HOW TO INCREASE SALES THIS HOLIDAY SEASON - What you should do BEFORE it all starts
←
→
Page content transcription
If your browser does not render page correctly, please read the page content below
A Complete Guide for eCommerce Businesses
HOW TO INCREASE
SALES THIS
HOLIDAY SEASON
What you should do BEFORE it all starts
www.i95Dev.com
Copyright © 2021 i95Dev. All Rights ReservedTable of
Contents
Introduction
Ready Your e-store
Fulfillment
Staff management
Marketing & Sale
www.i95Dev.com | Copyright © 2021 i95Dev. All Rights ReservedIntroduction
The winter is coming. Yes, the holiday season is right around the corner! It’s that time of the year that
everyone looks forward to. Retailers realize their peak sales and shoppers get the best bargains in the
holiday season. That’s the magic of holidays, it’s a win-win scenario for everyone, shoppers and sellers
eCommerce is having a terrific season and is expected to register a 13.7% year on growth by end of
2021. The overall eCommerce sales are expected to reach $908.73 billion.
Holiday sales account for 20-40% of annual revenue for most online retailers. Most B2C retailers
on an average see about 16% increase in first-time customers during the holiday season.
What is a e-tailer’s worst nightmare?
This one’s easy! If we go by the statistics above the worst thing an ecommerce retailer could do is: ‘To be
caught unprepared’ for the holiday surge in sales.
Fail to deliver? Risk being discredited.
The Why:
Opportunity = Huge Risks = Many Reward = Great
You need to have fulfillment, operations, customer support and marketing strategies in place to cater to
this spike in sales. But proper planning and flawless execution can extend gains beyond the holiday
season. It can build a sizeable following of loyal customers with strong lifetime value who drive
long-term sales.
The When:
If you have had a few successful holiday seasons behind you, you probably have the basics covered. But
you could start early and implement the latest campaign ideas and technology hacks for that extra edge
over competition. If you are a growing brand with limited holiday experience start well in advance.
The How:
The 2021 holiday planning guide
Taking stock
You should look at traffic forecasts, fulfillment strategies, sales targets, conversion rates and a lot of other
metrics to assess your readiness for the holiday season. Dig up the reviews from last season and pick up
key insights.
www.i95Dev.com | Copyright © 2021 i95Dev. All Rights ReservedMetrics to Monitor
Metrics to Monitor Subscriber Growth Rate
Percentage of
Conversion Rate Cart Abandonement Rate Mobile Shoppers
Value Per Visit Average Order Size
Key challenges:
1. Ecommerce store
a) Driving traffic: Most retailers run well-planned holiday marketing campaigns
well in advance to attract visitors during the holiday season. But with so much
competition it is difficult to stand out. Since only a small percentage of visits
convert to actual sales, increasing traffic to site is a crucial challenge that
retailers face.
b) Guaranteed up-time: The holiday season witnesses surges in traffic. A sudden spike in transactions
can slow down systems. The holiday season is a busy time and customers prefer not to wait, they simply
complete their purchase elsewhere. Delivering a flawless shopping experience despite traffic surges is a
key challenge for e-tailers.
c) Mobile optimized sites: There is no doubt about it anymore, smartphone shopping is the future of
ecommerce. Global mCommerce revenue is expected to reach $3.56 trillion by end of 2021 – with an
average y-o-y rate of 33.8%. Close to 79% of smartphone users have made a purchase online using their
mobile devices in the first quarter of 2021. The share of mCommerce in all eCommerce is expected to rise
to 72.9% by end of 2021.
All on-site optimization efforts such as getting the home page, product pages and landing pages primed
will be futile if the website is not mobile optimized. Retailers stop at responsiveness and struggle with
getting mobile optimization right.
