The most important time of the year for retailers is fast approaching! In the U.S. alone, holiday retail sales are expected to increase 4.5 percent from last year’s $658.3 billion. So, how can your business ensure this season will be jolly?
- Put together a marketing schedule.
After you’ve finalized a marketing strategy and determined the tactics and channels you’ll be utilizing, map out a schedule indicating when every eblast, blog, Facebook ad, etc. will be sent out. This will ensure all of your well-thought-out tactics are launched on time and in the smoothest way possible.
- Review the audience your ads are targeting.
Media costs tend to go up after Thanksgiving as retailers ramp up their schedules. In some areas of the United States, advertisers have reported a price increase by as much as 20-30 percent. It is especially important this time of year to focus on who is being targeted by your ads to ensure an ROI with your ad spend.
- Don’t forget your existing customers.
Consider offering current customers early access to sales or personalized promotions based on their purchasing history, and keep them well informed about all of your holiday promotions through email marketing.
- Make checkout easy.
By offering additional online payment options, you’ll convert more visitors to your e-commerce store into customers. If you’re currently only accepting credit cards, consider adding alternative payment methods, including debit cards and Paypal. Some payment processers such as Braintree, Stripe, and Worldpay accept both credit cards and debit cards. However, it may not be clear that both are accepted within your site’s checkout page. It is important that all payment options are clearly listed within your online store.
- Prevent abandoned orders.
During 2016, the average shopping cart abandonment rate during Black Friday-Cyber Monday weekend was a staggering 68.8 percent. One easy way to prevent this from happening in your online store is by setting up transactional eblasts that alert potential customers when they’ve abandoned their shopping cart (i.e., when the customer adds a product to their shopping cart and clicks away from your site, an enticing email will be sent to bring them back to their cart to complete their order).
A Final Thought
Don’t just focus on your marketing strategy or website’s online shopping experience during peak sales times. Consistency is key. Without it, your customers will likely jump ship after the holiday shopping season is over!
