Tips on Preparing Your E-Commerce Website for Cyber Monday 2016

Cyber Monday falls on November 28th this year. it has become the biggest online shopping day of the year. According to comScore and IBM, total digital sales were $3.19 billion up from $2.59 billion in 2014.  Furthermore Desktop online sales were up 12% from 2014 totaling $2.28 billion and mobile sales were up 53% consumers from 2014 to $838 million.  According to Forbes, there will be a 9.4% increase in sales for Cyber Monday with sales overall being higher than 2015.  You can review the Forbes article here.

Small and medium sized businesses should be prepared for their biggest sales day of the year.  If you’re an e-commerce site, you are fully aware of this and rest assured that you’ve already prepared and stocked with merchandise to handle the traffic.  Here is a list of last minute tips to ensure that Cyber Monday runs efficiently and without a hitch for your business.

• Inventory: Make sure you can handle the severe traffic. Don’t over-promote items if you don’t have it in stock. If you’ve run out of an item, make sure your website is updated as soon as possible.  Use social media to advise customers of any changes to your inventory.  Social media is becoming an important avenue for companies and it only takes a quick tweet to inform your base that an item is out of stock.  It will promote goodwill with your customer on a long-term basis.
• Have your logistics department prepared: Get your shipping department prepared.  A meeting should be conducted prior to this all important day to ensure that products will be shipped and make it to customers prior to Christmas.  Always make sure that you give your customers the option for express shipping as some customers need to receive the time to customize to re-ship it out to final destination.  Troubleshoot any problems beforehand and have back-ups for employees that are absent due to unforeseen circumstances.
• Buy ads on Social Media-  Buy online ads. Black Friday and Cyber Monday shoppers are going to be looking for sales and discounts. In many cases, they will search for those deals on search engines or on social media.  You should offer serious discounts to items that you will have difficulties selling after Christmas.  Offers should be given to customers as well for these items.  For instance giving gift cards along with items that you are aware that there will be difficulties selling.  Gift cards could be as low as $5.  The consumer will appreciate the rebate and will use it on your website on another item if they find something that piques their interest.

These tips will potentially snare some sales for your business.  If you are on top of your game you can make the most out of this years Cyber Monday.  Good luck and Happy Holidays from Falcon Consulting & Marketing!!

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