Holidays are an excellent time for both buyers and sellers. The former get discounts and promotional offers, especially on popular products, while the latter – the opportunity to increase revenue and sell off warehouse stocks, getting an excellent bonus to increase turnover. Along with it, demand reaches its highest point long before the Halloween celebrations, Thanksgiving Day, or Christmas holidays themselves. The thing is that many buy gifts for their friends in advance or make impulsive purchases being eager to create a festive mood.
We have collected for you practical tips to increase sales during the holidays. They can be applied not only for online stores but also for other business areas.
Develop Flexibility and Adaptability
It is cost-effective to have in your arsenal some products that, with a little effort, can be adapted to any occasion from birthday gifts to Halloween decorations. Thus, personalized gifts and shops that offer custom engraving or printing services parallel with the sale of products are quite popular now.
For example, 3D crystal photos. ArtPix 3D offers crystals of various types and shapes, which can be given to any holiday. The customer also can choose any image to be engraved on the 3D crystals, so each item is unique. It is convenient to order such crystals online, with shipping across the US.
Research Demand for Your Products
For example, before launching your ad campaigns, research what products and gift ideas are popular this year. Additionally, use Google Trends for this. It is also suitable for analyzing seasonal demand in general. The service will help you determine what products are most often searched for on the eve of a particular holiday (Christmas trends, Halloween ideas, etc.) or compare different products’ popularity.
Based on this, you can place a bid on a specific product and actively advertise it or send it to customers’ email addresses. You can compare the popularity of queries for different regions and use that data to geo target your campaigns.
Make Customers Feel More Comfortable Making a Purchase
Track the Relevance of Information
The thing is about information regarding prices and stock availability. This is especially true for online stores with a large assortment, in which dozens and hundreds of orders are placed daily.
It is unlikely that the buyer will be pleased with the manager’s call, who will tell him that the purchased item is not in stock or that the price has increased by 20%.
Connect a Chatbot
A chatbot connecting with a website or one of the popular online messengers allows a potential client to receive answers to their questions quickly. For example, they may lack some information or be interested in additional questions about payment and delivery.
Watch for Returns
Holiday shopping is often emotional and impulsive, with an average return rate of 10-15% for orders placed during this period. Accordingly, it would help if you thought about making it easier for the buyer to return or replace an item.
For example, you can make return shipping free of charge by including its cost in the product’s price. It will also provide additional space in the warehouse. Thus, you will get higher loyalty from the target audience, and the work with returns will not negatively affect the quality of the online store.
Expand Your Assortment Before the Holidays
Offer Gift Certificates
It is not always easy to choose the best gifts that will please the recipient. Therefore, offering gift certificates of a particular denomination in a beautiful package is an excellent solution that you can offer your customers.
This option is suitable for those who would like to purchase something from an online store but are unsure what to choose.
Create Gift Sets
A simple combination of complementary products in gift sets will be an additional incentive to purchase for the interested buyers.
This works well in the niche of women’s beauty products and accessories, but it can also be adapted to many other topics.
Engage Your Customers
Holiday Mailing
Take care of your email marketing strategy in advance and send the first emails with promotional items or an offer to choose a holiday gift for your subscribers.
You can think over and customize a whole series of messages, each of which will become the conversion source.
Give Presents
Various challenges and contests work well to engage users from different sources to interact with the website or the shop’s social media page.
You can highlight small gifts (like Halloween treats, Christmas tree decorations, or Valentine souvenirs) from your online store’s product range and reward just several users. Still, good coverage of the event will do its job – the recognition of the website will grow, as will the credibility of it.
Work on Content
If your e-commerce site has a blog or mailing, you can use holiday-specific content to grab attention and generate sales. For example, publish a series of articles with headlines like: “What to give your beloved on Valentine’s Days: the best ideas,” “10 best New Year gifts for men,” “Best Halloween parties and celebrations near me,” “What to give for Christmas? Ideas for all time,” and more.
Headlines like these grab attention both on the blog and on the mailing list. And to enhance the effect, you can use seeding in social networks, forums, and other communities.
Finally, we can say that the key to successful sales on holidays is a successful product offer and a guarantee of prompt delivery and quality service. The holidays are a great time to build stronger links with existing and new customers, which will surely pay off in the future.
If you prepare in advance for a period of seasonal growth in demand, you can quickly feel the positive effects of word of mouth as the most effective form of advertising. Satisfied customers will share information about your store with their friends and acquaintances. And, of course, the entrepreneur will be able to increase their profit significantly.
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