Tips on how to make this sales season more successful

What is the most intense period in electronic commerce? Of course, it is the end of the year when Black Friday, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years are approaching. There are some tips on how to increase sales and make the sales season even more successful.

First impressions are half the battle, so start with the décor.

Many merchants ignore Christmas and New Years web design. But it is a big mistake. It is the easiest way to capture the attention of visitors and inform them that this online store is ready for the sales season, so they can look for discounts and special offers. Of course, you can put up a banner, but there are other elements that can support your ideas and create a festive atmosphere:

• Change the background theme of your online store to Winter and Christmas and related images
• Implement positive and festive colors and add animation
• Change your corporate logo and add some winter and Christmas elements in it

It is a great opportunity to make your online store cool and unusual, so don’t miss out.

Start your email marketing on time

Email is the best channel to deliver information to your existing customers. How do you know when is the right time? It depends on the range and type of products in the online store. If you have expensive products and people need to think twice before making a purchase decision, you can start sending an email campaign earlier to groom your leads. But don’t be too soon, because people can put off shopping when they learn of your big Black Friday discounts or other hot deals. There are some tips on what you can use to prepare your email templates:

• Develop the subject line in the email carefully. It should be informative and engaging. Remember that around 33% of recipients open the email based on the subject line only, and 66% of them also mark the email as SPAM after reading only the subject line.
• Add personalization to your messages and try to design it not like an advertisement, but more like a postcard style. Note that emails with personalization in the subject lines have a 26% higher single open rate than emails without personalization.
• Clearly specify the expiration date of the special offer and plan the frequency of sending emails to remember the duration of your offers and discounts. But don’t send too many emails to one recipient.

Prepare gift program

Remember that many people will make purchases for the purpose of buying gifts for family and friends, and it can be a real challenge to make the right decision. Therefore, you can add a special section on your site with gift ideas. It can be an article on your blog or the page for a special gift offer. You can also propose gift certificates for a certain amount of money and in this way, you solve the problem of choosing a gift and you can attract one more new customer.

Start writing about Christmas on your blog a little in advance.

An effective way to make your sales campaign more effective is to start blogging about Christmas, New Years, and gift ideas. You can also expand your content and add other topics such as how to be well prepared for the Christmas and New Years celebration, how to decorate the Christmas table, home design ideas, etc. If there are related products in your store, you can recommend buying them to implement the ideas in life.

Use social media

This is an important communication channel with current and potential customers. It is best to develop and plan this communication program for the entire sales period in advance. News, blog articles, discount information – all these points should be published on social media.

Use different types of discounts for sales promotion.

Discounts are different and have different effects on shopper behavior. The discount program needs to be developed carefully, and another important thing is how you tell a potential customer about your proposal. We recommend paying attention to the following types of discounts:

• Discount as a gift. During the winter holidays, everyone likes gifts and this type of discount should be an option in an online store. It doesn’t really look like a discount, it just provides a gift in response to customer activity, such as making a purchase above a certain amount, online store recommendations, repeat purchase, etc.
• Discounts for regular customers. It is also a “must have” category. Every regular customer needs to know that they have a discount and, furthermore, it should be understood that they are unique. How you inform customers about this is important. Better to send a personal email or SMS.
• Discounts for everyone. Almost all online stores will announce sales, and since users know this, they will compare actual prices. Giving discounts to everyone is a good practice, but it is important to support this campaign with other promotions.
• Unexpected discounts in one day. The unexpected drop in the prices of some products can surprise and stimulate sales. But if a customer made a purchase before and after getting discounted price information, they might be disappointed. This type of discount should be used with care. It can work well for unpopular or out-of-season products.
• Pre-discount. You can offer discounts for prepaid orders.
• Bulk discount. It is also possible if you have enough items in stock.

These are just tips on what you can use. Each type of discount works differently in each business and it is difficult to give one universal advice that works across the board.

Christmas wrapping service

It is also a “must have” option that you must provide. As in the previous cases, you can use this for sales promotion. Many online stores provide decoration / wrapping service for free and this encourages customers to make purchasing decisions.

Provide as many payment options as possible

During the sales period, you will have more buyers and some of them may need not very popular payment methods. You must predict this situation so as not to lose potential customers. We also recommend checking the payment flow. Once again, it is a very busy period for both traders and buyers. A lengthy checkout process that includes multiple pages and many fields that need to be completed can discourage the desire to make a purchase and lead to a large number of abandoned carts. For Magento online store owners, we recommend optimizing the checkout flow with the one-step checkout extension. Also, test this flow carefully.

Offer fast delivery

Again, everyone is busy before Christmas and New Years, and the express delivery service can play a key role in choosing the online store to make a purchase. If you can offer fast, free delivery, it’s a kind of “advanced aerobatics.”

In conclusion, we would like to add that well-developed CRM systems and loyalty programs are very significant competitive advantages during the sales period. If your customers know that they always have the best conditions and service in your store, they will remain loyal even during the period when there are many attractive offers on the market. Take advantage of all the opportunities, there is still enough time to be well prepared for the big sales season.

Have a nice sale!