In this video, Matt Winn from Volusion, discusses the key lessons that you, as an online store owner should take in consideration from Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales for future promotions or Holiday sales.
Happy holidays everyone! Or should I say, congratulations on making it through the busy weekend! Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales have hit an all time high, bringing optimism to the economy and ecommerce sites everywhere. So now as the dust begins to settle, what can you take away from these hectic shopping days and apply to the rest of this holiday season?
Watch this video to learn more.
If you have any questions, please let me know by leaving a comment below. And now that you’ve taken your two minute break, get back to pulling in more holiday sales!
Happy selling!
-Matt Winn, Online Communications Specialist, Volusion
Here’s the transcript if you’d like to read along:
Hi everybody! My name is Matt and I’m an Online Communications Specialist here at Volusion. Welcome to Two Minute Tuesday, where we give you two minutes of ecommerce advice to bolster your online success.
Well, the whirlwind weekend of Black Friday and Cyber Monday has come to a close, and we hope that you did well and survived the whole thing. Now that things have died down, we’re now able to share some important takeaways that will help you throughout the rest of the holiday season.
First, there are more shoppers going online. Black Friday (2010) was the biggest shopping day of the year, and Cyber Monday was expected to be even bigger than that. (Note from Matt: Cyber Monday 2010 turned out to be the biggest day for sales revenue in the history of ecommerce!) Average order volume was also up by 6%, so not only are more people turning to ecommerce for purchases, they’re also spending more online. Thus, making yourself more available online will be key to helping you rake in more revenue.
Next, there was a big increase in the dependency on discounts. Part of the reason Black Friday and Cyber Monday were so huge was because of the massive volume of coupons and discounts available to shoppers. One report noted that there were 60% more discounts available this year as opposed to last year (2009). That’s pretty insane, so you’ll want to keep track of your competitors’ discounts so you’re at par and don’t lose out on big deals.
Third, Cyber Monday and Black Friday have extended far beyond this holiday weekend. You likely received several emails before and after these two days. In fact, Wal-Mart is offering a Cyber Monday coupon that can be redeemed all week long. Thus, riding the momentum from this weekend into the rest of the holiday season is an interesting tactic to consider.
And last but not least, we saw an increased usage of mobile and social. This really isn’t a surprise here, but since this is becoming more important to shoppers, make sure that your store has mobile commerce enabled and you’re putting your online business out there via social channels. These are both good ways to be a part of shoppers’ conversations, and more importantly, listed on their credit card bills.
There you have it! A nice recap of this year’s crazy ride of the post-Thanksgiving weekend. If you have any questions, we’re happy to help.
From me to you, happy selling!
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