AMZ Seller Financing   •   December 3, 2018

With the start of another holiday season, the sales went sky-high on Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

If you want to make it big in online sales, you better remember these two dates. They can really make all the difference. This time of the year, also known as Cyber Week, is the period when you can do wonders for your revenue.

And this isn’t just a fad, on the contrary. Cyber Week is definitely here to stay. You better be ready for it. Let’s look at the numbers for this year and compare the stats for Cyber Week 2018.

The Numbers

To all those people out there who still don’t believe the power of Cyber Monday, here’s an interesting piece of data. Cyber Monday 2018 resulted in $7.9 billion spent online. This is actually a 19.3% increase compared to just two years ago.

On the other hand, Black Friday made a jump of 23.6%, compared to two years ago. Online sales this year went up to $6.2 billion.

How can we explain this? There is a simple reason: mobile devices. It’s a well-known fact that mobile devices make for a huge chunk of online sales, and this trend shows no sign of stopping.

The Why

There are several factors behind this. First of all, the so-called millennial generation is buying more and more online these days. Roughly speaking, millennials are those people between the ages of 15 and 30. And they are really making an enormous difference online.

But millennials are not only on social media and YouTube, as many wrongly think. They are actually running their own business and using the internet actively. On a day-to-day basis.

And since mobile phones and tablets all still very popular and high in demand, it’s perfectly normal to see online sales doing great just from mobile devices. Mobile orders (including tablet devices) made 53% of all Cyber Monday orders.

But there is another trend worth pointing out. The internet is slowly putting brick-and-mortar stores out of business. Now, this should be taken with a pinch of salt, because it’s not going to happen overnight. Nevertheless, all the signs are there.

Mobile shopping also allows buyers of any generations to enjoy the perks of discounts from the comfort of their homes (or offices). Without the need to be in the stores, stand in lines, and even risk their safety.

So, remember this fact from Cyber Week 2018 and be ready for the next year, because the popularity of mobile shopping is only going to grow.

Lots of Changes…

Many physical stores decided not to open on Thanksgiving. Or they were open for only a short period of time, for limited hours. And the customers found no problem with this, as they opted to purchase online.

There is still, however, a large demand for physical stores. But this is all about to change in the next decade or so. This is very important to know because, if you’re an online seller, there is an ocean of possibilities for you out there. And it’s going to get better and better through the years.

Amazon, for example, is expecting to take over 50% of the e-commerce market in the United States by the end of 2018. And the company already said that Cyber Monday 2018 became the biggest shopping day in its history.

Therefore, if you’re selling on Amazon, know that you’re in the right place, because if this happened during Cyber Weeek 2018, it seems there’s going to be another record break next year.

The How: Your Preparation Guide for Cyber Week 2019

Now, given all the data we presented here, it’s clear that you need to learn a few things form Cyber Week 2018 and prepare for Cyber Week 2019 in advance if you want to crush it. Many online sellers expect a lot from Cyber Week but end up a bit disappointed. That’s because they haven’t put enough into the preparation process. Here is what should do:

1. Start early on

Although officially Cyber Week doesn’t start until Thanksgiving, this shouldn’t stop you sending out special offers and discount as early as mid-October. Customers may not be buying at this stage, but they are definitely on the lookout for interesting deals. So, if you give them something to look forward to, they will do business with you.

Therefore, be sure to work on developing your email list so that you can start informing your potential customers as early as possible.

2. Backup your store

Imagine your website crushing one day before Thanksgiving. No one would want that, right? Imagine how much money you would lose, not the mention the how mentally drained you would be. However, it’s actually very possible if you get a ton of clicks and visitors that your server isn’t able to handle.

So, you need to make sure you have backups for all the sections of your website. And if something wrong does happen, you will have nothing to worry about.

3. Offer the “real deal” discounts 

When Cyber Week comes, customers want at least 20% off, otherwise – they won’t see it as a real Cyber Week discount. The rule of thumb is: the bigger the discount, the better the sales. You need to swim between 30% and 50% discount if you make to make some serious money during Cyber Week.

Also, you can be as creative as you like and offer, for example, 30% discount on every three items sold, etc. just make sure that the discount is clearly displayed and there’s a countdown timer so that your customers know they’re running out of time.

4. Promote, promote, promote!

Now is your time to promote your online store as much as you can. What are you waiting for? There’s only one Cyber Week and it’s getting bigger and bigger. Make use of all your social media accounts, use email sequence campaigns, do everything you can to increase the traffic to your store and sky-rocket those sales.