Preparing Your Small Business Website for Cyber Monday

Black Friday used to be all the rage for retailers, but now, it has some serious competition. Small Business Saturday takes place the day after Black Friday, Cyber Monday is two days later, and both attract tons of customers.

American Express started promoting Small Business Saturday in 2010 to get people to support local businesses. Cyber Monday officially began in 2005 after the National Retail Federation realized that online shoppers spend lots of money on the Monday after Black Friday.

Now, retailers offer sales and special offers to attract customers on these two days, and it pays off. Consumers spend billions of dollars on both days. That adds up to a lot of Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales.

If you’re going to take advantage of these special days, begin by getting your small business website ready for business. Your website will help you attract shoppers and make sales.

If you don’t already have a website, create one with an easy-to-use website builder. Then get ready to prepare your site for the upcoming sales.

6 Small Business Website Tips for Black Friday and Cyber Monday

1. Effective Small Business Marketing

Marketing plays a critical role in making Cyber Monday sales. Whether you sell products on your small business website or offer services such as photography, your website will help you reach more people.

Social Media Marketing

Get the ball rolling with a social media campaign. Come up with a cool prize that social media users will love. Post a photo of the prize along with the rules for entering the contest. While some small business owners create lots of rules, you can keep it simple by having them share the post and include a pre-determined hashtag.

Next, give a sneak peek of some of your biggest deals. What will people be most excited about? Show those deals off and remind your followers that once you’re sold out, the sale is over.

Finally, integrate Facebook into your online store. You can do this with various website builders, including Wix. Access your website builder’s apps or plugins section to find Ecwid. The online shopping cart software will take you through the process.

Geo-targeted Ads

If you have some money in your advertising budget, create geo-targeted ads on social media and Google. These ads will build awareness around your campaign and help you make more Cyber Monday sales. Include information about your deals when creating your ads.

Email Marketing

Email marketing can also help you promote your small business website. Keep in mind that lots of retailers send emails ahead of Cyber Monday, so use an attention-grabbing headline that will urge people to open yours. The email should be short and to the point and include information about your hottest deals, as well as a link to your small business website.

2. Manage Your Inventory

You can expect lots of sales on Cyber Monday. If you don’t have enough inventory, you will miss out on an amazing opportunity to make money. You need to make sure you have enough stock and manage your inventory effectively. Some website builders have inventory management tools you can use to track your products.

For example, Wix lets you add and track your inventory. You can easily keep an eye on how much inventory you have at all times. Then, if something runs out, you can let online shoppers know that it’s on backorder.

3. Provide Excellent Customer Service

Customer service is critical during Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday. You can connect with your customers during the shopping process by installing a chatbox on your website. This isn’t complicated at all. Website builders such as Wix allow users to add chat boxes to websites easily. Once your chat box is live, you can set the chat hours.

If you generate customers from your website but provide services in person, be engaging and kind to each customer you serve. Ensure that each person has the best experience possible, whether they are buying your handmade jewelry or smiling for a family portrait.

4. Use Abandoned Shopping Cart Reminders

Abandoned shopping carts are a huge problem for ecommerce website owners. It’s estimated that 85.6 percent of mobile shoppers abandon shopping carts, and 73.1 percent of desktop users add things to online shopping carts without following through with a purchase. Tablet users sit in the middle, with an average abandonment rate of 80.7 percent. Often, these shoppers intend to come back and finish the purchase, but they forget. You can bring those shoppers back to your site by setting up automated reminders. When they see the items they intend to purchase in their inbox, they are more likely to go back to your website and complete the purchase.

This sounds like a difficult thing to do, but it’s actually quite simple. Multiple small business website builders have this tool built-in. Wix and Squarespace are just two options if you want to automate reminders on your ecommerce website easily.

5. Update Your Website to Reflect Cyber Monday Sales

You need to update your site to reflect the sales you offer. Website builders make this a cinch. For example, Wix lets you add sales ribbons to any of your products. You can enter text to appear at the top of the ribbon. In this case, you would enter “Cyber Monday” to highlight your Cyber Monday sales. You can also include a fixed sale amount or the percentage off. That will show up underneath the product’s photo. When the sale is over, you can delete the sale ribbons, so the regular price appears again.

6. Make Sure Your Site Is Mobile-friendly to Boost Cyber Monday Sales

In 2019, Cyber Monday reached new heights with 7.9 billion dollars in sales, an increase of 19.3 percent from 2018. Mobile sales were very impressive that day. People used phones to buy $2.2 billion in products, which was 55.6 percent more than the previous year. You can expect that number to keep growing as more people say goodbye to desktops and hello to phones and tablets.

You can cash in on the growing trend by ensuring your website is mobile-friendly. In the past, website owners created two versions of their sites. They made one for desktops and one for mobile devices. That was time-consuming and caused many site owners to cut corners, leaving mobile users with only half of the content that desktop users received. That’s a thing of the past, though. Now, people choose website builders such as Wix, that include responsive design and mobile styles. For responsive design, the website builder resizes the site based on the device. Mobile styles are built into some templates to improve navigation on mobile devices.

Prepare Your Small Business Website for the Holiday Shopping Season

Website builders take the stress out of preparing your website for holiday shopping. Once you build your website, use small business marketing strategies for people to learn about your deals. Manage your inventory, so you can fulfill orders and provide the best customer service possible during the shopping experience. Also, use a website builder to set up automated abandoned shopping cart reminders, add sales buttons to your site, and make your site mobile-friendly. These tasks will prepare your small business website to make Cyber Monday sales.