The Cyber Monday phenomenon continues to grow with every year that passes. For consumers, the online event presents a chance to buy high-end gifts at discounted prices. For businesses and e-commerce sites, it presents an opportunity to generate a sharp increase in revenue.
This year’s event will be an important milestone for many businesses still reeling from periods of closure and uncertainty due to the Coronavirus pandemic. Instead of concentrating on hitting sales targets for Cyber Monday this year, the focus for many will be to make enough revenue to keep their doors open from an incredibly unpredictable 2020.
However, all is not lost because there are tools out there to help businesses during times like these.
A Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tool can help a business by storing all customer data centrally. It provides a platform that enables sales and marketing teams to understand the consumer better, allowing them to build robust strategies that will entice them. With a CRM on side you can navigate your way through these uncertain times by putting customers first, while increasing sales along the way.
Statistics from recent years suggest that customers have shown a preference towards purchasing online – even before the pandemic. In 2018, mobile devices drove 56% online sales during the Cyber Monday long weekend, an increase of 6% from the previous year. Now that consumers are turning to e-commerce more than ever due to hesitation around shopping in physical stores, this trend is set to continue for the rest of the year and is predicted to rise to 66%.
So, what are the top three things that a CRM system can do to help companies make the most of the upcoming Cyber Monday shopping event?
1. Don’t stress. Automate.
Does your business receive a large number of enquiries? Are your products or services bespoke and require a two-way conversation before they can be purchased? If your answer is yes to any of these questions, then take note: 35-50% of customers are willing to go with the vendor that responds first. If you do not have the correct workflow and automation processes set up to deal with fast responses potential customers will slip away needlessly.
2. Segment and target your customer base.
A CRM solution will support your teams by segmenting your customer base. This will promote optimal response rates from contacts in the lead up to, and over the course of Cyber Monday. To support marketing efforts, segments can be created within the CRM based on a buyer’s previous behavior. Informed by the existing data held within your CRM, consumers can be grouped into categories such as; new customers, past customers, those with abandoned trolleys and loyal customers.
Specific campaigns can then target relevant segments of customers. Promoting relevant deals or promotions that you think they will enjoy. This could be anything from increasing visibility of their favorite seasonal products, to sending them a personalized email reminder of items that they put in their trolley but still haven’t purchased. These activities will go a long way to maximizing your chances of increasing sales and driving profit over the course of the event.
The shift from physical in-store shopping to a preference of mobile shopping has reduced the number of opportunities to make an impression on consumers. Between 2018 and 2019 it was found that the average number of web pages viewed by shoppers online decreased by 4.37%, as did the average amount of time spent viewing those pages (down by 8.33%). Businesses now have to work harder to earn the attention of consumers so that they can drive the results they want and need.
Attracting new, trying to win back old and rewarding loyal customers is the aim of the game. Email marketing will have an extremely important role to play. Engaging emails that are visually appealing will help you stand out amongst the competition. With the data obtained from each of these email campaigns stored away safely in your CRM, the results can be used to influence and build future emails. Being informed of these statistics will ensure that teams can deliver optimal shopping experiences for all.
3. Integrating with third-party applications.
A lot of CRM systems facilitate third-party application integrations. Take your stock management system for instance, integrating it with your CRM will allow you to monitor stock levels throughout the event.
Sending personalized emails out to your contact base segments? You can ensure that you don’t end up promoting a product that is now out of stock, disappointing customers. Avoiding this situation will ensure that you are providing the best customer experience. This will positively affect your sales over the course of the event.
A CRM offers a 360-degree view of your customer base. It’s automation functionality and ability to integrate with third-party plugins will give your teams leverage. Empowering them with the tools they need to reach out to certain segments of your customer base efficiently and effectively.
Integrating third party systems such as a Point of Sale (POS) system, accounting, call center management systems (to name a few!) with your CRM offers other benefits too. It will ensure that your teams are able to work efficiently. Having all information pulled together onto one platform will eradicate the confusing process of having to open and work from multiple applications. Streamlining this process for teams as much as possible is a step towards a less stressful event.
A future-proof system
Regardless of whether you own or work for an SME or enterprise company, this year’s Cyber Monday will be one to remember. It will require a big effort from all teams. Using a CRM will simplify everyone’s jobs, especially when they fully embrace the power of automation. It will minimize the amount of human intervention that is needed for basic admin over the course of the weekend. Sales, marketing and customer service teams can concentrate on the important stuff, such as creating personalized discounts and offers that consumers will love. Used correctly and the automation functionality of CRM can help your company boost sales over the course of this event – and beyond!