So what is this widely discussed day that the online retail world goes bonkers about after Thanksgiving. I have been browsing the web in the last week and have seen a lot of hype about the so called ‘Cyber Monday’. This is the day after the Thanksgiving weekend in the USA which is touted as the biggest online selling day of the year. Now is this just a myth or is it in fact a day retailers should look forward to a significant spike in online sales. There is a lot of pessimism that has creeped into the online shoppers psyche over the last few years. Below are a few examples of people who adamantly swear by the myth aspect of this wonderfully mystifying day.

http://www.businessweek.com/stories/2005-11-28/cyber-monday-marketing-myth - 2005
http://blog.compete.com/2007/11/28/cyber-monday-vs-black-friday-retail-traffic-rankings/ - 2007
http://www.buysight.com/blog/2009/11/05/the-myth-of-cyber-monday-explained/ - 2009

Every year the Myth gets busted again!

Just A Bit of American Fun

For us across the atlantic, the effect is definitely dampened in that Thanksgiving is not a major holiday. However, does some of that holiday spirit seep across the atlantic and do we get a bit lost in all the madness. I think not!

But a lot must be said for the fact that the timing of this American Holiday does coincide with the perfect time when all around the world finally contemplate that the winter holiday season is finally here and that gifts must be bought pretty soon for those loved ones that deserve that bit of extra thought than the yearly gift cards, chocolate boxes or the odd gift left over from last year to the office colleague that is a bit over bearing.

The Stats

So what do the stats say, below are stats for the actual busiest online shopping day of the year versus Cyber Monday. Take a look:

• 2005: Monday, December 12 at $556 million (vs. $486m on Cyber Monday)
• 2006: Wednesday, December 13 at $666.9m (vs. $608m on Cyber Monday)
• 2007: Monday, December 10 at $881m (vs. $733m on Cyber Monday)
• 2008: Tuesday, December 9 at $881m (vs. $846m on Cyber Monday)
• 2009: Tuesday, December 15 at $913m (vs. $887m on Cyber Monday)

2010 was a bit of a downer, expected to hit the $1bn, it in fact only hit a meagre $648m, However, 2011 did hit the mark and Cyber Monday was back with a bang, it hit a whopping $1.25bn.
So the stats say that Cyber Monday exists.

Is it just another day of the year or is it in fact the day to go out a spend big with discounts at all time lows?!

The jury is still out.

Happy Christmas Shopping.

Visual marketing –

Visuals have always been a great way for brands to get across their messages.  With people these days having their concentration pulled in so many directions, marketing departments have to grab people’s attention instantly.  Visuals such as photos, images, memes, infographs are a great way of doing this.  The rise of photo sharing sites like Pinterest and Instragram is testament to how much people love visuals.  If your photos and images go viral the impact can be fantastic.  Even offline visuals such as adverts or gorilla marketing visuals that people find amusing will soon be spread and shared online instantly by smartphones, thus doubling the impact.

Mobile marketing –

Internet use on the mobile phone is growing fast and will continue for the foreseeable future.  Brands need to make sure they have a strong mobile presence. They need to make sure their email marketing is optimised for phones and have a mobile optimised website.  There is also the possibilities that location marketing can offer brands if they have an offline presence with tools like Foursquare.

Content marketing –

It’s not just the fact that the Google likes sites that have fresh and interesting content, which of course will help with your SEO.  It’s the fact that once again good content including information rich articles, videos, photos, case studies and ebooks will be shared by people and spread across the internet.  Good content will still be a big feature for online marketing in 2013.

Social Sales –

Turning your customers into affiliates is a trend we also see growing in 2013.  Give your fanbase a unique link to a product which they can post on facebook, twitter or on forums.  If someone clicks on the link and makes a purchase from your site you can reward your fan.  The reward could be a percentage of the sale or points which they can redeem when they next make a purchase off your website.  Most fans post things about brands and products they like for free but rewarding customers will add greater appeal and hopefully a long lasting connection with the brand.  Don’t ignore the power of fanbase marketing in 2013.

The title isn’t just a fantastic joke! Yes we know it is! The essential link between a strong social presence and a good ecommerce presence is more closely linked than you might think.

A year ago, we had commentators mentioning how social would disrupt ecommerce in a major way. But, rather than disrupt and explode as many would have expected, Social has become an essential addition to the marketing strategy for online retailers. It had been purported to be a commerce in its own right, with the emergence of coined terms such as Social Commerce and Facebook Commerce but many larger retailers had gone through the cycle and closed ‘social commerce’ versions of their ecommerce.

