How to Prepare Your Online Store for Black Friday and Cyber Monday
Black Friday and Cyber Monday are the days that kick off the holiday shopping season in America however, fewer shoppers that ever before are lined up in front of big-box retailers. Instead, they're staying clear of the crowds , and instead shopping on their own.
In 2018, Cyber Monday was the most lucrative day of sales for eCommerce in U.S. history, with $7.9 billion in sales. It's an enormous chance for stores that are online!
But with this opportunity comes massive concurrence. In order to succeed this Black Friday, you need to consider more than the discounts you provide and the merchandise you sell. It is essential to ensure that your website is prepared for the surge in traffic, so that people are aware about bargains and are able to locate what they're searching for, and that you have strategies in place to keep them informed and build loyal followers of your company for many long time to come.
Site Preparation
Making Your Store Ready for the high volume of traffic and optimizing Your Store
In order to win customers by offering new items or unbeatable prices, your site needs to be secure and well-equipped to handle large amounts of traffic coming from various devices.
Imagine you are offered an interview on a morning talk show or feature in a well-known blog. Does your website have the capacity to handle the increased traffic? If it isn't, it may slow down or even fail to load which could cost you money in revenue.
It might be financially sensible to start with a low-cost hosting package, however growing the plan can prove to be extremely restrictive. Typically, a basic plan includes a shared server meaning you're competing to get space with many other websites. The sites all share the same bandwidth and resources, which means that if one experience an increase in traffic, it could lead to delays or even downtime for other sites.
You might also want change to the VPS hosting service or even a dedicated server. This does involve a bit more effort, however it is worth the time and financial investment in the event that it will result in more sales throughout the holiday period.
If your hosting provider is based on website bandwidth, use this guide to figure out the bandwidth average of your website. Also, be sure to consider the anticipated traffic during Black Friday. How much did your traffic grow this year? Do you expect a bigger number of visitors next year?
Apart from handling an enormous amount of users, your website should load as quickly as it can. People demand fast loading websites as well, and given the multitude of available options for them during the holiday period, they'll have even less patience as compared to regular.
An aesthetically pleasing website is the same as having fast ones. This year, 61% of online purchases in the Christmas season were completed using mobile devices. Thankfully, Google has an Mobile-friendly assessment that will help you gauge how well your site is performing.
There are many devices with different dimensions. With limited time before the holiday season and the holiday season, you might not be able to optimize your website to function flawlessly on every single one. For help in deciding which ones to prioritize you can use Google Analytics to see what proportion of your visitors come via various gadgets.
Click on the Audience tab, then Mobile Devices. Explore the options and make sure you optimize the most number of devices you can, starting with the largest sources first.
Promoting Coupons and Discounts in
Consider carefully how to design coupons in a way that makes them easy to understand for clients, yet are secure against those who may exploit the flaws you've made in your strategy. In the case of example, if you offer multiple coupon codes which all offer a certain percent discount off of the all together, you might want to make sure that they cannot be mixed.
You can test the coupon yourself for the sake of ensuring they're working properly. It's also a great idea to have someone else who's not familiar with the store you're selling to try them. This will help you identify those areas that require improvements.
Highlighting Discounts and Sales
A great deal is only efficient if customers are aware of it! You must have a plan to promote offers directly on your site. It could be as easy as making a brand new icon for your homepage, or by putting up ads at the top of all pages.
The pop-up can be another option to draw attention of users however, you must ensure that it doesn't affect the usability of your site. In the wake of GDPR and similar privacy warnings including pop-ups to the mix can make your site difficult to navigate and annoy users.
You can tailor sales graphics for clients based on types of merchandise they're looking at. You could, for instance, design one that features t-shirts for your t-shirt category and another that shows pants for the pants category page. If you use pictures that are directly related to the kinds of items visitors are browsing will increase the chance that your ad will appeal to their needs.
Off-Site Prepared
Coordinating Physical and Online Operations
The anticipation of a rush of orders for the holidays is wonderful! It can also turn into a nightmare when you're not well-prepared.
