Whether you like it or not, the holiday season is upon us. Retailers are already gearing up for Black Friday, but for digital marketers, Cyber Monday is the most important day on the horizon since it is projected to be bigger and better than ever before.
Forrester Research is forecasting a $10 billion jump in online spending this holiday season, estimating that ecommerce sales in the U.S. will reach $89 billion in November and December, an increase of 13% YOY. To put it into perspective, this represents 30% of all e-commerce sales for 2014.
The number is staggering and I’m sure it’s going to make some marketers weak in the knees. In preparation for this type of volume, companies must evaluate and make decisions about technology; invest in creative work and UX design; build their marketing plans and engage vendors; and finally, implement measurement controls and be prepared to optimize in-line. So, the big question is, are you ready?
Below are some questions you should be asking yourself or your internal resources as you prepare for Cyber Monday and the rest of the holiday season:
Is your mobile website optimized (i.e. easy to navigate, thumb-friendly, viewable across devices)? According to IBM, mobile devices will account for more than half (53%) of all visits to ecommerce sites beginning Thanksgiving Day and extending through Cyber Monday, which is a 40% increase from last year. Your mobile site will be hit hard. Don’t risk losing a sale because of a poor mobile experience.
For the desktop folks, is your website tagged properly? The amount of data you’ll be collecting on Cyber Monday is a treasure trove that could inform marketing, design, product, and usability improvements in the future. Test that your tags are firing correctly and the data is being captured.
Do you have a multi-channel re-targeting plan in place? If someone has an item in her shopping cart, will you serve a display ad, trigger an email reminder and/or post a social ad to her? Assuming you have #2 above covered, you know what products and pages people viewed. Put that data to work and move these people through the purchase funnel without delay!
When customers are checking out, are you collecting data on them that can be used for later marketing and targeting purposes (i.e. zip, age, gender, preferences)? You can even leverage this proprietary data to sell custom segments to external advertisers at a premium CPM. Most importantly, are you getting their permission to contact customers again? You want them to return to site and build a relationship with them. Don’t let them slam the door without getting your foot in there.
Are you collecting, standardizing and consolidating your data from all touch points for a complete customer view? I know, this one is a biggie and if you didn’t embark on a data management initiative twelve months ago, the answer is probably “no,” but it’s worth putting on your New Year’s resolution list. The more data you collect and maintain (13 months of rolling history is preferable), the more precise and relevant your communications will be boosting long-term customer engagement, satisfaction, and revenue.
While there are more Cyber Monday readiness questions, these are the most important ones to consider. So start now, make your own list with your top priorities and check it twice because Cyber Monday will be here soon and there’s a huge opportunity cost for being unprepared. Good luck and happy selling!
Therese DeMatteo is Senior Strategist at Quaero