Cyber Monday is a holiday tradition when consumers revel in getting fast online deals. The holiday season is a great time to sell products and services. Many consumers try to avoid Thanksgiving traffic, making Cyber Monday a perfect opportunity for entrepreneurs and business owners alike to promote their products and services online. This is an opportunity that you cannot afford to mess up, with an estimated $2 billion being spent this year for Cyber Monday.
Success on Cyber Monday is all about planning and creativity. So, for all of you entrepreneurs and business owners that sell your products and services online, here are some tips to make sure your website is ready for Cyber Monday:
- How does your site stand up to competition? What is the user experience like? How fresh is the content of your website? Take a good look at these aspects and make changes where they are needed.
- The correct product mix is important and even more so on Cyber Monday.
- Traffic Capacity- Is your website ready to handle the spike in traffic? This is just as important as needing consumers to visit your site. If shoppers have a bad experience, then they are highly unlikely to return, not to mention the bad reviews it could cost you, which could be highly damaging to your reputation.
- Generating Traffic – You need to start attracting buyers to your website. You can use social media sites to drive traffic in.
- See what is spiking conversation on a daily basis and decide if you will respond.
- Pricing- More shoppers than ever are using their cell phones and other mobile devices with price comparison apps. Make sure that your prices are clearly displayed and is competitive.
- Are you making any improvements to your customer service? Do you have reps readily waiting to quickly answer questions?
- Customer Loyalty- Your returning customers deserve rewards for their loyalty. What is your preferred customer policy? Maybe you could offer them a preview sale using a loyalty promo code.
- Do you stay in contact with your customers throughout the year? Cyber Monday is a prime opportunity to build a database of clients that you will converse with throughout the year.
- Offer discounts on Cyber Monday. Provide your sales with deadlines, and possibly give extra discounts to early bird shoppers.
- Adjust the keywords that lead to your site to be more relevant, so that consumers can easily find your site.
- Adjust your ad text.
- Highlight your featured and popular products
- Be sure to stock your inventory appropriately to meet the demands of Cyber Monday.
- Add a holiday specific product or service.
- Incorporate holiday graphics into your emails, newsletters, and website.
- Make your website mobile- friendly.
The above provided tips should help business owners and entrepreneurs prepare for Cyber Monday. There is a huge amount of competition in the online world so make sure to get your ducks in a row ahead of time. Good luck to you on this busy week!
This is a post from a contributing writer to CEO Blog Nation.
Image courtesy of Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net