www.i95Dev.com | Copyright © 2021 i95Dev. All Rights ReservedMetrics to Monitor 2. Fulfillment strategy a) Inventory management: Stocking the right products in right quantities requires careful planning. Running out of products too soon, or failing to deliver orders due to poor inventory management will drive customers away. Getting the inventory gamble right is a difficult challenge for retailers. b) Shipping logistics: Shipping is the tipping point in the holiday retail race. Shipping charges are the most important factor driving purchase decisions. Organizing logistics to ensure timely delivery of orders at affordable prices is a major challenge during the holiday season. 3. Operations a) Returns handling: Returns are a major headache for etailers. Making the returns process simple and bringing down the shipping cost is a tall-order for most retailers. b) Customer service: Holiday shoppers have a lot of queries. Handling the huge volume of queries smooth and quickly is a challenge if you are short staffed. Holiday shoppers are constantly looking out for better deals and are easily poached by competitors. Keeping response times short during the holiday rush is a challenge for most retailers. c) Staffing: The order fulfillment and customer service processes might come under pressure during the holiday season. Employees take off on holidays and leave retailers short staffed in their busiest hour. Preparing contingency plans involves hiring and training temporary staff to handle the fulfillment proces. Dealing with staff shortage is a tough challenge for retailers. 4. Marketing a) Lead generation: Holiday marketing is neither easy nor cheap. Campaigns that stand out amidst the sea of campaigns crowding the marketing space are costly. Targeting the right audience with the right campaigns is a challenge for most e-tailers. b) Campaign ROI: Some channels are better for particular product lines or are frequented by certain target groups. Spreading marketing budget thinly across many channels might fail in the holiday season. Retailers find it difficult to pick the right channels to focus their efforts for earning a good ROI. We have dwelt upon some of the challenges retailers encounter in the holiday season. The challenges differ for each retailer and only a detailed strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) analysis will reveal these. The final step of planning is to define your goals and strategies for the coming www.i95Dev.com | Copyright © 2021 i95Dev. All Rights Reserved
Metrics to Monitor Action plan Once strategies are picked, the actionable items are split into those that can be implemented Before the holiday season. www.i95Dev.com | Copyright © 2021 i95Dev. All Rights Reserved
Before you delve into the details, work out the amount of time and resources you can give your holiday
planning efforts.
Tip: Start early and bring your A-game to the holiday season. A good three
months before the holiday season is what we suggest.
If you are still in doubt, here are a few stats that will get you moving:
Most stores (a good 70% of them) start preparations as early as August. A few enthusiastic retailers
(roughly 20% of them) begun even earlier in June. Only 10% start later than August.
Don’t be a slowcoach, look smart and get cracking on your
holiday sales strategy now!
I. Ready your e-store
1. Responsive ® + Optimized (O) = $$$ ROI
ROI
Mobile devices (tablets and smartphones) account for an ever larger share of the holiday
retail pie each year.
This year, mobile-based sales are predicted to account for 72.9% of the total
eCommerce sales. In fact, for this holiday season exclusively, 59% of
shoppers said they prefer shopping online via mobile devices.
Smartphone buying is only going to go up in the coming
years for two important reasons:
a) More retailers are optimizing mCommerce sites and apps.
Forrester reported around two-thirds of multi-screen consumers began their shopping journey from
their smartphones. Smart phone use is high among instore customers too.
Most instore mobile users use them for price comparisons and those
who do are 40% more likely to complete the purchase.
www.i95Dev.com | Copyright © 2021 i95Dev. All Rights ReservedUnderstand responsive sites are not the same as optimized ones
Analyze differences in mobile and desktop shopping behavior
Understand the reasons and expectations of mobile visitors
Enable faster loading times
According to Google, around half of mobile shoppers expect sites to load in less than 2 seconds and
around 41% of these shoppers jump to competitor’s site after a negative mobile experience.
Simplify the checkout process
Cart abandonment rate increases with every additional step in the checkout funnel
Enable easy social sharing
Mobile shoppers are twice as likely to share content than desktop shoppers
b) Google’s algorithms are now rewarding mobile friendliness
With the rise of mobile traffic in the 2010s, Google began focusing more on mobile
friendliness as a ranking factor in 2015. A year later, mobile-first indexing was
introduced which refers to when Google crawls, and therefore ranks, your
website pages according to the mobile version of that content.
In July 2019, mobile-first indexing became the default for all new websites. As of June 2021, it became
the default for all websites, both old and new.
About 88% mobile shoppers reported negative experiences and were
quick to switch to competitor sites that are optimized.
2. Guarantee up-time
The holiday season will see shoppers flocking to e-commerce sites. Some of this
traffic may head your way and cause a surge in traffic that may slow you down.
If you have faced downtime issues earlier it's best to look for a host that can
scale-up easy and that guarantees uptime.
