Black Friday, Cyber Monday Online Sales Up!

The holiday shopping season is officially upon us, and did it ever start with a bang this year. comScore reported that e-commerce spending jumped 26 percent on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, compared with last year's Black Friday. Online retailers offered deep discounts and promotions to rake in $816 million for one day, up from $648 million last year. More than 50 million Americans reportedly visited online retail sites on Black Friday, up 25 percent from a year ago according to comScore.

Not only were Black Friday sales up, but Cyber Monday sales were up significantly over last year at 33 percent higher. More and more shoppers are turning towards online stores, due to convenience and ability to compare numerous sites effortlessly to find the cheapest price.

Enjoy some comic relief with our video that pokes fun at Black Friday and its pitfalls like long lines, angry people and getting up early. See why it's a good idea for retailers to offer their customers an online shopping alternative to avoid the mess of shopping on Black Friday and simultaneously expand their sales channels and reach more customers. View our Black Friday video by clicking the image below.

New Addition to the Elearning Library at Pure-Ecommerce.com

We just added a new document titled - "7 Marketing Tips to Market Your Products".

 

This great information is located in Step 7 of the Elearning Library.

 

Be sure to read through these important marketing tips and apply to your website!

Ebuyer.com's Cyber Monday turns to into a Black Monday

Today is known as Cyber Monday, the first Monday after Thanksgiving, and a day in which e-tailors offer discounts and promotions to persuade people to shop online. Ebuyer.com had lined up a day of £1 deals, which included laptops, however with the site going down for several hours, their day didn't turn out quite as they had hoped.

The Register sums up their lack of planning, with a failure to manage their load in advance of the promotion:

Ebuyer failed to shore up its web systems ahead of the customer rush and the site was offline for several hours even before the offers officially opened at 11am today.

One mistake many marketing teams make is not to inform developers, or the web team about forthcoming campaigns that may (they hope) increase traffic to the site in peaks over a short period of time. I know because I've been there myself.

It's difficult to believe that a site as large and experienced as ebuyer would have these problems. However a quick look around the (now online) site suggests that load management isn't the only schoolboy error with their site.

I took a look at their Christmas promotions page, which details the campaign as follows:

The out-of-date copy suggests lack of attention to detail, but this isn't my primary bugbear. The following is a screenshot from the home page of this promotion. 

I was interested in what the Most Wanted section of the site included, so I clicked it and got to this page:

It's exactly the same. I thought I was waiting for the page to load, given their earlier problems, but no, it was the same page but the content that had changed was below the fold. A few scrolls down the page and I get to the Most Wanted content. It's just a really poorly thought through design. 

One might say that today became something of a Black Monday for ebuyer... 

New Video in the Elearning Library

Be sure to check out the new Word Press Video in the Elearning Library! It will walk you through how to use and show you the features of the Word Press Blog.

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

NEWS from Pure-Ecommerce

Black Friday and Cyber Monday are just around the corner. Be sure to read through the Cyber Monday tips in the Elearning Library. Also, this would be a great week to start your  PPC ads. If you need your ads reviewed please email us today with your log in.

Also, with Cyber Monday fast approaching this would be a good week to prepare and send a newsletter letting customs know of special offerings for MONDAY. Resend the newsletter again on Sunday evening!

Make sure you have run test orders on your part and via paypal and everthing is in good working order.

We will be closed Wednesday through Friday for Thanksgiving but will be checking emails for any sort of urgent issues. Also feel free to contact us directly at 919-649-3147.

Photos from GPUG Summit 2011

We had a great time seeing you at the GPUG event at Caesar's Palace. We are glad to have seen so many great partners and customers attend the GPUG Summit this past week. Click below to view our photo album from the event.

Pure-Ecommerce is offering DISCOUNTED photo load services up to November 24th!

This is a great time to add great new products to your site for the  holiday shopping season and to take your site into the New Year! Pure-Ecommerce is offering you DISCOUNTED photo load services.

Take advantage of these lower prices - HURRY offer ends November 24th!

• 300 products $300.00
• 500 products $385.00

 

Book NOW-Only spots open for 5 clients.