So what makes it essential now and what do retailers need to think about when entering the wonderful world of social. Oh and just as a disclaimer, like the ‘dark’ side, we lied about the cookies but there are many cookie shops to buy from!

eCommerce has always been social. Shopping in the real world is a form of social entertainment, and we turn to people we know for advice on products and services. This social dimension, however, is not yet reflected in today’s search-driven online ecommerce sites. But what does the social side bring; it gives the products and services a presence in the world that would make it entertaining, but still leaving the core eCommerce site search driven!

Let’s focus on Facebook!

Facebook users love to discover new things. It’s an experience driven by browsing and coincidence. Today’s commerce experiences, however, are search-driven. They expect users to show up with determined reasoning for buying. Amazon and eBay are great places to buy something once you’re already in the market to buy, but they fall short for people who want to browse or “window shop” as a form of entertainment. In your social network, If you engage users in this way, they’ll tune in more frequently (not just to buy something) and buy more things (that they discover socially).

First, to get the social ball rolling, you need to effectively engage users through the NewsFeed on Facebook. Sharing activity distributed to friends through the NewsFeed is best converted and propagated within Facebook where users are already in a social context. Second, it’s hard to aggressively integrate social on a traditional e-commerce site that is well tuned for converting users within a search-driven experience.

It’s much easier to innovate with social commerce on Facebook where users expect a truly social experience. Indeed, the emerging best practice for social is to establish two points of presence: one on Facebook optimized for a deep social experience, the other a web presence where social is more lightly applied (and remains optimized for an intent-based funnel).

These three insights are grounded in one key idea: Social commerce requires more than the proliferation of share and connect buttons within the e-commerce funnel. It requires us to produce a truly new commerce experience in which users show up to shop (not just buy), and in which the interaction model revolves around other people who share their interests and passions.

Remember two facts about social media

• Social media marketing is not a quick fix. It takes time to build a Facebook Fan base or Twitter following. Commit to a minimum of six months before determining whether or not social media works for you.

• Social media requires ongoing interaction. You cannot set it and forget it. You must be willing to continually engage with Fans and followers — even daily.

Having said that, at Be Memorable we have five guidelines to maximize your social media efforts. Call us for a quick chat or a Social Media Audit from our helpful and friendly team, we would be happy to share our guidelines with you and this time we will have cookies should you decide to visit us

One last tip from the Deathstar (watercooler)

Spend 30 Minutes Daily Responding to Comments and Questions

If possible, spend 15 minutes in the morning and 15 minutes in the afternoon responding to comments and questions from Fans and followers.

1) No Plan of Action? No Budget?

Develop and Implement a Strategic Internet Marketing Plan: Fund a monthly budget the value of Sales you want to produce and the characteristics of the products.

2)The website needs to be designed from the beginning with marketing integration

Most websites are typically designed, built and deployed without regard to how they will be viewed by search engines and without strategic planning around how they will be advertised and promoted online. Their architecture is usually a function of owner or designer preferences in graphics, text and format, without serious regard to incorporating important principles of online selling effectiveness or search engine optimization. As a result, they fail to entice shoppers to stop and buy, and don’t attract significant volumes of qualified traffic.

3) Are you serious about building and expanding your business?

The profitable eCommerce operations, work with a team of professionals who really know what they’re doing. There is no more competitive business environment than Internet sales. It is neither quick nor easy. You won’t win in the professional & competitive markets by hiring a team of well-intended amateurs, particularly if the team captain is yourself. This doesn’t mean having to spend lots of money but it does mean doing The homework and identifying cost effective, highly experienced team with expertise in online marketing strategies like Be Memorable.

These tips are based on our experience in working with mutiple online retailers and are the foundation for any successful marketing strategies.

If you want a full audit of your current online strategy, get in touch we will be more than happy to set you in the right direction.

Pareto found that 80% of the land in Italy was owned by just 20% of the population.  To his surprise he found it was a similar ratio across other European states.  The idea over time has expanded into other areas.  Research was to show that many people wear 20% of their clothes 80% of the time.

In business you may find that 80% of your revenue comes from 20% of your clients, or 80% of your problems come from just 20% of your clients.  So how would a company use this theory to their benefit?

They could get rid of the 20% of the clients that cause problems and focus on generating more revenue from the 20% that provide 80% of the income.  This strategy could generate more revenue and would also create extra time which can be deployed more effectively elsewhere.