According to Radware, an application delivery and security provider,
57% of consumers abandon a site that fails to load after 3 seconds.
www.i95Dev.com | Copyright © 2021 i95Dev. All Rights ReservedManaged hosting services that automatically scale storage and offer back-up,
maintenance, monitoring and management services should be considered.
While this will mean you need to spend a little extra, you can be sure of avoiding
downtime and availability issues. Any downtime can set you back a few thousand
dollars in actual sales besides damaging brand reputation. Choose a hosting
provider who provides on-demand resourcing and has the bandwidth to
guarantee up-time in the busiest time of the year.
3. Security
Ensuring secure transactions through your ecommerce site should be high priority.
Hackers are waiting to exploit the holiday season rush to defraud innocent
shoppers. Protect yourself from cyberattacks like Distributed Denial of Service
(DDoS) attacks by investing in a robust security solution. Subscribe to a managed
services provider that monitors your site. The provider will send periodic usage
reports and alerts when improper usage is suspected quickly flagging a
possible breach.
In addition to securing your e-commerce store from possible attacks, this can also help you in improving
conversions. Trust symbols like Verified by VISA or MasterCard SecureCode instil confidence in your
customers and help in improving conversions.
4. Perfect the holiday look
Get a color makeover! A white, red and gold theme will channel the holiday
spirit perfectly to your visitors. Distribute popular holiday markers and THE HOLIDAY
icons tastefully all across the site for extra holiday flair. SEASON
Your holiday bling list:
Cool holiday graphics with holiday greetings for homepage and product pages
Holiday themed add-ons
Holiday themed templates for newsletters and flyers
Holiday themed buy buttons and coupon boxes.
Don’t skimp on the holiday décor, hire a professional designer and pack as much holiday flavor
into your website as possible.
Word of Caution: All of the additional graphics might slow down your site’s
loading time. Factor this in for both desktop and mobile visitors.
www.i95Dev.com | Copyright © 2021 i95Dev. All Rights ReservedII. Fulfillment
What is the one factor that could make or break your efforts this holiday season?
Your fulfillment capabilities are the most important determinant of your holiday sales success. The hassle
of shopping in a crowded mall for holiday gifts first attracted consumers to online shopping. They were
sold onto the convenience that ecommerce offered. Make sure you have a rock solid fulfillment plan to
wow your shoppers this holiday season.
Strategies to streamline order fulfillment this holiday season:
1. Integration: The indispensable factor
The holiday rush can train wreck even the most perfect process pipeline.
If you are relying on a loosely connected or disconnected fulfillment process
to service your holiday orders, you are headed for trouble. Mere increase in
warehousing capacity or fulfillment centers or hiring of temps to shore up
staff numbers will not take you far. Integrating the right systems , more
specifically your e-Commerce and ERP systems, is critical for streamlining
orderfulfilment, minimizing errors and adhering to delivery timelines.
eCommerce and ERP/warehouse management systems need to be integrated well before the holiday
season starts to ensure you don’t oversell and to facilitate faster movement of products.
2. Smart buying
Savvy buyers à smart sellers
To give the best deals this holidays, you have to score the top deals through the
year. Manufacturers and distributors offer special buys at different times of
the year. The prices are significantly lower than the normal wholesale cost at
“buy ins,” “paddle buys,” and “vendor closeouts”.Customers always do price
comparisons before buying. Reach out to your suppliers about such special
buying opportunities. Stocking smart buys will help you offer Cyber Monday
and Black Friday deals that not many of your competitors can match without
slashing margins.
Tip: Keep an eye on your inventory. Loose stock leftover from holiday
season with clearance sales or post-holiday deals and discounts
in Q1 itself. Keeping them on the inventory can restrict
your ability to cash in on special buying opportunities.
www.i95Dev.com | Copyright © 2021 i95Dev. All Rights Reserved3. Anticipate and pe prepared
Look at your last holiday sales data and combine those with forecasts and trend alerts for this season to
anticipate order volumes. Make an inventory arrival schedule and factor in the sale velocity for high
moving items and institute additional cycle counts for those items. Additional cycle counts for fast moving
items will ensure you don’t run out on them.
Better, go for eCommerce ERP integration to automatically track changes in inventory and pull out of
stock items from the site
A few other ways to expedite the order fulfillment process include
Placing top selling items in hot pick zones to enable quicker processing and lower fulfillment time.
