Company Blog

Get Your Share of Cyber Monday

by Adam Zack — June 25, 2015

ThinkstockPhotos-487773269sm July is next week. Seriously. Wasn’t it just a couple weeks ago that the east coast was getting dumped on with snow? Wasn’t Valentines Day just about a month ago? Maybe it’s as we get older, time seems to go by quicker. Or maybe we get so busy we just don’t realize how much time has gone by. Or maybe these theories are all a bunch of BS and the activities when time seemed to go slow (school, church, sitting in the dentist getting your teeth cleaned, doing sit-ups, etc) are mostly things of the past.

In any case, July means that the holidays are right around the corner, and that means Cyber Monday will soon be here. So what does this mean for grocery retailers? We don’t have anything to do with Cyber Monday. It’s just another medium-slow weekday for us. Right? Well, for most it is, but we work with a few cutting edge retailers who have chosen not to concede the online Cyber Monday sales to the big box retailers and online mega-merchandisers. Three of our clients – ranging from one store to eight stores, embarked on a Cyber Monday promotion with astounding results. The program is this: Offer their store gift cards for sale online ONLY for 24 hours with substantial discounts. ($100 gift card for $75, $50 gift card for $40, limit 4 cards total per household). Think about it: The cards have to be used in your store, so foot traffic is generated. They have to go to your website to purchase, so you get the chance to really show off your site. The social media buzz and word of mouth were exceptional. And it generates cash flow immediately. A considerable cash flow. The single store client sold $145,000 in gift cards in during the Cyber Monday sale. And it was the first year they tried it! A six store chain, in their second Cyber Monday sold nearly $1,000,000 in gift cards! It’s an amazing success story, and I get excited thinking about it.

I guarantee that there will be old-school naysayers. “We can’t give that kind of discount! We operate on pennies on the dollar profit margins! That’s a ridiculous idea! It’s just giving our regular shopper a big discount!” Well, I’m here to tell you – it is not just regular shoppers. It’s a LOT of new shoppers, and how much would you pay to lure a new shopper into your store so you can show off your awesomeness? And for those regular shoppers who do take advantage of Cyber Monday, shoppers who spend thousands of dollars with you every year, what a great way to say THANK YOU!

It’s a simple program to implement, too. Your website has to accept payments (we can help if yours doesn’t). You have to have enough gift cards on hand. And you have to publicize it a little (not too much.) Give me a call at 480-619-4303 and I’m happy to share the details. You need to be doing this program. It’s a Cyber success story waiting to happen for you too, but you need to start getting ready for it now.