The Black Friday Cyber Monday Rush: Is Your Website Set or at Risk?

Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM) – The internet shopping frenzy is nothing less than a bonanza for online businesses. A report^[i] by Adobe shows that customers in the US spent $9.12 billion on Black Friday and $11.3 billion on Cyber Monday in 2022.

This year too, businesses have a golden opportunity to boost revenue in the upcoming Black Friday Cyber Monday sale. But this opportunity comes with its own set of challenges. And you need to prepare for them in advance so as not to miss out on potential sales.

But what are these challenges and how to overcome them? Let’s find out.

What Might Go Wrong During Black Friday Cyber Monday Sale

In the frenzy of Black Friday, where each second counts and competition is fierce, an optimized website becomes your most potent tool to secure sales. If you think your website is all set for the big day, think again, because here are a few things that might go wrong –

Website Crashes and Downtime

With everyone rushing to buy during the peak sale hours, your website’s server can get overloaded. This can lead to a sudden website crash or downtime. If your website goes down, you will miss out on many potential sales opportunities.

DDoS Attack

As you will be dealing with copious amounts of customer data, your website might become a target for attackers. A botnet can easily overwhelm your website server by sending a flood of fake traffic. This will not only exploit your network resources but also result in a denial of service to normal traffic.

Slow Loading Speed

A large number of requests simultaneously can cause the website to load slowly. Today’s customers want everything quickly, and will not think twice before abandoning a slow website. This can lead to a high bounce rate and negatively impact your customer engagement.

Low Website Capacity

Businesses often misjudge the amount of traffic their websites can handle. An inaccurate understanding of your website’s capacity can leave you blindsided. You may run the risk of downtime and poor website performance at the time of the sale.

Unresponsive Website

Customers, nowadays, prefer omnichannel shopping experiences. If your website isn’t compatible with different device types and screen sizes, it will hamper their user experiences. This can directly impact your user retention and conversion rates.

5 Ways to Get Your Website Ready for Black Friday Cyber Monday Sale

Now that you know what can possibly go wrong with your website, it’s time to know how you can avoid this. Here are 5 ways to prepare your website for the upcoming BFCM sale season.

Prepare for Traffic Management

Traffic spike is the biggest concern for businesses during BFCM 2023. To ensure that your website is ready for it, you can adopt these approaches –

• If you use a CDN (Content Delivery Network) whether built-in or a third-party CDN provider, reach out to the IT team to plan for the surge in traffic.
• If you don’t use CDN, inquire about the traffic limitations of your site from your web hosting provider.
• Consider upgrading your server, if needed, to minimize your bandwidth consumption and increase page speed.
• Make sure to run a load test to know your website’s capacity beforehand.

Improve Your Website Speed

Consumers are not going to wait around if your website takes more than 3 seconds^[ii] to load. Therefore, speed optimization should be your priority. There are many ways to go about it. For starters, you can:

• Compress and resize your images and other visuals to reduce page weight.
• Remove unnecessary third-party snippets and cache your web pages to speed up the loading process.
• Divide long posts into multiple short posts and interlink them to enhance speed.
• Use Google PageSpeed Insights to check your website speed and overall performance.

Boost Search Engine Optimization

Customers are more motivated to buy during Black Friday Cyber Monday than any other shopping season. So, make sure that they can easily discover your store on search engines. Focus on your website’s SEO to improve search rankings. For this, you can:

• Use an SEO plugin for your website and choose a theme that is SEO-friendly.
• Utilize keywords in your content and incorporate useful internal and external links.
• Focus on quality content and perform a content audit, if needed.

Level Up Your Data Security Measures

Security is a key concern in online purchases. To promote sales, you need to assure your customers of their data safety. For this:

• Enable SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) to encrypt the connection between your visitor’s browser and your website.
• Display safe checkout badges to indicate complete protection of customers’ personal and sensitive details.
• Provide clear return policies and ensure that they are easy to find on your website.
• Take necessary actions to secure your website from attacks.

Integrate Multiple Payment Options

Last but not least, multiple payment options are necessary for successful sales. Different customers have different payment preferences. So, integrate all the widely-used payment methods with your website be it PayPal, Stripe, and UPI. You can also add Cryptocurrencies as they are another popular transaction method among customers now.

Once you’ve optimized your website, run a comprehensive audit to check if it is working as per your expectations and fine-tune the areas that need your attention.

Start Preparing for Black Friday Cyber Monday 2023

The countdown for Black Friday and Cyber Monday is ticking! Now that you have the ways to prepare your website for it, it’s time to implement them. Remember, a little preparation can lead to huge gains when the timing is right.

Next Read: Marketing Strategies to Skyrocket Your Black Friday Sales.

Need Help in Optimizing Your Website for the Black Friday Cyber Monday Sale? Contact Us.

Statistical References –

[i] Adobe – Cyber Monday Drove $11.3 Billion in Online Spending, Breaking E-Commerce Record

[ii] Neil Patel – How Loading Time Affects Your Bottom Line