Pre-Packing is another great way to save time during the holiday season
4. Manage customer expectations
Offering same-day delivery or expedited shipment is a huge draw for customers Positive
and an easy way for retailers to boost sales. But avoid extending unrealistic Negative
timelines to your holiday customers because an increase in order volumes can
make it difficult to meet expectations. A great customer delivery experience is
necessary to leave a positive impression and encourage repeat purchases from
your holiday customers. If your order volumes have exceeded your best
forecasts take a look at how it can affect order fulfillment. Fulfillment speed and
carrier availability need to be cross-checked to set realistic delivery expectations.
5. Plan for peak days
Data analysis of past holiday seasons can yield information about sales volume
and consumer behavior. Combine this data with current predictions to arrive at
accurate sales forecasts for current season. A deeper analysis of previous data
will also identify the peak day for your company and the reasons behind the
increased sales on the day. Peak day analysis can yield good marketing insights
on which promotional campaigns work and when. Knowing how your sales
correspond to marketing campaigns can inform your fulfillment strategy as well.
Avoiding peak day problems is easy if you set up to scale for the day(s) by setting
up packing lines in place of packing stations and hire additional labor for the day(s) Fulfillment goes
beyond having a perfectly organized warehouse process and also relies on your logistics partnerships.
Even if your logistics planning is flawless, an unforeseen storm can lay waste to your best plans.
www.i95Dev.com | Copyright © 2021 i95Dev. All Rights ReservedTo ensure your fulfillment weathers all storms, here are a few things you can try:
Negotiate strict Service Level Agreements (SLAs) with your logistics partners.
Check the amount of time add-ons like holiday packaging, gift-wrapping etc add to normal
fulfillment time
Ask your logistics team for total transparency in shipment tracking and make it available to
your customers.
6. Plan for last minute shipping surge
Carriers ramp up their capabilities for the holiday season, and retailers are careful in setting delivery
expectations, but things may go wrong despite everyone’s best efforts. Bad weather coupled with retailer
over-promises and overcommitted carriers led to the 2013 shipping nightmares.Which is why retailers
must ready backups for unforeseen events including bad weather.
Check your supply-chain for vulnerabilities and have alternatives to switch to in the event of delays.
Flexibility to switch carriers is a great way to protect against shipment delays. Apart from the national
carriers, there are several regional carriers in play that cover smaller geographies but have strong local
presence. Most big retailers are already using regional carriers in the holiday season. Mid and small size
retailers have been slow to sign on regional carriers.
Using local carriers lets small retailers improve customer service by
offering next day delivery options and/or better rates.
If you plan to diversify shipping options, get a multi-carrier shipping
maagement system. These solutions have been around for a while
and generate significant savings (ranging from 25-40%) in shipping
costs. The solution automatically assigns orders based upon the
current pricing, services available and retailer preference. Using a
mix of carriers improves shipping efficiency. The holiday season is
the best time to add more carriers as logistics partners.
7. Flawless customer delivery experience
“ 80% of those who purchase a product consider shipping to be very
important to the overall shopping experience.”
During holidays shipping performance comes under increased scrutiny. Customers pick a shipping
option by balancing the cost with the timing of order receipt. How to enhance the delivery experience? If
the customer wants the product delivered, he chooses the cost and the time of arrival is set to a certain
date range. Allowing customers to track their order is an important convenience. Transparency in
shipment cycle lets both customer service and customer see where the purchase is in the shipment cycle.
