3 Things An Ecommerce Business Can Learn From Cyber Monday Madness

3rd December 2013 :: Author: Andrew Cope, Managing Director, Evergreen

Did your ecommerce business survive 'Cyber Monday' the first Monday in December – reckoned to be the busiest online trading day of the year or have you missed out on a golden sales opportunity? Last year, payment firm Visa estimated that £10,000 was spent online every second on Cyber Monday, an increase of 30% from 2011. Once the pennies and pounds have been counted for 2013, the results are anticipated to break all previous records.

If Cyber Monday wasn't as busy for you as you expected, then maybe you need to ask yourself the following questions....

1) Is it time to upgrade the payment gateway on my website?

PayPal may serve you well for most of the year but what happens if your primary gateway fails on the busiest day of the year? Many customers will often receive just a simple error message to indicate that a payment cannot be processed but without a full explanation. Online shoppers can be an impatient bunch but especially on the busiest online shopping day of the year! Rather than attempting another form of payment or contacting customer service many will abandon their shopping baskets and move on to the next website – most likely your competitor's! Contact an ecommerce web development company if you think it's time you upgraded the payment gateway on your website.

2) Is my website fully optimised for use via tablets?

The Daily Telegraph quoted yesterday that 'Tablet commerce will triple this year to reach £4.74 billion and take 10.4% of total UK online sales.' With more and more tablets coming onto the market, [even Tesco now has its own affordable tablet brand - the Hudl, selling for under £120 with 35,000 of them selling on the first day of launch!] you can't underestimate the power of the tablet for online purchases. Don't forget that not all mobile devices are the same and whilst many websites have been optimised for mobile phones, few have caught up with the tablet revolution and aren't fully compatible for tablets. Tablet users who visit a mobile site often get an inferior experience as mobile sites are designed to be viewed on a smaller screen.

3) Is customer service as fast as it could be?

A fast response is crucial when buying online. In a recent study by American market research company Marketing Charts, over 6,000 online shoppers were surveyed and 45% of respondents said that they they would have lost trust in their retailer and shopped elsewhere if they had received poor customer service. So, how can you keep your customer's trust and improve your online customer service?

• Give your customers various contact options - Phone, email, live chat, social media etc. But make sure that there is a human being at the end of the communication. The quicker you can react and respond to customers in a more personal manner, the more chance you have of not passing up an opportunity of a sale and of retaining that customer for the future.
• Give customers a guarantee – Let them know that they can return or exchange an item if they are not fully satisfied. Make sure that you display this marketing message in a prominent place on your website, saving your customers the hassle of having to search for it in the small print or having to make a phone call or send an email.