For many people, the holiday season is a time to relax, eat, drink, and enjoy. However, this time becomes the most important three months out of the year for business owners. According to Deloitte, retail holiday sales will increase between 3.5% and 4.6% in 2023, and with that, holiday sales for e-commerce are expected to surge three times as fast, between 10.3% and 12.8%. The stakes are high, and the opportunities are immense.
As we delve into this comprehensive guide holiday sales guide, you’ll gain access to insights, tactics, and strategies that will accelerate your sales and optimize your business processes during the holiday seasons. It is essential to go beyond sales and create an exceptional shopping experience, optimizing your business and leveraging data to elevate your brand. Get ready to face the challenges of this competitive market and give yourself the tools you need to beat the others this holiday sales season.
Supercharging Your E-commerce Website with Tactics and Tech
Data-Driven Website Optimization for Peak Performance
The core tenets of dominating the holiday sales season lie in the meticulous optimization of your e-commerce website. In other words, continuous data-driven testing throughout the year creates the groundwork to ensure peak performance when it matters most.
Advanced data analytics are a key part of a website’s ability to be very personalized.
You can use precise location data to tailor the customer experience, customizing shipping estimates and product availability based on the customer’s location. The idea of crafting personalized and targeted ads remains a staple for running efficient marketing campaigns.
Website speed is not just a convenience—it’s a competitive edge. A key strategy involves a dynamic page that enhances the user experience, mitigates bounce rates, and encourages higher conversions. According to Forbes, 47% of users will abandon a website if it fails to load within 2 seconds, contributing to businesses losing $2.6 billion U.S. dollars each year. Is that a hit you can afford to take?
Likewise, friction can be a conversion killer, especially during checkout on mobile devices. To mitigate this, you can minimize pop-ups and sidebars for mobile users. The idea is to create a streamlined, hassle-free, and even incentivized checkout experience. It also helps to implement pre-filling of customer data to prevent errors and expedite the process.
Once you accomplish that, you can drive traffic to your site through cleverly designed promotions.
Strategic Promotions and Customer Success
Data-driven insights allow businesses to craft compelling promotions that resonate with customers. Many successful companies have been able to guide this buying experience for the customer, from the landing page to checkout.
- Generosity with purpose: Innovative giveaway campaigns with socially conscious twists resonate with the holiday spirit. As it is the season of giving and celebration, more than ever, customers want to feel special and connected with the brands and products they purchase. Macy’s campaign to raise funds for the Make-a-Wish Foundation is an excellent example. It managed to donate $2 million.
- Creating urgency: Cart expiration timers and scheduled, timed sales are leveraged as a psychological tool supported by data. This data is used to develop the FOMO effect among customers, driving participation and increasing conversions. Puma utilized this approach flawlessly, all while using a simple email with a clearly visible deadline.
- First impression retention: Converting first-time buyers into loyal customers is difficult, as users form an opinion within .05 seconds. Etsy does this by providing gift guides for specific occasions, including holidays.
Data-Infused Strategies for Seamless Omnichannel Experience
In today’s e-commerce, many companies use an omnipresent strategy to connect with different audiences across the internet.
Rather than spending resources indiscriminately, it is essential to steer your brand to put efforts where they matter most, and data analytics is the perfect way to do so.
With it, you’ll know where your customers engage and which channels to focus on. The importance of these insights can’t be overstated, especially for small-scale stores that struggle due to a lack of a marketing budget.
You can also utilize data when faced with an abandoned cart. It’s similar to a warm lead—the customer intends to buy but often needs assistance crossing the finish line. In that case, stores can efficiently utilize data-driven email reminders or on-site pop-ups that give a reminder to the prospect. With this additional touch point, you can leave a good impression using witty copy, relevant product suggestions, and a bit of benevolent pressure.
3 Ways to Leverage Technology for Success this Holiday Season
Automate as Much as Possible
Marketing automation tools can not just streamline your marketing efforts but improve the way you handle data and documentation. With the right automation, you can schedule campaigns, send personalized messages, and track campaign performance. These tools save time and ensure that your marketing efforts are data-driven and highly targeted. However, you should first pinpoint which parts of the workflow need automation the most.
For instance, if you’re struggling with reports and invoices in PDFs during the holiday rush, you can integrate a custom React PDF viewer into your project management system (PMS) and automate your documentation for better consistency and accessibility.
In the same vein, you should invest effort into automating your abandoned cart retargeting, as well as social media copywriting, image editing, and anything else that could reduce your operational flexibility during the holidays.
Keep Your Finances in Order
Utilizing automatic invoicing is crucial for businesses during the holiday season, when sales are unpredictable and order volumes are high. The increased traffic and sales often force companies to move quicker and solve complex problems on the fly, constantly working extra hours.
It is vital to find solutions for your team to automate as many processes as possible so you can focus on mitigating issues, emergency restocking, and making sure everything runs smoothly. This is especially important when handling invoices, as it’s easy for things to slip through the cracks, resulting in uncomfortable situations with suppliers, contractors, and, most often, customers.
Always Be Aware of Your Stock
By using an inventory management tool, your business can optimize stock levels, track product movement, and even automate reordering when inventory is low. Appropriately used, this prevents overstocking or understocking issues, reducing costs and maximizing revenue.
However, it’s recommended that you overstock slightly, as it’s better to handle a minute increase than to scramble to acquire the product on short notice. In addition, you can permanently offload unsold products on discount as mystery items discount, further boosting your holiday sales.
Conclusion: Elevate Your E-commerce Game with Data
In the world of e-commerce, the holiday season isn’t just a time of festive cheer; it’s the sales pinnacle of each year. This is your moment for marketing and sales professionals working with e-commerce brands to stand out.
You can achieve unprecedented success during the last 90 days of the year by harnessing data-driven strategies and embracing the best e-commerce technology.
About the Author:
Magnus Eriksen is a copywriter and eCommerce SEO specialist with a Marketing and Brand Management degree. Before he became a copywriter, he worked as a content writer for digital marketing companies like Synlighet AS and Omega Media, where he learned how to do both on-page and technical SEO.
