Which leads us to determining your metrics.<\/p>\n
Setting metrics for things like your revenue, average order value, units per transaction, website conversion rate, email open rates, email click rates, email conversion rates, SMS open rates, SMS click rates, SMS conversion rates, and overall email and SMS list growth is just the start.<\/p>\n
In order to increase sales from loyal customers during the holidays, it\u2019s imperative to count how many repeat orders you have and examine their average order value. Ensure the metrics measured are actionable and easy to optimize the performance of your marketing campaigns.<\/p>\n
While measuring the metrics, make sure you include opt-in rates. Test different offers to see where you can get higher opt-in rates. Start building up your engaged segments now so that when the time comes, your engaged segments are large enough to help increase your open rates.<\/p>\n
Collab, collab, collab!<\/h3>\n
During the holiday most buyers love a good collab! This year, figure out your partners and start planning towards increasing your sales through this medium. By supporting and coming together with alike or even complete opposite companies your customers will see how inclusive your business really is.<\/p>\n
Meet with other small businesses & discuss your goals, brainstorm ideas to make them happen, and ensure accountability. Of course for this to successfully happen, you\u2019d have to start planning much earlier than you usually do. Never take lightly how important this holiday is for online stores.<\/p>\n
Keep in mind, monitoring your data is a continuous process. Aside from your employees, your customers are the most important people to your business. There\u2019s nothing more important to your success this holiday than understanding them and their needs.<\/p>\n
Prepare for lots of incoming traffic<\/b><\/h2>\n
Holiday shopping = increased traffic for your online store, especially during peak shopping days.<\/p>\n
One way to successfully plan your online stores for the holidays is to make sure your inventory is stocked. Increased shoppers means increased inventory needs. To avoid long wait times and frustrated customers finding out their must-have gift is out of stock, check in with suppliers now to make sure you\u2019re appropriately stocked, especially for likely gift items.<\/p>\n
During the entire\u00a0BFCM period and the holiday season of 2020<\/a>, online traffic and spending per type of device reached the below figures:<\/p>\n Desktop<\/b>: 37% of traffic, 59% of revenue<\/p>\n Mobile<\/b>: 58% of traffic, 36% of revenue<\/p>\n Tablet<\/b>: 5% of traffic, 5% of revenue<\/p>\n It\u2019s only going up from there. We encourage you to work on speed and security. Your site needs to have the scalability and stability to handle increased demands during this peak season. Make sure your site is up when you need it despite increased levels of traffic.<\/p>\n Evaluating your third-party integrations will have your online store fully prepared for this year\u2019s holiday season. Take a look at your third-party integrations and make sure they\u2019re up to date. Run some tests to ensure they can handle the load and then don\u2019t add any others. Additional or last minute app add-ons can break aspects of your flow or slow down your site.<\/p>\n The 2021 holiday shopping season is going to pose unique challenges for online merchants especially with continued supply chain and distribution disruptions.<\/p>\n If 2021 has taught us anything, it\u2019s how important it is to adapt, managing customer expectations, and creating fail-safe systems around our marketing and business operations.<\/p>\n And sure, these obstacles have presented challenges for you, but they haven\u2019t stopped consumers from shipping. There\u2019s no doubt that eCommerce will continue to grow and take up bigger pieces of the shopping pie. Now is the time to invest in your eCommerce business & ensure your online store is top-tier for every customer to come on and have a smooth shopping experience.<\/p>\n Just as your website is the front door to your brand, social media is oftentimes the first or second location a customer will go to get information about you. To ensure your online store is prepared for the holiday season, cultivate your brand presence on social media.<\/p>\n How? By having posts designed for engagement and interaction from your target audience. You can also create special promotions just for your social media followers to incentivize them to pay attention to your social channels. Plan for holiday contests and giveaways.<\/p>\n For instance, on Instagram you could post giveaways leading up to the holidays. Have your audience comment, share and like! For any that don\u2019t win, provide coupons for your best sales. Not only are you engaging customers and fostering a sense of community around your brand, but you\u2019re also promoting specific products and deals you\u2019ll be running during the holiday seasons.<\/p>\n Creating a hassle-free customer experience is just another successful way to plan your online stores for this year\u2019s holiday season!<\/p>\n Online shoppers live off of convenience. That means getting what they need easily and with as little friction as possible. Your site needs to provide options that are catered to their specific needs and a seamless path to checkout. Here\u2019s some quick tools to use today\u2026<\/p>\n There are too many reasons to count why a customer may leave your website with a shopping cart full of items. Sending them a push notification will remind them of the products they left behind, with a goal of convincing them to make the purchase. Abandoned cart emails have excellent conversion rates as well. Studies have shown, they have a 10.7%\u00a0conversion rate<\/a>.