Sales season is here and this is a chance to boost your sales numbers. There are a number of sales days at the end of the year. This is due to the fact that there is so much shopping to do for gifts, parties, personal use, decorations, and so on.
From late October to December and into the new year is a peak season for e-commerce stores. To garner maximum sales for the season and increase average order value, you need to position your Shopify store to reach these goals.
There are many ways you can nudge and influence your visitors or customers to buy an item during this season. Online shoppers often don’t know what gift items they want to buy when it comes to gifts. You can suggest ideas on their behalf and promote them. This way you have made shopping easy for them and also added one sales unit to your store.
Table Of Content
1. What is Holiday Marketing?
2. Tips to Prepare Your Shopify Store For Holiday Sales.
– Plan Your Activities
– Holiday Promotions
– Social Media Campaign
– Return and Refund Policy
– Inventory
– Mobile Fit Website
– Get Your Store Ready
– Know The Channel That Drives Sales
– Customer Service
– Post-Holiday Sales Analysis
What is Holiday Marketing?
Holiday marketing involves any and all marketing strategies geared toward increasing sales and customers for your Shopify store during the year’s biggest sales event.
In this case, you are promoting your store and the services you offer to influence visitors or potential buyers to buy from you. These usually include a number of deals and offers that encourage customers to increase their average order value.
The holiday season is a lucrative time to gain new customers and increase your sales numbers. The type of product that you sell during this period is a determinant of how much sales you will be getting for your Shopify store.
In this article, there is a highlight of 10 tips to help you prepare for holiday sales.
Tips to Prepare Your Shopify Store For Holiday Sales.
1. Plan Your Activities
Holiday sales are an important part of the e-commerce journey. It is the customer’s chance to grab certain items since most stores would have offers running for their products.
That is why as a store owner you need to map out how to get your customers to increase their average order value which in turn increases your sales.
When this time comes, the retailer will need to decide how to handle the sales that will come in during this period which include shipping and order fulfillment.
Planning for holiday sales should cover for which products will be carrying the offer tag, and how much discount are you going to attach to each product.
Black Friday Cyber Monday (BFCM) 2022: How To Increase Sales Incredibly
2. Holiday Promotions
Offering promotions related to the holiday season is a way to improve your store’s reputation and sales. Marketing strategies like discounts and offers are crucial when this sales event is approaching.
Promotional offers also help some customers to decide on what to buy. Having your products advertised can influence your visitors or target audience to buy. The ads for this period should relate to the sales events we have scheduled for that period.
For example, during Christmas, we can have special ads showing that the store is ready to celebrate Christmas. The same thing applies to Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and other sales days.
3. Social Media Campaign
Social media is a sales point for online shoppers. Traffic from social media pages can be drawn to your store. Social media platforms give the customer the opportunity to display shoppable products from their website to their Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter account.
Small businesses especially benefit from such sales strategy. Gaining popularity on social media helps you increase awareness of the brand. This introduces your store to potential customers.
Keep in mind all your marketing strategies are to boost sales for the holiday periods. That is why your content especially for social media ads should be time specific and relatable to the season.
4. Return and Refund Policy
Have a return policy in place when preparing for holiday sales. There will be cases where customers might not be satisfied with a product or have a change of mind about buying the item and would want to return it.
The conditions under which a bought item can be returned and how the refund is handled need to be clearly stated. This will help customers to trust you better when they can understand your process.
E-commerce Fulfillment Services And How To Choose One
5. Inventory
This cannot be overstated. It is important that your inventory or supply source for your products is readily available to meet the needs of your customers this season. You can use product analysis to determine what product is appropriate for promotion during the holiday season.
This is the time of year when demand during this sales season is unpredictable. Therefore, it’s essential to have a supplier who can cover the sales gap or inventory that can meet that excess demand.
6. Mobile Fit Website
As an e-commerce merchant using a platform like Shopify, you barely have any issues when it comes to site speed since this is backed by the Shopify server which is enough to handle the sales event.
For holiday sales, many shoppers shop on the go or while in a hurry. Less than 30% wait to order an item using their desktops. They find it easy to order and check out products using mobile phones. That is why you need to make your website mobile-friendly.
7. Get Your Store Ready
Getting your store prepared for holiday sales days before the sales begin gives you the chance to make the necessary announcements about your store and the deals you are offering.
When it comes to holiday sales, you should not wait until rush hour before you get your store ready to take a share of the sales for this period. 50% of Shopify store owners prepared months ahead for holiday sales and this gave an increase in their yearly sales for 2021.
8. Know The Channel That Drives Sales
Having an analysis to know which channel brings you the most customers and doubling down on it to record skyrocketing sales is the way to go when planning for holiday sales.
As an e-commerce store, it is expected that you run a social media replica of your website so as to give your products the chance of being promoted. Sometimes, your traffic source might be social media sites, Google ads, and other e-commerce marketing platforms.
9. Customer Service
Customer support journey begins the moment a visitor lands on your store’s page. First-timers in your store should find it easy to navigate and when necessary, you can provide a guide that shows them how to navigate the store for full value.
Customer support should be readily available to attend to the questions of customers when they have one. Having a fast and efficient customer service team can help you gain some customers’ trust and build brand loyalty.
10. Post-Holiday Sales Analysis
When every sales event is over, take time and analyze your journey. To figure out what gains your holiday sales brought to your store for the year, count your costs and profits.
Doing this will help you assess the impact of all your marketing activities. Using this method, you’ll know which strategy to emphasize more during the next sales season.
More Resources:
5 Black Friday Cyber Monday Tips For Shopify Store Owners.
Order Management For E-commerce Shopify Store
5 Marketing Strategies To Boost Your Holiday Sales For Your Shopify Store.
