Cyber Monday continues to be one of the biggest online shopping days of the holiday season. In 2024, consumers spent a record $13.3 billion in a single day, up more than 7% from the previous year. For small businesses, it’s an opportunity for new customers and increased revenue, but only if your website can handle the surge in traffic.
Have a performance and load testing plan
Before Cyber Monday, test your site to make sure it can handle the increased traffic. A content delivery network (CDN) can distribute your website’s files across multiple servers, reducing the load on your main server and speeding up delivery for customers everywhere.
You can also enable caching so that static content, like product images, load faster for repeat visitors. And run synthetic tests to identify any slowdowns or bottlenecks before real shoppers arrive. If your host offers it, enable autoscaling to automatically add server capacity when demand surges. These steps ensure your website stays fast and responsive during the busiest shopping day of the year.
Optimize your checkout process
A frictionless checkout process can significantly increase your conversion rate. Alternatively, complicated or slow checkout pages are one of the main reasons customers abandon their carts. To simplify the checkout process, remove any unnecessary steps and allow customers to check out without creating an account or logging in.
Include a progress indicator so customers know how close they are to completing their order. And offer multiple payment options to make checkout faster on any device. Test your checkout process ahead of time to ensure pages load quickly and all payment options work correctly.
Implement fraud prevention and bot protection
With the increase in online sales during Cyber Monday also comes an increased risk of fraud, so you should take steps to protect your business and customers. Implement address verification service (AVS) and card verification value (CVV) checks to verify legitimate transactions. If your payment processor supports it, enable 3-D Secure to add an extra layer of authentication for online purchases.
You can also limit automated attacks by using rate limiting, which restricts how often users or bots can make requests to your site. A web application firewall (WAF) can block malicious traffic before it reaches your checkout page.
Your customer support team plays a crucial role in the Cyber Monday experience, so you need to prepare them to handle a higher volume of questions and issues.
Stock up on inventory
More visitors mean more sales, but only if you have the inventory on hand to fulfill those orders. Review last year’s Cyber Monday performance to identify your bestselling products and stock up accordingly. You should also monitor current market trends and consumer behavior to anticipate which products might perform well this season.
Sync your inventory management system with your e-commerce platform so customers see accurate stock levels in real time. Few things turn shoppers away faster than an “out of stock” message during checkout.
Start promoting early
It’s not too late to start promoting your Cyber Monday offers, but you need to move quickly. Focus on the channels that deliver the most immediate reach, like email and social media.
Share sneak peeks of upcoming discounts to build excitement and add a countdown timer to create urgency. If you’re also running Black Friday or Small Business Saturday promotions, plan campaigns that flow together so customers stay engaged all weekend long.
Customer support readiness
Your customer support team plays a crucial role in the Cyber Monday experience, so you need to prepare them to handle a higher volume of questions and issues. Update the FAQ page on your website to cover common questions like shipping times, promo codes, and return policies. You can also set up a chatbot to handle basic inquiries and escalate complex issues.
Prepare outage communication templates in advance so you can quickly notify customers via your website, email list, or social channels if any disruptions occur. Being transparent and responsive helps maintain trust, even when issues arise.
Miranda Fraraccio contributed to this article.
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