For many people worldwide, the official holiday season begins the moment Halloween is finished and continues until New Year’s Day. That period covers holidays celebrated by a variety of cultures and popular shopping days. Cyber Monday is one of the most popular online shopping days, which is why many businesses take the opportunity to run a campaign to gain new customers, make more sales and grow their business.
Get ahead this holiday season by diving into this article about Cyber Monday, including ways to prepare and tips on running a successful campaign.
- Cyber Monday is the biggest online shopping day of the year, which takes place on the Monday after Thanksgiving in the U.S.
- To prepare your business for Cyber Monday, optimize your website, plan promotions early and ensure smooth logistics for increased orders.
- To build a successful Cyber Monday campaign, you need to create exciting promotions, leverage social media and focus on customer experience and personalization.
- The future of Cyber Monday will feature extended shopping windows, mobile-first shopping and more personalized, data-driven experiences for customers.
What is Cyber Monday?
Cyber Monday is the biggest e-commerce shopping day of the year, taking place on the Monday that follows American Thanksgiving, which is on the fourth Thursday of November. There’s no better time to scour the internet and get those clicks on online discounts, deals and offers. How else will we burn those calories after Thanksgiving dinner?
In the United States, Thanksgiving kicks off a series of shopping-related “holidays” in late November: Black Friday, Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday. Although Cyber Monday spawned from American shopping traditions, it’s spread to retailers across the globe over the past two decades.
The name “Cyber Monday” was coined in 2005 by Shop.org. Since then, the e-commerce shopping day has grown. On average, shoppers spend over $11 billion on Cyber Monday every year, with 88% of the top 50 online retailers offering Cyber Monday discounts. Currently, close to half of Cyber Monday sales are from mobile users.
When is Cyber Monday 2025?
Cyber Monday 2025 will be Monday, December 1—the Monday following American Thanksgiving, which is celebrated on Thursday, November 27 this year.
Source: via Unsplash
Cyber Monday vs Black Friday
Cyber Monday and Black Friday are both shopping days famous for big sales, but they take place on different days shortly after Thanksgiving. They also occur in two separate shopping realms: Black Friday is in-store and Cyber Monday is online.
Although online Black Friday promotions exist, the holiday is traditionally associated with doorbuster sales at brick-and-mortar retailers and long lines of shoppers arriving in the wee hours of the morning, camping out and waiting to be the first to snatch up those limited deals.
Cyber Monday, on the other hand, occurs completely online. No camping out in parking lots, no shoving your way through throngs of tenacious shoppers, just scrolling e-commerce sites from the comfort of your own home.
There are a lot of similarities between Cyber Monday and Black Friday. Take advantage of that and create a unified sales campaign (you’ll thank yourself later).
Cyber Monday vs Singles Day
Cyber Monday and Singles Day are both major online shopping events, but they differ in origin and scale. Singles Day, launched in China on November 11, holds the title of the world’s largest shopping day, outpacing Cyber Monday in sales. What started as a celebration for single people has grown into a global event with massive discounts across various product categories.
Cyber Monday vs Amazon Prime Day
Cyber Monday and Amazon Prime Day both feature massive online discounts, but with key differences. Amazon Prime Day is exclusive to Amazon Prime members and typically occurs in July, offering early holiday deals. It’s a prime opportunity for Amazon to drive sales through its vast marketplace.
Cyber Monday, however, is open to all shoppers and spans across many retailers, making it a more inclusive event. While Prime Day focuses solely on Amazon, Cyber Monday brings discounts from a wide range of online stores, making it a larger event overall.
Prepare your business for Cyber Monday
Run security, speed and other tech audits
As Cyber Monday deals run exclusively online, you have to make sure your tech is running efficiently and smoothly. What if your website is too slow? Or it’s not optimized for mobile? Or your payment gateway is broken?
We could go on and on, but you get the picture. Nothing ruins Cyber Monday faster than technical difficulties. In the weeks leading up to Cyber Monday, do a full tech and security audit to ensure your website runs quickly, properly and optimally for all users.
