mobile commerce on InstanteStore Ecommerce Blog

Black Friday and Cyber Monday Tips To Help Increase Sales

Posted on November 15, 2017November 15, 2017by Cherly Lynn

5 Black Friday and Cyber Monday Tips To Increase Sales

Holiday season is just around the corner, can you smell the pumpkin spice latte from Starbucks already? Mmmm.. Retailers are all gearing up for two of the biggest shopping events of the year, Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Black Friday and Cyber Monday is when most retailers earn back their yearly profits. Also, these two sale days are perfect for people who are looking to save some money on their Christmas shopping. Here are some tips to help your business stay competitive in this very popular sale season:

Make Sure Your Site Is Mobile Friendly

People today enjoy shopping from the comfort of their home, instead of lining up outside a mall right after Thanksgiving dinner. More and more customers are shopping online and on their mobile devices today. With the most recent Singles Day Sale just passing, Alibaba reported that 90% of its sales came from mobile devices which is higher compared to 82% in 2016 and 69% in 2015. According to an article by Forbes, they have predicted that smartphone and tablet visits to retail sites will account for 54% of all visits.

As you can see purchasing through mobile is a familiar option to many shoppers today. Because of this, a mobile friendly site will play a huge part in helping online businesses benefit the most from the Black Friday and Cyber Monday traffic.

Whether they are waiting for the train or riding in a bus, there’s plenty of reasons for them to buy stuff online. So, with more consumers than ever before planning to make the shift towards mobile this holiday season, be sure not to ignore the mobile commerce wave! InstanteStore is already mobile commerce ready. All you have to do is ACTIVATE it. If you haven’t done so for your store, it’s pretty easy.

Here’s how:

Login to your admin, search for Mobile Commerce. Next step: Click on Activate and your mobile store is ready to go. Simple! Anyone could do it.

5 Black Friday and Cyber Monday Tips To Increase Sales

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Offer Your Customers Free Shipping

5 Black Friday and Cyber Monday Tips To Increase Sales

E commerce giants like Amazon are offering its customers FREE next day delivery or same-day delivery if they were to order before a certain time. They have definitely spoiled the market for other businesses. Customers today are expecting the same level of convenience from the other retailers. At the end of the day everyone loves free stuff! This will give your customers that extra push to make a purchase during the Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales.

Here’s how:

Offer your customers free delivery with no minimum purchase for the holiday sale season or an option to pay less for next day delivery as an incentive to get them to buy more.
If you have a brick and mortar store, give your customers a click and collect option with same day pick up.

Treat The Black Friday Sales and Cyber Monday Sales Like A Product Launch

5 Black Friday and Cyber Monday Tips To Increase Sales

With all the hype that is created when it comes to discounts and offers during the holiday sales season, more companies all over the world are joining in every year. It is easy for customers to get lost in the shuffle.

However, if you take a different approach and treat the sale like a product launch and build excitement around it, this will definitely set you apart from your competitors.

Here’s how:

Send out newsletters to customers who you want to be the first to hear about the Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales . Offer these special customers a head start on the discounts before everything is sold out!

Instantestore has a feature where you can customize who you want to send your emails to.

5 Black Friday and Cyber Monday Tips To Increase Sales

Create excitement around the launch of your Black Friday and Cyber Monday sale with a countdown clock or calendar on your e-commerce site.
Create a social media campaign around your Black Friday and Cyber Monday sale and get your customers to share what they bought on their social media sites.

Use Live Chats To Your Advantage

5 Black Friday and Cyber Monday Tips To Increase Sales

Live chats are especially great during holiday sale seasons. Why? Because there are going to be customers who have never bought from you before entering your website with no clue about your your business or your products. An online chat system will provide these customers an immediate access to any help they need. It is much more convenient compared to a call center. Also, customers can multitask when waiting for a reply.

It is great to have someone online who can immediately walk them through a sale if a customer becomes confused or has a question that could potentially make or break a sale. A live chat will help eliminate shopping cart abandonment this upcoming holiday sale season.

InstanteStore has its very own free live chat software that can be downloaded and applied onto your e commerce store.

5 Black Friday and Cyber Monday Tips To Increase Sales

Get Started Quick: Installation

Download the InstanteStore free live chat software from https://www.instantestore.com/livechat_software.cfm.
The Microsoft .Net Framework is required for the installation. Windows Vista and Windows 7 should already have this installed. Some versions of Windows XP may require you to install this separately, though. If you have any issues installing or running the live chat software, then click here to go to Microsoft’s website to download and install it.
Once installed, double-click the InstanteStore Live Chat icon at the desktop, or click on ‘InstanteStore Live Chat -> InstanteStore Live Chat’ from the Programs folder to launch the live chat application.
The first time the live chat software launches, the LiveChat Signup page will be displayed. Just fill in the necessary details and click the SIGNUP button to register your Live Chat username.
Once you’ve signed up, an email containing the activation code will be sent to the email address you used to register. Copy and paste this activation code into the Activation Code field at the live chat window, then click on the ACTIVATE & LOGIN button.
At the Install livechat code page, copy the displayed code.

