Many of the UK’s eCommerce sites seized the opportunity of Cyber Monday and offered up some seriously tempting promotions and offers that lured in consumers and increased sales.
Over the U.S Thanksgiving week, global retailers increased ad spend on paid search by 49 percent compared to 2013 and on Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday, their efforts were rewarded with revenue increases outweighing the jump in ad spend. Daily spend on Google shopping campaigns nearly doubled compared to 2013 and, interestingly, peak spending on product listing ads (PLAs) this year shifted from Cyber Monday to Black Friday. There are lessons to be learned here. While paid search may be expensive, if you increase your investment you will see results.
With the abundance of sales on Cyber Monday and the plethora of offers which will no doubt appear in the January sales, it is important that eCommerce sites focus on delivering a quality user experience, as well as just lowered prices. Sites across the web will showcase mark downs and deductions. It is not enough to simply follow suit, you must adopt a more savvy approach.
There are different ways of presenting your bargains, but ultimately you must provide enough navigation and filtering options to narrow searches. Avoid making your customers hunt and scour for what they are looking for, as they will simply get bored and look elsewhere.
Here are some examples from some famous names of how to lay out your site to maximise consumer spending during the January sales:
House of Fraser
In recognition of the fact that customers visiting their site are primarily interested in sales items, House of Fraser highlights its sale section clearly. The ‘shop live offers’ call to action on the site’s landing page, which is Cyber Monday-themed, allows consumers to go directly to the sales section.
Tesco
Tesco made it abundantly clear it had a sale on with imagery and text alluding to Cyber Monday all over its homepage. Unlike its competitors, it offered discounts on everything if you spending thresholds were hit, rather than on a selection of reduced products. This allowed customers to navigate the site as normal, only applying discounts at the end. This is useful to customers who regularly order online from Tesco and do not wish to be disrupted by new navigation during the busy holiday period.
Gap
Gap explained the terms of its sale by simply displaying a banner which read; ’40% off everything with a discount code.’ The advantage of such a sale is that there is no need for a separate section, so customers can navigate as normal.
The offer is reiterated throughout the site and the code (CYBERGAP) is easy to remember. There is a certain degree of simplicity in ordering with a discount code. It allows the customer to shop as normal then apply the code in the sites checkout section. Just ensure your code is easy to remember and that the section which requires consumers to enter the code is clearly laid out.
Another feature to include in your landing page and throughout your site, which can be expected to increase sales, is a countdown feature. This countdown feature should signal when the sale finishes, to inject a degree of urgency, which will hurry your consumers into purchasing.
The site techniques deployed which led to the success of Cyber Monday can be applied again during the January sales. Be mindful of not just offering great deals but also quality user experiences and you will no doubt see your revenue rocket.
