The holiday season is to retail what prime time is to television. U.S. retail sales are expected to hit the $1 trillion mark between Thanksgiving and the New Year, encompassing a total of 34 shopping days between November 28 and December 31.
Like brick and mortar retail, online retail also sees its peak at this time. In 2018 it amounted to nearly $120 billion, and that is slated to climb to $136 billion this year.
It is a huge opportunity and happens but once every year. As the owner of an e-commerce store, you cannot afford to ignore making an all-out effort to market your business during this time.
The Essential Holiday Season E-commerce Marketing Tips 2019
Use Holiday Hashtags
The shopping season at this time of the year is particularly amenable to the use of hashtags. Here are some examples of hashtags you can use for each holiday or event:
Christmas Season hashtags – #christmas #xmas #merrychristmas #santa #christmasgifts #holidays #holidaygifts #christmasiscoming can be used liberally in your Instagram , Facebook and Twitter.
Hashtags related to shopping – #christmasmarket #christmasshopping #christmassale #christmasdress #christmaspromotion #alliwantforchristmas
Others related to specific days – #blackfriday #sale #fashion #cybermonday #blackfridaysale #blackfridaysales
Of course, you cannot forget your product. Make sure that they are an active part of your hashtag campaigns too.
Don't forget to use crisp and new images that let you create more content and drive their popularity using hashtags. Try not to use stock images or ones that you have used before.
There must not be a feeling of weariness. Christmas shopping is all about fun, enthusiasm, and new hope. Your content has to capitalize on this vibrancy and be equally upbeat.
Threshold Spend Rewards
Here's the most challenging part of holiday sales for e-commerce businesses: Shipping and handling costs are sky-high as more and more online stores compete for same logistics chain.
How do you offset it? By trying to make sure that your customer spends a minimum amount. Be upfront about the costs, but perhaps say that if they spend a certain amount, they are entitled to discounts.
However, there is a less obvious way to hand out a discount: Unlock a gift coupon for threshold cart value.
After all, the cost of shipping the other product they buy with the coupon is not that much higher since it is packaged together. This is a campaign that works well and can be very easily communicated through social media. Promise something like a gift voucher of $10 for every $50 spent on the site. It effectively means a 20% discount, but the markups are large enough to compensate for it.
It is a matter of consumer psychology. If you offered a 20% discount, few would believe you. Customers would think that the price has been raised and then discounted.
But gifts are not the same as discounts. Gift vouchers make a customer feel appreciated. No matter how small, a gift strikes a chord and generates rapport as well as customer loyalty.
Make Retargeting A Core Strategy
Customer acquisition is expensive. It costs over $150 to acquire one customer. The cost goes up by several multiples during the holiday season since customer attention is vastly more fragmented.
The best way to make sure that your sales and revenue target hit their mark is to pursue your existing customers.
Here are a few strategies for this time of year:
- Study their past buying behavior and create custom deals for them.
- Communicate these deals through a personalized email. It is also possible to use WhatsApp marketing for this.
- Gently remind them of the quality and excellent customer care that they are assured of when they buy from you.
- Give them new products at near cost price for a limited period in the New Year if they purchase in the festive season.
- Offer existing customers loyalty programs.
You also have to consider this from a different perspective. If you do not offer your existing customers a deal they just cannot pass, they may ditch you and end up on new shopping sites.
Email Marketing
You can, at any time of the year, maximize sales by using emails. For every $1 spent they generate $38. And the holiday season is even more conducive to email marketing.
Your customers know that you'll probably be offering exclusive deals and discounts for them. That makes them far more likely to read your emails in November than at any other time of the year.
Of course, the key is personalization. You have to segment your customers based on their age, gender, and location. Each group should have a customized deal from you.
Because they are your existing customers, feel free to provide them with a hefty discount. It will help move inventory and also generate sales. Moreover, due to being grateful, they are likely to mention you on social media, leave positive feedback on peer review sites, and in general, improve the image of your business.
Of course, you have to use demographics for the segmentation but also use new tools that allow you to cater to each segment perfectly.
TikTok Marketing
The world of social media is forever changing, the latest addition being TikTok, with 27 million users in the United States alone. For context, most of these users are in the 16-24 age group.
Marketing using TikTok is still in its nascent stages. The platform allows users to share videos no more than a minute in length. It is somewhat like Instagram, and the similar marketing techniques can be utilized here.
Use hashtags and, if possible, work with influencers. Have them share impressive unboxing videos with splendid packaging.
TikTok also allows you to place advertisements inside the app, much like YouTube.
However, be careful that you play your cards right: If you are too pushy, it is sure to make customers switch their attention to something else. There are too many commercials all around us without TikTok being another medium.
Introduce your customers to your product line up for Christmas and explain the various deals that you are offering. In fact, you could persuade them to try the threshold expenditure mentioned above and win a gift voucher redeemable at your site.
Conclusion
The Yuletide spirit is very much the driving factor behind the season's high purchase volumes. Impulse buying is at an all-time high during Christmas, 60% by some estimates, and it is time that you cashed in on it.
Make sure that you do not promote too much but appear as someone who aims to share the joy of the buyers. Keep the store well-stocked, make abandoned cart recovery a top priority, and get ready to enjoy the best Christmas yet.