Chris Christoff — August 30, 2019 The air is getting a chill; leaves are falling. Autumn is fast approaching and winter isn’t far behind. For business owners, winter means holiday season shopping. Shoppers love this time of the year, and the stats show it. According to eMarketer, holiday spending in 2018 resulted in 998.32 billion dollars spent. Additionally, eCommerce websites spiked 16.7 percent.
It’s easier than ever to create an online store. As a result, business owners struggle to reach their target audience during the holiday season. The noise from other companies can make it challenging to get your marketing material to consumers.
We are going to take a look at several ways you can increase your sales this holiday season with your analytics, marketing, and customer service.
Review Your Analytics
One of the best ways to ensure a successful holiday season is by examining your holiday trends from last year. You should look at your Google Analytics data as well as sales reports for common patterns during that period.
For example, if you notice that one product was so in-demand last year that you almost ran out, anticipate whether you’ll need to have additional stock on hand this year. You’ll want to consider new items you’ve added to your inventory over the year too. If a new product has cut into the sales of a similar item in your store, you may have to order less stock during the holiday season.
Your analytics data can help you determine areas of opportunity you missed out on last time. If consumers were frequently looking for bundled products or something discontinued, you could adjust your marketing strategy accordingly by putting out a limited time rerelease or bundle offer.
Create Diverse Marketing Material
Winter shoppers often venture beyond their shopping comfort zone when looking for gifts or a good deal. They are willing to try new businesses if the opportunity arises. It’s your job to get marketing material in front of these consumers, so they know your brand exists.
There are plenty of ways to market for the holiday season, but we suggest creating various ad campaigns for maximum exposure. Start by creating social media ads that target your target audience. Use techniques such as ‘Fear of Missing Out’ (FOMO) to inspire consumers on the fence to visit your website. Create a limited time offer that appeals to customers who are at the top of your sales funnel, or new to the industry. For example, a limited-time special on one of your top-selling products would convince some consumers to become customers.
You’ll want to target your email subscribers before your promotions that go live. There’s a chance that a portion of your email list has been unresponsive, and a holiday promotion is a great way to get them to engage with your brand again.
Prepare Your Customer Service Team
Ecommerce brands need a reliable customer support team to make it through the holiday season with high sales. New customers are more likely to have questions about billing, while browsing consumers may need more information before making a purchase. Your support team resolves problems and concerns, as well as navigates consumers through your sales funnel.
Due to the additional workload during the holidays, employees can become stressed, which results in poor customer service and decreased sales. You can lighten your employee’s workload by adding chatbots to your website to help with basic questions. This tactic will free up your support team so they can help customers with complex problems that require human intervention.
Additionally, you’re going to want to take a look at your checkout process and user registration forms to make sure everything is functioning properly. If all of your pages and forms are working, this will reduce the workload on your customer support staff, which results in improved satisfaction and sales.
Conclusion
Ecommerce storefronts are more popular now than ever before. There’s an evergrowing market of products and businesses for consumers. If you’re thinking about selling your product online this year, make sure you take advantage of the various big-ticket days like Black Friday and Cyber Monday. These days are responsible for a large chunk of the overall eCommerce sales during that quarter.
Holiday sales went up 5.6 percent from 2017 to 2018, and it’s estimated that this percentage will rise in 2019. Make sure you’re ready this year by analyzing your analytics, marketing campaigns, and customer service team.
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