Both online retailers and shoppers wait with great anticipation for these sacred two days to roll around, and for very good reason; Black Friday and Cyber Monday are two of the biggest online shopping days of the year and as a retailer, you do not want to disappoint! On the flip side, as a shopper, you do not want to be disappointed! The expectations are huge. What kind of promotions have you got up your sleeve? How will you compete with all of the retailers who will be aggressively marketing their websites? The answer is really simple: By advertising offers that are too good to pass up! Below are just a few of the most popular tried and true offers that statistically perform well year after year.
HINT: Be sure to include coupon codes in your ad copy. They work wonders in terms of tracking which ads/offers performed best.
Exclusive Time Sensitive Promos. Sort of like an “early bird gets the worm” deal. For example: 6 am to noon special savings. Most retailers make these the biggest offers of the day. Be sure to specify time zones.
Free Shipping. This one is a biggie, perhaps the biggest and shoppers have come to expect it. If you do not offer it year round you should definitely do so for Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Sales will likely be lost otherwise.
Site Wide Discounts. Also a big one and very common. It gives your shoppers the freedom to purchase whatever they want and receive a nice savings.
Free Gift with Purchase. A great incentive – especially around the holidays. Shoppers are getting another gift they can either keep for themselves (if they are greedy, ha ha) or give to someone else.
Free Gift Wrap. Shoppers love this. Gift wrapping can be tedious and cumbersome and many wait until the night before to get it all done. This way — they get their gift shipped and wrapped. What could be better?
Take advantage of these two huge shopping days and capitalize on the increase in traffic and sales. Happy Holidays!
If only this simple question had a simple answer! Online Retailers’ across the nation would be ecstatic. Unfortunately there isn’t a simple answer. Think of it this way, if you were at the grocery store and your shopping cart was full of groceries you had just selected, you wouldn’t say, “It sure was fun putting all of this stuff into my cart, but I don’t want to actually buy it…” and then walk out of the store without checking out at the register, right? My guess is that you’d also be even less likely to go through the checkout line, have all of your items scanned and then change your mind when it comes time to pay. Unfortunately (as far as retailers are concerned) online shoppers have the luxury of doing just that; they place items in their shopping cart and then simply choose not to complete their transaction. All online retailers are faced with the dilemma of shopping cart abandonment and it is no doubt frustrating to not know why it is happening. Whether you’re Zappos or a small, family owned business, if your site includes a shopping cart, there will definitely be a percentage of shoppers who abandon your cart.
In an effort to shed some light on the reasons for cart abandonment, here are a few important factors that you ought to take into consideration.
– Is your site 100% secure? Many people will not shop on a site which does not clearly indicate that measures have been put into place to prevent fraudulent activity. Concerns with security are a huge factor and you want to ensure that your site is fully protected. In addition, place a prominent icon or image conspicuously on every page, which signifies that your site is safe and secure.
– Price comparison shopping has always played a factor, but more so now with the current state of the economy. Many shoppers will place items into their cart and then do some comparing on other sites prior to making their purchase. It is advisable to let your shoppers know that you will save their items for up to X # of days, which will facilitate an effortless shopping experience when they come back to buy. Also, if you are competitively priced, clearly state this information where your shoppers can see. If you are able to offer a best price guarantee, that would be ideal.
– The steps in your cart should be as minimal as possible. In addition, it is helpful to provide an indication of which step your shoppers are in as they checkout; you should make it seamless for your shoppers to make a purchase.
In my opinion, the best way to determine what works best is through testing. Employment of an analytics tool will provide you with a clear funnel analysis as to where you are losing your shoppers in the checkout process and then afford you the ability to tweak your shopping cart accordingly.
You have just searched in Google for a specific product. You are ready to buy and your credit card is in hand. But wait! The page will not load. Annoyed and agitated, you click on the next ad to make your purchase. Let’s face the facts; time is a precious commodity and patience is not something people have a lot of (online shoppers in particular). That being said, there are few things more frustrating than clicking on a paid advertisement and then having to wait for the page to load. Most shoppers simply will not wait and as a result you (the marketer) pay for that click and unfortunately get absolutely nothing from it. You didn’t even get the chance to show what you have to offer! In addition, this will certainly increase your bounce rate and do absolutely nothing to improve your conversion rate or quality score.
It is always important to have your website pages load efficiently and accurately, but even more so now that Google has announced that they will be incorporating “landing page quality” into their quality score. Your quality score is a critical piece of the puzzle within Google in terms of paid rankings. The better your quality score, the better your positions. Google has always tried to provide the user with the best possible experience and this new metric should be in place in the next few weeks. Thus, all online marketers should take this time to ensure that their web pages are up to speed, literally and figuratively. Check out the latest buzz from Google!
975 South Federal Highway, 2nd Floor
Boca Raton, FL 33432
800.787.0497
ph: 561.620.9682
fx: 561.620.9684
info@morevisibility.com
