Every year, it’s the same wonderful pattern of excitement and stress that we love to hate. We decorate our houses, offices, and trees. We go to company holiday parties. We make plans to see (or not see) family and friends. We decide what our budgets are and buy presents. Every year, one of these seems to be shifting dramatically. Next year, will you be ready?
Black Friday & Cyber Monday Improved!
Some people did their normal thing of shopping early either in person or online during the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. Did you participate in Black Friday or Cyber Monday? If you did, you might have been one of the people that helped retailers like IBM, Adobe, and others increase sales up to 32% higher than the same day last year. In fact, on Thanksgiving Day alone, e-commerce sales went over $1 billion, and overall during Q3 Williams-Somona sold more online than in their brick and mortar stores, for the first time ever.
Some Weren't Prepared
It wasn’t all good news though. Larger retailers such as Staples and Rue La La saw their sites begin to slow down early in the morning, while others like Best Buy surprisingly were down altogether. They simply were not ready for the traffic that was brought in by their marketing departments - but there’s more than one side to why.
Mobile Devices Finally Overtake Desktop
Probably the most interesting statistics about the Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday online sales was in mobile. Many e-retailers reported that as much as a third of their online sales came from mobile devices, but more than 66% of the time customers are spending on e-commerce sites is using mobile devices. Walmart alone says that over 70% of their website traffic came from mobile devices!
Yeah… Remember that marketing line you keep hearing about when mobile is expected to topple desktop? If you sell online, it’s already here. Are you ready for it?
Everyone has been hearing the same warning for years now. Mobile first. Make sure your customers can have a great experience using a mobile phone. Even we told you last year. Yada, yada, yada…
You Can Serve Mobile Devices Today
We took this issue seriously from day one. This is why you can already provide an exceptional experience to your customers today if you’re using Hotcakes Commerce. Every single view a customer will see comes out-of-the-box responsive - that’s fancy techie talk for: your customers can shop from end to end using their phone or tablet without your designers and developers lifting a finger.
If you haven’t heard it already, we believe that e-commerce should be easier… For EVERYONE!
Get Your Hotcakes Now for 20% Off!
If you’re in the holiday spirit, I hope that you’re ready for us to let you know one more great fact about this year’s season of giving… For the rest of the month, you can purchase Hotcakes Commerce for a whopping 20% off of the standard retail price by using coupon code HOLIDAY2014 during checkout. This is our way of thanking you all for helping us have an amazing year in 2014. Hurry… Get your licenses now and save. Click the banner below!
This blog entry is cross-posted from our e-commerce website.
