graham Cooke is CEO of QuBit, a Customer Experience Management (CXM) platform provider. He was previously a senior product manager at Google.