Based on the data from last year’s holiday shopping, it’s easy to see how retailers will prepare for the 2013 holiday shopping season. Below are six key elements business owners should consider in order to optimize sales for Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
Be prepared for mobile: Mobile device use this year is going to be huge as far as purchasing. We saw a change from how people made their transactions during christmas from 2011 to 2012. There is an expected growth to be about 17% quoted by Forbes Magazine. Making sure your website is optimized for different kinds of mobile devices will make a difference in traffic and sales. Keep in mind that all mobile devices are different and need to be addressed individually (no one likes to go on your site on a 10 inch screen just to have the mobile experience). Remember a smartphone user’s experience is different than a tablet user’s experience. Either way, you should make sure your website optimizes to fit all mobile experiences.
Use your Facebook Business Page for exposure: Even though a lot of companies aren’t seeing a lot of sales on facebook, your Business Page can drive a lot of traffic to your ecommerce website. Facebook is the number one generator of traffic outside of the search engines. So if you want to gear people on social media toward retail this will help. The idea is to use your facebook business page and engage potential customers by using forms of media to create interest and discussions. The more interactions you engage in the more potential customers your ecommerce site will have.
The two things you have to focus on with your Facebook Business Page is:
- Who is liking it: You need to make sure to add like buttons to your ecomerce store, so that people can like, share and comment on your products - exposing you to their Facebook “friends.” You also need to be part of the social discussion if someone comments on your Facebook posts, you should correspond with them. This simple interaction can build potential customers just like when people come to your store to look around.’
- What kind of traffic is following to your store: Figuring out what kind of traffic your page is alluring is important. Using this as a test of what people are saying about your brand is a good way to get people to flow to your page and knowing what they are discussing about your product is important that way these comments aren’t going straight to your website.
I found this to be surprising fact, but did you know that in 2012, merchants experienced a 35% decrease in shoppers referred from social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and YouTube? According to VentureBeat, 22% of online shoppers and 21% of offline shoppers decided to make purchases after seeing a printed flyer or catalog. Facebook influenced a mere 15% of online purchases and 12% of offline purchases, while Twitter and Pinterest influenced 10% each.There is some value in going back to the basics, and there may be a growth in printed advertising for the 2013 shopping season. This traditional way to promote goods will always prove to be effective especially since children can easily circle the toys they want Santa to bring them for Christmas. However, keep in mind though, like my blogs in the past have stated, multi-channel marketing is more important than ever this year with the increase of online shopping sales.
Make sure that you are visible during this season: While it is important to own your own website using companies like Amazon and ebay, as well as overstock.com, can help to optimize your visibility and boost sales. Remember, use any means possible to get your brand out there so you are able to reach as many customers as possible on Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Most important thing to remember is your mission is to simply offer the best deals and make sure customers can find you.
Be prepared for Cyber Monday traffic. Don’t let your server give you a traffic jam: Cyber Monday is the biggest online shopping day of the year. Make sure you (and your server) are prepared for the increase in traffic to your site. It’s a competitive market, out there and if your site fails, then you will have a lot of frustrated customers that will simply go somewhere else to find what they need, so don’t let them get impatient. If the site is down for an extended period of time, or even just sluggish, this could result in a lot of potential sales being lost.
Make sure to have your QR codes ready for both your online as well as your offline: These are an important to both online catalogs as well as retail stores. These days there are so many customers that have mobile devices that can look up reviews and ratings, or view content from the retailers on the products and prices online. Customers Using mobile devices to get the best price is common since it allows them to shop for items in a store and compare them to prices online. Here is where QR Codes can help the retailer, they will allow the customer to compare the best price online to your price which will allow you to match the price of the item to your online competitor and beat it.That way you don’t lose sales to online stores. What retailers need to understand is that you are competing with online sellers and using QR Codes are away to bridge the gap between losing sales to the online competition.
Don't forget the old standbys:
Email marketing: This is something that you don’t do last minute. You need to be building a rapport with people with an email campaign all year round so they are receptive to your emails and are more likely to open them during the holiday season. This will let your customers know that you are sending valuable offers.
Shipping: Get your shipping policies determined early. this way customers know what to expect for costs. Letting customers know how much shipping will cost up to this day it will be this much. Then you will have to offer expedited price which will be this much up until the point where they will have to overnight it or two day air their purchase. When it is too close to christmas and you can no longer have it sent out and make it there before christmas you should still have a button that allows the customers to print a picture of the item they purchased so that the recipient of the gift can see what will be coming.
It is important to be prepared for two of the busiest shopping days of the year. Make sure your customers are aware of the benefits of shopping with you via email/direct marketing and social media. Provide a convenient shopping experience for your customers by optimizing your retail stores with QR codes, and ensuring your hardware is adequate to handle drastic spikes in the volume online traffic and in store sales. Making a lasting positive impression will not just help your sales during this notorious time of increased consumerism, but can also help you create and retain a larger base of loyal customers. Also, remember that the times when people are trying to shop the best deals are between December 10-24, so make them want to come back to your store.
Black Friday is one of the best sale that comes annually in the end of year, it is good for the people and who don't avail the costly product
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