You might still be snacking on Halloween candy, but guess what, it’s time to leverage that sugar rush for holiday store prep. Cyber Monday, the biggest online shopping day of the year, is less than a month away. So we dug into our data, consulted our experts and came up with seven tips that can help you earn some serious revenue on Dec. 2.
1.) Focus on your top three products
With the holidays right around the corner, don’t risk spreading your resources too thin. Instead, pick your most popular products and go all out optimizing and promoting them. While you may have an idea of what your target market is looking for, but you can quickly confirm your instincts with actual data. Determine your top sellers by studying product conversion rates. You can start by looking at your most popular products in the Bigcommerce dashboard, then cross-reference those products with Google Analytics traffic data. Check out this blog post on calculating your e-commerce product conversion rate for a useful tutorial.
2.) Perfect those product listings
Now that you’ve calculated conversion rates, it’s time to optimize your top-selling product pages. Put some serious thought into writing descriptive product names and fleshing out your product descriptions with compelling details. Invest in big, beautiful photos that can be leveraged for social media and email marketing campaigns. Depending on your product, you may even want to include a video demo. All of these details help consumers learn more and buy with confidence. Another great way to build trust is product reviews and social proof from actual customers. If you have some spare time after enhancing your flagship product pages, optimize your site’s overall design and user experience using this handy e-commerce store optimization checklist.
3.) Make the checkout process easy, flexible and fast
Now that you’ve gotten their attention attention with your awesome products, convert more of shoppers into buyers by optimizing your checkout process. First, offer plenty of ways to pay. Credit cards are a must, but you should also look into digital payment solutions. Not only are these options becoming increasingly popular—PayPal boasts 110 million active accounts—customers who use digital payments are younger and more affluent than the average online shopper. You also should make your checkout process as quick and simple as possible. Minimize the number of pages and amount of information required to make a purchase, and don’t forget to add trust indicators such as an SSL certificate so shoppers feel confident placing their order. Learn more about cart optimization in our recent blog post on converting more at checkout.
4.) Make sure your shipping is ready to go
As on online seller, it is your job to play Mr. Claus and ensure all those great gifts make it under the tree with plenty of time to spare. So get your logistics plan sorted out now to ensure smooth shipping when all the orders start rolling in. Set up multiple carrier options and schedule daily pickups to give yourself the best combination of flexibility and affordability. You can also protect your profit margins by taking advantage of Commercial Base Pricing or even Commercial Plus Pricing if you have enough volume. Check out services like Stamps.com to get the best rates for the holidays. Or truly embrace technology solutions and invest in shipping software, which often bundles these accounts in their subscription to save you confusion and time. ShipStation, one of our trusted logistics partners, has some advice on how to avoid shipping your pants over the holidays.
5.) Harness the power of Pinterest
Creating and buying a Pinterest wish lists is a fun way for consumers to deal with their holiday shopping. It can also add up to some serious sales for your store. Did you know the average order value from a Pinterest referral is over $170? That is significantly higher than the average order value from Facebook or Twitter. Cash in on this impressive stat by making sure your product pages are optimized for the up-and-coming social network. You can learn about upgrading your account, engaging the right audience, running promotions and more with our free Selling With Pinterest ebook.
6.) Offer special discounts and coupons
Cyber Monday is the digital version of Black Friday, which means shoppers are expecting big deals. Drive traffic and increase sales with different types of coupons, including free shipping, flat amount off, percent off, minimum purchase, gift with purchase and loyalty programs. In addition to listing them directly on your site, publicize your offers via email and social media. And yes, Pinterest is a great place to do that. Just don’t forget to calculate your profit margins to determine come up with an offer that you can afford. For more details on how to pick the right deals for you store, read our post on profitable e-commerce coupons.
7.) Don’t let lost sales get away
More than 70% of online shopping carts are abandoned before shoppers make a purchase. The first six tips can go a long way in converting customers, but the best way to win them back once they’ve left your site is an abandoned cart saver. Available on our Gold-level plans and above, our cart saver automatically sends a series of customizable emails to your shoppers to bring them back. It even lets you include a coupon code to give shoppers even more motivation to follow through with their purchase. Our clients recover an average of 15% of lost sales with this feature, which means it can quickly pay for itself during the holiday shopping season.
We’ll keep the holiday advice rolling through December, so check back in for more great tips, and good luck in conquering Cyber Monday!