www.i95Dev.com | Copyright © 2021 i95Dev. All Rights ReservedBeing able to live-track their order removes uncertainty regarding delivery from the customer’s mind. Even for service executives it helps when contacting the carrier to flag any issues on behalf of the customer. If tracking mechanism is integrated into channels, inventory and order processing systems the data can be used to rate carrier performance. Retailers should improve the customer delivery to provide a superior shopping experience in order to stand out from competitors. 8. Have alternatives Set up alternative delivery options like a) In-store pick up - This is a great option for the holiday season. It is free and immediate; customers can avoid concerns on timely delivery. This is also the best option for last-minute shoppers, who can drive to their nearest store to pick up the order as scheduled. b) Distributed fulfillment - The other important strategy is to set up additional fulfillment centers as backups and also to share the order fulfillment load. Companies can lease spaces under short-term warehousing contracts or stock products with shipping partner’s warehouses to expedite delivery. Alternative delivery options lower fulfillment risks by reducing exposure to carrier delays. Offering click and collect option besides the regular parcel service lets the customer chose the fastest and least expensive way to get products delivered. With in-store pickup retailers save on shipping costs and can offer same day delivery which is difficult with carrier delivery. In-store pickup also opens opportunities for up-selling and cross-selling in physical stores. But implementing in-store pickups and ship-from-store options needs a seamless fulfillment process built on robust inventory and shipping management systems that are integrated with order processing and routing optimization solutions. In such a connected and integrated supplychain each physical store also takes on the role of a mini-warehouse and fulfillment center. If executed well, store level fulfillment can fetch rich dividends improving sales as well as customer experience. www.i95Dev.com | Copyright © 2021 i95Dev. All Rights Reserved
III. Staff management
1. Add more temps
Due to the massive increase in order volumes, like brick-and-mortar retailers’ online retailers too
need more personnel to handle warehouse and customer service operations. Plan ahead to recruit
the requisite number of temporary workers and train them well to deliver a uniform brand experience
to costumers.
2. Staff schedules
The holiday season is when you need all hands on deck, but at least some of
your employees will be on vacation leaving you short-staffed. This can increase
work for the rest of your employees who are already struggling to cope with
the holiday rush. To ensure your staff gets adequate respite to cope with the
holiday frenzy alter staff schedules. Add weekend shifts, second shifts or allow
split shift. Adjust numbers to order volumes and avoid spikes falling on those in
particular shifts.
3. Keep them motivated
What to do to keep your staff energized through the season and later:
a) Be hands-on: Don’t be an absentee owner instead lead from the front. Being
present can also make sure you can act quickly incase problems crop up.
Your main task: Make sure everyone on your team
has what they need to do their job well.
b) Short breaks: Give short breaks throughout the day to let your staff
recoup. Another useful hack to keep them energetic is letting them switch
between tasks like serving customers directly and backroom operations.
Switching them to the backroom for a few hours can provide them a
break from continuous human interaction.
c) Back them: Even if the customer is the king, back your staff if they are
being abused or being treated unreasonably. Set the parameters of
operation and empower them to take their own decisions, stepping in only
when necessary. Teach them to handle difficult customers firmly yet politely.
d) Keep it fun and rewarding: Have fun activities at work that reinforce
the holiday context to keep employee morale high. Orgonize Holiday , dress-up days and fun contests to
create the holiday mood. Reward employees who take on extra shifts or tough shifts with incentives like
gift cards or an afternoon off from work.
www.i95Dev.com | Copyright © 2021 i95Dev. All Rights Reservedc) Back them: Even if the customer is the king, back your staff if they are being abused or being treated
unreasonably. Set the parameters of operation and empower them to take their own decisions, stepping
in only when necessary. Teach them to handle difficult customers firmly yet politely.
d) Keep it fun and rewarding: Have fun activities at work that reinforce the holiday context to keep
employee morale high. Orgonize Holiday , dress-up days and fun contests to create the holiday mood.
Reward employees who take on extra shifts or tough shifts with incentives like gift cards or an afternoon
off from work.
e) Keep going: Don’t wind down and relax as soon as the holiday season ends.
The post-holiday period is going to be just as busy with returns, exchanges,
customers cashing gift cards etc. Make sure your employees are energetic even
in the first half of Q1.
f) Provide self-service: Help your customer support team by having a frequently asked Questions (FAQs)
page for simple questions which do not need phone or chat assistance from a live representative.
