Ever since I can remember, my mom and I have made it a tradition to get up early on Black Friday and get our Christmas shopping done. Every year, my mom asks me if I “still want to get up early” to go shopping, and every year, I say, “duh.” Of course, Black Friday has changed a lot since we started this tradition of ours. We used to wake up at 4 a.m. and would take turns standing in the long lines while the other shopped. But stores started opening earlier and earlier, until Black Friday started the evening of Thanksgiving and went on until the next Monday. We kept up our tradition for a while, until this year we finally had to look at each other and ask, “is it really worth it? Can’t we just get all of this online?” Cyber Monday is a great tool for anyone trying to make some sales – regardless of what it is you’re selling. So how do you get in on some of that money-making action? Here are some tips to boost your Cyber Monday sales: Create unique deals My very first job was in retail, and in our store we always had a sale going on. We always planned for Black Friday with a huge deal of anticipation, but we were always underwhelmed with the amount of customers and our revenue for the day. Our Black Friday sales weren’t that spectacular compared to other sales we had throughout the year, so our customers weren’t typically impressed with our deals. Create specific deals that your customers can look forward to throughout the year. If you’re worried about whether or not you can afford such sales or deals, set a minimum price your customer must spend before they can unlock the deal. Create exclusive offers Offer membership discounts or newsletter exclusives. This helps increase your opportunity for email subscribers and gives your loyal customers a sense of VIP. Your loyal customers are the most likely ones to shop from you anyway when you offer special deals, so offering them exclusive rights to your deals is a great incentive to get them purchasing more. Plus, if you let people who aren’t on your email list know about the deal, you can get them to sign up to receive those deals – and you’ll watch your loyal customer list grow as well. Showcase your products and services I would recommend doing this throughout the year, but especially on Cyber Monday. When someone comes to your website, your homepage should have banners for your showcased products so they can easily access the special deals. I would even suggest that you consider showcasing something different each hour to get a variety in your sales and get a good idea of what products and services are most popular. Another idea for showcasing – rather than pushing one product an hour – is to have multiple banners of banners depending on their popularity, special offers or deadlines. One banner can say “sale ending soon!” Another can say “Our customers love…” or “employee picks” etc. Specialized offers like that could help direct a customer who doesn’t quite know where to look, give them a sense of urgency of the sales and even make online shopping feel a little more personal. In 2017, 81 million Americans shopped online during Cyber Monday sales, bringing in $2 billion in just one day. Those numbers are only expected to increase this year and in the years to come. Be sure to get in on some of that!