The holiday season is the true test of any marketer who works for E-commerce stores. It’s the time when competition is stiff, web traffic is high, and you are likely to reap the fruits of all your hard work, but only if you stay prepared. In every marketer’s career, there have been times when they longed for holidays only to realize they were not adequately prepared for the holiday season. If you don’t want to fall short during this crucial time, there are some things that you must start doing immediately. What are those things? Let’s understand in this blog post.
Create a promotional calendar
It’s important to plan ahead for the holiday season, particularly for your online business. It stresses the need to be ready for upcoming holidays to make the most of sales opportunities. It highlights important dates and holidays like Green Monday and Free Shipping Day and gives advice on how to plan effectively, such as deciding which holidays to join in and creating a promotional calendar. Ultimately, it emphasizes the significance of early preparation to maximize the holiday season’s potential for your online store.
Prepare for traffic surge
Get ready for more visitors during the holiday season, especially on busy shopping days. It’s crucial to avoid website crashes during these times.
a. Stock up on inventory
More shoppers mean more products are needed. Check with suppliers, especially for popular gift items, to ensure you have enough stock.
b. Ensure reliability
Focus on speed and security, as they directly impact revenue. Your website should handle increased traffic without crashing.
c. Review third-party integrations
Check if they’re updated and can handle the traffic. Avoid adding new integrations last minute, as they might disrupt your website’s performance.
d. Test and optimize website performance
Run load tests to identify bottlenecks and ensure your website can handle increased traffic.
e. Scale your infrastructure (if needed)
Consider temporarily increasing server capacity or using cloud-based solutions to handle the expected surge.
f. Plan out your return policy and additional payment options
You might want to rethink some store policies for the holidays to stay competitive. Many stores, online and offline, offer more flexible return and exchange policies during this time. You should weigh the impact on sales and your processes before deciding.
Also, think about adding more payment options. If you only take Visa and MasterCard, consider adding PayPal or Bitcoin. It’s simple to do and can boost conversions and revenue from customers who like those methods.
Customer experience
Today, holiday shoppers want to easily find what they need on your site. To meet this demand, ensure your online store is designed with a smooth path to checkout. Here are key ways to enhance your site and surpass customer expectations:
Site speed
Page speed is crucial for a website, especially for online retailers. According to various surveys, many consumers prioritize fast loading times when making online purchases. A slow website can lead to frustration and cart abandonment.
While it’s important to be aware of page speed, checking the load time of every single element on a large website can be impractical and unnecessary, so focus on critical elements that directly impact user experience. This may include images, scripts, and the overall time it takes for the main content to be displayed.
Storefront experience
A website should absolutely reflect your brand identity through visuals, tone, and content. This creates a cohesive experience for visitors and strengthens brand recognition. Websites with clear navigation experience higher conversion rates (e.g., purchases) than websites with cluttered navigation. With the rise of mobile commerce, ensuring your website functions flawlessly on smartphones and tablets become imperative. A responsive design adapts your website layout for optimal viewing on different screen sizes. While we don’t endorse specific services, website builders with drag-and-drop functionalities generally allow for easier design customization for non-coders.
Sometimes, updating your website theme can be a good way to refresh the look and feel, but it’s important to consider the potential impact on existing content and user experience. Make sure the new theme is compatible and won’t require significant work to adjust your website.
Lastly, while customization allows for a unique website, it should always be done within the framework of your established brand identity.
Enable cart abandonment notifications
Customers may abandon their shopping carts due to a variety of factors, including unexpected costs, the desire to compare prices, distractions, or the need for further product details. Nonetheless, targeted abandoned cart emails serve as an effective strategy to re-engage customers, reminding them of their incomplete purchases. These emails are not only a reminder but also an opportunity to recover potential sales.
Evidence supports the efficacy of abandoned cart emails, particularly when they are well-crafted and timed with holiday promotions to create a sense of urgency. Reports indicate that such emails can recover between 3% to 14% of lost sales, with an average revenue per recipient of $5.8. This recovery rate is especially notable during holiday seasons when consumers are more receptive to promotions and discounts.
- Abandoned cart emails are a valuable strategy to recover lost sales. However, for optimal results, consider:
- Sending emails promptly after cart abandonment.
- Personalising emails to specific cart contents and customer behaviour to improve effectiveness.
- Include discounts or free shipping incentives to encourage customers to complete the purchase.
- Test different approaches and measure their results to refine your abandoned cart email strategy for the best conversion rates.
Update merchandise
Deciding what to sell during the holidays is also important. Think about what people like to buy during this time. Maybe there are special bundles or popular items that your customers would love at this particular time. Make sure to show these products in a clear and noticeable way on your website or app. You can create a special section just for holiday stuff or label them clearly with nice pictures.
Also, make sure your product info is accurate and easy to understand. Customers should be able to compare products easily and know the prices. When products are well-presented and organized, customers are more likely to buy them. With the help of AI tools, you can also assess how people shop and based on that, it can also suggest products to the users they might like. This can help reduce the number of abandoned carts and make shopping easier for everyone.
Personalize experience
Personalization means creating a more personal experience for each customer. A study by McKinsey showed that businesses good at personalization earn 40% more from customers than their competitors.
