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Tis the season for bargains, right? It’s also the season for business owners to develop great deals to capture new customers. There are many opportunities in the fall and especially around Thanksgiving when holiday shopping begins in earnest. We’ve got Black Friday the day after Thanksgiving when many people truly begin (or finish) their holiday shopping. But maybe you’ve heard about Cyber Monday. And wonder what is Cyber Monday?
Cyber Monday Deals Attract New Customers
Cyber Monday is a relatively new phenomenon that has been promoted by many online retailers as the day consumers can get exceptional deals online. They want to convince you to shop early and shop with them now, not later to get the best holiday deals. It’s a true sales promotion technique that you may want to follow. When is Cyber Monday 2016? It is always the Monday following Thanksgiving.
Is it the best time for deals? Is it a good time for you to be garnering bigger sales and increasing your customer base? Yes, it can be if done correctly and you’ve thought through all the possible scenarios from promotion to delivery. But don’t think Black Friday and Cyber Monday are your only options and don’t think it’s too late to get in the game.
Deals Can be for Loyal Customers Only
So, how do you as a business take advantage of these big shopping “days”
during the Holiday season and increase your sales in 2017? Actually it’s quite easy, especially online. If you want to limit your exposure you could have a special “sale” for your loyal customer (or if you have a loyalty program, those customers). Think about an item that you’ve got good margins on or a top seller that you can discount further on Cyber Monday or Super Saturday or even Thanksgiving Day! Just make sure that you have other deals available so your customers will search further than just the one.
But also remember, there are other days to consider. As a matter of fact, research from Adobe found that you might be better off shopping online on Thanksgiving Day because many are offering consumers an average 24 percent discount. So if you are planning some online deals, you had best get them ready to go now. And maybe you start offering them on Thanksgiving Day this year to beat out your competition and catch some new customers.
Black Friday Not the Biggest Day for Sales
As a matter of fact, a recently released forecast by ShopperTrak predicted that
for the first time since 2005, Black Friday will not be the biggest day for sales. As a matter of fact, they are predicting that Super Saturday may actually be the day to beat. That’s the Saturday before Christmas. I guess there really are a lot of last minute shoppers!
Keep in mind that you can change your offers throughout the holiday season. Maybe you have one item for your best Cyber Monday Deal and a very different offer for Super Saturday. I’ve seen too many times where companies feel that they have a lot of inventory of one particular item and they are going to “stick” with that no matter what. Don’t fall into that trap. Mix it up. You want to keep your customers coming back many times over the season, right?
Target Your Deals to Your Ideal Customer
Another way to achieve keeping customers coming back is to specifically target your deals based on either their demographics or shopping patterns and history. If you don’t have that information, then now is the time to start collecting that data! Obviously you will have greater success if what you are offering each group is something that they want and the offer makes them want it now!
I don’t know about you, but when I am holiday shopping for family and friends, no matter how disciplined I am, I always find a deal too good to pass up for myself!
The best Cyber Monday deals are those that you also have ample stock on-hand and that you are prepared to ship out immediately. If you can’t handle it or only have a very limited number available then you may want to reconsider offering a Cyber Monday or other shopping day deal.
Use Social Media Strategically
You can also use your social media outlets to broadcast your deals. But again, you don’t want to be caught fulfilling these orders in January. That totally defeats the purpose of using holiday deals to further build customer loyalty.
This is also a good opportunity to be proactive to capture your loyal customer’s hearts, minds and wallets for a longer term goal. You can “advertise” your deal as a “Thank You” for their loyalty for the past year type of deal, for example. And as you hone this opportunity you can replicate it for other shopping holidays throughout the next year. Getting your customers used to checking in more regularly for Special Only for them offers will ultimately increase your sales.
Track Success for Future
If you run some deals for Cyber Monday then track how they do with each of
your customer demographics so that as you develop deals in the future you start to learn what is popular and what is not. You should also track which social medium is working best with which offer. Is the loss leader you’re prompting selling or are you able to lead them to better options? Or are you seeing a very quick abandon rate on your site and offer? If that’s the case, then it’s time to readjust and quickly.
That’s one of the beauties of being targeted with your holiday deals and prompting them through social media. It’s quick and easy to change directions.
Remember you could run a couple Thanksgiving Day Deals and see what is really selling or what might need to be adjusted to help you develop your best Cyber Monday Deals ever.
