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Tips for Black Friday & Cyber Monday
| Advertisers and publishers are gearing up for the Black Friday/Cyber Monday shopping bonanza.
There is still time to work on your affiliate marketing strategies and your content/promotions for the upcoming shopping season. Shop.org expects online sales to possibly reach $96 billion. When you look at last year’s trends and this year’s forecast, there are seven critical data points to keep in mind. Below are affiliate marketing strategies for the holidays that are aligned with these seven driving forces in e-commerce. Here is a strategy to consider — if you already have been running holiday promotions, create a new campaign specific to Black Friday and boost incentives for publishers during the 24-hour period. Consumers shop before and after work on Cyber Monday. Research studies found during Cyber Monday 2011, consumers did their shopping before 9:00 a.m. then started again between the hours of 5:00-9:00 p.m. So you should consider running limited-time promotions during the heavy online traffic cycles of Cyber Monday. |
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In 2011, almost 25% of online consumers purchased a gift from a daily deal website. Retailers should offer their own daily deals and work with publishers to promote them. Also, make certain your business is included in their listings. You can appear on coupon site listing even if you are not offering a coupon.
A recent study found when customers select a retailer, 87 percent say they are looking for value while 85 percent say they are looking for price. Even though value and price are almost equal in terms of importance for consumers, retailers should leverage their brand name and emphasize the quality of their goods over the price.Consumers are making more online purchases from more product categories than ever. You will build loyalty if you have a good eye for selecting and highlighting the best products. Put a strategy in place for finding, sourcing and identifying products that fit the unique tastes of your audience. It is easy to focus on price and discounts, but value can also mean finding just the right product with the right features. Customers will be appreciative if they feel they are continuously discovering unique gifts and other items on your website. |
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Research finds that smartphones will account for three percent of ecommerce this year, and that number will increase to seven percent by 2016. Meanwhile, tablets are expected to generate more Web traffic than smartphones by early 2013. So even though mobile commerce is not yet the dominant ecommerce platform, you should ensure every path to your website accommodates the needs of the shopper whether they are on a traditional computer, smartphone, or tablet.
For mobile commerce shoppers, make sure your current website is able to support tablets and smartphones. This may require additional adjustments given the different screen sizes of smartphones and the high-quality visuals you are able to display on tablets. For your traditional website, be sure you clearly define your call-to-actions, for your holiday deals and promotions. This will improve search engine results and accommodate the specific interests of shoppers. |
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A survey conducted by Shop.org after the 2011 holiday season found the top three marketing tools that drove sales were promotions and free shipping. To differentiate your business, consider offering free returns as well and extending how much time a customer has to return items after the holidays. Also, be sure to be thorough when explaining your shipping policies to entice customers. So it is not too late to make some minor adjustments and reap the benefits of your marketing efforts this holiday season. *Did You Know? The term Black Friday originated in Philadelphia, where it was used to describe the heavy and disruptive pedestrian and vehicle traffic which would occur the day after Thanksgiving. Use of the term started before 1961 and began to see broader use outside Philadelphia around 1975. Later an alternative explanation began to be offered: that “Black Friday” indicates the point at which retailers begin to turn a profit, or are “in the black”. Cyber Monday is a marketing term for the Monday immediately following Black Friday created by companies to persuade people to shop online. The term made its debut on November 28, 2005 in a Shop.org press release entitled “‘Cyber Monday’ Quickly Becoming One of the Biggest Online Shopping Days of the Year”. |
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