Preparing Your Business for Cyber Monday

YOUR HANDBOOK to CYBER MONDAY ARE YOU READY FOR DECEMBER 1, 2014? Cyber Monday is the most significant marketing event of the holiday season, generating $2.29 billion in online sales during 2013, a 31% increase over online sales during Black Friday. While e-commerce business owners typically enjoy the benefits of Cyber Monday, traditional retailers can also benefit from the increase in traffic. By making some minor updates and optimizing their website, retailers that do not offer e-commerce on their website can in fact increase both foot traffic and in-store sales. TOP 10 TIPS TO PREPARE YOUR BUSINES S FOR CYBER MONDAY: OPTIMIZING YOUR WEBSITE 1 UPDATE YOUR WEBSITE DID YOU KNOW? 88% consumers want to print coupons on the Web. of OFFER SHOPPERS THE SAME VALUED CUSTOMER SERVICE ONLINE AND IN STORES. PD 75% want to use their mobile - List up-to-date information, such as store hours. location, and phone number. devices to find store locations. · Share coupons and promotions your website. want to check what items are 1 66% in-stock before going to the store. 2 OPTIMIZE FOR MOBILE 3 SECURE ONLINE REVIEWS LEAVE A REVIEW FOCUS ON YOUR MOBILE PRESENCE. REVIEWS ARE QUICK AND EASY WAYS FOR CONSUMERS TO DECIDE WHICH LINK • Mobile sales have increased 55.4% year over year. TO CLICK. • Cyber Monday consumers buying goods off their mobile phones accounted for $419 million in 2013. Place a "Leave a Review" button on your webpage. Ask in-store and online customers to write a review after • Work with your web developer to migrate to a responsive they make a purchase. design, or a mobile friendly version of your website. REVIEWS ARE AS POWERFUL AS WORD-OF-MOUTH RECOMMENDATIONS of consumers have read reviews to 88% determine the quality of a local business. OPTIMIZING YOUR LOCAL SEARCH RESULTS 4 CREATE LOCAL LISTINGS CATEGORIZE YOUR PAGE CATEGORY: SMALL BUSINESS RETAIL APPAREL & ACCESSORIES ENSURE YOUR BUSINESS VISIBILITY IN NOW THAT YOU HAVE A LOCAL BUSINESS PAGE, CATEGORIZE IT. LOCAL SEARCHES. · Establish a local business page for Bing. Yahoo, and Google with your business information. · You can place your business into as many as five categories. • If you've already done this, review your existing listing Search engines will not display a business that is not to ensure the content is correct. categorized, or is mis-categorized. 6 OPTIMIZE YOUR PAGE CREATE LOCAL CITATIONS ADD PHOTOS ADDING PHOTOS TO YOUR LISTING ALLOWS CUSTOMERS TO SEE YOUR THE MORE CITATIONS YOUR BUSINESS RECEIVES, THE HIGHER IT WILL APPEAR IN LOCAL SEARCH ENGINE RANKINGS. BUILDING AND PRODUCTS. • Upload a variety of quality photos of your products and · A citation is any mention of your company on another company's website. storefront. • Visit your local listing and click the "Add Photos" link. Ways to obtain citations include sponsoring a charity website, providing quotes to local media reporters, and setting up social media profiles for your company. Popular locations for citation submission are Yelp. the Yellow Pages. local newspapers. Citysearch, Yahoo Local, Superpages, and Facebook. INCREASING SALES ON YOUR SITE 8 OFFER SAFE PAYMENT OPTIONS CUSTOMERS ARE MORE INCLINED TO MAKE A PURCHASE IF THEY ARE ABLE TO SEE TRUSTED, SECURE PAYMENT OPTIONS. • 65.8% of consumers say they only purchase from PayPal-friendly websites. PayPal · Always display multiple payment options (Visa/MC) alongside a secure payment banner. 9. STREAMLINE THE EXPERIENCE TO AVOID LOSING SALES, GET YOUR CUSTOMERS TO THE SHOPPING CART QUICKLY. • Reducing the navigation options on checkout pages has been shown to increase completed purchases by 12%. • ffering express and guest checkout can increase 3 ITEMS CHECRO completed purchases on ecommerce websites by 45%. The average online shopping-cart EXPRESS CHECKOUT GUEST CHECKOUT abandonment rate is 68% 10 RECLAIM LOST SALES PREVENT SHOPPERS FROM PLACING ITEMS IN THEIR CARTS AND LEAVING YOUR WEBSITE WITHOUT MAKING A PURCHASE. • Display large "Add to Cart" or "Start Checkout" buttons on your website. Shopping-cart abandonment drops 33% with large and direct call-to-action buttons. · Send email reminders to customers with links back to their shopping carts. Retargeted email reminders can generate an average of $17.90 per email sent. SOURCES: http://digiday.com/brands/15-stats-cyber-monday http://smallbusiness.chron.com/internets-influence-retail-26824.html http://www.forbes.com/sites/joshsteimle/2013/1/07/simple-seo-tip-for-small-businesses-local-citations/ http://www.searchenginejournal.com/10-survival-tips-e-commerce-websites/100703/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/steveolenski/2014/04/03/6-local-seo-strategies-for-small-businesses/ http://www.localstampede.com/citation-building-strategies-list/ http://searchengineland.com/holiday-planning-local-businesses-5-easy-steps-203856 CAYAN http://searchengineland.com/88-consumers-trust-online-reviews-much-personal-recommendations-195803 http://www.businesscomputingworld.co.uk/how-do-consumers-feel-about-online-shopping-security/esthash.EDlq80Z0.dpuf http://baymard.com/lists/cart-abandonment-ratehttp://www.inc.com/magazinel201312/kasey-wehrum/how-to-get-online-customers-to-complete-purchase.html