Powerful Holiday Season E-commerce Marketing Strategies
Two things are constant in life: death and change. This is the closest that we can come to while describing the business environment this year. No one would have imagined the current state of the world a year ago. Covid-19 nearly brought the world to a standstill. And what is the result? All of us have to think out of the box to survive. As we get into the holidays, we are still faced with the uncertainty of sales, survival, and business continuity. Undeniably, however, the pandemic came in as an eye-opener and whatever was thought to be impossible before is now possible and has become the new normal.
In the business world, we acknowledge that businesses can be done from anywhere without necessarily being physically available to purchase products. E-commerce has become a very useful tool during the pandemic era because it has proved itself to be reliable and efficient. Businessmen and women have had to learn the new way of purchasing goods, selling goods, and making money transfers without necessarily meeting with the stakeholders involved. With the holiday season now started, it is definitely time to up your digital marketing game for your online store so you are not left out, because the pandemic has not affected our shopping spirits!
Below are some holiday season eCommerce strategies to consider:
Adjust to customers’ lifestyles and preferences. Many shoppers have been forced to change their lifestyle during these times. A lot of people have had to adapt to the new environment; thus, affecting their shopping behavior. Decision-makers within retail stores therefore have to take note of new priorities that customers have and stock them in their shop. As a business owner, you can analyze how customers purchase items since the beginning of the pandemic to decide how to adapt your selection during the holiday season. The most bought items should therefore be the main items to be sold since your customers’ priorities have changed. The gifts to be bought during the next season will not be the same as the previous seasons. Highlight the necessary products on your website and the social media pages that you think many people will need.
Make use of the marketing channels that are cost-effective and that have worked for you well in the past. There are different marketing platforms which include search engines, social media, and email marketing. Identify the best social media platform that will be effective for your business and what you believe will enable you to reach a majority of the customers. Use influencers to help market products and services. As a business owner, you have to choose an influencer whom you can afford to pay so that the influencer helps you advertise your products to the audience who access their channels. Many people will purchase products that influencers have advertised since they really know what the influencers recommend and what they tried before.
Ensure that there is a consistent customer interaction to effectively help build brand credibility and awareness. Make sure that the information that is shared with the audience is accurate and detailed to make sure everything is clear when a customer is making a purchasing decision. Recruit the best customer service team that makes the customers satisfied, and deploy a chatbot to help them provide it efficiently. The website should be accessible to make sure that the customers are not stranded at any point when looking for any information, regardless of any disability they may have. Update all the products and those not available should be noted as such so that the customers know what can be shopped in real-time.
Understanding when people shop online: Black Friday brings the year’s greatest discounts and, of course, has historically drawn the biggest crowds. Many online retailers maximize their presence on this day, but there are other days to consider as well. The biggest online shopping day of 2020 was not Black Friday but Cyber Monday, three days later. Even Green Monday, which follows a week behind Cyber Monday, drew in 1.4 billion US dollars, more than 200 million dollars more than consumers spent online on Black Friday.
The best way to make sure that you increase sales during the Christmas holiday season in your business is to make sure you as a business person is offering a solution to a problem. Look at what is in demand in the market right now and in the next few weeks or months. When you are sure that your product offers a solution, start selling the respective product. For example, face masks and hand sanitizers are in high demand this season, and they will continue being in demand for some time. By selling them, you offer a solution. For the products that need a lot of demonstrations, create a tutorial video to demonstrate how the product is used and put them on the different platforms to woo clients. Show the original state and the result after the product has been used. This will help the customers build confidence with the products available.
Customers’ demands change throughout seasons. As an eCommerce store operator, you must know what is in demand according to the specific environment. During Christmas, many eCommerce stores will stock peppermint candy, balloons, and any product that is related to the festive season since people are in the mood of celebrating it. Ensure that your store is showcasing products related to the season since that is what people are considering and need at that time. The hotels will have to make different recipes at their restaurants to attract clients and put them in the mood of dining more frequently. Thematic promotions should be put on websites to attract customers based on the season ahead.
Plan ahead for the holidays: “Failing to plan is planning to fail” is a literal quote. Customers spent more than 46.5 billion dollars online during the holiday season last year, so you can imagine what this year will be like, keeping in mind the challenges that we currently have all over the world. It makes sense to build marketing campaigns that maximize site traffic during this period. The most successful marketing teams set up their advertising and promotional calendars months ahead of time. This allows them to craft and curate site content and define their offers before the season begins. Unique content is featured in marketing campaigns for Black Friday, Cyber Monday, other days of interest. The full breadth of an effective holiday season advertising strategy relies on all of these pillars, providing new content to customers on every occasion. They also run search engine advertising campaigns throughout the year to collect data on what works best during the holiday season. Of course, as sales increase due to spikes in volume related to the holiday season, it is then prudent to scale those campaigns larger.
Use the offsite channels to connect with your audience: How successful you are in getting customers to your online store during the holiday season depends on how you build, marketing, and operate your business throughout the year. Some companies rely on email as the backbone of their content marketing strategy, but this requires a well-maintained email list. Others rely on PPC advertising during the week preceding the target holiday. Marketers enjoy the pay-for-performance aspect of these campaigns, but they also come with an enormously higher price tag during the holiday season. Social advertising allows for excellent site traffic during this time, mainly for its low cost. Paired with a competition or giveaway, social media advertising can provide one of the best methods for driving traffic to your website during the times of the year when paid ads reach their highest costs. In addition, advertising on Google Shopping is effective at attracting high purchase intent customers.
Offering after-sale services and bonuses attract customers effectively during the holiday season, which can often be a time of elevated promotional activity. Some after-sale services will include free shipping and installation services. With such offers, a lot of clients will be motivated to buy from your shop because they know their purchased items will reach them without so many struggles. That means that will have cut some costs they were to incur in the process of transportation. With that, you will be able to get more referrals if the client is satisfied with the service offered.
Consider building a mobile application for your business. In this era, a lot of people will prefer to use their phones in accessing almost everything. If a business does not have a mobile application or a mobile-friendly website, then the business will likely lose out on volume. Unlike websites, mobile applications remain on your audience’s phone once they are installed. Therefore, there is an inherent advantage that people will see your mobile application routinely, which will remind customers to patronize your business. If you have a physical retail presence, you could also offer convenient in-store pickup services to help customers get their items fast.
It’s not too late to optimize your holiday season eCommerce marketing strategies to have a successful holiday selling season. In fact, we recommend approaching your digital marketing planning for the holiday season all year round to maximize the results to ensure you have valuable data on hand. Contact Prime Marketing Experts today at [email protected] or by calling 617-651-1457.
