The holidays are right around the corner and it’s time to start thinking about optimizing your online retail and e-commerce experience for your customers. Forrester sees online retail growing 18.5% this year, meaning it would reach 20.2% overall penetration in North America.
Retailers routinely rely on the holiday season to make up their annual revenue. This year has brought forth many changes in consumer shopping habits, but businesses can still expect a boom in holiday shopping. It’s never too early to begin preparations, so put on some Mariah Carey and let's walk through our checklist.
There's No Place Like Home for the Holidays
In the wake of COVID-19, consumers will be forgoing travel, vacation and dining experiences, leaving them money to spend as the holidays approach. Plus, since they likely won’t be able to visit family or friends, people are likely to substitute with gift-giving to make up for not being able to spend time together.
Online retail will likely take the brunt of holiday shopping for consumers, Salesforce predicts up to 30% of global retail sales will be made through digital channels this upcoming holiday season.
During the beginning of the pandemic, retailers experienced holiday-like traffic levels due to consumers switching to buying things online rather than shopping in person. During the actual holiday season these levels are likely to stick around. To ensure your business is prepared here are a few tips:
Check with your hosting provider to see if your website is prepared to handle extra holiday traffic? An increase in visitors may require you to invest in more server space. Whether you’re using a normal hosting service or a content delivery network, talk to your provider about upgrading your plan to meet your new data needs.
Also be sure to test your site for mobile use. If your customers are trying to keep their holiday gifts secret, then there’s a good chance they will be shopping on a mobile phone. Check your site for compatibility with as many mobile devices as possible. Make sure that the pages look good, are easy to use, and load quickly.
Optimize Your Advertising with Holiday Promotions
The holiday season presents a simple opportunity for your business to customize your sales and marketing specific to a certain holiday in order to increase enthusiasm with your customers. Consider offering seasonal services such as gift-wrapping, free shipping and holiday gift cards.
You can also plan holiday contests and giveaways. In person events are obviously not as much of an option this year, but social media contests and virtual gatherings are a great way to keep your customers energized and engaged with your brand.
Not Sure Where To Start?
Here’s a free buyer persona worksheet to help you identify your target clients so your marketing can be more effective.
Measure the Success of Your Holiday Campaign
As always, one of the biggest values to your business is keeping track of your marketing and sales metrics for these holiday events. Have goals and KPIs for your business’s holiday season. Numbers and data don’t mean much until you translate them into insights about what’s working and what’s not.
Evaluate the data from your initiatives this year and use them to influence your 2021 goals. It’s never too early to start making those new year resolutions for your business. Take note of what you learned and reflect on your growth and new opportunities.
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