Look around while shopping – it’s still Autumn but you can see that slightly simulated holiday spirit. Every store, street, even commercial broadcast is radiating that Christmas vibe. It’s like the entire universe is preparing you for Cyber Weekend and especially for Cyber Monday, which is also known as the e-commerce version of Black Friday.
Cyber Monday is the Monday following Thanksgiving, which in 2018 is on November 26th. This is the perfect time to spend money on buying presents and preparing for the holidays. Last year shoppers spent more than 6.6 billion dollars. Also, Cyber Monday has the fastest revenue growth of 16.5% year-over-year, so you could only imagine how much people will spend this year…
These facts simply force you to jump onto the Cyber Monday hype train last minute and get your online store ready as quickly as possible. If you haven’t started preparing yet, don’t worry. We’re here to help you out with 10 most important tips to get ready for Thanksgiving weekend shopping spree.
1. Simple deal
It is obvious that Cyber Monday is not only a time between the holidays. For online sellers it’s more like a vicious competition among one another. Your only weapon is to create the greatest offers. If you’re selling a variety of different product categories, you might think that adding different discounts to each one of them is the best idea. For example – 30% off for dresses that cost more than 40$, then 15% off for accessories that cost more than $10, etc. However, a deal that has so many stipulations will rather put off your customer than tempt them to purchase more. Cyber Monday is stressful enough and complex offers are just too complicated.
Also, keep in mind that you have to create one special deal. That is the best offer that you will use in your ads or social media marketing. It should be a big and irresistible discount on a certain product, category or your whole inventory. This deal will drive the audience to your online store. Afterwards, just don’t confuse them with a convoluted discount scheme.
2. Improve your offer
As mentioned before Cyber Monday is the e-commerce version of Black Friday. As a consequence, millions of shoppers with the determination caused by the upcoming holidays will search for the best deals online.
Of course, Cyber Monday is one of the greatest days to boost profits and get new customers. Yet you shouldn’t limit your focus to only one day or weekend. There is a way to keep customers coming back after the Monday is over. Simply add an additional offer in each deal. It can be anything from a free shipping coupon to a code for a discount on their next purchase. This will definitely surprise them and give them a reason to come back. Even after the holidays are over they will remember about these offers and might get back to see what’s new in your store.
3. Re-engage
On one hand, Cyber Monday is the perfect time to find new customers because attractive offers could help you show off your business. On the other hand, you shouldn’t forget your previous customers. It is important to re-engage with them and discounts are the easiest way to do it. Simply send targeted emails with your best offers. Also, if you’re saving the contents of your customers’ shopping carts, you can additionally announce sales on their selected products. These strategies will definitely make those, who already visited you, come back and give your store another look.
4. Offer free shipping
Free shipping is the force that could be crucial in your customer’s decision-making process. Even if you are not usually offering it, Cyber Monday is the day when you should definitely add free shipping. First, it will eliminate that unnecessary negativity of additional charges. Second, it will be another competitive advantage that could help you stand out.
If you feel some kind of uncertainty about the free shipping, you can always set a threshold. It could easily turn slightly smaller individual profit margins into an overall increase in sales and revenue. Keep in mind that the total order amount required for free shipping should be high enough to encourage your customers to buy more. However, don’t set it so high that it seems unreachable or not worth the additional effort.
5. Inventory and warehouse
Although there are only a few days left, it’s still enough time to take some necessary actions. A well-prepared inventory is one of the most important things for Cyber Monday. The demand will be enormous so you need to have enough products. Contact your manufacturer if necessary and stock your inventory. Basically, this Monday you have to be prepared to send ten times more orders than usual.
Also, if you own a warehouse, make sure that it has enough packaging material. All your orders will, most likely, have to be shipped out Tuesday night at the latest. As a consequence, you have to prepare your warehouse as well as your stock levels.
6. Social Media
It is definitely not too late to send a few messages through social media channels. To create a more effective message you could hire some influencers. They have the ability to reach a very wide and specific audience in an extremely short amount of time. If you’re going to write posts yourself, don’t forget to add popular keywords.
When you only have a few days left, you should definitely inform your customers of what they should expect. Through social media, you can specify your sales by pointing out certain products. In this case, customers can start planning their shopping and come back to your store.
7. Visual Content
Another important tip – use as much visual content as possible. I’m not talking about Santa Claus and your dress in the same picture. Try to be creative and different with your content. It is better to add more pictures of your product, festive packaging or ideas for presents. Also, pay attention to your product names and descriptions. Always remember that there will be thousands of sellers with similar ads and titles. You should try to be creative and use unique phrases that would catch your customers’ eye.
8. Be available
Despite how many tasks you have to complete, you should always be available to your customers. In such a rush they will urge you to answer quickly and if you don’t do it, they might leave your store. To keep this from happening you should automate your business as much as possible, so you have enough time for customer service. Even though it is Cyber Monday, each one of your clients still wants to be treated well. Especially, if they have some questions about your product, shipping or return policy.
9. Expect more
Now forget everything that you read about the demand because the reality will almost certainly exceed your expectations. Holiday shopping gets people into a completely different mindset than they would usually have. At this time of the year, they are determined to buy presents for others and themselves as well. Basically, this Monday, shoppers from all around the world will take over all online stores. That is why you should understand that the demand might be much higher than you expected.
10. Automate your inventory management…
The last tip would be to automate your inventory management. Basically, if now you are managing your business manually, you won’t be able to fulfil Cyber Monday orders without hiring additional team members. However, there is a more cost-effective way to do it. A well-rounded order management system can eliminate all the struggle of order fulfilment and connect different sales channels into a single platform.
Multiorders order management software has integrations with all of the most popular sales channels so you can connect the ones you’re working with. It creates a single system where you can fulfil any order despite it’s originating marketplace. Also, all changes made in this software automatically appear on your sales channel. Therefore, it only takes seconds to modify stock levels, pricing, etc.
One of the worst Cyber Monday tasks is to update your inventory each time you sell an item. That is why Multiorders automates it for you. As soon as you sell something, the system automatically changes the avaliable stock. That way, you don’t need to do all that work to update everything manually.
…and shipping
If you are able to automate your shipping it will save you even more time. By offering integrations with multiple shipping carriers, Multiorders allows you to cherry pick the ones best suited to your needs. Once you receive an order, simply click on your chosen shipping company’s logo and our software will do the rest.
When you ship your order through this software it automatically assigns a tracking number, if you don’t set one manually. Also, it only takes a few seconds to generate a label. As a result, when you click on the shipping carrier, you won’t have to think about that order anymore. You can pay more attention to customer service and receiving new orders.
Last but not least, if you are a reseller it is crucial to be able to easily reach all of your suppliers. For example, with Multiorders, you simply add your dropshippers (suppliers, whom you are working with) by filling in their name and email address. With this information, Multiorders automatically deals with your order fulfilment.
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