Cyber Monday’s 100% online, so the methods used by big retailers are also accessible to SME’s.
Cyber Monday arrives on the Monday after Black Friday, between November 26 and December 2, depending on the year.
Sites worldwide offer special discounts on web sales – so customers can shop cheap without the Black Friday hysteria at the checkout queue.
If you have an ecommerce platform, it’s a great chance to draw people into your site, and jump on the #CyberMonday hashtag.
Because Cyber Monday is totally online, you can apply discounts to any product – regardless of business type. And unlike Black Friday, everything’s online, so the methods used by big retailers are also accessible to small businesses.
So without further ado, here are 3 things small business can do to maximise their potential sales…
1. Go for “Everything X% Off” offers.
Cyber Monday tends to eschew offers on specific items (designed to clear old stock that would have been reduced anyway) and instead goes for site-wide discounts.
You’ll find that many bigger brands go for big, simple discounts across everything for one day only. These offers are easy to understand, and easy to advertise on Facebook ads or Google AdWords. Find a discount level that works, and create one simple offer to drive traffic to your site.
2. Free shipping.
Consumers increasingly expect ludicrously fast, and often free shipping – largely because of Amazon Prime.
Small businesses don’t have the infrastructure to compete with that all year round, but Cyber Monday is a good chance to offer free expedited shipping on goods.
You can even get your offer listed on CyberMonday.com, a site dedicated to guiding you customers through the Cyber Monday spending spree.
3. Advertise ahead.
Cyber Monday is often used by big retailers to clear stock they didn’t manage to shift on Black Friday. With a short weekend separating the two, it means many deals may be designed on Cyber Monday itself, or a day or two in advance.
That means small businesses looking ahead can advertise their Cyber Monday deals before the chains get involved. The same logic goes for Christmas sales – the earlier you start, the better your chances of getting your ads seen before the online ad space gets saturated.
4. Try out PPC
PPC (pay per click advertising) is something big businesses spend millions on. Broadly, it refers to online adverts on platforms like Facebook and Google AdWords that drive customers to your website – or even to specific products.
If you haven’t tried it out before, Cyber Monday is a great chance to test the water. On Facebook you can target very specific types of people (by location or interests, for example) and you can start with a small amount of investment. Who knows, you might even learn thigs that will be useful long after Cyber Monday is over.