For InstanteStore Users

Go to your store’s administrator control panel, and go to ‘Manage Your Store -> Design/Customization -> Customize Template’.
Click on the Click to Edit button at either the left or right border of your store’s template, depending on where you want your live chat icon to be displayed.
Click on the Additional HTML tab at the following page.
Select the Add Extra HTML: radio button and paste the code at the appropriate text area, depending on whether you want the live chat icon to be displayed at the top or the bottom of the left/right border.
Click the PUBLISH CHANGES button to finalize your changes.
The live chat icon will now be displayed at the appropriate location on your store template. Click on the GO CHAT NOW button to start taking customer requests.

For non-InstanteStore Users

Just paste the livechat code from Step 6 above at the appropriate location at your website.
The live chat icon will now be displayed where you’ve placed it at your site. Click on the GO CHAT NOW button to start taking customer requests.

MORE Free Live Chat Softwares :

Tawk To

My Live Chat

Pure Chat

Use All Your Marketing Resources

Retailers who invested in a marketing strategy which includes mobile, email and social media last year did 30% better compared to their competitors who didn’t take advantage of all their marketing platforms during the Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales.

However, its not all just about the number of channels used. It is more of how you use these channels to reach your audience. It is important to know where majority of your audience are, which platform they are using and from there pursue them. Your goal here is to consistently message your followers and remind them to buy from you this holiday sale season. According to research, it takes at least three repetitive marketing posts to capture someones’ attention.

How to:

Use your existing followers/audience to spread the message
Offer your followers incentives for helping you share the messages with extra discounts or promos.
Make sure all of your marketing channels are sharing the same message and is following a strategic flow.

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Mobile Commerce Set To Skyrocket In South East Asia

Posted on October 2, 2017October 2, 2017by Lisa

My previous article mentioned China’s ecommerce and mobile commerce spending power which they showcase to the world come every November 11th during Singles Day making more than Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined.

South East Asia Is The Next BIG Mobile Commerce Powerhouse

Not far behind with tremendous huge growth and development status would be South East Asia (SEA) which is made up of 11 countries (Brunei, Cambodia, East Timor, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam).

SEA have a total population of 648 million (and growing fast!).

The top countries in this region that is leading the way in massive digital ecommerce spending would be Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

Here’s a glimpse of their digital population. If taken as a single bloc, SEA’s large population of digital users can stand in comparison with leading global markets like US, Europe and China for all digital activities (internet, social media, mobile and mobile social) :

According to eMarketer, digital ad-spending for these 6 countries will increase by double digits in 2017 and 2018 while mobile ad spending will more than double during the forecast period surpassing $2.20 billion and accounting for nearly 69% of digital ad expenditures by the year 2021.

Heavy Smartphone Adoption Spurs Mobile Commerce Growth

Thanks to heavy smartphone adoption, Indonesia, Philippines and Vietnam will see the strongest growth in mobile ad spending among SEA.

Why are companies willing to invest so much moolah into mobile ad spending in SEA? Because the region has such a HIGH volume of mobile users which presents a HUGE opportunity for mobile commerce, hence the massive amount allocated for mobile ad spending.

Mobile commerce is skyrocketing in South East Asia as more consumers there are getting more familiar to spending online with their mobile devices.

It’s no wonder that Alibaba bought over Lazada (SEA’s largest ecommerce marketplace) for $1 billion. And not to be left out from a piece of the SEA ecommerce pie, Amazon recently launched in Singapore.

With such tremendous ecommerce growth opportunities, many online businesses have been scrambling to improve their mobile site experience and to ensure that their business is omni-channel to cater to the growing consumer segment from developing countries.

Omni What?

Omni-channel. It means having a multi-channel sales approach providing consumers with a smooth integrated shopping experience.

The customer can be shopping online from a desktop or mobile device where they can easily locate the product from your site or social media with the ability to make payment seamlessly.

With omni-channel, your online business is available and integrated with your brick and mortar (if you have one) where customers can call in to place an order with the phone or complete the checkout process via social media like FB, Twitter, Instagram, etc.

The omni-channel sales experience is crucial to ensure that your customers have a good buying experience be it in person, mobile, desktop and social media.

What Do Businesses Need To Do?

For a start, make sure your online business have a mobile friendly and responsive site so consumers can have a good mobile shopping experience with your site.

Ensure that your business is found on social media like Facebook where visitors can complete their purchase directly in FB without being bounced all over in the checkout process.

If you’re selling items that are :

Fashion related stuff : clothing, accessories, sport wear, eye wear, watches, jewelry, etc
Beauty : skin care, cosmetics
Food & drinks
Baby products
Pet products
Crafts
Consumer electronics
Auto accessories
(I may have missed out some other categories as these are the main ones)

Please have an Instagram and Pinterest account to upload images of your product being worn and used in every day life scenarios to make it easily shareable.

The new generation of mobile shoppers rely on image heavy social media recommendations from friends.

