Is your eCommerce site ready for Black Friday and Cyber Monday?

As more consumers choose the comfort of the home over crowded stores, online eCommerce sales on Black Friday reach new all-time highs for each year that passes by. Last year, shoppers spent $4.45 billion online, according to Adobe.

As if Black Friday wasn’t enough to think about - next up for online retailers is Cyber Monday, which is widely known to be the largest online shopping day of the year.

We turned to our Directors and senior staff to have them answer the question all retailers simply can’t ignore: how do you make your eCommerce site ready for the shopping weekend of the year?

Here is what they had to say:

Justin Thorne, Head of Strategy & Performance Marketing
@justinthorneUK

'Whilst Black Friday has developed into an online phenomenon, my advice is to go back to its physical retail roots and to get the analogue elements absolutely right. If your logistics can't support a run on your products, or your site can't cope with the load, Black Friday is a great way to undo all the trust you've built up with customers all year around. Massive backlogs in processing orders, stock issues and site crashes are not your customers' problem. Remarkably, we still see marketing departments working in a silo, deploying fantastic offers for consumers in all that noise... but they forget to make sure the folk in the bricks and mortar, and the basements, are also on red alert.'

Toby Kesterton, Client Account Director
@tobykesterton

'I would predict the trend will continue from a "Black Friday" day expanding to a "Black Friday" week. A quick checklist of things to consider:
Paid search plan - A paid search campaign to support your Black Friday offers needs contingency planning for a number of reasons, such as a spike in traffic
Marketing banners - Get content created and ready to go
Load testing - Re-test for higher traffic loads
Out of stock messaging - Test contingencies in advance'

Tom Head, Sales & Marketing Director
@TomHeadLab

'My advice would be:

1. Check your website imagery and campaign headlines across channels. Do they stand out and will they get attention amongst all the noise?

2. Have you configured upsells and associated products particularly for the most purchased items? This is an area where you can significantly increase revenue by presenting the right choices to the consumer.

3. Create a content campaign that delivers value to your consumers. This could be around the perfect way to wrap a present, or writing a thank you note or travelling during the holiday period. As a consumer, if you can connect emotionally and enhance my experience I'm going to be much more likely to purchase from you over the competition.'

Need our help?
Lab’s team of neuromarketing specialists can improve your eCommerce web design, holiday campaign or digital strategy.

Get in touch with our team of experts at hello@lab.co.uk to supercharge the busiest period of the year, or download our latest whitepaper which gives actionable tips you can implement straight away.

Download the whitepaper here