The Most Wonderful Time of the Year: Black Friday and Cyber Monday Madness!

This week marks the kickoff of the holiday shopping season with Black Friday, followed by Cyber Monday next week. As the song goes, "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year," and indeed, it is for us as a coupon and deal publisher. If we were to sum up these two weeks in words, they'd be overwhelming, stressful, fun, exhilarating, and non-stop coupons and sales. So, what do we do during this exciting time of the year? Our various departments, including the Coupon and Deal Optimization team, Account team, Marketing and Engineering team, have their hands full with tasks and strategies.

Coupon and Deal Optimization Team: This dedicated team works around the clock because we receive more than triple the number of offers from retailers compared to a standard day. While we've built automated systems behind the scenes that activate recent offers, we still maintain manual oversight because we have a hybrid system in place. Our automated system handles coupon distribution based on factors like coupon type, discount value, and user interest. Additionally, our team of around 10 specialists dives into our backend offer pool, deciding which offers to activate and display on our sites. This year, we're busier than ever due to the recent launch of discountcodes.com, which currently serves four geographical locations, including the UK, Australia, the US, and Canada. We're thrilled to see more aggressive promotions from our retailers in light of the economic downturn, and we're eager to provide strong discounts to our savvy shoppers. Some of the standout offers we have included up to 60% off sitewide at Gap, a 25% off Black Friday promotion from Michael Kors, a 25% promo code for Nike, and 20% off at Fedex Office, among many others.

Account Team: Our account team plays a crucial role in bringing recent updates and news from our partners to the Coupon and Optimization team. Partners may update their offers, replace offers instantly, or seek last-minute placements. Our account team handles these last-minute requests and runs daily sales reports to track partner performance. If the numbers don't meet expectations, they collaborate with retailer partners to devise last-second strategy shifts. If any last-minute opportunities arise, they promptly notify their close partners. Their role is meaningful in our company's success.

Engineering Team: Our engineers keep a close eye on overall server traffic and complete optimization tasks to ensure our websites respond to user interests swiftly without any slowness. They also ensure that our sites can handle a sudden surge in traffic during this busy period.

Marketing Team: Our marketing manager runs a wide variety of ads across platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and search engines. We invest heavily in advertising during this time because it's when we experience the highest conversion from our marketing budget.

In years past, Black Friday involved savvy shoppers waiting in line for hours in front of retail shops, while Cyber Monday signaled a digital shopping spree. However, times have changed, and shoppers now prefer the convenience of online shopping. We've observed that shoppers start their digital shopping early in the morning, much like the traditional in-store rush.

As we look over our backend and offer details, we're delighted with the strong offers coming our way. We anticipate increased traffic until the last week of December, after which traffic will gradually decline. With the new year, we'll see a surge in traffic for specific categories like Travel, Weight Loss, Tax Software, Healthy Living, and more. Each quarter presents unique challenges and goals, and our team's focus evolves accordingly.

In conclusion, we wish you a Happy Thanksgiving and a fantastic shopping season ahead. May your holiday season be filled with great deals and savings!