The holiday season is approaching, and that means holiday sales. If you’re running a marketplace shop, this is probably the most profitable season of the entire year for you. Preparation is critical, so let’s take a look at some of the most important things you can do to get your business ready for Christmas success.
Nothing says Christmas like decorations. We all love decorating the tree, listening to those classic Christmas carols and eating those delicacies. Your website should be no different. Decorations are a clear message that your shop is in Christmas mode and it usually means bargains.
If you want to embrace the festive spirit, you can create dedicated offers for your shop.
Bear in mind that an informative landing page, adapted for the holiday season, can present your products in a refined way: new possibilities offered by several marketplaces – like the Amazon A+ Enhanced Marketing Content – can really help. Promote your best-sellers here and – don’t forget – be sure to get all the information you need from the marketplaces you use in order to fully evaluate their festive options.
Whether or not your brand participates in a Black Friday or a Cyber Monday sale, it might be a good idea to offer other opportunities for your customers to save money. By offering coupons, or having a “Pre-Black Friday” sale, you can boost sales and build customer loyalty at the same time.
Being sure about the goals of your campaign is fundamental. For example, if you offer technology products, where the margins are traditionally small, you’ll probably want to boost the loyalty of your customers. If you’re lucky enough to enjoy high-profit margins, then running recurrent sales can really help you reach your sales targets. Stay updated with the latest info about your marketplaces’ opportunities.
Buying advertising is like buying everything else: if you start soon, you will enjoy better opportunities. If you want to start a campaign – whether it is on a marketplace (such as a promoted listing), or on a search engine space (like Google Shopping) do not start too late.
Research has shown that shoppers begin to browse for Christmas shopping in October. Here, again, preparation is critical: prepare your budget early and prioritise which campaign is the most profitable for you. Naturally, you tracked all the campaigns you launched last year, right? So, use your campaign insights: they are gold.
In many cases, delivery options can make the difference between making a purchase or leaving the page. Around the holiday season, it is particularly true. Being sure to offer reliable deliveries over Christmas is crucial, and being smart with delivery options can really make you stand out from the crowd.
Buying gifts online is typical – and very convenient – when the recipients live miles away, so offering different specific delivery dates to deliver the gifts at the perfect time can be super attractive to your customers. Highlight that important feature.
Use all the marketing tools you can to ensure you will be seen by the people that actually liked what you sold before. From a data analytics perspective, they can also provide insights: maybe, you have a unique product that a lot of visitors are interested in. You know this because this product is added to shopping carts very often, yet the conversions on this product are low. Start a check-up: are your prices a bit too high? How about deliveries options? Having these insights can be extremely helpful throughout the whole year.
Christmas is a perfect moment to show off your listings and attract new customers that, hopefully, will remain loyal even after the Christmas season.
With holiday offers like Black Friday and Cyber Monday gaining so much popularity in the past few years, many shoppers put themselves at risk of fraud when trying to find a great deal. According to research from Financial Fraud Action UK (FFA UK), 31% of ecommerce buyers are more likely to take this risk during the holiday season if they think they’ve found a bargain. That means about 15 million online shoppers across the UK!
Building up trust is crucial if you want to get that new visitor to convert and complete that sale. We’ve all been there as consumers: we did our research, we found the product we wanted and explored the entire internet to find the best possible price. The problems arise when about to buy a brand (or from a seller) we have never heard of before. Think back to your experience: what did you do? Did you buy it from an unknown shop?
Reviews for your products can really make the difference during the checkout process. Firstly, this can build instant credibility for your brand or products even if you have a few negative reviews. Besides that, research shows that 85% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations.
Secondly, it gives your visitors a reason not to leave your shop. Think about it: if a customer finds an exciting item, but sees no reviews or feedback of any kind on the product page, there’s a good chance they will either Google “the product’s name + reviews”.
The holiday season can bring a lot of benefits to your shop, but you’ll have to take action in advance to see them. Whether you take part in a Christmas promotion, you offer coupons, gather reviews, or all of the above, shoppers are ready to spend money, so make sure your shop is inviting and trustworthy. This will lead to a holly, jolly Christmas for all!
For more tips on getting ready for the holiday sales, check out the Trusted Shops Christmas page for some free whitepapers, including a 44 to-dos before Christmas checklist.
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