Get ready. The three largest online shopping days of the year are nearly here: Black Friday, Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday. Adobe tells us that $32 billion was spent online last year between November 1st and November 28th: a 14% increase from 2013. Here’s a breakdown of the stats[1]:
- Cyber Monday 2014 online sales hit $2.65 billion—16% YoY growth
- Black Friday 2014 set a new online sales record with $2.4 billion—24% YoY growth
- Thanksgiving Day 2014 set a new online sales record with $1.33 billion—25% YoY growth
- November 11th (“Singles’ Day”) set a new online sales record with $1.29 billion
- The average order value for sales coming directly from a social network was led by Facebook with $114.45
Also—Mobile is Growing:
- Thanksgiving has become the most mobile shopping day of the year, with mobile devices driving 29% of sales—up 21% from 2013
- Mobile devices drove 27% of sales on Black Friday, up 3% from 2013
- Mobile devices drove 19% of sales on Cyber Monday (no increase)
Q4 preparedness should be in the DNA of online retailers. Here is a quick checklist to make sure you are on point for the imminent rush of online shopping:
Ready, Fire, Aim: Is Your Site Ready?
- Is your site equipped to handle increased traffic?
- Is your site mobile-optimized? Have you tested it recently? Try Google’s Mobile Friendly Tool.
- Are you displaying shipping deadlines (sitewide)? Are you clearly communicating when the last date is for a customer to place an order to ensure its delivery in time for the holidays?
- Is the shopping experience seamless and cohesive—across channels and affiliates?
- Are you prepared for shopping cart abandonment?
Promotions!
- Keep in mind: customers will search to find the best deal.
- Be sure you are running competitive, attractive promotions. Customers will leave you for a better deal from your competition.
- Customers continue to love FREE SHIPPING. Consider displaying a dollar countdown on how close the shopping cart value is to receiving free shipping.
- If you are an LC merchant running a holiday promotion, LC will feature you in a seasonal newsletter. Be sure to let your merchant representative know.
Enable Your Affiliates
- Upload seasonal creative, enabling affiliates to increase clicks and conversions.
- Consider a promotional payout increase for your top performing affiliate partners during November.
- Open yourself up to new affiliate promotional methods. For example, if you are not currently working with Coupon Affiliates, this should be an essential segment of your affiliate channel, especially this time of year.
- Are you touting your Affiliate Program on your website? Make sure that page is searchable and up to date.
- Is your Product Feed up to date?
The PMA has also published a great Q4 resource here. Don’t delay; preparation is key. You want to show your boss an upward-trending online sales graph on December 1st, right?
[1] Adobe Reports New Online Sales Records for Thanksgiving, Black Friday; $1.33 Billion and $2.4 Billion Respectively