7 Must Try Tips to Keep Your E-Commerce Sales Hot This Holiday Season

The holiday countdown has just begun and as the festive mood gathers momentum, people start going on the shopping binge. The soaring number of people opting for online shopping in holidays is simply incredible. This is the great opportunity for e-commerce companies to boost their sales.

If you are eying for making most of this shopping season rage, you might as well get prepared to attract your prospects toward your online storefront. Make this season celebrations a win-win manifesto for you and your customers. However, the reality is you are not alone in this shopping carnival; your competitors must also be strategizing to take full advantage of this.  So how are you planning to increase your online sales?

Here are some great tips for you:

1: Make sure your site is ready with holiday theme

Your website and its landing page are very crucial points of contact with your customers. Give them the reason that you are equally excited about welcoming as well as serving them. Spruce up the look and feel of your store so that people take you seriously and that you mean business when it comes to advertising your products. Being in the same holiday spirit as your customers are will encourage them to shop with you. During holidays, customers expect that you have something unique and enchanting holiday collection products for them that can provide a good value for their money. You need to focus on visual design and aesthetics according to the coming festival, for example, Black Friday, Christmas, New Year. You can use small, simple festive elements with a campaign that can attract families.

2.Provide a great mobile experience

With a precipitous growth in mobile devices in recent years, online shopping has reached to unprecedented levels. Smartphones and tablets are the biggest drivers of e-commerce today. In light of this, holiday season will witness an added effect for e-commerce traffic from mobile devices. So your website should be highly mobile responsive, for you need to engage more with mobile users. An Econsultancy report throws light on the importance of growing mobile experience. The report says, 62% companies with a mobile responsive website see an increase in their sales as compared to companies with desktop-only websites. A seamless mobile experience will provide a frictionless and easy way for your customers to make purchases.

3. Reduce cart abandonment by giving discounts and offers

Cart abandonment is one of the most annoying things you might come across on your site. Even if your products are resonating with your buyers, but you have no idea what stopped them from making the purchase. This is the high time to figure it out and respond to it immediately. You need to consider whether the checkout process is confusing, or the cost of shipping is discouraging for them.

To prevent the abandonment from happening, ensure that your shipping costs are transparent throughout the buying journey of the customers. Forcing your customers to create an account could be counterproductive because it makes the purchase process longer. Just make your checkout process short and seamless.  It is also true that most of the customers visiting your store for the first time don’t make purchase. But you can lure them back by giving discounts and sending festive sales offers to their selected items.

4. Create holiday themed content

Holiday season is the time for sharing and caring, so spread some euphoria with holiday-themed content. The content specially curated for holiday would be a perfect way to add a festive touch to your messaging. On the other side, customers appreciate when they see brands are putting efforts to add holiday fun and joy to their marketing communications. A study by Infogroup found that emails featuring Black Friday themed content generated a 33% higher conversion rate than business as usual (BAU) messages.  There are many ways to leverage themed content. One of the effective ways is to host an online photo submission contest, where customers can show off their creativity and have some fun together. Another way to engage your customers is by posting holiday decorating tips, or how-to videos to celebrate different festivals.

5. Provide fast and free shipping

Nothing can give your customers an instant gratification than offering them same-day deliveries at their doorsteps. This is the one area in which brick-and-mortar stores have a distinct advantage over online stores. In fact, instant delivery is one of the topmost reasons why people still live to shop at physical stores. Therefore if you convince your prospects to provide a lightning fast delivery, they’ll shop more at your site especially during the holiday season. Another way of keeping up your sales momentum is to offer free shipping to your prospects. Shipping costs are among the top reasons why customers abandon the cart because they essentially want to save money that is spent while physically going somewhere for shopping. So keeping in mind the holiday season competition, free shipping will keep your floating. If you don’t offer free delivery while your competitors do, your sales are at risk!

 

6.Hassle-free return policy

You need to incorporate a hassle-free return policy for your customers if in case they don’t find a product fit for their needs. This is how customer experience works. An excellent customer experience is very important for generating e-commerce sales. If customers get a sense that you care for their benefits as well then they will keep coming to your store. A 2016 consumer survey from Shippo, a shipping application-programming-interface firm, found that 87% of respondents believed that free returns were an important part of their ecommerce buying decision. Thus, the more hassle free your return policy is, the more secure shoppers will feel when making a purchase from your online store. If the return rates are higher for your store, you can give more info about the product as possible, including lots of product shots, and detailed product descriptions. This will help customers better arrive at a conclusion whether to buy the product or not.

7. Use social media ads to engage prospects

Social media advertising is an effective way to target audiences on specific networks through demographic information so targeted consumers can see your brand in their feeds. The way social media is becoming popular among masses, no business owner can undermine its significance for generating sales, especially during holiday season. For example, Facebook can be used to engage with prospects who have been liking your products for a long time but haven’t yet purchased any of them. Optimizing your Facebook ad campaigns will truly engage your most important leads. Another platform to leverage at this instant is Instagram. Visual content is not only treated more favourably on Instagram algorithm, but it’s also more likely to be shared and remembered than written content. Also you need to factor in the relevancy of your ads. If they aren’t relevant to your audience, you are wasting your time.

 

Final Words

With the arrival of festive holiday season, people start flocking to offline as well online stores. Since majority of people are shopping from the comfort of their cosy homes, e-commerce stores have a lot to offer to them. You have to strategize your plans and make smart moves so that you can clinch last minutes sales.