Cyber Monday refers to the Monday after the US holiday Thanksgiving. Much like Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving), it’s become a day for shopping and finding great deals on various products. Unlike Black Friday, where the focus is traditionally on reduced prices in physical stores, Cyber Monday is all about e-commerce and online shopping. 

If you operate an e-commerce store as part of your business, reading this article will provide you with Cyber Monday advertising ideas to help increase profits. We’ll look at ideas such as:

  • The importance of Cyber Monday
  • Social media posts and adverts
  • Update website design
  • Free shipping and returns

The importance of Cyber Monday

Cyber Monday is the online equivalent of Black Friday, which is an enormous shopping event because it is traditionally the start of the Christmas shopping season in the US. Cyber Monday and Black Friday were originally American events but have grown to the point where many businesses worldwide offer reduced prices and promotions on those days.

Interest in Cyber Monday has grown considerably in the UK in recent years: one survey shows that in 2020 only 38% of respondents were interested in Cyber Monday sales, but in 2021 the percentage of interested shoppers has grown to 59%.

UK-based retailers report enormous sales increases during Cyber Monday. Even in 2020, when fewer people were interested in the sales, toys sales increased by 203% and electronics sales increased by 192% on Cyber Monday. This indicates that this year’s Cyber Monday could be even more profitable for businesses. 

This year, Cyber Monday will take place on the 29th of November.

Social media posts and adverts

If you’ve been running your business for a while, you may already be familiar with using social media for business. It’s a great marketing tool as it’s free to create a profile, and if you manage to build up a following, you can advertise your business to a huge number of people with little effort.

For Cyber Monday, it’s a good idea to post frequently during the week leading up to the day itself. Your posts might include specific products that will be on sale or other promotions you’re offering, like free shipping.

Social media advertising is also a great way to attract customers to your website for Cyber Monday. Tools like Facebook for Business allow you to create adverts that you can target towards specific groups depending on their interests, age, location, or other characteristics.

Social media advertising can be very effective, and it’s usually not particularly expensive either. If you find that your social media advertising works well and drives traffic to your website, you might consider using it again in December to create a budget-friendly Christmas advert.

Update website design 

A well-designed website is critical if you want to run a successful e-commerce business. If you’re reasonably skilled at website design, you might consider making a few changes to your website so you can capitalise on Cyber Monday. The two fairly easy changes you can make to encourage spending are swapping out the images on your site and changing its structure.

Website images

With the images, simply add a few banners or large pictures that promote the date of Cyber Monday and the kind of reduced prices you’re offering: 25% off, half price, etc. If there’s a particular product you want to sell, you might want to add photos of it on your homepage alongside the price you’ll sell it for on the 29th.

Website structure changes 

The main change to your website’s structure that you can make is the addition of a Cyber Monday category or section. First, create a category page and ensure it has a significant number of Cyber Monday marketing images. 

Then, take the product pages of all the goods you’ll be running sales promotions on for Cyber Monday, and link them to the category page. This should help people find items that have been reduced and will hopefully increase your sales.

Updating your website design to include seasonal images and promotions is a great tactic year-round, not just on Cyber Monday. For instance, it’s an excellent way to promote your business during Christmas as well. Something as simple as including a touch of red or adding a Santa hat to your logo can do a lot to encourage spending during the holidays.

Free shipping

You can boost ecommerce sales by reducing your prices. 31% of consumers will not buy if there is an additional delivery fee. Since you’re trying to make as many sales as possible on Cyber Monday, you might consider temporarily removing your delivery fees to encourage purchasing. 

Remember to check the prices of the shipping solution you use for your products to see if free shipping is a viable option for you. Free shipping means that the shipping company will still charge you for delivering the items, but you’ll not pass these costs on to your customers. 

As such, you’ll need to check your budget to make sure that you can afford to cover the shipping costs without charging customers any additional delivery fees.

Measuring your Cyber Monday success with Countingup

After Cyber Monday, it’s a good idea to weigh your profits against any Cyber Monday-related marketing or production costs. This can be complex if you don’t have much accounting experience or don’t have all your company’s financial info in the same location. 

Countingup is a two-in-one product — a business current account with built-in accounting software that allows you to manage all your financial data in one place. In addition, it helps measure your Cyber Monday success with its real-time profit and loss reporting. 

A profit and loss statement is a financial document that shows how much money your business has made and lost over a set period. The Countingup app shows a real-time view of your company’s profits and losses, updating as you make transactions on the business account. It also displays your net income by automatically deducting the losses from your profits, so you can see how much additional income you made during Cyber Monday. 

The Countingup app has many other features, including automatic expense categorisation, invoicing on the go, receipt capture tools and tax estimates. You can also instantly share your bookkeeping with your accountant without worrying about duplication errors, data lags, or inaccuracies.

Find out more here.

Countingup