<\/p>\n By offering them shipping insurance, you can ensure they\u2019ll get their order and have a great customer experience. Subscription customers have become customers because of the convenience and value that subscription products have brought to their lives.<\/p>\n Your promotions should take that value-add to the next level, providing them with options to upsell or cross-sell themselves. For new customers, offering a starter pack or even a way to sample your offerings in the first box for a discounted price with shipping insurance will entice your customers.<\/p>\n If you discount a best-seller, try to keep the discount fairly small and the quantities limited so you don\u2019t dilute your brand and condition shoppers to expect discounts.<\/p>\n Leading right into offering gift cards, consider how you can merchandise and promote your products online to attract new customers that traditionally do their seasonal shopping in brick-and-mortar stores for the holiday season.<\/p>\n It doesn\u2019t take a lot of convincing to make a purchase during the holidays, but competitive incentives help to sweeten the deal.\u00a0The three most appealing offers to shoppers are:<\/p>\n Price discounts<\/b><\/p>\n Free shipping<\/b><\/p>\n Buy one get one free<\/b><\/p>\n With the above in mind, it\u2019d be good if we gave some ideas on creative discounts & gift cards right? For all our product-based online stores, a sweet tactic for your new customers would be offering an option to \u201csend a free box\u201d upon checkout. Through this they can easily share their favorite brands with those that they love. This further helps your business with WOM.<\/p>\n Word of mouth is a great tool when used right! Adding gift cards to your loyal customers via email after they\u2019ve purchased or even while they\u2019re checking out can increase your website traffic as well. You want your prices to be at a good rate for your customers to buy but also to gain profit, and what better way than gift cards?<\/p>\n This holiday season, offer your \u2018company\u2019s top 3-themed gift cards\u2019 for the best coffee in town or a great store that gives back to kids through donations just to name a couple. Have it implemented in your email marketing, a quick post on your social media, or even a text to all your loyal customers who\u2019ve signed up to receive SMS from you.<\/p>\n Ever heard of bundling? Allowing your customers to build their own bundled discounts keeps your sales coming in! Look at items that typically sell well together-that could be anything from mix & match, to a planned holiday themed outfit.<\/p>\n Lastly, having an online store doesn\u2019t only have to be on your website. With technology growing and more people willing to buy online, integrating your social media channels like Instagram & Facebook marketplace are wonderful ways to increase sales.<\/p>\n Ensure these discounts are slightly different from your website page\u2019s type so your customers have some variety to choose from. This also offers some competitive prices solely in your company & an opportunity to leverage your different streams to your customers.<\/p>\n Start your discounts a week before the holiday sales on your social media outlets only and provide gift cards to each customer there to buy another limited product on your main page. See the increase in sales and in turn profit.<\/p>\n We can promise you that not one customer wants to have any issues with your site. It\u2019s a hell every online store dreads ever being in.<\/p>\n A prominent way to prepare your online store for the holiday\u2019s would be to create a customer service plan. Implement a dedicated support team behind your store that\u2019s only focus is to care of your customers. The holidays are undoubtedly stressful at times, make sure your customer support team is prepared to handle any questions and concerns, and make information readily available.<\/p>\n Believe it or not, even when something goes wrong, a positive customer support experience can lead to a loyal customer. You should have dedicated support for phone, email, and social media \u2014 and be sure to respond to all inquiries within 24\u201348 hours.<\/p>\n Making your company\u2019s contact information prominent and easy to find takes a major burden off any confused or frustrated customer. Adding the corresponding updated contact info to your website and all order confirmations can enhance a customer\u2019s trust with your store. Creating an FAQ page that offers quick and easy answers can also build trust with new customers. Providing answers to common questions may also lighten the load on your customer service team.<\/p>\nLeverage your social media<\/b><\/h2>\n
![\"holiday](\"https:\/\/www.bookmark.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/2-3.png\")
<\/p>\nSpread holiday cheer through promos and gifts<\/b><\/h2>\n
Enable cart abandonment notifications<\/b><\/h3>\n
Give shoppers peace of mind with shipping insurance<\/b><\/h3>\n
Small and limited<\/b><\/h3>\n
Offer gift cards and certificates<\/b><\/h3>\n
Gift Cards are sweet!<\/h3>\n
BONUS TIP<\/b><\/h2>\n
Optimize the customer experience<\/b><\/h3>\n