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A Checklist on Getting Ready for Cyber Monday (and the Holidays)

Kyozou / Selling Tips  / A Checklist on Getting Ready for Cyber Monday (and the Holidays)

A Checklist on Getting Ready for Cyber Monday (and the Holidays)

This year, online selling will undoubtedly surpass other years in terms of volume and the amount of profits those who sell online will make. Each year outdoes the other, and 2016 will likely be no less. With Black Friday generally the kick off with all the media and sales focus, online merchants need to be ready for Cyber Monday that creeps up November 28, 2016. In fact, Cyber Monday 2015 was America’s biggest e-commerce sales day ever, with order totaling $3.07 billion. It beat out Black Friday. 

Here’s a checklist to ensure you’re getting ready for Cyber Monday 2016

  1. Set up discounts: “Save”. “Sale”. These words help push a click. Online shoppers are expecting discounts on Cyber Monday so make sure some of your top selling items are ready. Offering a special one day discount that they wouldn’t normally see on an item or even store wide can add to the volume of sales. 
  2. Check your listings: Ensure your listing information is taking advantage of the character length in the description fields. This is important as online shoppers enter the product they are looking for with some details. You want the search engines can find your item over the competition’s. The more details you have about the product, the more that online shopper can picture the item in their head, feel like you’re being transparent and builds some trust for them to purchase.
  3. Offer free shipping: This is a great way to increase the shopping basket. Remember, Cyber Monday is about online shopping and the benefit of getting products delivered right to your door. Free shipping helps drive that sale. In fact, offering free shipping can increase profits by 30%!
  4. Promote discounts or free shipping with banners on your website: Make your website stand out as it celebrates Cyber Monday with some fresh graphics that highlights your special offer(s). For customers who are used to coming to your site, it can add some excitement, clearly indicates the discount and can drive the click through to a sale.
  5. Set up auto-pricing discounts for your Amazon sales: If you’re selling on Amazon, it’s going to be very busy and challenging to keep the price competitive. Use the auto pricing feature to automatically set the price your item will sell to ensure your item is more competitive.
  6. Send out a newsletter with a sneak peak of special offers: Save your customers time from shopping through other retailers by giving them a sneak peak of the specials they can get through your online store. You want to make sure you’re on their Cyber Monday shopping target list.
  7. Make sure inventory is ready: Use previous sales data and forecasting to help ensure you have enough inventory on hand for the volume of sales that will come through. If the item isn’t on hand, the customer may go to buy it somewhere else, especially if the discount being offered is only on Cyber Monday. Not only should you have enough inventory of items for sales, but also the packaging materials needed to ship them out to the waiting customers.
  8. Send out an email to your existing customers: Your existing customers have a Lifetime Value to your online store. They are already familiar with you and are more willing to purchase from a company they already know. Use this to your advantage to email them about the special deals and if you are able to manage it, offer them extra discounts for referring a friend on Cyber Monday.
  9. Use any data you can get from Black Friday: this will give you an indication of what you can expect to see on Cyber Monday. It’s a short window, but you may be able to make some adjustments to match the trends from Friday.

This checklist will help get you ready for Cyber Monday and will carry you over to deal with the rest of the holiday shopping rush.

 

Get ready for cyber monday

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