Cyber Monday will mean a spike in shipping

Black Friday now has competition as the biggest retail sales day of the year, with Cyber Monday emerging as an impressive e-commerce leader. On the Monday following Black Friday, Internet  traffic on retail sites is expected to spike, and industry experts forecast high sales. 

Cyber Monday has existed for a number of years, but this time it could overtake Black Friday in sheer magnitude. Last year's Cyber Monday turned out to be the biggest online shopping day in history, amassing sales of $2.29 billion, according to Adobe Systems. This represented an 18.2 percent increase from Cyber Monday 2012, so retailers are looking forward to what promises to be an even bigger year for online holiday sales.

Retailers are now using consumer-friendly shipping methods to gain a competitive edge over other e-commerce stores. For instance, Innotrac's research showed that in June of this year, only 43 percent of companies required customers to pay for the shipping on return items. Retailers are also concerning themselves with ensuring speedy shipping and delivery for their customers, especially after the massive holiday delays that occurred last season.

In anticipation of the holidays, make sure your company is prepared to meet the influx of orders. It's important to have an efficient third-party logistics company like Reliable Runners to handle all your fulfillment needs as accurately and cost-effectively as possible, especially if your business is not accustomed to processing a large volume of orders at once.

It's also a good idea to brand your store's online presence with some sort of Cyber Monday or Black Friday theme, since this makes customers much more likely to stop and browse for sales. Also think about using the increase in cyber-traffic as a way to expand your opt-in marketing list.