Are You Ready for a Peak Shopping Season? 3 Tips for Cyber Monday 2021 (and Beyond)
While the challenges around preparing for the holiday shopping season is nothing new for retail, preparing for this year’s season is chock full of its own, unique challenges, potential pitfalls, and yes—opportunities. However, when it comes to Cyber Monday, which will be upon us on November 29th this year, the big worry isn’t only supply chain and delivery slowdowns, but slowdowns on your eCommerce site.
Even the slightest improvement to load time can have a positive effect on business results, especially during times like Cyber Monday. Consider this from a 2020 report by Deloitte:
Results showed that a mere 0.1-second change in load time can influence every step of the user journey, ultimately increasing conversion rates. Conversions grew by 8% for retail sites and by 10% for travel sites on average. With a 0.1-second improvement in site speed, we observed that retail consumers spent almost 10% more, while lead generation and luxury consumers engaged more, with page views increasing by 7% and 8% respectively.”
– Deloitte Digital: Milliseconds make Millions
How to avoid missing out on during seasonal peaks like Cyber Monday
1. Have a Stable, Right-sized Infrastructure
Having the right “equipment” to support your business and spikes in visits and purchases is the first place to start. A good web host is your most powerful asset when planning for seasonal peaks. These factors can make or break your selected host: RAM, storage, CPU allocation, security, and even location. Since no two eCommerce sites are the same, there is no one-size-fits-all web hosting service, and there is a lot of detail to consider, so the best advice is to think carefully about your hosting needs before making a decision—with the help of an expert who understands those details.
2. Balance the Load
Basically, this means making sure the load is spread across multiple machines (depending on the load) rather than putting it all on one, which will put you in danger of a slowdown, especially during a peak time like Cyber Monday. Taking the pressure off a single machine and spreading it over a group helps ensure more stable, predictable performance.
3. Use Lazy Loading
If your eCommerce site features longer, content-rich (including text, images, and videos) product pages, that’s great. Those pages improve the customer experience by providing more information to help them with their buying decision (as well as helping with SEO for your site). However, they can be a problem when it comes to the site’s performance. Loading the entire page in one go can overtax your site and cause performance issues, slowing the load time down.
Lazy loading delays the loading of certain elements on a web page to enhance performance. It delays the loading of content until that content actually appears on the user’s screen, which breaks the loading up into more manageable chunks. That speeds up your eCommerce site and doesn’t test your customers’ patience.
Be Ready for Cyber Monday or Any Spike In Business
There are other ways to take the load off your systems for Cyber Monday. Consider starting offering your deals early. You can also offer your products through the Amazon marketplace. Contact the retail experts at ArcherPoint for your omnichannel retail needs.
To learn more about cybersecurity, watch our webinar, Demystifying Cybersecurity, where we discuss endpoint management, password health, backups, end user education, and more.