If you operate an online shop you may find that 20% of your stock creates 80% of your revenue.  It could be a good idea to scrap the 80% that does not sell and buy more of the products that sell.

So what would a 19th century Italian economist say about your social media strategy?

He would probably say that 80% of your social media traffic comes from just 20% of the social media sites you are on.  If you were to focus your efforts solely on the small number of platforms that provide the 80% then your traffic would increase, and your return of interest in terms of time versus output will improve.

Try applying Pareto’s principles to your social media strategy -

• 80% of your of social media efforts will be useless in terms of generating increased traffic and sales.
• Focus on the 20% that do generate traffic and sales.
• Don’t set yourself up on endless social media platforms for the sake of it.  Just because the whole world and their Mother are on Twitter it doesn’t mean you have to be if it does not provide much of a return.
• Focus on the social media sites that work well for your industry and niche, instead of spreading yourself too thinly.

The mathematics does not always exactly work out at 80/20; it could be 70/30.  The criticisms of the mathematical formula are why the theory has largely been forgotten over time.

However, prioritising and making the most of your time is the philosophy that shrines through Pareto’s theory.  Time is a precious commodity, once gone it cannot be taken back.  Utilising Pareto’s Principles can help you increase your social media marketing productivity output in less time.

So the buzz around town is that Facebook will be rolling out a ‘Want’ button soon. They have been trialing the scheme out with some major retailers already. We have all had the moments where we have ‘wanted’ a dislike button, but will this new ‘WANT’ button keep us wanting more?

The buzz is that this is a major step taken by facebook for retailers and that it will help facebook become a truely commercial platform. The ‘want’ leading to qualified prospective customers, giving you more commercial metric than of a like. Likes are cheap, people like left right and centre, sometimes doing it blindly.

So will this be the same for the ‘want’. Personally I feel this could just be the evolution of the like button that was needed. Seeing as you have to justify your ‘want’ with a comment. What I have done is gathered some of the leading articles out there, it gives a good insight into the thought leaders views out there and some measured opinions on the benefits, and possible future implications.

Its interesting to see the ‘like’ evolve, is it too commercial for what is essentially a social network not a commerce platform, but the question remains what button will we ‘Want’ next?

iMedia Connection - 6 Opportunities for Facebook’s ‘Want’ Button

Business Insider - What will the new Facebook ‘Want’ Button look like

Forbes.com - Facebook’s Want button is a Scary idea

Company:

18 AND EAST is the hot new independent womenswear brand, Inspired by the vibrant music, fashion, blog and film scenes in and around East London; 18 AND EAST is for the girl who has a strong sense of individual style and a voracious lust for life.

Challenge:

Relaunch 18andEast with a cleaner, better user experience and portraying an identifiable brand image that will help it to grow.

Solution:

CuroCommerce Promotions Module and Front End Refresh with new Gallery and Menu Swatches

Result:

A fully featured website with defining features that represent the 18andEast brand backed by new innovative loyalty and customer interaction features.

With the Website as its only retail channel, 18andEast needed to improve and develop a online store that offered their customers the uniqueness of the brand but at the same time an enterprise level shopping experience. Also, with the next season about to land, time was of the essence.

When it came to selecting a platform back in 2010, 18andEast were looking for a robust scalable platform but also one which was user friendly and helped them to grow in real time with real time cost saving effeciencies.Also, the requirement of rapid deployment to market as the brand was already in discussions with stockists such as Tesco, New look and Peacocks meant Curo and Be Memorable were the only solution that could deliver on all counts.

Curo Commerce: Key Features

With the aggressive time frame already a factor Curo provided them with a feature rich solution that provided exactly what they needed out of the box to enable a fast time to market. The simplicity and ease of product entry and order management meant time was saved drastically.

18andEast also were looking for a reliable investment to support their product and market expansion over time. A company with a proven strategy and evidence of of development of the platform and then solution. What CuroCommerce enabled them to do was to jump start their efforts and easily build and maintain a feature rich commerce site. As a fully functional storefront built on Curo, the solution provides a pre-configured foundation that incorporates best practice eCommerce functionality with integrated web and order management. The solution reduces the implementation cost for the fast and successful completion of a project.

All Round Success

Deploying a complete eCommerce refresh and new modular functionality on the already solid Curo platform being used by 18andEast did not require an army of programmers and a long time to market. Our team was able to develop and deploy the new features with minimal disruption to 18andEasts current online presence within 4 Weeks. Because the site is built on the powerful Curo platform, it can grow and expand to keep up with business requirements and customer expectations over time.