What have you got planned for Monday December 1st? Personally I know that when I wake up I’ll be getting more excited than a chap in his mid-twenties probably should do for opening an advent calendar.

But for those of us that work in ecommerce, this date in 2014 also has much greater significance. That’s because it’s Cyber Monday, one of the biggest online shopping days of the year. It’s been around in the US since 2006, the digital equivalent of the traditional Black Friday brick and mortar sales bonanza.

It’s an event that’s now firmly established on this side of the Atlantic, too. And, like other American imports such as Lloyd Grossman and the phrase “touch base”, it isn’t going away anytime soon.

Last year UK shoppers spent a whopping £600 million on Cyber Monday, a 98% increase over the previous year. In short, it’s getting progressively larger year on year. Check out our Infographic to get an overview of Cyber Monday 2014 for the UK and check out the tips and advice below to ensure you're ready! 

Will your site be ready?

Many shoppers will be on the hunt for your typical ‘Christmas wish list’ items and other goods they can put under the tree; electronics, toys, jewellery etc. But just because you’re not a high street brand, or you don’t sell the kind of items you’d normally associate with Christmas shopping, don’t assume that Cyber Monday isn’t a day for you.

For example, at TonerGiant.co.uk on Cyber Monday last year we noticed a 15.9% increase in traffic and a 33.19% increase in transactions compared to the previous ‘normal’ Monday a week earlier. We sell printers and stationery to businesses so, unless our customers are horribly misjudging the kind of gifts to give their spouses, it’s safe to assume these are business customers looking to benefit from Cyber Monday offers ahead of the new year.

Consumers of all demographics are online on Cyber Monday preparing to bag a variety of bargains; don’t let your company miss out on this.

Five things you can do to maximise Cyber Monday:

• Use your data to construct effective promotions- all the data you need to create the best promotions is in your CRM and analytics software. Consider metrics such as purchase histories and average order values, as well as searching for those lost customers, to create an incentive that will make your audience not want to miss out.
• Design user friendly landing pages- make sure these are really easy to navigate and that all information is clearly and concisely detailed. There’s no need to be too fancy on a busy day like this- keep it clean and simple.
• Consider investing in a PPC campaign- paid search could be a great option for 24 hours for a brand with poor organic visibility. Putting your website in front of a far greater audience than it has normally could deliver a terrific ROI.
• Create killer emails- make sure your promotional messages stand out in inboxes that are likely to be littered with Cyber Monday communications from other retailers
• Leverage social media- consumers will be active on sites like Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest, searching out promotions, as well as posting where they’ve discovered a great deal. Promote your offers and conduct social listening to join conversations and put your brand in the mind of busy shoppers.

Let me know what you're doing to prepare for Cyber Monday in the comments below, or check out this on-demand webinar featuring UK retailer, Waitrose, to learn about their successful implementation of Salesforce.