Whether you like it or not, the hustle and bustle of the holiday season has landed and with it the bet that online sales this year are bigger than ever before is reaching fruition. If someone can avoid having to join the manic outdoor pace of the season in the midst of all their other daily issues, they most certainly would.
The fact that online devices including mobile ones are enabling sales to be made remotely along with free delivery options being available from most retailers, there is no doubt that more people are going to be making their holiday purchases like couch potatoes during the season.
The bad news is that you are not the only one who is in the know of this fact and many other retailers will be appealing for more ecommerce sales during the holidays. This means you need to be that much smarter at how you approach your remote holiday sales options with your audiences.
One thing you could have done is be the early bird and let your audiences know well ahead of time that this option is available so that they are prepared to be shopping from home thanks to you offering them this option first. You could have even created a stay at home Christmas sale in October for the early bird segment who get their shopping done well in advance.
If you haven’t done this, another way to be able to maximize on this at a late stage is to target the last minute shoppers. Imagine this scenario: it’s 23rd December and Lucy is about to hit the panic button because her work has kept her too busy to find time to do any shopping.
Why not send an email first thing in the morning on the 24th that will calm her fears and let her know she can sort it all out by visiting your website with her credit or debit card? What’s more, if you can couple this with a powerful incentive like a Christmas Eve Only discount coupon, you’re sure to rake in those last minute holiday sales.
This same theory also applies to New Year sales because not everyone gives gifts for Christmas but don’t want to miss out on the end of year sales. What’s more New Year gift giving is not a new idea and capitalizing on it to generate new ecommerce sales will only serve to benefit you.
Ideally you should also keep these plans in mind for your next holiday season by having a season-specific activity/content calendar in place that will enable you to apply all these holiday sales strategies that will enable you to increase your online sales and reduce your in-store queuing in no time.