Cyber Monday falls just three days after Black, Friday and has established a position as one of the bookends to that busy post-Thanksgiving rush.
As the owner of a retail business, you cannot afford to pass up on the profits this e-commerce event is sure to bring.
1.Cater to mobile users.
Increasingly this century, consumers are bypassing busy in-person shopping venues in favor of making purchases online.
This long-running trend is certainly due, at least in part, to the convenience of e-commerce. Instead of needing to expend time and energy to get to a physical store, people can check gifts off their Christmas list from their mobile phone or laptop – any time of the day or night.
Mobile phones and tablets have taken primary positions as consumers prioritize efficient and secure shopping. In 2022, three out of five of consumers surveyed did their shopping via handy, portable smartphones.
This technology will only become more widely adopted and sophisticated with every passing year, so the upward trend is likely to continue. Make sure your payment system is able to cater to these users by accepting mobile payments.
2. Improve website speed.
For today’s shoppers, maximum efficiency is perhaps the most important priority. If the website they are attempting to visit is slow or glitchy, fears of dodgy business practices or security breaches will take root.
When websites are not lightning-quick and easy to navigate, people may blithely click to the next one without a backward glance. To illustrate this point, in the second quarter of 2022, the rate of shopping cart abandonment by people using their mobile phones was an eye-popping 84%.
This underscores the importance of optimizing your website for hand-held devices, making its images and content as easy to navigate, and having a fast and secure checkout process.
3. Offer a diverse range of secure payment options.
In addition to furnishing a safe and streamlined website, you need to provide your customers with the diverse payment options they’ve come to expect.
The truth is that your visitors are well aware they no longer need to limit themselves to completing purchases with a credit or debit card.
If your store policies are intelligent and based on current trends, you should also configure your point of sale solution to take e-check or ACH payments, digital wallet payments from Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal, and international transactions in the currency of the customer’s choice.
4. Take advantage of a captive audience.
Cyber Monday is no longer a novelty. In fact, consumers seem to have incorporated this event into their annual shopping calendars, spending a total of $11.3 billion each year on this day alone.
Amazingly, online activity on Cyber Monday explodes by 512% above the norm. Needless to say, businesses like yours aiming to increase profit margins cannot look the other way, failing to prepare their inventory and website to accommodate the Cyber Monday rush.
5. Add a time limit.
No one wants to miss out on an amazing deal. Your job is to create a sense of urgency that inspires shoppers to avoid putting off their purchases until a later date.
You can do this with countdown timers on your website, as well as via social media posts and emails that let potential buyers know exactly how many hours they have until your can’t-miss promotion runs out.
6. Add value for your customer.
When you make it worthwhile for them to complete their purchase on your website, customers will often make the commitment. Offering free shipping is one of the most popular incentives for today’s shoppers.
Many have come to expect it, since it is readily available from many of the big-box retailers, particularly with a minimum purchase amount. If you fail to make shipping costs reasonable, an estimated 70% of your customers may choose to walk away.
In order to help cover the often significant costs you’ll incur with free shipping, you have several options.
These include raising merchandise prices, requiring a minimum purchase amount, offering reduced or free shipping within a certain geographical radius, or giving this benefit only to patrons who are members of your loyalty program.
7. Reward loyal customers.
People appreciate being thanked for their regular business. Statistics show that roughly three out of four customers would choose a business that offered a loyalty program, over one that did not.
These recognized members also tend to spend a lot more, up to 67% more than new clients shell out.
Since the consensus of 82% of company executives seems to be that it’s cheaper to retain current customers than it is to recruit new ones, the importance of launching and maintaining an engaging loyalty program cannot be overstated.
8. Embrace Cyber Monday shopping trends.
Trends are the road maps to your store’s success this Cyber Monday. Use analytics and customer feedback in advance to gather intelligence about what products are hot, so that you will have plenty of time to adjust inventory accordingly.
As a result, you will be much less likely to run low on high-demand items, increasing customer satisfaction and elevating your profits.
9. Build anticipation and create buzz around your business.
Ramping up customer interest before Cyber Monday is a great way to separate yourself from your competitors.
In the furry of social media posts and email blasts, be sure that your pages, posts, blog entries, and electronic communications highlight top products in a creative way. Show people how purchasing these goods from you can relieve a pain point, reduce the stress of gift-buying, or allow them to tailor their choices to perfectly gel with what the people on their Christmas lists actually want.
10. Share positive reviews.
The power of social proof is undeniable. Did you know that over 95% of customers look at product reviews before they commit to making a purchase?
Over half of those same people are even willing to pay a higher cost for something that has been given a resounding thumbs-up by another person.
For these reasons, you should consider incentivizing existing customers to provide product reviews, and post them on your site as well as on social media pages.
11. Use retargeting methods.
Especially at this busy time of the year, shoppers are pulled in numerous directions. They might be in the middle of a purchase on your site, only to be distracted by a shiny object that appears on a pop-up ad. In many cases, they flit away with every intention of returning.
Your job is to convert good intentions into actual sales through a practice known as retargeting. Use your point of sale system’s customer relationships and email features to remind visitors of their interest, and to provide time-sensitive purchase incentives.
12. Make your deals stand out.
For an event as popular as Cyber Monday has become, you need to stand out from the crowd. To that end, flex all of your creative muscles to elevate interest in your products. Convince harried shoppers that spending money on your website is the best decision they could ever make.
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