IV. Marketing & sales
74% of retailers agreed that 20% or more of their yearly sales happen in the
holiday season, in a survey conducted by channel advisor
What drives the holiday shopping frenzy? Firstly, the holiday season is a
time of celebration and gifting for everyone. Second, retailers reserve
their best deals/promotions for this period. The attractiveness of the
deals has spillover effects and affects purchases before and after the
holiday season. Consumers postpone and pre-pone their buying to
holiday season to capitalize on the amazing deals.Before you clap your
hands in joy, remember that all of this holiday rus will not auto-generate
sales for you, that will need some effort from your end. The holiday
season sees retailers of all sizes unleash marketing campaigns to
attract consumer attention towards their brand and products. In order, to meet your holiday revenue
targets you need to stand out to your customers. And, here are some cool campaign ideas and holiday
strategies that can help you:
www.i95Dev.com | Copyright © 2021 i95Dev. All Rights Reserved1. Plan your participation
The last two months of the year have at least one holiday falling in each week. Pore over the holiday list
and decide which ones you want to focus on. Use insights from the last holiday season to understand
which holidays perform better for you. Plan marketing campaigns and create promotional content for
your most active holidays well ahead. Once the holiday season starts you will be boxed in by the deluge
of orders and have no wriggle room to work on your holiday marketing.
2. SEO optimize your site, generate more inbound leads
72% of customers start their buying journey in the search engine
Optimizing your site to increase its search visibility and ranking is crucial to attract new customers.
Adding meta tags to all the pages and alt text for your images is something you must get onto
immediately if not done already. Check for broken links and fix them. Here are some key actions
you must take:
a) Product pages
Add the products that are going to be part of your black Friday and cyber Monday deals to your catalog
early on. Even if the items would really be available only in the holiday season, getting them on site early
can help in two ways:
It gives search engines time to index each product page.
It is visible to early shoppers.
b) Landing pages
Get your Cyber Monday and Black Friday pages along with exclusives
and promotions pages up early, maybe even months early. Some
savvy retailers like Target keep their cyber Monday page up all through
the year. This move not only gives it a strong search engine presence
but also makes it visible to shoppers who begin to search for cyber
Monday sales as early as July or August.
Think with Google, a digital marketing publication from Google, in its 2014 edition reported that about
29% shoppers began their Christmas purchasing before Halloween that year. It also pointed out that
retailers were aware of this fact and spread their deals throughout the holiday season to cater to early
and late shoppers.
www.i95Dev.com | Copyright © 2021 i95Dev. All Rights Reserved“Not only was consumer interest in Black Friday up [27% year-over-year] from 2012,
but queries relating to the topic also started about a week earlier.”
wrote the think with Google authors
Your landing page can start with something basic and evolve as the
holiday season nears. For starters, add meta tags, a call to action for
sale alerts and hints or previews of what’s to come. After this, slowly
add content to the page as you ramp up your content marketing efforts.
Once the holiday season starts start displaying your deals and discounts.
Don’t forget to offer a Black Friday and Cyber Monday Email Subscription to remind them of deals on
offer after the season starts.
Online search along with email marketing are the main digital pathways through which customers will
come to your portal this holiday season, if the surveys are right. Inbound leads are more likely to
convert too, which is why you must prioritize SEO optimization.
3. Design your campaigns early
a) Begin content marketing early
Content marketing can help attract qualified leads that have higher conversion
rates to your site before and after the big sale days. Video marketing is very
popular right now and should be on your marketing wish list. Also add
how-to-videos or articles for items that are hot that season. Holiday gift
guides or blogs that feature your best deals are also good ways to attract
traffic to your site. Informational
content that helps the consumers’ holiday shopping efforts should be the
goal of your content
marketing efforts. Some of this content could last beyond the season, a
generic post like “what to get my husband for Christmas” might drive
visits for several years.
b) Email marketing
As already mentioned, email marketing maybe the second most effective
means to reach prospective shoppers this season. But email campaigns
have to be designed well in advance. A compelling promotional email will
place your deals favorably to customers using beautiful artwork and copy.
Email marketing can deliver a better ROI than your other marketing efforts.
www.i95Dev.com | Copyright © 2021 i95Dev. All Rights ReservedFor every $1 you spend on emails marketing, you can expect an average return of
$42 (DMA, 2019)
c) Social marketing
A study by NM Incite found that 71% of cus tomers who expe ri ence positive
social care are likely to rec om mend that brand to oth ers, com pared to
19% of cus tomers that receive no response.
Social media is already an important channel for marketing but with
the advent of buy buttons that enable social checkouts it is poised to
dominate your omni-channel retail strategy as well.
Social listening helps deliver superior customer service besides
yielding marketing insights. Have a separate social media desk
as part of your customer support efforts. Social marketing needs
to be a key enabler for sales this holiday season.
