With the busiest time of the year now approaching, there’s only a few things on an e-commerce manager’s mind – am I ready? Am I doing enough?
You’ll be surprised that the majority will answer – not yet.
The festive season formally kick starts with Cyber Week – Cyber Monday & Black Friday, thanks to our friends across the pond. This new tradition hit Britain in 2010, when Amazon thought it would treat the great people of Britain with Black Friday discounts.
However, it was still quite unheard of. The only thing that came close to Black Friday in Britain was the traditional Boxing Day sales. Why would any e-commerce business hold a sale BEFORE Christmas? Right? That soon changed in 2013 when Asda, which is owned by American retail giant Walmart, held a Black Friday promotion which slashed the prices of a huge range of products including TV’s and laptops – and it sparked an inevitable, violent frenzy.
Fast forward 4 years and has much changed? The in-store frenzy has calmed but online is a new ball game. Online e-commerce platforms need to be prepared. Campaigns need to be ready to go live at midnight, e-mail promotions need to be sent out, stock orders need to be checked, double checked and triple checked so you can cater to demand. And don’t think it stops at Cyber Monday – it’s then a month till Christmas.
Do not be left behind this festive season – here’s a few ideas to help.
1) Countdown to final delivery
This may be one of the most helpful tools to use to let your customers know when the delivery cut-off date is. There is nothing worse than last minute shopping online, finding the perfect gift, ordering it and then receiving an email reply that it will be delivered after the 25th. Great.
Of course, one of the main places to put this kind of countdown would be on your landing pages. But why not let potential customers know from get go? This is where AdWords comes here.
Whilst creating your festive ads type “ { “ into the description like below…
Then, fill in the information and hey presto, here is your countdown ad with whatever text you wish!
2) SEO SEO SEO
Now it may seem obvious, but SEO is very beneficial when it comes to ranking for Christmas. However, start early. SEO takes time, so if you want to rank well in December start 6 months prior or even earlier.
Place Christmas keywords in Meta descriptions and be sure you have content on your site that matches with terms your customers are likely to search for.
3) Make an online Advent Calendar
The Advent calendar is one of the most popular Christmas traditions. So why not incorporate this world wide festive favourite onto your site? The present day world is digitally driven. More and more customers turn to the comfort of their lounge to buy their goods and look for services so it is essential to keep up with competitors.
An online Advent Calendar is the perfect way to give a little extra to your current and new customers this Christmas. It allows you to get creative, generate new sales, boost social media engagement, and grow your email subscribers and so much more.
– Boost engagement on social media
Get the memento of your Advent Calendar going by promoting the start date on social media. If you hold any competitions during its duration, be sure to announce the winner by tagging them on a platform. Not only does this increase your reach but it also gives a lovely, personal approach to your campaign.
– Generate more sales
Offering customers discounts, free items with purchases and or any other general perks will no doubt increase your sales for the advent calendar’s duration. Be sure to offer January discounts too to bring those customers back after the New Year!
– More email subscribers
To claim prizes and offers ensure you require the customer to send through their email. The more emails you have for the future the more sales!
4) 12 Days of Christmas Promotion
Similar to the online advent calendar, a 12 Days of Christmas promotion is a perfect sales strategy for the holidays. Christmas is all about giving. And what do customers need to do in order to give? They buy. And they do not stop all month.
We’re talking gifts ideas, gift shops, cheap gifts, expensive gifts, gifts for him and gifts for her. It’s all about the gifts.
So, what is it?
A 12 day holiday marketing event is where each day you reveal a surprise new sale item or giveaway winner. It builds excitement and anticipation, plus gives customers a reason to visit your shop each day. And once they’re on your shop page, they may check out with that item – or more.
Prior to the giveaway event, you would reveal what items are included, how many winners there will be each day and so on. Customers would sign up for a chance to win any of the daily giveaway prizes.
This not only grows your email subscriptions, but also boost Christmas momentum and fantastic brand personality.
5) Make Sure You Have Top Notch Photography
Without working with a commercial photographer you’ll struggle to have the Christmas themed imagery that will deliver the results you need to see from your Christmas digital marketing activity!