Inexpensive fulfillment time can frustrate customers and lead to poor reviews and reduced sales. Be sure to state fulfillment times using clear language like, "Orders will ship within three to four business days" to let customers know exactly what to expect.
You don't want to have to reach out to a multitude of clients and inform them that the item that they wanted wasn't in stock. If you can't provide an adequate substitute, it could damage the reputation of your company. This is when good inventory management comes into play.
provides a range of methods to handle your inventory choices. When there is a lot of demand for inventory like the holiday season you should consider altering the time items can remain on a person's shopping cart. If people are clambering over only a few merchandise, it's not a good idea to need someone to keep items in their cart for a long time.
In addition, adding a sense of urgency to the order process could boost your conversion rates, as customers won't wish to miss an opportunity to grab some of your best deals.
You may also alter your inventory notifications. For example, choose to receive an email advising that you have ten products remaining instead of waiting until they've all been sold. It is easy to order additional or modify your pricing structure to reflect increased the demand.
You can also hide out-of-stock items from visitors. This can improve the customers' experience by permitting them to see only in-stock items. However, in some cases, displaying items that are out of stock can add urgency to the shopping experience, by warning the customers that discounts could be gone if they don't respond promptly.
Learn more about managing inventory.
Customer Service
Excellent customer service is crucial when sales are at a high volume. It could mean the difference between making an immediate sale, or gaining a long-time customer with an enormous lifetime worth.
Providing quality customer service not solely requires a skilled team, but also one who is high-energy and has a positive attitude. levels of energy. This can be particularly difficult at times of the year where your staff may have to work extended hours with a higher than normal volume of requests.
Keep morale and energy positive by providing small extras like drinks or snacks as well as by organizing contests or fun games. This might add minimal costs to your operations, but the advantages of having a satisfied customer service team are well worth it.
If you're worried about handling your sales volumes, you should consider strategies for growing your team temporary. It is possible recruit trustworthy teenagers or employees' friends to take on jobs that require little or no training.
Create Your Advertising as well as Marketing Channels
If you're already taking this approach, remember that competition may get more intense during certain points throughout the year. So, keep a close check on your campaigns, and look into using bid options that are more flexible and higher budgets than the usual amount.
While you want to attract the most new customers is possible, you should also consider all of the other site users you've had. Although they may not have bought anything yet but they've shown interest in what you have to offer and are much more likely to purchase your goods as opposed to first-time customers.
Remarketing campaigns can be as complex as you want. As an example, you could display ads to shoppers that highlight the products they specifically examined or the categories of products they explored.
You can set campaigns to last a day or two after a shopper visits your site without purchasing anything. This is a great opportunity to offer a free shipping coupon, which sometimes can make the difference when it comes to closing a sale.
Create social media posts well ahead of time and begin promoting early. Some platforms have strict regulations for ads, so you shouldn't have to wait for approval before the date that you're scheduled to launch a critical campaign! Additionally, scheduling your posts in advance means that there's one less thing that you have to be concerned about during the busy holiday season.
Pro tip: Especially when marketing to previous customers make sure to keep certain deals a mystery. Allude to exclusive offers and discounts that will be only available during certain times or are available at a certain time and require buyers to visit your website to learn specifics. This will help attract site visitors and encourage users to explore what you have to give away!
The preparation for the days that Follow
The weeks following Black Friday and Cyber Monday are also critical. You've probably attracted a bunch of eager shoppers to your establishment, but a lot are still in need of gifts to buy. Now's your chance to differentiate from other stores, by offering flash sales or inform customers about other products they may find interesting.
You also want to consider ways to turn that once-a-year holiday buyer into a loyal fan. So, make sure to maintain your remarketing campaigns throughout all of the season. You can plan social media posts, email blasts, or other forms of communication that will reach the new customers and subscribers you have gained!
67% of shoppers reported that they had shopping left a week before the holiday. This is a fantastic opportunity to help your customers buy those remaining gifts! Be sure to be prepared to process and mail your orders promptly.
With a bit of preparation and effort, Black Friday and Cyber Monday could be a great moment for your store online. By providing a great customer experience, and extending your advertising long after the season is done, you can start planting seeds to increase your customer base for years to come!