Why do you need to prepare and plan your eCommerce for the holiday season?
The Holiday Season is an excellent opportunity for eCommerce websites to end the year with a great peek in sales. Even though the COVID-19 pandemic is on its way back, this year's Holiday Season will still feel the effects of e.g. the social distancing. Instead of strolling around big shopping malls and stores, it is more likely that many consumers will find themselves on the couch with their mobile phone or laptop scanning the web for online retailers and eCommerce websites that will give them what they are looking for.
No doubt this leaves a heavy pressure for eCommerce sites to not only have the right technical setup to perform at the highest level but also to deliver the shopping experience that their online shoppers expect. That is why we want to share our tips on how you can up your eCommerce holiday game to maximize the potential of buyer-ready online shoppers looking for holiday deals and promotions of their desires.
3 actions for your eCommerce holiday plan
To prepare your business for the high pressure during the upcoming Holiday Season, you could consider:
1. Tap into the holiday shopping experience on your website
Do a quick optimization of your website to make customers’ navigation on your web pages easier. They search for information and products, so think of new ways to display your offers for the holidays. For instance, create a big homepage banner showcasing your seasonal collection and holiday sales. Or you can investigate your website performance data to identify the pages with the most traffic and add a pop-up to those pages with holiday promotions and deals.
2. Use your social media channels to promote your holiday deals
Online orders will not be placed on your webshop. Today’s modern consumers often go to social media to get information about you. Before the holidays, you should start to work on your brand awareness on social media and share posts for engagement and interaction from your target audience. This could be for instance a sneak peek of seasonal items, X % holiday discount, an invitation to a holiday event, or the like. To make this happen you need to develop a social media marketing strategy that enables new and existing holiday shoppers to get excited about the upcoming discounts.
3. Offer more than just a discount – create holiday promotions with value
If you have loyal customers that place repeats orders, you should take your holiday promotions to the next level by offering options to upsell or cross-sell. You could recommend another product, service or item that is a perfect fit for their order history. By doing this, you can help your customers find their ideal product match, resulting in greater LTV, brand loyalty, and customer satisfaction. However, if your recommendation is a poor fit, you risk pushing your customers away.
For new customers, you can add value by offering a starter pack for a discount price. Or you can include a gift card or discount code for their second purchase. A third idea is to give your new customers the option to “send a discount to your friend and get X % off your next order”. This makes it easy for the new customer to get a discount for themselves but also give a discount to a friend, which makes them feel good and could be the reason to buy from you and not your competitor.
To sum up: Start your holiday planning now to boost sales and get the most out of the season!
Written by , global eCommerce software provider and Microsoft Gold Partner. To learn more, please visit:
