Get Ready for 'Cyber Monday'
Small Business Pipeline
by Alice LaPlante
November 22, 2005
The Friday after Thanksgiving might mark the opening of the Christmas buying season for brick-and-mortar retailers, but it's the Monday after Thanksgiving that makes online retailers happy.
Dubbed "Cyber Monday by Shop.org, the day marks what many analysts believe will be a record-breaking year for online holiday shopping, with online retail sales in the U.S. surging to $26 billion, up 18 percent from a year ago.
In fact, 51.7 percent of consumers said they will use Internet access at work to browse or buy gifts online this holiday season, according to a Shop.org survey conducted by BIGresearch released on Monday.
And many retailers are offering extra incentives to encourage people to shop online. Forty three percent of online retailers that participated in the survey plan to offer special promotions and discounts on Monday. Deals will range from free shipping to gifts with purchase to percentages off, according to the eHoliday Mood Study.
Web site optimization expert Mark Wachen, whose company Optimost has helped online retail giants like eDiets and eBay increase their conversation rates of browsers to buyers by 20 percent to 45 percent offered some simple but effective Web site tweaking tips:
- Don't be cute with your navigation tools. If you want shoppers to "click here," tell them to "click here." Often Web retailers try to get cute with buttons that read "your path to savings" or they make the button's too small and hard to find. One online retailer was able to increase sales 10 percent by following Optimost's advice to edit its navigation buttons from "Get X now" to "Click here to try X."
- Boldface key phrases. Use of boldface type can be one of the most powerful tools in online retail sales, and it takes just seconds to implement on a Web site.
- Cut your instructional copy in half. Having too many words on a Web page is retail suicide, according to Wachen, who says that it's 2005; people don't need a dissertation explaining the intricacies of your registration process. Do them a favor and keep it short and sweet.
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