Increased eCommerce sales during the holiday season can be achieved by implementing 3 simple tips:
- Plan, plan, plan
- Optimize the customer experience
- Complete a post-sales review
Thomas Ligor of New York provides the best and most useful strategies below to maximize sales and revenue for a happy (and profitable) holiday season.
Planning for the Season
Early research and planning is key to defining an effective marketing strategy. Identify the business’ key audience and leverage customer segmentation to target sales campaigns, create personalized discounts, or giveaways. Use the information to tailor the sales approach to fit the business’ customer base.
Some ideas include:
- Offering a discount for recently browsed items or abandoned carts
- Creating a holiday bundle to upsell or cross-sell products; or
- Offering personalized discounts based on loyalty status
Regardless of sector, free shipping and returns is a surefire way to increase sales. According to Shopify.com, free shipping has a significant influence on purchasing for 75% of global shoppers. Shipping is an important part of the online shopping experience and can be the deciding factor whether a customer completes their purchase or abandons their cart.
During the holiday season, the scarcity mindset can drive customers to make quick purchases out of fear of products becoming unavailable. A “sense of urgency” discount, such as limited stock or discount countdowns, can persuade customers to buy now, not later.
Why Customer Experience Optimization is Important
An eCommerce business’ website is the main customer contact point, so the online customer experience must be convenient and professional. Invest in technology to create the best customer experience, aligned to the marketing strategy created above.
The website speed needs to be quick enough that customers stay on the page. To achieve faster loading times, reduce image sizes or minimize CSS or Javascript files. Specialist companies can optimize a website for a great customer experience, ultimately building brand loyalty.
M-commerce is a growing sales channel for eCommerce retailers and accounted for 70.4% of all retail eCommerce sales in 2020. Reduce customer frustration by removing the need to scroll horizontally or zoom in on a mobile device. It can make all the difference in the run-up to the holiday season, when tension is already high.
In addition to technology, eCommerce businesses should invest in their after-sales care. Customer services tend to get involved when the sales process has gone wrong, and customers are already feeling stressed. The human touch can improve and enhance the overall customer experience, helping to build brand loyalty for the next holiday period.
Do a Post-Review
After the holiday season has passed, it’s important to review the strategy and sales returns. Look at what went well and what could have gone better. Identify the strategies that can be reimplemented the following year, such as free shipping or holiday bundles, as well as those that may need improvement.
The sooner the review is done, the more time can be spent planning for the next holiday period to drive even bigger and better returns.