And they love to share and communicate via mobile.

We have a WhatsApp share feature where visitors can easily share your site and product page to their friends on WhatsApp which is great tool for product recommendations.

If you need help getting your online business to be mobile friendly, omni-channel with a good marketing strategy, contact us and we’ll be more than happy to help.

From the team at InstanteStore to you, Happy Selling as you prepare for the holiday shopping crowd.

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Is Your Site’s Mobile Buying Experience Ready For The Holiday Shopping Crowd?

Posted on August 24, 2017by Lisa

The fourth quarter of the year is usually the time when retailers go all out to capture the holiday shopping crowd before year end closing. So how big can it possibly get?

Singles Day Keeps Getting Bigger

For China, the biggest online shopping day of the year falls on 11^th November, known as Singles Day.

Last year’s Singles Day 2016 smashed sales records when it brought in a total of $17.8 billion in 24 hours. Talk about raining money!

AliPay which is the Chinese equivalent of PayPal processed more than a billion transactions on that day alone while Alibaba’s logistics arms Cainao helped deliver 657 million packages!

The whole of China and the surrounding region went online shopping that day with Jack Ma laughing all the way to the bank!

But What About Black Friday And Cyber Monday?

To put things in perspective, last year’s Black Friday sales brought in $3.34 billion. Mobile accounted for $1.2 billion out of the $3.34 billion showing a 33% increase compared to the year before.

Cyber Monday sales netted in $3.45 billion with $1.07 billion done via mobile shopping.

Not even HALF of what Singles Day brought in within 24 hours.

Will Black Friday 2017 exceed last year’s records? Or will Cyber Monday 2017 blow everyone’s expectations?

Mobile Shopping Continues To Rise

What we can notice clearly is that more and more consumers have been using their mobiles to buy online.

Mobile shopping alone accounted for 82% of sales for Singles Day. That’s about $14.6 billion worth of sales transactions made via mobile in one day alone!

The Chinese would have made the mobile shopping experience buttery smooth to be able to chalk up those figures. It also shows the spending power of the Chinese.

Let’s not forget the huge amount of logistics and integrated courier and transportation service involved to move $17.8 billion worth of goods within a few days after the dust settles! Talk about efficiency.

Is Your Site’s Mobile Shopping Experience Ready For The Holiday Crowd?

This year, Black Friday falls on 24^th November 2017 for the long Thanksgiving weekend.

Singles Day 2017 precedes Black Friday on 11^th November 2017 which given the amazing track record they’ve been experiencing looks like it’ll get even bigger.

So is your site ready for the holiday shopping crowd?

Is Your Site Mobile Friendly And Responsive?

Some key questions to think about.

Is your site mobile friendly and responsive? Not sure?

Check with Google’s Mobile Friendly Test.

If it isn’t, let us know and we can help move your existing site to our FREE mobile friendly and responsive templates for existing merchants.

If you’re using a different ecommerce platform that’s not mobile friendly, we can migrate your site over and make it mobile friendly and responsive for a small fee.

When it comes to mobile shopping, a mobile friendly and responsive site makes it easier and faster for visitors to select your products and checkout.

Is Your Site’s Checkout A Turn Off?

Having a mobile friendly and responsive site doesn’t guarantee sales.

Especially if your mobile checkout process looks like multiple pages for visitors to fill up on their mobile screens.

Coupled with a lag in data connection speed or time outs will definitely result in a lot of abandoned carts.

Check your mobile checkout process to ensure customers only have to fill the necessary information on one page to complete their purchase.

It needs to look and feel easy and fast to use.

If you need help with your mobile checkout, please contact us as well.

Got Your Special Offers Ready?

People love to snag a good bargain but what’s the point if it’s out of stock or the item they want does not have the color, size or type that they want to buy?

Frustrating right?

We have a Notify Me When Stock Becomes Available feature which allows customers to enter their details so the moment stock returns, you’ll be able to notify them knowing that they wanted to purchase the item.

It’s a good initiative to communicate as quickly as possible with the customer. Let them know when stock will be back and if you can maintain the same special pricing offer, am sure they’ll return to complete the purchase.

Time is ticking. Make the most of it.

So whatever special offers that you’re planning to throw out, make sure you have a backup plan for it if it runs out of stock as you want the same customers to come back to buy from you.

WhatsApp Mobile Share Feature

This feature makes it EASY for anyone who wants to share your product or site with their Whatsapp contacts.

WhatsApp Share And Contact feature on various mobile pages

Kind of like when you find something AMAZING and you can’t wait to share it with your friends via Whatsapp.

If you need this activated for your store, click here to find out how to do it.

It’s FREE.

The Rundown

Regardless on whether you’re targeting the holiday shopping crowd or not, your site needs to be mobile friendly and responsive coupled with a smooth and fast mobile checkout.

As more consumers embrace mobile shopping, you’ll need to make sure that your site is both appealing on mobile and provides a good shopping experience to consumers.

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HOT Holiday Numbers To Consider

Posted on December 6, 2011June 6, 2017by Lisa

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