Are you ready for the busiest ecommerce shopping day of the year?
Holiday shopping season is just about to kickoff and it’s going to start with the most important date when online consumers go on a shopping spree. Gear up for this year’s Cyber Monday (December 2nd). As per the stats and forecast by Adobe, it seems this year’s Cyber Monday is going to set a record in the history of ecommerce sales. As per their estimation this year’s Cyber Monday shopping will be up by 15 percent and US Cyber Monday spending would cross $2.27 billion whereas last year it was an estimated $1.5billion.
Also as per Adobe’s Digital Index 2013 Online Shopping Forecast mobile ecommerce in Europe alone would be up by 68%. Here’s an illustration by Adobe showing the highest predicted growth in ecommerce sales during Holiday season this year.
So now that you know the predicted figures you should buckle up for the virtual rush, shouldn’t you?
With less than two weeks in hand it’s still not late yet. Optimizing your store for better performance and speed to handle the holiday rush and along with embracing a few strategies can give you an edge over your competitors this Cyber Monday.
So here are some tips that will help you prepare your ecommerce store for maximizing profits this Cyber Monday.
Expand Bandwidth:
Is your online store capable of handling a huge rush? The traffic to your site will be increasing by quite a number of times than it is usually on this Cyber Monday. Customers get highly annoyed if your store fails to cope with the heavy traffic due to lack of enough bandwidth. Speak to your hosting service provider and check if your bandwidth can be expanded at least temporary for that day.
Offer Discounts:
It’s vital that you offer discounts as online shoppers scout around for special offers and discounted prices at this time. Consumers would flock to your ecommerce store if your prices rival the top retailers. You can also entice people by giving free gift cards on a purchase of certain amount. Many merchants offer free shipping on all orders processes on Cyber Monday. This can help you increase the conversion rate and sell more items. So contact your shipping provider immediately and negotiate on a deal right now. Make consumers an offer this Cyber Monday they can’t refuse.
Promote and Create Hype:
Newsletters, blogs, Pay per click, Facebook contests, use every possible medium to spread the word about your special offerings. Get people excited about your offerings. Now is the ultimate time to use PPC to show promotions and offers to all the online shoppers. Use Facebook and other social media platforms along with search engines and ad networks to reach out to consumers. Publish a blog dedicated to Cyber Monday. Send newsletters to your prospective or current customers to promote your special Cyber Monday deals and discounts. Put up a Countdown banner on your store to increase the anticipation of your store visitors.
Monitor your social accounts closely and provide Live Chatting:
Increased traffic means increased queries. Stay alert for all customer queries and problems. Customers might choose to mail their problem or may even post on a social media platform expecting a quick response. Someone should be there dedicatedly to monitor all the accounts at all times during this period. If you can provide live chatting facility nothing could be better than that, as live interaction will give customers the feel that they get when visiting a retail store. This can significantly help you in closing more sales as it will give you a chance to directly address the customer’s queries and concerns which affect their buying decision.
Scrutinize every page and link:
During Cyber Mondays every online consumers stay in a hurry. One single broken link or an error in opening a page can cost you a potential customer. So check and double check if necessary but do not let any flaw to be there. Customers have low patience during this time as every other competitor of yours would be offering a more or less equally good deal.
Keep Inventory:
Stay prepared for a boosted sales based on your last year’s figures. Maintain a good amount of inventory. Even if Cyber Monday sales does not meet your expectations you would not be at loss as they eventually would get sold posing very little risk. But in case you run short of stock your regrets would have no end.
The upcoming days are going to be the most profitable time of the year. So gear up for Cyber Monday and get the most out of your ecommerce business this year.
