Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Christmas — prepping your site for the coming onslaught (infographic)

OK, it’s September, and the holiday marketing season has officially begun.

Well, perhaps it’s not quite time for Christmas music. But for those who want to prepare their websites for the most important shopping events of the year, now is definitely the time to get ready.

Cyber Monday generated more than $1 billion in sales in 2011. Almost half of online shoppers spend more money online in the Thanksgiving weekend than they do the entire rest of the year. And for some retailers, the Hanukkah to Christmas shopping season brings in almost half of the year’s revenue.

So you’d better be prepared to handle millions of shoppers.

But it’s not just about server capacity. It’s also about remarketing programs, free shipping offers, preparing for mobile, conversion rate optimization, shopping cart abandonment reduction, optimizing for search and social traffic, and more.

Monetate, the online marketing optimization company, put together an infographic highlighting some of the key things anyone who sells online should know and do — before the holidays hit.

photo credit: Joriel “Joz” Jimenez via photo pin cc