Ecommerce site owners warned to prepare ahead of Cyber Monday as UK popularity increases

Online store owners should be prepared for another record Cyber Monday as the ecommerce shopping event continues to become increasingly popular in the UK, according to online printer and office supplier TonerGiant.co.uk .

Spikes in traffic on the 1st December will give brands the chance to sell to a new audience hungry for an offer. From ensuring servers can cope with this excess demand to creating strategic promotions, site owners should prepare now in order to capitalise on this opportunity.

Things to consider:

  • Preparing servers for increased volumes in traffic
  • Easy to navigate landing pages
  • Effective email marketing campaigns
  • Data-led offers and promotions
  • Leverage social media channels to maximise exposure
  • Paid search ads

In 2013, consumers set a record of 115 million visits to retail websites on Cyber Monday, beating the record number of visits in a single day which was set on Boxing Day 2012. (1)

UK shoppers also spent 15.3 million hours shopping online, spending on average 8 minutes per site visit. (1)

Last year saw total UK sales on Cyber Monday reach £600 million, almost double the figure from three years ago, as more British shoppers and retailers continue to adopt the day that’s been a fixture on the American shopping calendar since 2006. (2)

Gary Flynn, Managing Director of TonerGiant.co.uk, has also stressed the importance of not assuming that Cyber Monday applies only to certain product sectors and niches.

“These figures highlight just how big a day Cyber Monday has become in the online business calendar in this country. But it’s not just your traditional high street brands that benefit from this surge in shopping.

“For example at TonerGiant.co.uk we primarily sell office and printer supplies to businesses; not your typical festive season purchase. Yet even we noticed increased demand on Cyber Monday. Indeed last year we saw a 15.9% increase in traffic and a 33.2% increase in transactions on Cyber Monday compared to the Monday the previous week.

“It goes to show that no matter how big a business you are, what you sell and what your customer base is you can capitalise on the heightened popularity of Cyber Monday.”

TonerGiant.co.uk has created an infographic that details some of the key statistics from Cyber Monday 2013, as well as detailing a list of steps that site owners can take to ensure they’re suitably prepared for this year’s event. For more information visit http://www.tonergiant.co.uk/blog/2014/11/cybermonday/.

Cyber Monday Info Graphic

Cyber Monday Info Graphic

Notes for editors:

About TonerGiant.co.uk
Launched in 2006, TonerGiant.co.uk is one of the UK’s largest online suppliers of printers, printer consumables and office stationery. It’s a trading brand of NetGiant Ltd, founded by Gary & Joanne Flynn in 2003. The company is based in Atherton, Greater Manchester. An asset library for the TonerGiant brand can be found at http://www.tonergiant.co.uk/blog/assets/.

 

Sources

  1. ‘Cyber Monday’ biggest shopping day ever seen in UK: http://www.experian.co.uk/marketing-services/about/news/cyber-monday-biggest-shopping-day-ever-seen-in-uk.html
  2. Cyber Monday gave Amazon its biggest day ever as it handled 47 orders per SECOND – despite computer meltdown that left millions of Natwest customers frozen out: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2516953/Cyber-Monday-biggest-online-spending-spree-EVER.html
Why you shouldn't give a rats ass on the quantity of likes or followers on Facebook, Twitter & Google+?

Why you shouldn’t give a rats ass on the quantity of likes or followers on Facebook, Twitter or Google+?

We live in a vain world where numbers matter and are a symbol of status. Whether it is how many zeros are in your bank account; offering you a sense of security to how, many people are friends with you on your Facebook, the number of likes you have on your Like page, or the number of followers you have on Twitter.

In the late 1990’s business made a bee-line to get their businesses online because that was the craze at the time. The current day craze is Social Media. Of the many board rooms I have been in, up and down the country. the talk is, “we need to be on Facebook, our competitors are already using Facebook” or “our  competitors have more twitter followers than us, we need more followers, and we need them fast”.

Businesses know that Consumers make a snap shot decision about their business based on how many followers or likes they have. Ultimately this leads to whether the Consumer decides to make a purchase. There is pressure on businesses for this reason to have high number of likes and followers. Consumers use these figures as an indicator of popularity, good service & quality of product.

This gives rise to the wholesale purchase of likes and followers from shady websites to whom you pay a small fee to for followers. This works on a sliding scale, the more you pay ,the greater number of followers your money gets you.  Although this method may get you the much desired numbers beware of these likes and followers, which are mainly all dummy accounts that do not interact with you.  At the core of Social Media is interaction between your patrons. Dummy accounts are like people who do not hear or speak or spread the good word about your brand. Other than giving you a false image of popularity a purchased like or follower has no value whatsoever and is a cancer to social media.

Conversely a natural like or follower will be a real person and more inclined to  interact and spread the word about your product or brand to others.  Essentially this all boils down to the age old Quantity versus Quality argument.

So I put these two questions to you; would you rather have just a few hundred natural likes and followers who regularly interact with you, or thousands of purchased likes and followers who make you look popular but with little or no interaction?

Businesses should focus on getting natural likes and followers.  They need to add a bit of personality in their statuses, do regular interesting status updates, interact with their audience, and finally exercise a bit of patience and the followers will slowly grow.

Print Based Media vs. Digital Media

Print based media tends to be more costly than advertising through digital media offerings. Digital media may appear financially more viable at first but budgets can quickly get used up.

Argument for Print Based Media
Many printing houses offer very competitive prices for leaflets, and brochures. In my opinion print based media is an excellent way to get your message out locally. I say locally because with print based media you are responsible for its distribution,

An important fact that needs to be made is that many printing houses also offer 100% recycled paper so the argument that print based media is not green is highly questionable.

Argument for Digital Media
The ability to segment the market and to zero-in on your market is in my option the biggest advantage digital media has to offer. Once your marketing message is in digital form it is flexible enough to be displayed on various digital mediums, like TV, internet, mobile etc. The cost of reproducing your digital message costs noting, so the dissemination of information is a big plus.

Marketing Trends

Facebook
There are 500 million users on facebook, a social networking site which businesses are using to connect to their audience.

Twitter
Many businesses recognize that they must engage in dialogue with their market and communicate in real-time with business news and offers.

What are digital based media delivery mechanisms that directly rival print based media?

  • Social Media, Twitter & Facebook etc
  • Pay-Per-Click and Cost-Per-Click Advertising
  • Web Banner Advertising
  • TV & Radio Advertising

Conclusion
We are currently going through a recession and sp businesses and the Government are making cuts. Printed media is being affected by this too. Digital media is chosen over print based media because the perception is that it is financially more viable. In my experience I would say that you cannot and should not ever rule out print based media.

Why you should not block adverts while browsing the Internet?

Initially there is a huge investment of time, costs for hosting if that applies promotion and the build-up to a steady audience of traffic to your blog or site. Advertisers are not interested in a site that does not traffic. Building-up traffic and trust and being seen as an expert in your field is a huge investment. Advertisers appreciate this and are willing to pay to tap into to this traffic.

It takes an enormous amount of time to research, academically underpin proof read, publish and finally promote a content rich blog post / article.

I do not appreciate the view by some who say that if you rely on ad income them you must go if ads are blocked.

Since the dawn of time, we have relied on advertising.

If you think the big giants like, Google, Facebook, Twitter or even Youtube are free, then think again, they all rely on advertising revenue to get by.