4. Reward your loyal customers
Loyalty needs to be recognized and rewarded and the best time to do
it is the holiday season. 75% of shoppers belong to up to 10 loyalty
programs, and 62% of consumers feel that the brands that they’re most
loyal to have not done enough to reward them. Privilege your loyal
customers with previews of offers and let them place advance orders.
This not only helps promote loyalty but also spreads orders to different
time slots avoiding peak loads and making inventory management
and fulfillment easy.
5. Start with your staff
Leverage your employees and their social circles for some extra sales. Build custom promotions and get
your employees to share them with friends and family. To incentivize them reward them for sales that
happen through their reference.
www.i95Dev.com | Copyright © 2021 i95Dev. All Rights Reserved6. Deals & more deals
Don’t reserve all your deals and discounts only for the big sale days, run
daily deals for early bird shoppers and your last-minute customers as well.
This keeps the excitement alive, spreads traffic over more days and boosts
sales. Staggering your deals can encourage repeat purchases and make Deals
inventory and fulfillment process a lot smoother and cheaper. Use
Omni-channel marketing to push your daily deals out to holiday
shoppers through email alerts, push notifications, desktop and
social media alerts
7. Free shipping
Growing customer expectations have made it necessary to offer shipping
perks. A survey conducted in 2010 revealed that 93 percent of respondents
were more likely to buy online if they were offered free shipping. Costs
associated with free shipping can, in fact, be controlled to a certain extent,
which can even help astute online retailers attain margin.
8. Packaging matters
Packaging determines how customers feel about the product. Holiday season is
a busy time and creative gift-wrapping can not only earn you customer gratitude
but also loyalty. Holiday packaging is smart marketing spend because it
increases shareability.
Recent research found that 40% shoppers felt branded packaging would
make them more open to recommending a product to friends
9. Utilize third-party marketplaces
Omni-channel sales is as important as omni-channel marketing. Holiday season is the best time to
explore third-party marketplaces for that extra sales volume. Identify the right marketplace for your
business based on demographics and product portfolio. Third-party marketplaces can add value and
elevate customer experience to a whole new level. There a bunch of other advantages to leveraging
third-party marketplaces:
www.i95Dev.com | Copyright © 2021 i95Dev. All Rights ReservedCool holiday graphics with holiday greetings for homepage and product pages
Inventory listing and management is easy
Increases visibility and brand reputation
Third-party marketplaces are the best place to introduce and promote new products, as they can be
exposed to a large customer base with little effort. All you need for sales success in third-party market-
places is to align the right products with the right marketplace.
Word of caution: Research selling policies of the marketplace carefully
to see how they align with your business policies. Ensure that
customers acquired through third-party platforms get the same
customer experience as your regular customers. Good
customer experience validated by positive reviews can
multiply sales on these platforms
www.i95Dev.com | Copyright © 2021 i95Dev. All Rights Reserved10. Don’t forget the flyers
Flyers and handouts have been marketing staples for decades now. Even after the advent of email and
social media marketing, flyers are still around. Having a pdf flyer in your landing page and emails to
exhibit your cyber Monday and black Friday offers is a good idea. The same flyer or handout can be
published on deal sites to get some additional traffic your way. Customers looking for discount coupons
often land on these sites and advertising costs of these sites are low despite the significant traffic that
they see. Ex: GottaDeal.com
A goal without a plan is just a wish.
If you have high hopes and ambitious targets for this
holiday season, act now! Conduct a complete overhaul of your
e-store as well as fulfillment and marketing departments.
We have covered the most important aspects
that should get your attention in this guide.
Execute a fair number of these ideas to make this
your most successful holiday season ever!
www.i95Dev.com | Copyright © 2021 i95Dev. All Rights ReservedAbout i95Dev
i95Dev is a one-stop-shop for all your customer
experience, eCommerce, and integration needs.
We specialize in designing, developing, and
maintaining B2B / B2C integrated omni-channel
eCommerce solutions.
We are a family of 230+ talented and experienced
professionals and one of the leading systems
New Jersey, USA integrators in supporting complex integrations
with various ERPs, POS, CRM, Accounting, Mobile
and Social Applications.
New York, USA
Texas, USA
Sydney, Australia
Hyderabad, India PROFESSIONAL
info@i95Dev.com
(301) 7607499
www.i95Dev.comYou can also read
