Every retail store faces the same dilemma as the holidays approach – how to offer the right products with the right prices at just the right time. It’s this holiday balancing act that will keep business owners up at night for the next few months. But unlike Santa, whose insomnia spreads joy worldwide, worrying and stressing won’t benefit business owners much. So if you’ve ever wondered what holiday shoppers are actually looking for, here’s the scoop:
Savings
Shoppers love deals any time of the year, but during the holidays savings are even more important because shoppers have more people to buy for. Simply marking prices down won’t attract more business though. The key is to reduce prices strategically and promote these deals through social media channels and to your email list. Short-term sales encourage impulse buying because consumers are afraid of missing out on a great deal, resulting in greater conversion rates and possibly increased average order value (AOV) as well.
Implementing a daily deal strategy is one way to offer limited-time savings but if your ecommerce platform isn’t designed to handle this type of approach, you can run your own short-term promotional codes instead. Generate coupon codes that are only good for 24, 36, or 48-hours and then blast them out to followers and customers.
If your profit margins don’t allow for reduced pricing, shipping discounts are another way to offer savings to customers. You can provide free shipping or upgrade shipping from standard to 2-day or next day at no additional charge. Similarly, you can provide additional items of value for free like gift wrapping or complementary gifts to accompany purchases.
Exclusive Offering
Every season there are must-have items on holiday lists across the nation, especially when it comes to tech products and kids’ toys. The scramble to get these limited-edition or limited-release products can get intense! Obviously not every online store can offer these exclusive products (if they could, there wouldn’t be such demand for them), but even if your company doesn’t have this holiday gold to offer, you can still be in the game.
Instead of offering the products themselves, offer complementary products where available to attract the business of people who were fortunate enough to get one of these coveted products. Alternatively, you can offer substitute products for all of the people who missed out on the originals. Substitute products may not be as desirable as the originals, but they’re sure to attract sales from shoppers who still need to cross some people off their list.
Advice
Some shoppers are in a bind – they need to buy a gift (or several gifts) and they have no idea what to get. Maybe it’s for someone who is hard to shop for like a boss or sister-in-law, or maybe it’s for the person who just seems to have everything already. In these cases, shoppers need help! Most likely, these shoppers spend a lot of time browsing trying to find anything that might fit the bill and asking friends and family for advice. Your business can provide this advice too, as well as links to the products you’re recommending! Gift giving guides and suggestions provide inspiration for these wandering shoppers. They’re also highly shareable, which means that they can go viral and drive substantial traffic to your site.
Timely Delivery
During the holidays timeliness sometimes trumps pricing because shoppers may absolutely need their gifts by a specific date. While telling shoppers when your cut off is for guaranteed shipping by Christmas Day is important, there are other dates that are important to shoppers as well. Someone may need a particular item for an office gift swap or a pre-holiday visit with family, which is why it’s so important to specify your shipping timeframe. Set up a section on your website or expand your FAQ to include important shipping and delivery information like:
With these tips under your belt, get out there are jingle bell rock your way through this holiday season! And if you need any help running your online marketing this year, contact us – we’d love to put our fastidious elves to work on your site!
Kate Pierce is the owner of LionShark Digital Marketing LLC, a West Michigan internet marketing company. Her areas of expertise include Paid Search, Search Engine Optimization, Social Media, Web Consulting for small businesses, Copywriting and Local Online Marketing. She lives in the Grand Rapids area with her husband and enjoys cooking, watching sports and spending time outdoors. Like a true digital marketing expert (i.e. geek), she loves talking about marketing theory and SEM trends… so don’t say you weren’t warned!
Shoppers love deals any time of the year, but during the holidays savings are even more important because shoppers have more people to buy for. Simply marking prices down won’t attract more business though. The key is to reduce prices strategically and promote these deals through social media channels and to your email list. Short-term sales encourage impulse buying because consumers are afraid of missing out on a great deal, resulting in greater conversion rates and possibly increased average order value (AOV) as well.
Implementing a daily deal strategy is one way to offer limited-time savings but if your ecommerce platform isn’t designed to handle this type of approach, you can run your own short-term promotional codes instead. Generate coupon codes that are only good for 24, 36, or 48-hours and then blast them out to followers and customers.
If your profit margins don’t allow for reduced pricing, shipping discounts are another way to offer savings to customers. You can provide free shipping or upgrade shipping from standard to 2-day or next day at no additional charge. Similarly, you can provide additional items of value for free like gift wrapping or complementary gifts to accompany purchases.
Exclusive Offering
Every season there are must-have items on holiday lists across the nation, especially when it comes to tech products and kids’ toys. The scramble to get these limited-edition or limited-release products can get intense! Obviously not every online store can offer these exclusive products (if they could, there wouldn’t be such demand for them), but even if your company doesn’t have this holiday gold to offer, you can still be in the game.
Instead of offering the products themselves, offer complementary products where available to attract the business of people who were fortunate enough to get one of these coveted products. Alternatively, you can offer substitute products for all of the people who missed out on the originals. Substitute products may not be as desirable as the originals, but they’re sure to attract sales from shoppers who still need to cross some people off their list.
Advice
Some shoppers are in a bind – they need to buy a gift (or several gifts) and they have no idea what to get. Maybe it’s for someone who is hard to shop for like a boss or sister-in-law, or maybe it’s for the person who just seems to have everything already. In these cases, shoppers need help! Most likely, these shoppers spend a lot of time browsing trying to find anything that might fit the bill and asking friends and family for advice. Your business can provide this advice too, as well as links to the products you’re recommending! Gift giving guides and suggestions provide inspiration for these wandering shoppers. They’re also highly shareable, which means that they can go viral and drive substantial traffic to your site.
Timely Delivery
During the holidays timeliness sometimes trumps pricing because shoppers may absolutely need their gifts by a specific date. While telling shoppers when your cut off is for guaranteed shipping by Christmas Day is important, there are other dates that are important to shoppers as well. Someone may need a particular item for an office gift swap or a pre-holiday visit with family, which is why it’s so important to specify your shipping timeframe. Set up a section on your website or expand your FAQ to include important shipping and delivery information like:
- Time cut-off for same day shipping
- Delivery windows for various shipping options
- Whether or not a signature will be required at the time of delivery
- Commercial or residential shipping limitations (if applicable)
With these tips under your belt, get out there are jingle bell rock your way through this holiday season! And if you need any help running your online marketing this year, contact us – we’d love to put our fastidious elves to work on your site!
Kate Pierce is the owner of LionShark Digital Marketing LLC, a West Michigan internet marketing company. Her areas of expertise include Paid Search, Search Engine Optimization, Social Media, Web Consulting for small businesses, Copywriting and Local Online Marketing. She lives in the Grand Rapids area with her husband and enjoys cooking, watching sports and spending time outdoors. Like a true digital marketing expert (i.e. geek), she loves talking about marketing theory and SEM trends… so don’t say you weren’t warned!
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