This year’s cyber week is expected to be the largest ever! Buckle up to optimize your online business or Amazon storefront to gain the most from this year’s traffic and opportunity.
Thanksgiving is just around the corner…and this year it’s bringing about, potentially, the biggest Cyber Weekend yet!
Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and Cyber Monday will mark the traditional holiday shopping season, boosting ecommerce sales as per usual.
The Deloitte Annual Holiday Retail predicts retail sales to grow between 7% and 9% in 2021. This report also asserts that ecommerce sales will increase by 11-15% during the holiday season of 2021-2022.
Consumers are eagerly awaiting to scoop up deals, offers, and enticing discounts. At the same time, they expect easy navigation, quick shipping and delivery times, superior functionality, and an unhindered online shopping experience.
We’ll take a closer look at what the biggest cyber weekend in 2021 may bring.
What is Cyber Weekend 2021?
The pandemic changed the world in ways we never imagined. There has been a shift towards a digitized world which triggered changes in online shopping behaviors.
The lockdown led more and more consumers to shop online.
Holiday seasons like Black Friday and Cyber Monday generated more online sales each year. However, this year, large ecommerce marketplaces and platforms, including Amazon and Shopify, are expected to experience unprecedented growth.
First, due to the increasing trend of online shopping brought on by the pandemic, and second because it combines three of the most popular holidays for consumers: Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and Cyber Monday on November 26, 27, and 29, respectively.
Consequently, the ecommerce holiday of 2021 is expected to reach a growth rate of $210 billion to $218 billion in sales. Surprising or unsurprising?
Nonetheless, rising sales and more traffic can cause security issues, product quality sacrifices, delayed shipping times, lack of scalability, and unnecessary outages.
Regardless, all retailers must adapt and identify customer demands and solve tech-related issues to make the most of the Q4 e-commerce boom.
What Do Ecommerce Customers Expect?
Did you know it takes 50 milliseconds for users to form an opinion about your website? Considering this, it’s not wrong to say that a customer takes 0.05 seconds to decide whether or not they’ll buy from your website. First impressions aesthetically are everything, especially with brands becoming increasingly competitive on their storefronts, product packaging, websites, advertisements, and social media accounts.
Even if you’re offering a valuable product/service, it’s of no use if your visitors abandon your website right away. So, what exactly do the ecommerce customers expect?
Here are a few facts to note:
- Cyber week offers will attract a plethora of visitors to your website, but unclear navigation will turn them away within milliseconds. The customers expect a simple, navigable, and user-centric website.
- Customers are impatient to grab their favorite deals and therefore expect a blazing-fast speed on your website.
- Content-heavy websites often contain a fancy search box, and unfortunately, it doesn’t please the customers. During seasonal shopping, customers expect an easy-to-identify search box in the correct spot on your website for easy navigation.
Challenges Retail Ecommerce Sellers Might Face During the Cyber Week
Your ecommerce sale opportunities will likely grow at a rapid rate, but there’s no rose without a thorn. With so much transpiring during Cyber Monday Week, your ecommerce business could certainly undergo a set of issues and challenges.
Here are a few issues you might face as an online retailer:
- With more traffic on the website, your website is more vulnerable and exposed to security threats. Hackers look for ways to sneak into your website, and they may take advantage of this opportunity.
- Websites alone are not prone to security issues, but customers are as well. The number of phishing attacks is on the rise, and attackers might steal your customers’ information. Consequently, your clients might lose trust in you, and you may lose them eventually.
- Your website speed may slow down with more people landing on it all at once.
- You aren’t alone availing the opportunity of Cyber week to sell more; your competitors are in the same boat. That means you may have to face more fierce competition than ever before.
- Ecommerce stores lose $18 billion in sales revenue each year because of cart abandonment, and statistics show around 88.05% of online shoppers abandoned their cart in 2020. The same issue may arise during the holiday shopping season when consumers flock to your site in droves.
Tips to Ensure the Best Cyber Weekend Ever
A powerful solution will eventually boost your sales, whether you run your business on your personal website, Amazon, or Shopify.
Here are quick tips to ensure the biggest cyber week ever for your online retail store!
Security
Building a website is pretty easy but keeping it secure is quite challenging.
Here are some tips to keep your website secure for your customers and yourself:
- Use a strong password (a 14-digit mixture of numbers and letters).
- Go for a secure web host.
- Keep plugins and software up to date.
- Add SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) and HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure) to secure your website URL.
- Apply for a WAF (web application firewall).
- Analyze your network security.
Speed
More traffic will certainly reduce the speed on your website, and it irritates the customers like anything.
Here’s how to boost your website speed:
- Reduce the size of your images as oversized images slow down the browsing process.
- A messy website code makes it longer for your website to load. Make sure you minify your code to avoid vexing slowdowns.
- Use a CDN to distribute your website files across global servers.
- Remove resource-demanding add-ons and plugins.
- Conversely, you can implement smart SEO apps and speed-enhancing apps or widgets.
User-Friendly Website
Make sure your website is mobile compatible and accessible to all users. Also, consider placing well-formatted content that is easier to skim through.
Another feature that makes your website more attractive than your competitors’ is easy and effective navigation.
Partner With An Amazon Automation Team
Acquiring, storing, and transporting products to a particular destination is yet another crucial factor to consider. Ensure that you optimize your logistics to speed up the delivery process. For that purpose, you can partner with an Amazon Automation team to do the heavy lifting for you.
Wrapping Things Up
Holiday shopping in the fourth quarter is something online consumers eagerly await! Millions of online customers rush to Amazon, eBay, Walmart, Shopify, and all their favorite brands’ websites to enjoy major deals and discounts.
While it’s a great opportunity for shoppers to avail good deals, ecommerce retailers are the ones truly reaping the benefits of this shopping behavior.
Now is the time to get the most out of this year’s Cyber Monday/Black Friday Week and earn some solid seasonal revenue. Make sure you optimize your website(s), ensure a fantastic user experience, and enhanced security, to increase your e-com revenue.
