According to an IBM Commerce report published by IBM Digital Analytics, Cyber Monday Marketing Campaigns in 2014 yielded an 8.5 percent YOY growth in Online Sales. On Cyber Monday, mobile traffic accounted for 41.2 percent of all online traffic, up 30.1 percent over 2013. Mobile sales were also strong, reaching 22 percent of total Cyber Monday online sales, an increase of 27.6 percent year-over-year.

Determining your Digital Play for the Holiday  season early helps your brand connect with the customers at the right stage of the buyer journey. The audience engagement is seen to last for a longer period of time with retailers that plan their campaigns sequentially for different days with offers and deals customized for the occasion.

Some of the Best Practices shared by Forrester Research and IBM Commerce, require retailers to plan their Marketing messages and Campaigns to be on time for capitalizing on the retail upswing on Cyber Monday.

Convenience is the key reason driving online purchases with other reasons being shipping offers, in-store availability, online exclusive offers and Gift purchases. In case your customers are looking for a certain experience, you could make Cyber Monday shopping more rewarding with a unique experience.

The new visitor conversion rate, average session length and page views per session  are the highest for Cyber Monday, though the holiday season engagement seems to be over a longer period of time than earlier years indicating an over all increase in conversion rate and marketing campaign effectiveness and an Improved ROI for response driven Marketing  campaigns.

Minimum Order Value and Doorbusters were the biggest draws for Cyber Monday. Email helps retailers engage audiences earlier in considering a holiday season purchase, by creating cadence for your brand and reengaging audiences with response driven marketing campaigns.

Marketing campaigns for the holiday season have generated results with 25 to 30 percent of the traffic being generated with marketing efforts. The holiday season attribution to Marketing is as high as 34 percent for the 2014-15 holiday season.

As important as it is to create cadence with your brand campaigns, it is  equally important that you provide better value deal with offers that  resonate with your customers.

Customers often look forward to receiving offers from the brands by way of digital coupons and online promo codes from retailers with as highs as 60 percent choosing offers, online codes and digital coupons as the preferred marketing tactic. According to a study undertaken by Forrester for Retail Me Not as high as 50 percent are more likely to visit the store if they receive an offer from the store and as high as 47 percent  enjoy looking for offers and codes online.

The other trends reported by IBM Digital Analytics report for the Holiday Season are:

Smartphones Browse, Tablets Buy: As the new digital shopping companion for many consumers, smartphones drove 28.5 percent of all Cyber Monday online traffic, more than double that of tablets, which accounted for 12.5 percent of all traffic. Yet, when it comes to mobile sales, tablets continue to win the shopping war – driving 12.9 percent of online sales compared to 9.1 percent for smartphones, a difference of 41.5 percent. Tablet users also averaged $121.49 per order compared to $99.61 for smartphone users, a difference of 22 percent.
iOS vs. Android: iOS once again led the way in mobile shopping this holiday season, outpacing Android across three key metrics on Cyber Monday:
Average Order Value: iOS users averaged USD 114.79 per order compared to USD 96.84 for Android users, a difference 18.5 percent.
Online Traffic: iOS traffic accounted for 28.7 percent of total online traffic, more than double that of Android, which drove 12.2 percent of all online traffic.
Online Sales: iOS sales accounted for 17.4 percent of total online sales, more than four times that of Android, which drove 4.4 percent of all online sales.
Retailers Use Email to Deliver Follow-Up Deals: Transactional messages, or emails that are automatically triggered by a consumer’s action like a purchase receipt or cart abandonment, increased 48 percent year-over-year. The median number of emails sent to consumers from retailers on Cyber Monday was two, remaining the same in 2014 compared to 2013. Open and click-through rates on Cyber Monday were 12.8 percent and 2.2 percent, respectively. More than 46 percent of Cyber Monday emails were opened on mobile devices or tablets, versus 52 percent on desktops.
The Desktop is Not Dead: As shoppers returned to work on Cyber Monday, desktop PCs accounted for 58.6 percent of all online traffic and 78 percent of all online sales. Consumers also spent more while shopping on their PCs with an average order value of USD 128.24 compared to USD 110.72 for mobile shoppers, a difference of 15.8 percent.
Social Influence – Facebook vs. Pinterest: As marketers continue to rely on social channels to drive brand loyalty and sales, IBM analyzed trends across two leading sites, Facebook and Pinterest. Pinterest referrals drove an average of USD 97.78 per order compared to USD 123.44 for Facebook, a difference of 26.2 percent.

Source Forrester Research and IBM Commerce