Your Guide to Online Retailing on Black Friday and Cyber Monday
Around the office, we have been planning to adjust client Pay Per Click spending for the upcoming holiday season, specifically for Black Friday & Cyber Monday. Knowing that 83% of consumers will buy holiday gifts online this year (Accenture), I asked some outside experts in #PPCchat for their insights on maximizing this opportunity.
Start Preparing Earlier for Holiday Shopping Season
Both Damon Gochneaur (@DamonGochneaur) and Susan Winograd (@SusanEDub) stressed the importance of planning early. According to Accenture’s 2013 Retail Shopping Survey, 48% of consumers believe the best discounts will be available on Thanksgiving, Black Friday, or Cyber Monday. Having a strategy in place to take advantage of these beliefs is mandatory. Susan goes further by suggesting the use of PPC to build a list in preparation for these highly anticipated shopping days. What a great way to ensure you remain on the top of the minds of consumers.
Make Sure Mobile is a Key Component of Your Strategy
As the current marketing trends continue, more shoppers are using mobile. Last year during Black Friday and Cyber Monday, roughly 18% of browsers were on mobile devices, and mobile devices made 13% of purchases. This represents a 70% increase in mobile device traffic and a 96% increase in mobile device purchases versus 2011. Mobile will be even bigger this year, so ensure you have a mobile-optimized website and optimize your ads for mobile devices.
Showrooming & Webrooming On Black Friday Expected to Rise
The Accenture report also highlights the increase in Showrooming and Webrooming. Both online and brick-and-mortar stores have a growing dynamic inserted into their conversion funnel which can lead the consumer to purchase elsewhere. With the rise of mobile, this will only become more prevalent.
Showrooming is more likely this year compared to last year. An estimated 63% of shoppers will go to a store to look for a gift and then search and purchase online for the best price. So having an omnichannel strategy that takes this into account is essential. Use this as an opportunity. Find ways to keep the consumer intent to purchase with you while in your store.
Webrooming, the process of looking at something online and then purchasing in a store, is also common. Remember, 47% of people used the desire not to pay for shipping because they purchased in-store instead of online.
For online retailers understanding this consumer behavior can help you adjust campaigns so they bring in clients who are online after looking at a specific item in the store. Likewise, online conversions can be increased by offering free shipping or other incentives designed to minimize the effect of webrooming.
Highest Conversion Rates of the Year
Black Friday and Cyber Monday draw an audience of people looking to buy. These dates have historically higher levels of conversions than other days. Cyber Monday edges out Black Friday with a 5.83% conversion rate across retail sites.
Damon Gochneaur (@DamonGochneaur) advises, “Get outside of the stream. Start earlier, run later, be more aggressive, the attention span of shoppers shorter.”
And Kirk Williams (@KECreate) emphasizes, “Raise budget for those days.”
Aaron Levy (@bigalittlea) chimes in, “Skip bid rules and remember shopping will probably start later on digital.”
The consensus with the pros is to be aggressive with your ad spend. Shoppers search the web to buy, especially on these “consumer holidays.” It only makes sense to be bold and position yourself in front of these consumers by raising your budget for these high conversion rate days.
Things to Remember When Creating Ad Copy and Landing Pages for Black Friday and Cyber Monday
Top 3 Drivers of purchase decisions
- Item is on Sale
- Item is the best choice for the recipient
- Item is in the recipient’s budget
You can help increase your campaigns’ conversion rate and success if you keep these three things in mind when creating ad copy and designing landing pages. Most shoppers like to see discounts of 30% or more.
Create landing pages and corresponding ad copy that cater to your segments while implementing the abovementioned rules. For instance, “Gifts for Him Under $99,” which shows gifts in that price range marked down 30% or more, will convert higher than bringing visitors to a page with all your products.
Cyber Monday = $$$ Money
Black Friday 2012 broke records by having e-commerce spending surpass $1 billion. Cyber Monday 2012 showed sales of $1.98 billion, with growth estimates ranging from 17% to 30% from 2011.
Based on these numbers, it seems guaranteed that Cyber Monday 2013 will surpass the $2 billion mark and be the most significant online shopping day ever. Conversion rates are at a record high (5.83%) due to consumers who don’t find the perfect gift on Black Friday and feel Cyber Monday might be the last opportunity to get a good deal before the holidays. Ensure you aggressively pursue these customers to make Cyber Monday your best online sales day!
Did we miss anything? What are your top tips to take advantage of Black Friday and Cyber Monday shoppers? Connect with me on Twitter @Rory_Witt or Google+.
Many of the statistics in this article are available in full, including data and statistics from IBM 2012 Cyber Monday Report, Accenture Holiday 2013 Shopping Trends, and Adobe Cyber Monday 2012 Digital Index.
