It’s time to start planning your eCommerce online strategy for the holiday season. We’ve collected tips from Pinterest, Samsung Electronics, and Tinuiti on the best ways to prepare for Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Have a dedicated budget not only for Black Friday and Cyber Monday but also for the days leading up to those dates. Customers will be in the market browsing products and comparing prices days before the actual sales occur. If you’re confident the types of sales your store will be running are great, then catching customers in the browsing stage may be ideal – especially if what you’re promoting tends to have a longer purchase consideration that may need more stakeholders involved.

Ivan Oregel – Senior SEM Specialist
Build.com

One of my favorite eCommerce tips that you can implement to reduce cart abandonment is to remove the box that says, “enter promo code” at checkout.

If someone reaches the checkout page and doesn’t have a discount code, there is a good chance that they will leave your site and search for one, never completing the checkout process.

Since your goal is to increase sales and revenue, display a discount code prominently on the checkout page, preferably above the checkout button. This will give the buyer another reason to complete their purchase. Especially if it is a time-sensitive discount.

A client of mine implemented this strategy and saw a 17% decrease in cart abandonment and a 22% increase in revenue over the same period last year.

Marc Reece – Digital Marketing and Analytic Strategist

You MUST be very competitive in the marketplace because consumers are looking for the absolute best deals and start their research days, sometimes weeks in advance. The sooner they know what you’re going to offer, the better. Create a few teaser deals leading up to the Black Fiveday weekend; even if you don’t offer a huge discount, you can always offer samples or free items. Consumers perceive free items to have a great value and the vast majority of companies have already budgeted for such allowances so you won’t be losing money on this. You might even want to create coupons far in advance that consumers can only use on Black Friday or Cyber Monday because chances are, they’ll purchase more than what your coupon is offering or purchase more because they’re getting a killer discount.

Kristen Hogentogler – Marketing Manager
Firenza Pizza