Bring out the bells; it’s a holiday season
Bring out the bells, it’s a happy time
Ho-Ho-Ho! It’s the happiest time of the year especially if you’re an ecommerce store owner. Your sales will probably increase by 40%; though almost all of you would wish that this percentage would go in triple digits.
To maximize your earning you have to take care of multiple factors. I do not expect you to remember every item on the Holiday Season store prep checklist. However, remember that sometimes a small thing can have a big impact on holiday season revenue.
To make sure that ecommerce store owners do not miss a trick, I decided to go to the influencers and experts of the industry and ask their opinion about the single most important thing that could mar the Holiday Season sales revenue.
The Best Start Is An Early Start
Let’s begin with the first hack for aligning things whether it is the marketing plan or the budget. Experts suggest that you should avoid the last minute rush. According to James Gurd, the owner of Digital Juggler:
One advice? Have a strategy, plan and marketing calendar, align resources and budget with that. No plan, it’s like dust in the wind.
— James Gurd ? ?? (@JamesGurd) September 6, 2017
Adel de Meyer, speaker, mentor and author at The Next Web, added to the discussion:
Start early! People are already searching for specials online to avoid the last minute rush. Get your audience excited & personalisation ?️
— Adel de Meyer (@AdeldMeyer) October 17, 2017
Use High ROI Marketing
You could attract a significant audience to your store. Now, the best option for creating great marketing campaigns is to leverage the power of high ROI marketing such as social media.
So the second hack to hit a homerun this holiday season is to use high ROI marketing tactics, such as gift guides and Facebook ads. Well crafted and well targeted Facebook ads are very beneficial in brand image entrenchment and converting traffic into potential sales.
Jimmy Fritz, CEO of The Wedding Shoppe advised:
I would need to know more about the company. But a good general marketing recommendation right now is properly setup Facebook ads.
— Jimmy Fritz (@jimmyfritz) September 13, 2017
Similarly, James Dillion, Content Manager at Gorilla 360 gave his top tip:
Top qu Sajjad. I’ve actually written an entire ecommerce holiday marketing guide > https://t.co/dcC4kp3FsC 1 simple tip: create gift guides!
— James Dillon (@JD_JamesDillon) October 3, 2017
Adriana Tica, a digital marketer and owner of a digital marketing agency contributed:
#HolidayMarketing tip: forget about vanity metrics (traffic, likes & followers) and embrace ROI-oriented marketing tactics.
— Adriana Tica (@adriana_tica) October 10, 2017
According to Chloe Thomas, speaker and an ecommerce consultant:
Just one! Social proof – on your website and marketing. It will improve conversions. Dm me if you need more!
— Chloe Thomas (@chloe_eCMP) October 10, 2017
Similarly, Kevin Muldoon, blogger and WordPress fanboy added:
Publish lots of shipping guides months before in order to get ranked during Christmas shopping times.
— Kevin Muldoon (@KevinMuldoon) October 17, 2017
Mike Bryant is responsible for the marketing at Kount Inc. He advised SEO for product images:
Hello Sajjad! Thank you for the follow. eCommerce for Holidays: optimize all product images for SEO and form a fraud prevention plan now.
— Mike Bryant (@MichaelRo22ss) September 12, 2017
Get All Preparations Done Early
Phill Barrett, an ecommerce thought leader, added his two cents about getting the store development work done as early as possible:
Get all dev work done early – focus on promotional & marketing instead
— phil barrett (@phryl) September 9, 2017
So, I decided to get some technical opinions. The experts suggested testing the store early for traffic spikes resistance, setting up retargeting for abandoned carts, and to thoroughly stress test all plugins and the checkout process.
According to David Hoos, marketing lead The Good:
Start doing testing to take advantage of the higher traffic.
— David Hoos ? (@davidhoos) September 22, 2017
Patrick Rauland, a WooCommerce consultant added:
I’d estimate 2X your usual traffic depending on your how aggressively you’re promoting a sale. I’d update all plugins. /1
— Patrick Rauland (@BFTrick) October 11, 2017
You can do a ton of custom stuff. @chrislema wrote about a lot of it here: https://t.co/CwRxc2kbAl 2/2
— Patrick Rauland (@BFTrick) October 11, 2017
Talking about abandoned carts, Beka Rice, an ecommerce expert opined:
Use @jilt to recover abandoned orders 🙂
— Beka Rice (@Beka_Rice) October 16, 2017
On a similar note, Alex Lenashov, a Magento consultant discussed the issue from the perspective of Magento dev:
1. Load test your website and have a plan to scale it up quickly if needed. Best to have auto-scaling.
— Alex Levashov (@LevashovBiz) October 18, 2017
2. Audit your checkout process (better with external consultant like me) and fix the issues found.
— Alex Levashov (@LevashovBiz) October 18, 2017
Be (Technologically) Innovative
Here is what Sam Hurley (#1 Marketing Influencer) has to say about the importance of chatbots for Ecommerce:
Thanks pal! ??? By guiding visitors to discount deals in alignment with their past behaviour, for sure! ???? [Think Amazon. Always!]
— Sam Hurley ??? (@Sam___Hurley) October 15, 2017
Discussing order fulfilment, Marshal Hughes, CEO & Co-Founder of Passel, advised:
If you can’t deliver today, ship 2 weeks early
— Marshall Hughes (@ozmarshall) September 19, 2017
Linda Bustos, director of merchant strategy at Workarea commerce, advise using real time merchandising:
Take advantage of real-time merchandising – what’s that? Find out in my webinar with @demacmedia on October 5! Sign up link upcoming…
— Linda Bustos (@edgacentlinda) September 12, 2017
To Sum Up
Set up specific campaign. Not each customers are the same. Make it personalized and take the occasion to say thanks.
— Fanny Heuck (@FannyHeuck) October 18, 2017
I asked Fanny Heuck, a digital marketing professional to contribute to the discussion. Here’s what she added:
“Prepare your campaign well ahead of the deadline. It is kind of obvious but often only done at the last minute. When preparing your campaign, think of your audience and segment it so well that you have a personalized message for each “customer types” – from the irsst-timers to returning customers.
And this is what is all about: Holiday Season is the perfect occasion to give back to your customers and make them feel special.
Your brand is always unique and so are your customers. Concentrate on holiday season campaign that brings value.”
Bonus Tip: Get Out Of The Building
Andrea Martins, cofounder of GreenSocks and Story Resumes offers a great tip for all ecommerce store owners who would like to make it big this Holiday Season:
“Get out of the building.” ie. Instead of armchair tweeting, get out, meet people, learn, tweet about what you learned & add real value. 🙂
— Andrea Martins (@andreaexpat) October 17, 2017
Sajjad Shahid
Sajjad is an Ecommerce Community Manager at Cloudways. He loves helping out Ecommerce store owners, merchants and marketers in establishing their businesses and startups. Sajjad enjoys playing table tennis and cricket over the weekend.