Work out the logistics ahead of time and communicate
Ideally, October is the time to work with your shipping and distribution partners to prepare for Cyber Monday. Determine accurate sales projections and coordinate the increased need for warehouse space, space in trucks and delivery frequency with your distributors.
And even if you aren’t quite large enough to use third-party warehousing, you still need to consider how much extra inventory you’ll need to buy and store in preparation for Cyber Monday.
If this is your first Cyber Monday, plan ahead to be sure you have enough inventory! Alternatively, you can limit the number of orders to ensure you have enough inventory. Tactics like this can even drive demand through exclusivity.
Remember—your business is just one of many businesses participating in Cyber Monday. Postal services and couriers have to prepare for a huge volume burst this time of year, so to ensure your products aren’t lost in the fray, communicate early and often with yours.
Prepare your team
Similar to preparing your shipping partners for Cyber Monday, prepare your in-house team for the anticipated surge in orders. Especially for anyone in charge of customer services, someone needs to be there to support your customers and answer any questions they have.
Make sure everyone on your team knows the specific products and discounts you’ll be offering for Cyber Monday. Go over common customer issues and how to resolve them. Quick problem resolution is key to a great Cyber Monday, but it goes beyond that—a positive experience leaves a lasting impression on customers, who will return to your website and recommend you to their friends and loved ones.
5 tips to run a successful Cyber Monday sales campaign
Start planning early
Of course, an adept e-commerce shop can put something together in just a few days and reap the benefits of a wildly successful sales campaign. But when you’ve got time to plan ahead, it’s always good to take that route. It can save you from a ton of headaches later.
Make sure you’re up to date with all the latest developments or trends in marketing. Understand how you can make them work (or not) for your brand. Then, with this info, start planning your Cyber Monday campaign around the end of summer to ensure you’ve got your promos and products ready to go once it’s crunch time. That way, your promotion is as streamlined as possible, freeing up your time to spend with loved ones.
Need a place to sell your products? Check out our guide to understand how to set up your Etsy store, and prepare it for the Cyber Monday promotions.
Build hype
Cyber Monday has existed long enough that most shoppers know when that is. It’s embedded into our concept of “the holiday season,” that string of gatherings, rituals and traditions across cultures largely defining the last quarter of the year.
Use this to your advantage. Find creative ways to add hype-building as one of your marketing goals in the weeks leading up to Cyber Monday, such as:
- Weekly discounts and exclusive product reveals
- Raffles and giveaways
- User-generated content like haul videos
- Influencer marketing
Check out our list of Cyber sale campaign ideas to drive inspiration for your Cyber Monday promotion.
Promote it across platforms
Create a unified sales campaign across your social media platforms and, if applicable, your brick-and-mortar locations. Yes, Black Friday is for brick-and-mortar—but the people shopping in your stores are largely the same people shopping on your website. Make sure they know about your Cyber Monday sales with in-store advertisements and other forms of traditional marketing, Cyber Monday signage and exclusive discount codes for in-store shoppers.
On social media, opt for a two-pronged promo approach: paid ads and organic posts. Not only does this make your brand more visible, but it also provides a greater range of traffic and conversion stats to study when you create future promotions.
Get your SEO on point
Search engine optimization, aka SEO, has multiple components:
- Strategic keyword usage
- Valuable content delivery
- Optimized metadata
- Promotion of the products people are searching for
As part of your pre-Cyber Monday preparations, review your SEO to find any spots in your website that can make it appear more frequently in searches and, most importantly, to the people who are likely to make purchases.
If your pages aren’t optimized for SEO, now is the time to do that. SEO isn’t as complex as it might initially seem—a lot of SEO strategy is common sense and good design, like ensuring keywords are featured prominently in your text and organizing your content in clear, logical hierarchies.
Other strategies include featuring your products in Cyber Monday listicles and adding internal links to your pages. To ensure you get the most out of your SEO, consult with an SEO expert.
Offer a personalized shopping experience
Just like in-person shopping has some benefits over online shopping, such as buyers’ ability to try on clothing, e-commerce has a few benefits over brick-and-mortar. Perhaps the biggest benefit is shopper data and your ability to leverage it.
