What is the most intense period in eCommerce? Of course, it’s the end of the year when Black Friday, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years are coming up. There are some tips on how to increase sales and make the sales season even more successful.
First impressions are half the battle, so start with the decorations.
Many merchants ignore Christmas and New Year web design. But it is a big mistake. It is the easiest way to capture the attention of visitors and let them know that this online store is ready for the sales season, so they can look for discounts and special offers. Of course, you can put a banner, but there are other elements that can support your ideas and create a festive atmosphere:
- Change the background theme of your online store to Winter and Christmas and related images
- Implement positive and festive colors and add animation.
- Change your corporate logo and add some winter and Christmas elements to it.
It’s a great opportunity to make your online store fresh and unusual, so don’t miss it.
Start your email marketing on time
Email is the best channel to deliver information to your existing customers. How do you know when the right time is? It depends on the range and type of products in the online store. If you have expensive products and people need to think twice before making a purchase decision, you can start sending an email campaign earlier to prepare your potential customers. But don’t be too early, because people may put off shopping when they hear about your big Black Friday discounts or other enticing deals. There are some tips on what you can use to prepare your email templates:
- Develop the subject line in the email carefully. It should be informative and attractive. Remember that about 33% of recipients open the email based on the subject line alone, and 66% of them mark the email as SPAM after also reading the subject line alone.
- Add personalization to your messages and try to design them not like an advertisement but more like a postcard style. Consider that emails with personalization in subject lines have a 26% higher unique open rate than emails without personalization.
- Clearly specify the expiration date of the special offer and plan the frequency of sending emails to remind you of the duration of your offers and discounts. But don’t send too many emails to one recipient.
Prepare gift program
Remember that many people will be shopping for the purpose of buying gifts for family and friends, and it can be a real challenge to make the right decision. Therefore, you can add a special section on your site with gift ideas. It can be an article on your blog or a special gift offers page. You can also offer gift vouchers for a certain amount of money and in this way, you solve the problem of choosing a gift and you can attract one more new customer.
Start writing about Christmas on your blog a little early.
An effective way to make your sales campaign more effective is to start blogging about Christmas, New Year gift ideas. You can also expand your content and add other topics like being well prepared for Christmas and New Year celebration, how to decorate Christmas table, home design ideas, etc. If there are relative products in your store, you can recommend them to be purchased to implement the ideas in life.
Use social media
This is an important communication channel with current and potential customers. It is best to develop and plan this communication program in advance for the entire sales period. News, blog articles, information about discounts – all these points should be published on social networks.
Use different types of discount for sales promotion
Discounts are different and have various effects on the behavior of buyers. The discount program must be carefully developed, and another important thing is how you inform a potential customer about your proposal. We recommend paying attention to the following types of discounts:
- Discount as a gift. During the winter holidays, everyone likes gifts and this type of discount should be an option in an online store. It doesn’t really look like a discount, it just provides a gift in response to some customer activity, such as making a purchase over a certain amount, online store recommendations, repeat purchase, etc.
- Discounts for regular customers. It is also a “must be” category. Every regular customer needs to know that he has a discount and, furthermore, it must be understood that he is unique. How you inform customers about this is important. It is better to send a personal email or SMS.
- Discounts for everyone. Almost all online stores will announce the sales and, as users know, they will compare the real prices. Giving discounts to everyone is a good practice, but it is important to support this campaign with other promotions.
- Unexpected one-day discounts. The unexpected drop in the prices of some products can surprise and stimulate sales. But if a customer made a purchase before and after this and has information about the reduced price, he may be disappointed. This type of discount should be used with care. It can work well for unpopular or non-seasonal products.
- Pre-discount. You can provide discount for orders paid in advance.
- Bulk discount. It is also possible if you have enough items in stock.
These are just tips on what you can use. Each type of discount works differently in each business and it is difficult to give universal advice that works for all spheres.
christmas wrapping service
It is also a “must have” option that you must provide. As in the previous cases, you can use it for sales promotion. Many online stores provide decoration/wrapping services for free and this encourages customers to make a purchase decision.
Provide as many payment options as possible
During the sale period, you will have more buyers and some of them may need payment methods that are not very popular. You must predict this situation so as not to lose potential customers. We also recommend checking the payment flow. Again, it is a very busy period for both traders and buyers. A lengthy checkout process that includes multiple pages and many fields to complete can discourage the desire to make a purchase and lead to a high number of abandoned carts. For Magento online store owners, we recommend optimizing the checkout flow with a one-step checkout extension. Also, test this flow carefully.
offer fast delivery
Once again, everyone is busy before Christmas and New Year, and a fast delivery service can play a key role when choosing the online store to make a purchase. If you can offer fast and free delivery, it is a kind of “advanced aerobatics”.
In conclusion, we would like to add that well-developed CRM systems and loyalty programs are very significant competitive advantages during the sales period. If your customers know that they always have the best conditions and service in your store, they will stay loyal even during the period when there are many attractive offers on the market. Take advantage of all the opportunities, there is still enough time to be well prepared for the big sales season.
Have a good sale!