It may seem hard to believe that September is considered last-minute for holiday prep, but it’s the truth. Remember, 40% of customers have already started holiday shopping by Halloween. Although it’s getting down to the wire, there are still things you can do to optimize your customer’s holiday shopping experience this year.
Gift guides
Add value to your customer’s holiday shopping plans by creating a gift guide of your products. This could include gifts for a range of groups such as family and friends, co-workers, outdoor enthusiasts, fashionistas, tech obsessed, etc. Depending on your product offering, you may be able to create multiple guides based on these various groups. Gift guides are an easy, effective way to market your products and show how multiple products can be bundled together to increase sales. When creating a guide, include a variety of gift-ready products in a range of prices, use high quality product images, and keep an eye of for opportunities to up-sell and cross-sell.
Social media
Although social media did not drive as many sales as expected last year, don’t discount it just yet. Social is still important for encouraging customers to engage with your brand. Use social to promote your gift guides, special sales, and holiday hours. Monitoring your social media accounts throughout the season is essential to respond timely to any customer complaints or compliments. This may be a good time to change up your banner image, product images, and content to reflect a consistent holiday theme. Also, try supporting brand interaction with user generated content, like having customers post pictures of your product in use.
Promotions
Decide what kind of sales and discounts you are going to run and how you will advertise them to the consumer. These days, the holiday shopping season is more of a marathon than a sprint, so determine a timeline for those promotions. There are many ways to create a holiday sales strategy, so make sure to choose the best one for your business. You can evaluate your inventory and focus on your best-sellers, try loss leaders, offer gift wrap and free shipping, offer exclusive sales to new or returning customers, or cut prices for surplus merchandise.
E-mail
E-mail and direct marketing channels accounted for nearly 40% of online sales in 2015, so there’s no question that you need an e-mail strategy in place. Once you have decided on your promotions, create an e-mail plan to let your customers know. Segment your lists appropriately, based on e-mail content. You may choose to send different emails to customers who have made a recent purchase, to those who live in a certain area, or to those who have earned a certain amount of reward points. Additionally, implement an e-mail flow for customers who abandoned their carts. This could include an email within 24 hours, another within 72 hours including a coupon, etc. Three emails in the flow is a good number. Lastly, make sure to have a great order confirmation and tracking email.
Website maintenance
If you have not already done so, now is the time to review your site with a fine tooth comb. Check your product pages for original, engaging content and quality images. Make sure your call-to-action (buy now, add to cart) buttons stand out on the page. Offer as many payment options as possible. Customers want to know that their purchase information is secure, so highlight your site’s security before and during checkout. Take a look at your checkout process as well to make sure it is as easy and streamlined as possible. Avoiding cart abandonment will go a long way to boosting holiday sales. Finally, check to see that your site loads quickly on desktop and mobile. For more information on site speed, check out our previous post.
Check your mobile
Mobile revenue, impressions, clicks, and conversions all increased last year, and they probably will again this year. Your mobile site has to be ready to handle holiday traffic. Mobile checkout needs to be as simple and secure as possible. Check that your touch targets are large enough and optimize above-the-fold content. Even if customers complete their purchase on a desktop, many use mobile to research before buying. For physical locations, many customers also use mobile in-store to locate a product or make sure it is in-stock.
Delight customers
Make sure you have a strategy in place for over-delivering on customer satisfaction. With so many large online retailers out there for customers to pick from, you can stand out by giving customers more personalized attention. As you may recall from our post on customer appreciation, this can be accomplished through handwritten notes, personalized communication, loyalty program rewards, and more. Although the holidays are a great time to attract new customers, don’t forget about your current ones.
eCommerce sales increased last holiday season and show no signs of slowing down. Will you be ready?