The holiday shopping season is about to kick off in full force around the corner, and  brick and mortar stores are preparing for Black Friday. But if you sell online, forget Black Friday, because Cyber Monday is the game you should be ready to play (in just over a week!). This post will help you get prepared.

Last year was the first year where online sales for Cyber Monday exceeded Black Friday. Total sales last year were nearly 2.3 billion dollars according to Adobe Digital Index. That is a continuation of the steady increase in online sales during the holiday shopping season. 

If you are running an online store then there are a couple of suggestions we'd like to make so you can grab a piece of that pie. 

SOCIAL MEDIA

Social media is your friend. Facebook pushed more sales than Pinterest last year, but both provided healthy returns to advertisers. If you can only afford to run one ad, go with the winning horse FB, but consider diversifying. Get your ads ready now. Be thoughtful about copy and imagery, and consider what you can really offer as far as discounts.  Also, adding a promoted tweet to your media mix. Twitter is steadily growing as an excellent option for online sellers. 

If you are going to have special discounts on Cyber Monday, then setup different ones, for the same amount and place them on your different social media channels. This will help you track where buyers are finding you, and it will also make you consider who your audience is on these channels.   You should also be keeping an eye on your analytics on Cyber Monday. Use Power Editor on Facebook, the Twitter ad dashboard and Google Analytics. If one channel is doing well for you, consider pumping more money into it in real-time. 

Also, keep track of cities like New York, L.A., Washington D.C., Atlanta and Chicago.  Although these cities top sales overall anyways, advertising specifically to these cities could up your sales on Cyber Monday.

MOBILE READY

In the mid 90s devices like the Palm Pilot, Apple's Newton and the Nokia 9000 gave us a hint of where things were heading as far as mobile devices were going. But it was not until recent years that using them for surfing the net or online purchasing really became standard.

Most online shopping options, ours included, should automatically work with a mobile OS, but that does not mean your website is optimized to do so. If you aren't set up for easy mobile sales, consider right now crunch time. You have a week to rectify that, because if finding their way around your site is difficult you will lose sales. 

Also, if for any reason your cart system does not seem to be working on your mobile device when you test it, contact tech support for your cart, and do so in advanced to Thanksgiving, this is not something you want to wait until the last minute for, which sadly many people do.

We wish every merchant - brick and mortar, online or both  - a happy and productive holiday season.! If you are interested in seeing more stats on last years Cyber Monday, you can checkout IBM's benchmark report here.