Ahead of Cyber Monday, develop strategies for harnessing data to upsell orders, recommend products and offer product bundles based on items that are frequently bought together. These strategies use in-cart data, users’ browsing and purchase histories to deliver personalized recommendations. If you aren’t already using plugins to personalize shoppers’ experiences on your website, make that a priority ahead of Cyber Monday.
What is Cyber Monday expected to look like in the future?
Cyber Monday is evolving rapidly, driven by shifts in consumer behavior, technological advancements and broader retail trends. Here’s what businesses can expect in the coming years:
Extended shopping windows
The traditional Cyber Monday is expanding into a longer promotional period. Retailers are starting sales earlier and extending them later, creating a “Cyber Week” or even a “Cyber Month.” This shift allows businesses to capture more sales and manage inventory more effectively .
Mobile-first shopping
Mobile commerce continues to rise, with a significant portion of Cyber Monday sales occurring on smartphones. Optimizing websites for mobile devices and integrating mobile payment options will be crucial for capturing this growing segment of shoppers .
Personalized shopping experiences
Consumers increasingly expect personalized shopping experiences. Utilizing data analytics and artificial intelligence to offer tailored product recommendations and targeted promotions can enhance customer satisfaction and drive sales .
Integration of Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) options
BNPL services are gaining popularity, especially during high-volume shopping events like Cyber Monday. Offering flexible payment options can attract budget-conscious consumers and increase average order values .
Social commerce and influencer partnerships
Social media platforms are becoming integral to the shopping experience. Brands are leveraging influencers and social commerce features to reach consumers directly within their preferred platforms, making shopping more seamless and engaging .
Enhanced customer support through AI
AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants are improving customer service by providing instant responses to inquiries and assisting with product recommendations. This technology can enhance the shopping experience and reduce cart abandonment rates .
Sustainability and ethical shopping
Consumers are becoming more conscious of sustainability and ethical practices. Brands that emphasize eco-friendly products and transparent supply chains may appeal to environmentally aware shoppers, influencing purchasing decisions .
Advanced fraud prevention measures
As online shopping grows, so does the risk of fraud. Implementing advanced security measures, such as machine learning-based fraud detection systems, will be essential to protect both businesses and consumers.
There’s only one Cyber Monday… make it count!
Cyber Monday is the biggest e-commerce shopping day of the year, but it’s more than that. It’s an opportunity for your brand to connect with new customers and solidify your spot in their minds as an amazing business they’ll buy from again and again. It starts with a well-placed ad, builds with each social post and message you send, and finally delivers satisfaction when the package arrives at your customer’s doorstep.
Deliver that satisfaction with branded Cyber Monday signage, flyers and everything else you might need to run your Cyber Monday sale.
Cyber Monday FAQs
What are common mistakes small businesses make on Cyber Monday—and how can I avoid them?
Common pitfalls include starting promotions too late, underestimating website traffic, lacking inventory and failing to communicate clearly with customers. Avoid these by planning early, stress-testing your website and checkout flow, confirming stock levels and clearly displaying shipping timelines, return policies and promo terms on your site.
When should I start planning my Cyber Monday campaign?
Ideally, begin planning your Cyber Monday campaign by late summer to allow time for developing your offers, auditing your website, preparing inventory and building presale buzz through marketing. Early planning ensures you’re not just scrambling last-minute but have time to create coordinated promotions across your website, email, social media and physical store (if you have one).
What types of Cyber Monday promotions work best for small businesses?
The most effective promotions for small businesses include flash discounts, limited-time bundle offers, free shipping and loyalty rewards. Highlighting exclusive or customized products can make your offerings stand out and attract customers seeking something unique.
How can I attract new customers during Cyber Monday?
Leverage targeted ads on social media and search platforms, partner with influencers and offer referral bonuses to encourage word-of-mouth promotion. Ensure your website has clear calls to action and a simplified checkout process to help convert first-time visitors into repeat customers.
What key metrics should I track to measure my Cyber Monday success?
Keep an eye on important metrics like website traffic, conversion rates, average order value and customer acquisition costs. These data points will provide insights into the effectiveness of your campaign, helping you refine your approach for future sales events.
