Is Your Website Ready for Black Friday and Cyber Monday?

Black Friday and Cyber Monday are undoubtedly two of the most important dates in the year for online eCommerce stores. 2016’s Black Friday resulted in an estimated £1.23bn in online retail purchases, exceeding over £6.45bn over the weekend peak period; including Cyber Monday.

With these figures increasing each year, it’s no wonder that the festive period is often the most profitable time for any online business. The Black Friday weekend presents a huge opportunity to capitalise on the increase in traffic and change in buyer’s attitude.

Increased traffic is a dream for every business owner. However, failure to prepare your website will have a detrimental backlash. Planning can be done in two parts: Technical and Execution. We’ve put together tips to help you plan, optimise and make the biggest impact on this busy weekend.

Security is more important now than ever. With Google's recent update in October, viewers are now informed when they load onto a none secure website. This is visible by the "not secure" warning in the navigation bar.

The main deterrent to purchasing online is trust. Do I trust you and your site with my money? You never want to give the customer a reason to answer no.

How do you combat this? By implementing an SSL certificate (Secure Socket Layer). This security protocol acts as an encrypted link between the web server and browser. This ensures that all data passed through is kept secure and private, which is critical for e-commerce. This then enables your website to load as Https, signifying to users that their information is protected.

Customer perception should never be overlooked. A security breach will damage your brand image and could result in substantial costs.

If you utilise a CDN for hosting it would be worthwhile contacting them about the potential for increased traffic. Depending on what you are selling, you will be able to estimate roughly how in demand your product will be during this period.

If you are not using a CDN, you will want to inquire with your IT team about the ability to upgrade your server. This may not apply to everyone. If you are already situated on a higher tier server, the likelihood is you will already be able to withstand higher traffic and sustained volumes. If you are unsure of the current limitation of your server, we suggest enquiring with your provider. Saying it would be unfortunate for your website to crash over the weekend would be an understatement.

Moving over to a new server can take some time. It’s not recommended to do so if you are closely approaching Black Friday as there is no reassurance that everything will be functioning in time.

-> 8 Crucial Benefits a CDN Provides

Buying online on Black Friday through to Cyber Monday is different than normal. Buyer’s attitudes change. People begin to adopt a faster approach to purchasing. Buyers are more impulsive and expect to be in and out in a matter of minutes. As such, your check out procedure needs to follow suit.

Customer experience should be your number 1 priority. Place yourself in their shoes. Whilst you're rushing to make a purchase, do you want to sit and fill in 5 minutes of information? No.

Some businesses completely remove the need to register during this period, which is an effective workaround. Whilst you are sacrificing the ability to gain information from your buyers, you are instead, increasing conversion rates.

Mobile Phones are being used more than ever before. As a population, purchasing on our phones has now become second nature.

Unlike the US, Black Friday is not a Public Holiday for us here in the UK. It's likely that the majority of buyers will be scouring the sales on their phones during work breaks or commutes.

The majority of users will not save offers they find to later purchase through a desktop. When sales are high, people begin to buy solely on impulse. Ensure your website is mobile friendly. This includes the check out process. As mentioned above, your users need to find what they're looking for, select & buy in a streamlined process.

Checking your website beforehand is also important. If you are running into common problems, it's likely your customers are too. Check your site on your mobile and ensure everything is loading and working correctly.

If it's running too close to the date for you to make ample checks; cut corners. Make sure your homepage, main product pages & check out are all optimised. After all, these will be the most visited pages during this period.

You should ideally have your deals decided months in advance. These obviously play an integral role in the build-up to Black Friday, but its how you market them that counts.

These need to be consistent on your site, highlighting one clear message. Offers need to be accurately explained and not used as simple cash-ins to gaining attention.

This would also be the appropriate time to update any banners on your website & other design elements. Bold banners are important to catch the users attention. It's also important to note that shipping/return details should be included in your design. With customers looking to purchase quickly, they may miss this information if they are not informed of it from the get-go.

You can use your email list to increase the reach of your deals months before the Black Friday Weekend. Inform your subscribers of what deals you are going to be highlighting and when they will be available. You can also use this as a useful method to re-target customers who have engaged with your brand before.

Design and clarity are the two most important elements to get right. Add personalised messages where applicable, receivers are more likely to respond if the message is directed towards them.

Proofread your template before sending. Nothing is worse than getting a percentage wrong. During this period, customers are often bombarded with hundreds of sale emails. This can make it difficult for your emails to be seen if you only send them once. Likewise, It can be beneficial to email during the weekend to highlight the extra sales you are having during Cyber Monday.

With every step in place, you should be better prepared for the hectic weekend. ensuring that your website is optimised allows you to put some of the more important worries to the back of your mind. Your users will be able to navigate your website with ease, on mobile or desktop.

During this period, it can be effective to place more focus on social media and engaging with your customers. Social platforms allow you to promote your deals in mass, creating more opportunities to pick up an extra sale here and there.

It's important during this period to answer any questions directed towards you and your business. Stress levels are higher and people are more likely to write negative reviews or turn to social to complain. First time visitors are more likely to be influenced by comments and reviews. If you're not seen to be trying to resolve this and/or keep customers happy, then visitors will boycott their purchase.

Black Friday and Cyber Monday take their toll on many unprepared businesses. Once finished, you should have substantial data that you can put forward and use for the Christmas rush.

If your website has taken a toll over the busy periods, now might be a time to improve and upgrade with a new website for the following year -  Here's how you can benefit from a new website.