How To Win Big At Cyber Weekend And Boost Revenue

Cyber Weekend 2016 went off with great success for Net Affinity clients. That’s why this year we want to look back at the data we collected to see what went well and what areas can be learned from, to maximise revenue for Cyber Weekend 2017.

This year the US holiday will take place from Friday 24 through to Monday 27 of November. The shopping mega-event is the day following Thanks Giving in America, it made the jump over the pond to Europe in 2010 by online shopping giant, Amazon.

With a slow start for Europe retailers, statistics from the last year or so are showing that the commercial event of the year is well and truly a revenue opportunity not to be missed by any industry. Payment service Worldpay said it processed 20% more online transactions in 2016 compared with the year before, with global sales peaking at 16.01pm with a rate of 181 transactions per second.

We spotted some interesting trends in our data last year, so we’ve put together some advice on how best to approach the Cyber Weekend this year. It’s time to get your Cyber Weekend marketing organised, so you don’t miss out on a revenue surge.

What Did We Learn From 2016?

You can expect your ABV (Average Booking Value) to drop significantly due to the discounts you’re offering – last year it was 8.3% below the month’s average. However, Ecommerce conversion rates increased by 7% above the month’s average – making it a worthwhile trade-off in terms of revenue. 

Which Channels Performed Best?

Last year showed that web users pay more attention to online ads during this sale period and they’re worth investing in again. 10% of revenue and 6% of transactions came directly from social channels – a 954% increase in transactions from social, and that’s not even including assisted conversions! What’s more 33% of November 2016’s social revenue happened on Black Friday alone. In addition to social, email marketing rose in importance over the weekend, with conversion rates going above that of paid search.

Which Devices Were Most Popular?

Over the past year or two, we’ve seen mobile surpass the ‘mobile tipping point’, meaning site traffic coming from mobile became higher than on desktop. Last year over cyber weekend Mobile transactions increased by 19%. Mobile e-commerce peaked on Sunday, where 41% of revenue and transactions and 62% of traffic came from mobile.

10 Tips To Prepare For The Cyber Surge, And Craft A Winning Campaign:

1. Customers are looking for information and are doing their research earlier than you might expect. Begin letting your customers and visitors know about your upcoming sale well in advance
2. Start preparing now, set aside some time to create a properly thought-out strategy
3. Pull together your content: write your copy and get artwork made in advance
4. Create visually appealing banners and hero images to advertise your sale
5. Use psychology through your language and imagery to create a sense of urgency. Use phrases such as ‘limited time’ and graphics such as countdown clocks to emphasize it’s a one-time offer
6. Build suspense and buzz around your upcoming sale by posting about it in the run-up
7. Create a catchy discount code
8. Prepare an email campaign of for several messages to go out in the buildup to Black Friday and throughout Cyber Weekend as reminders – don’t forget some killer subject lines
9. Sometimes, too much traffic to your website can potentially crash your site. This usually takes an enormous amount of traffic to occur, but test your website can handle a surge in traffic to make sure you don’t disappoint your customers
10. Allocate a marketing budget across all platforms, in particular for social media and remarketing campaigns.