A major moment in the life of an e-commerce company, the end-of-year holidays are the key to your success and your annual results.
Making a success of this period will be crucial for your company: you must not neglect anything. To do so, anticipating these busy days and preparing your marketing levers will be your next missions.
To leave nothing to chance, here are the 7 actions to take to maximize your chances of conversions. And to surpass yourself, we suggest you continue this search for performance with an exclusive meeting not to be missed under any circumstances.
Major holiday events
Black Friday: November 26, 2021
Black Friday comes from the United States and has seduced the whole world: on the Friday following Thanksgiving, a great campaign of promotions is conducted by all merchants and e-tailers. This Friday is then the opportunity for consumers to do business and prepare their gifts for the festivities of the end of the year.
Friday is the central day of the operation, even if many brands have launched the “Black Friday Week” to start their discounts at the beginning of the week.
Cyber Monday: November 29, 2021
The Monday after Black Friday, Cyber Monday takes over the Internet with an additional campaign of promos. As the Friday event was originally reserved for retail, this event allowed e-commerce to compensate for the loss of revenue. E-merchant, make this weekend your best sales period before Christmas!
Christmas: the key date
Obviously, the end of the year celebrations are based on Christmas and the 25th of December, the date when families exchange their packages.
Did you know that 89% of consumers have admitted to Fevad that they want to do all their Christmas shopping during the weekend of low prices in 2020? A bargain not to be missed!
What’s next?
The post-holiday period is also a time not to be missed: returns of gifts that are not suitable or that have been ordered twice are coming in and the gifts received will be quickly spent. This means that the period is not quite over for merchants and e-merchants: stay alert!
Also, the winter sales will start on January 12, 2022: the festivities are not over! After Christmas we are already preparing the next steps: private sales, destocking and promotions will soon be in the spotlight.
Holiday Marketing Strategy: 7 Key Actions
- Establish your objectives for the period and anticipate
Prepare your key figures and check your site
Before starting all the steps related to the end of the year holidays on your e-commerce, how to prepare well and be sure of your strategy? By preparing precise objectives and key figures.
Boost your sales at Christmas, make your brand known, destock your old collections, push your most high-end products… What is your precise goal?
Then, get your figures from previous years and compare them: what were your strengths? Your weaknesses?
Also, and before the festivities start, check all aspects of your sales platform to correct any bugs and update your main sales tool: your e-commerce site.
Define your specific target(s)
Once you have established your objectives, take the time and step back to find out who you want to target: more premium consumers? Younger consumers? Or, on the contrary, build loyalty among your new customers? This phase will be decisive for your year-end results, but it is also an action to be carried out all year long for the good health of your sales company.
Place your orders as soon as possible
You are about to enter the busiest sales period of the year, representing about 20% of the total sales of an entire year for most merchants.
The earlier you place your orders, the more likely you are to avoid the embarrassment of stock-outs or extended delivery times from your suppliers. Be proactive!
- Modify your design in party mode
It goes without saying that festivities have a specific aesthetic, a particular spirit that must be respected and adapted to your company.
Team kitsch or team minimalist? Depending on the style of products and services you offer, customize your designs to the colors of your Christmas. The key is to make a statement, sometimes only a few elements are enough to make a difference.
For example, for Zara, the communication around the Christmas period is mostly shared through visuals featuring clothes and looks dedicated to the period (sequins, black and satin outfits, etc.). Both elegant and memorable, this communication strategy accompanies the period without breaking the usual style of the brand.
- Create festive and service-oriented content
E-commerce: reorganize your products for the period
In order to celebrate the season and inspire your customers, you will definitely need to adapt your sales platform to the requirements of the period.
Highlighting your dedicated products, special “gift” selections, “Christmas” or “Holiday” tabs in your menu with categories dedicated to Christmas shopping… All markers to guide customers to your end-of-year products will be welcome.
For the IKEA site for example, the mention of Christmas is made in the menu, just below the main categories, in addition to appearing at the top of the sub-categories concerned.
- Animate your communities on social networks
Contest games to celebrate the end of the year’s highlights
Internet users really appreciate the opportunity to try their luck in contests with ever more exclusive prizes.
This content will allow your community to grow if you bet on the platforms but also to build customer loyalty if you choose to organize this operation on your online store and by inviting your customers to participate via emailing.
Advent calendar: a lever of choice
The extension of the contest idea is the advent calendar: many brands are used to offer as many opportunities to win as there are days before Christmas.
By using this idea of counting down to Christmas Day, you can use this pretext to unveil a new offer on your site or a new product every day: this will create engagement and arouse the curiosity of Internet users, towards the explosion of your conversion rate.
Live Shopping: it’s up to you!
The shopping trend of 2021 and especially 2022 is Live Shopping: derived from the famous teleshopping on TV, Live Shopping allows all retailers, retail or digital, to present their products live either on a dedicated platform or on a social network, in order to encourage users to buy live during the presentation.
This format will soon take over the largest social platforms, such as Instagram, which has already launched its service in the United States.
For now, brands like Leroy Merlin are already integrating this service on their sales site.
- Maximize your newsletters
Find its added value for its newsletter content
For 64% of marketers, email marketing is the lever with the best return on investment ahead of the website and advertisements, according to Comarketing News.
The art of the newsletter is very fine and technical: the subject line must call for a click, the content must be relevant and your products must be highlighted to boost your conversion rate.
To stand out from your competitors and from all the other mailings sent during the end of the year festivities, innovate, create, offer unbeatable prices, and dare new, unique designs: you can be inspired by the presentations of sites like Canva or Really Good Emails for your mailings.
- Set up special offers
For your customer base via a promo code
In your e-commerce marketing strategy, to keep your customers loyal all year long and especially during this holiday season, invite your loyal customers to take advantage of reduced prices for their gifts. Email or SMS, share with your privileged segment the promo code or the link to your special promotions.
Private sales to clear your inventory
For all your customers and between Cyber weekend and Christmas, offer private sales to clear your old collections. Create a special tab on your sales site.
Be careful to modify the new prices and to add your promotions on Google Shopping. This way, your products will stand out from the crowd during specific searches by Internet users.
- Promote your operations: Ads
Facebook & Instagram Ads
Ads on Facebook, Instagram, Messenger will allow you to highlight all your promotional offers and attract new customers via these ads.
You can choose your precise targets according to dozens of criteria and test several ads according to the type of persona targeted. A lever to add to your holiday webmarketing strategy!
Google Ads & Google Shopping: maximum conversions
Even more impactful than social media, the Internet giant gives you access to extremely advanced ad resources. The ad catalog allows all e-merchants to promote their online store in a few minutes, with exceptional conversion rates.
Google or Shopping ads: put your text ads in front and your products in the first line of results, all without leaving your WiziShop interface. That’s right, in your WiziShop administration space, choose in a few clicks the products you want to promote during the holidays. To go even further, you should not miss our next exclusive event.
