Although succeeding on Black Friday is still the goal for brick-and-mortar stores and many digital sellers as well, your ecommerce business can really get a jump-start on mammoth holiday sales by lighting it up on Cyber Monday. This day that happens on the Monday following Thanksgiving has grown steadily year on year, from a relatively paltry $1 billion in 2010 to over $62 billion in 2020. With no limit in sight to the potential for online purchases on this date, you need to actively prepare ahead of time with these helpful and creative marketing tips.
1. Get your website ready.
Because you can expect increased traffic during the holidays, it makes sense to optimize your digital pages. Be sure that the website is loading quickly and that you have enough bandwidth to accommodate additional guests. Test your page to ensure that it downloads quickly, is easy to navigate and is updated with your most recent, holiday-oriented product offerings and business hours. Speak to your payment processing company to be sure that everything is in place for your site to accept mobile payments from consumers’ phones and tablets.
If you also have a brick-and-mortar store, make it a point to streamline your channels. This way, people can check out your Cyber Monday deals online and then come into your shop to see and touch the merchandise. For those in-person purchases, configure your point of sale solution ahead of time to include contactless card readers and Tap to Pay on iPhone to speed your checkout lines while continuing to provide a streamlined, secure payment experience.
2. Post positive reviews.
Your social media pages should already be active and buzzing with content and conversation. (If somehow you have missed out on the importance of capitalizing on sites like YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram, among others, take a crash course right now so that you can make your business known on these invaluable advertising and customer engagement platforms.)
As soon as you can, begin encouraging customers to post reviews and videos of your products. You will be amazed by how these types of content will drive additional traffic to your website and even into your physical store.
3. Create a buzz and keep it humming.
Customer-generated feedback and images are great, but your sales will be the most positively impacted if you augment these with your own information, photos, and videos. As the master of your social media pages, you can steer conversations and incentivize visitors in numerous ways. Pique their interest with information, photos, and live reveals, and update your posts frequently to keep them coming back.
4. Stock up on popular products.
Your point of sale system comes with numerous functions that you should already be using to streamline your business. In addition to a very helpful inventory management tool that assists you with intelligent reordering and automated invoicing, the system also has a reporting feature that integrates with the other tools. Use it ahead of Cyber Monday to refresh your memory about what flew off the shelves this time last year so that you can be sure to have plenty of these hot sellers in stock. Then do some targeted online searching to learn what new products are trending, and take steps to feature a few of these as well.
5. Make fun and creative bundles.
In today’s economic conditions, people are looking for ways to stretch their dollar, and Cyber Monday is no exception. One way to capitalize on the need to buy gifts at affordable prices is to combine a few of your bestsellers into appealing bundles. These special product offerings appeal to bargain hunters and may actually lead to higher sales amounts than you would have realized if you had only offered each item separately.
6. Harness the power of influencers.
You don’t need to pay big bucks to a mega-celebrity to advertise your Cyber Monday products. Collaborating with a so-called micro-influencers who may have a smaller but still very loyal group of fans in your particular industry niche is a very effective way to introduce your products and holiday deals to a whole new group of potential customers who are already favorably predisposed to you because of the influencer’s tacit endorsement.
7. Gather some gifts.
One of the best ways to nudge sales to the next level is to offer a gift or mystery prize for purchases above a set amount. For this to happen, you need to figure out in advance what incentives you are going to include with purchases. Also, advertising this compelling marketing campaign is essential. After all, if people don’t know about your Cyber Monday free gift special, they won’t take advantage of it.
With every passing year, Cyber Monday gains popularity and brings in more sales. Don’t fall behind your competitors by failing to take advantage of this late-November sales bonanza opportunity. Implement these strategies ahead of time to pave the way for more cash in your merchant account.
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