But how can you create such an experience for the user? By suggesting products based on what a person likes. For example, if a user buys a book from your store, you can show them:
- Popular Books
- Books of the same genre
- Best selling
- Critics favourite
This makes customers more likely to buy and less likely to leave items in their online cart without buying them.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is helpful here. AI looks can access lots of information to understand what people might want. Then, it suggests things just for them. This could be product recommendations or special deals. Many marketers say they make more money when they personalize, but it’s smart to check where these numbers come from.
Help them find what they need
A good search function makes it easier for users to find what they need, reducing frustration and keeping them on your site. Using popular search patterns helps your site return relevant results, mimicking the user’s intent.
By using common search patterns from the internet, like popular Google searches, you can improve your website’s search results. During busy shopping times like the holidays, think about what gifts people want. Highlighting popular gift items in search results makes it easier for customers to decide. This thoughtful approach makes holiday shopping more enjoyable, encourages repeat visits, and builds brand loyalty.
Optimize checkout
According to a study by Baynard’s Institute, for every 10 customers who add an item to their shopping cart, seven leave without completing the purchase. What do you think is the reason behind this? Most of the time, it’s a complex check-out process.
When a customer gets to the checkout page, they have already decided to buy. Making your checkout page better means making it easy to use so the customer doesn’t leave before finishing their purchase. Here are some tips on how you can make check out process smooth for the user:
a. Limit the checkout process to one page
When you limit the checkout process to one page, you reduce the time and chance for a user to abandon the cart. With multiple pages, a user has to wait for each one to load. On the other hand, having the entire checkout process on a single page won’t make the user impatient and prompt them to leave.
b. Enable Guest Checkout
Guest checkout lets a customer buy without logging in or creating an account. This means brands do not keep any information customers enter during the checkout process. People who haven’t interacted with your store before might be hesitant to provide their personal information right away. Guest checkout removes that barrier and allows them to make a purchase with minimal commitment.
c. Offer Multiple Payment Options
Studies suggest a significant number of shoppers abandon carts solely because their preferred payment method isn’t available. Providing various options like credit cards, debit cards, digital wallets, and even buy-now-pay-later services (BNPL) ensures customers can complete their purchases seamlessly.
Don’t forget not everyone has the same payment habits. Some prefer the security and rewards of credit cards, while others rely on debit cards or digital wallets for faster transactions. Offering various options ensures you cater to a wider customer base and capture sales from those who might not have completed their purchase otherwise. During the holidays, competition is fierce. You cannot afford to not take this aspect seriously.
d. Enable Multi-Recipient Functionality
During holidays, many people buy gifts for multiple people. Normally, on many websites or apps, they have to order each gift separately. This is where you can stay ahead by adding multiple recipient functionality. Allow the user to buy gifts for everyone on your list in one shot, sending each one to a different address.
Offering free shipping promotions can significantly increase order values. Multiple recipient functionality can indirectly encourage larger orders by making it easier to reach those free shipping thresholds.
e. Provide Flexible Shipping Options
Some customers like it to trade shipping time with expense, unexpected shipping costs at checkout can prompt them to abandon the cart.
On the other hand some customers might need their gifts urgently and are willing to pay more. When customers have a choice and understand the available shipping options, there’s less room for disappointment. This can lead to fewer customer service inquiries about shipping delays or unexpected costs.
f. Offer Shipping Insurance
Customers feel more confident buying expensive or fragile items if they know they’re insured. The downside is it costs extra, so decide if it’s worth it based on the item’s value. You can choose to include it in the price, make it optional, or not offer it at all. Just be clear about your policy so there are no surprises.
5. Plan Smart Holiday Marketing and Deals
Adopt Promotional Strategies
Use gift cards, free gift wrapping, or limited-time offers to engage customers. Connie Wong from Silk Software notes that promotions like free shipping and holiday deals are big incentives for shoppers. A study by the National Retail Federation (NRF) found that gift cards are consistently a top gift choice for consumers, with billions of dollars spent annually on them in the US alone.
Plan for Contests and Giveaways
Run holiday contests and giveaways to increase engagement and sales. For example, on Instagram, you can post a product picture and hold a contest where people comment about their favourite part of the holiday to win the product.
As for ecommerce brands that have successfully implemented this strategy, Shopify Plus merchants recorded over $7.5 billion in gross merchandise value during a four-day holiday shopping season, partly due to their innovative marketing strategies, which likely included contests and giveaways. Another example is Happy Hippo, which used Shopify Audiences to find new customers and reported that 23% of its total sales came from new-to-brand customers during its campaign.
Reach Your Customers on Social Media
Use Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter to promote deals and discounts. Be unique and creative to catch consumers’ attention. For example, frequently use product tags on Instagram to create more shoppable posts.
Leverage Paid Advertising
Organic traffic is valuable, but paid advertising can boost your brand in a crowded market. Connie Wong advises allocating more budget to paid advertising during the holidays for better results.
Plan Your Email Strategy
Send promotional emails early to capture customer attention. Use automated emails to inform customers about holiday sales. Experts suggest clear subject lines and collecting email addresses and phone numbers for effective email and SMS campaigns.