Analysts widely expect this year’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday to break the record again. From Friday November 28 through Monday December 1, retailers should see double-digit increases in online sales over the same period last year. The giants in retail are well-positioned to take advantage of this surge in traffic and sales, but the small and nimble ecommerce merchants will not sit on the sidelines. In the time it takes to put up the Christmas tree, every e-retailer can get ready for the most important ecommerce days of the year. Here are just a few tips for this week.
1. Show your holiday spirit
It wouldn’t be the holidays without glittering lights, boughs of holly and Rudolph’s red nose. Brick and mortar stores start their Christmas displays in early November. You don’t want to be the one house in the neighborhood with no holiday lights. Be sure to add a little sparkle to your online store. Even a simple Santa hat on the store logo or a bough of holly on the homepage banner says to visitors… this is a destination for holiday shopping! Be sure to announce your holiday promotions and consider dedicating a full landing page to your holiday offers. Now is also the time to really showcase your products with colorful photos. Help your customers see those terrific gift ideas in your online store.
2. Deck the products
Small, but important updates to the product catalog can make a big difference for holiday shoppers. A gift guide should be one of the first tools you put together as you prepare for the holiday rush. This will certainly help your customers to find the perfect gift for Mom, Dad and the whole family. Think about the products that will make the best gifts this holiday season and showcase them with holiday-inspired product descriptions. This will help your shoppers to see your products in a holiday context and make faster gift selections. For the most popular items in your catalog, be sure to suggest complementary gifts. In fact, bundled products encourage even more purchases by taking the guesswork out of gift giving so don’t hesitate to create gift baskets for those complimentary products.
3. Oh Ship
There’s nothing worse than being caught short-handed when you’re in the middle of the holiday rush. To prepare for increased shipments of your products, be sure to stock up on bestselling inventory, shipping materials and office supplies ahead of time. Look for ways to optimize your packing and shipping process this holiday season. For example, you can speed-up order processing by pre-packing your best-sellers. You can also encourage earlier holiday shipping by offering specials. Here are some shipping specials that work:
• Free shipping on orders, over a certain value
• Same day shipping
• Flat-rate shipping
• Free returns
Be sure to advertise these shipping specials throughout your website and social channels with eye-catching banners and coupon codes. Last, but not least… don’t forget to factor-in time for quality checks on those shipments. You don’t want customers remembering you for the incorrect or damaged gift they received just before the holidays!
4. November is the new January
Did you see an advertisement for Christmas deals in your local department store – in November? Yes, you did. Each year those holiday sales start earlier and earlier because, simply stated, they work so well. Here are some holiday promotions that will get your site visitors buying this holiday season.
Doorbusters
Doorbusters is a marketing strategy employed by brick-and-mortar stores. The strategy is to promote special offers for short periods of time. You can offer larger discounts earlier in the day and decrease the sale as the day progresses. For example, orders completed before 8:00AM receive a 30% discount, 8:01AM-10:00AM 25%, and after 10:00AM 20%. It’s an effective way to drive customers to your site early, before they have the chance to shop somewhere else.
Cross-selling and upselling
Two classic marketing strategies, cross-selling and upselling will certainly help to boost sales. Cross-selling encourages customers to buy more products by suggesting complimentary, but non-competing items. For example, if your shop sells gourmet cheese, use a ‘customers also bought’ section to suggest the best bread to go with the cheese. Upselling persuades customers to spend more money by adding features to the same product. Using the same cheese example, you can upsell the gift basket which includes a nice collection of food and wine.
Flash sales
Flash sales is a promotional tactic that can be very effective at the holidays. People will often comparison shop or wait until the last minute to choose gifts. If you offer a flash sale, where a set of products are promoted for a limited period of time and then withdrawn, this creates urgency and deadlines. It will encourage your customers to make their purchasing decisions quickly instead of leaving the site with unpurchased products in a shopping cart.
5. Eggnog and email marketing
Like a strong glass of eggnog, email marketing can be your friend and your foe. You want to stay connected to your customers this holiday season, but you don’t want them to get tired of seeing your logo in their inbox. Or worse yet, they unsubscribe from your updates entirely. So what’s the right answer? Think about how your business can be a partner in holiday happiness and not just another online store. Be part of the solution, and not part of the problem. Schedule email campaigns to coincide with your holiday promotions and major seasonal milestones, but avoid saturating your subscribers with pointless emails.
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(Source from prestashop.com. Read the original article here)
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