These events, including Amazon’s Prime Day and Alibaba’s Singles’ Day, can drive billions of dollars in sales on a single day and they have become key pillars of the online channel experience that brands must consider and plan for as part of their ecommerce strategy.
Download the Clavis Insight Guide to Winning Mega-Shopping Holidays
In the US the four days from Black Friday to Cyber Monday have become an online mega-shopping event where consumers spend billions of dollars (over $11 billion online in 2015) from the comfort of their living room couch. In recent years Black Friday has been adopted by traditional and online retailers across the globe, including in the UK, Mexico, India, France, and Australia.
Last year (2015) the UK saw over £1billion worth of transactions online on Black Friday and a further £968 million a few days later on Cyber Monday. Meanwhile the likes of Amazon and Alibaba have invented their own ecommerce sales events – Prime Day and Singles Day – to push online sales at times when demand might otherwise be lacklustre.
How Can Brands Prepare for Mega-Shopping Events?
With millions of consumers attempting to place orders in parallel, on a single day what do brands need to think about in order to prepare? Especially as we can only expect there to be a growing number of online sales events in the coming years. Brands should start by asking themselves the following four questions:
Do we have the right assortment listed in online stores?
Size matters online. Many of our customers have changed formats, pack sizes, and developed new multi-pack options to better serve the online consumer. These assortment pivots have delivered positive results in terms of sales up lift online. What could you do to improve your portfolio to better appeal to the ecommerce shopper?
Are my products distributed throughout the online store in as many relevant categories as possible?
As there are no physical shelves in online stores it’s both possible and desirable to list products in a range of category menu locations to create adjacencies that would be next to impossible in the physical world. In addition to the more obvious category ‘aisles’ there are special menu locations, such as “gifts for him” or “summer party” locations created for seasonal occasions. The ability to list your products in multiple, relevant virtual shelves in the online store makes your product easier to find for shoppers; an important attribute on busy sales days when online consumers are keen to grab and go.
Am I showcasing my brands with great product content?
If we’ve said it once we’ve said it 100 times, content is one of the most important levers for success in the online channel. Optimize the product content that shoppers will see on deal pages, focusing on the primary product image, product title, and benefit bullets.
Can shoppers really see my products on the small screen?
Almost 70% of Alibaba’s 11.11 sales were mobile in 2015 and mobile accounted for over 30% of US online shopping on Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Shoppers are browsing and buying on mobile devices in greater numbers each year. Make sure your product images, titles, and descriptions are clearly visible across mobile devices of all shapes and sizes to win during online sales events and every day.
Massive online sales events have become set in the ecommerce calendar. Each year they generate new records in term of sales value and volume, taking ever-greater share from traditional retail as ecommerce retailers use these events to drive sales and online penetration. For brands, part of managing the online channel means winning visibility and sales during the increasingly critical in mega-sales events.
Download the Clavis Insight Guide to Winning Mega-Shopping Holiday
