Throughout the year, various holiday periods come and go, from Valentine's Day to Easter holidays and the festive December, which represents the peak of gift shopping throughout the entire year.
For customers, it is important to find their way to your online store and purchase holiday gifts from you before the holidays begin. Several factors can convince them to do so: the appearance of the store, prices, promotional offers, and more.
The simple steps outlined below will help you convince potential customers to buy your products, thereby increasing sales before the holidays:
1. Examine customer habits using data from the online store
Understanding and analyzing data and analytical tools from your store are crucial for your business success and sales campaign. If you have data on holiday sales from the previous year, you can determine what positively influenced customers and what deterred them from making a purchase. Use this information for the current year's campaign and further improve sales. Based on the results of the previous year's sales campaign, you can choose appropriate sales channels and advertising methods, ensuring that you reach more potential customers responding to your invitation to visit your online store.
If your online store has not been in operation long enough to have statistics from the previous year, save the strategy for this year for future use.
2. Examine the competition
If you are not subscribed to the newsletters of your competitors, do so immediately! This way, you will stay informed about what they are doing and the steps they are taking in their sales journey. With the help of search history, you can also peek into the past and find out what sales campaigns your competitors had in the previous year. Use this data to create an even better sales plan for your business and outperform the competition. Let this serve as a starting point for developing your own strategy.
3. Prepare your sales campaigns before the holiday season begins
Prepared campaigns will undoubtedly make your work easier. When the actual holiday frenzy begins, you will simply activate your advertising. Take enough time to study the right keywords that will be relevant before a specific holiday period. Do not forget to include seasonal keywords in your online store, even if they are only seasonal phrases. Include general phrases related to a specific holiday period, such as: Christmas gift, Valentine's Day gift, free shipping, gift voucher, and so on. Although these do not directly call for your products, they are certainly relevant for all gift seekers.
Careful with price reductions. Before "Black Friday" and other promotions, check the previous prices: in the EU the reference for a price reduction announcement is the lowest price in the 30 days before the reduction (more: Online store legislation (EU)). Do not raise prices just before a promotion in order to "reduce" them afterwards. Before holidays, check the last delivery deadlines for each carrier and state them clearly on the page and in the cart, and consider an extended return period.
Do today: 3 things before Black Friday
1. Check the previous prices (lowest in the last 30 days).
2. Check the last delivery deadlines for each carrier.
3. Consider an extended return period.
4. Do not forget about SEO
SEO is intended for organic traffic from search engines. In the previous point, you have already examined keywords for campaign preparation; now, you need to incorporate them into your content. Prepare a new holiday category, publish an article on holiday topics on your blog or a related blog, and enable people to find you faster in search engines. Organic traffic is an important source in the long run, so it is worth the effort.
5. Start promotional actions with loyal customers
You can extract from the statistics who among the site visitors you have successfully sold items from your store. You can prepare some special sales promotion with a personal touch, a special offer, or something similar for them. Due to the trust shown in the past, there is a greater chance that they will do it again. Do not overlook this, as returning customers can be a strong point in your sales strategy.
6. Appearance and functionality of the store
More and more people rely on portable mobile devices that accompany them everywhere. Desktop computers and laptops are used to a lesser extent due to smartphones and tablets, so it is important for your online store to keep up with the times. This way, you will also receive orders from your customers via mobile devices.
Do not forget about the appearance of the online store, as it is flexible, allowing you to design and adapt the graphic image to each season. In winter, let it snow, red color and hearts in focus around Valentine's Day, Easter cannot pass without bunnies, chicks, and colorful eggs, and happy December without three good men, Christmas trees, and gifts.
Some important dates in the year for online retailers:
- 14. 2. - Valentine's Day
- 8. 3. - International Women's Day
- between 22. 3. and 25. 4. - Easter
- 25. 3. - Mother's Day (in Slovenia)
- Third Sunday in June - Father's Day (not an official holiday)
- 11. 11. - Singles' Day
- The Friday after Thanksgiving (late November) - "Black Friday"
- The Monday after Black Friday - "Cyber Monday"
- 25. 12. - Christmas
Of course, there are many other formal and informal holidays that are a good opportunity for selling items under a promotional offer and attracting customers to make purchases. Practically speaking, you could have one every month, and it all depends on your items or services that will be most useful for a particular holiday. For someone selling natural cosmetics or organic products, International Earth Day is an excellent opportunity.
Frequently asked questions
For the Christmas and New Year season, we recommend starting preparations in September-October: ordering stock, preparing promotions, setting up email sequences and ad campaigns. Digital preparations (content, ads) should be completed by November.
Black Friday (the Friday after Thanksgiving) and Cyber Monday (the Monday after Black Friday) are the peak of online sales at the end of November. They are followed by the Christmas offer and December promotions with a clear last order date, so that the parcel arrives before the holidays. With price reductions, mind the previous price rule (the lowest price in the last 30 days).
By analyzing last season's sales and forecasting growth. Order with adequate lead time (logistics times extend during the season). Have safety stock for bestsellers. Transparently communicate the order cutoff deadline for timely delivery before the holidays.
With a unique offer (bundles, gifts with purchase, gift wrapping), personal communication and an early start of the promotion. Starting ads early can mean less competition in the ad auction and cheaper clicks, but this depends on the industry.
January is often the month of returns - ensure sufficient capacity for processing. For gift purchases, consider an extended return period. Fast and uncomplicated return processing builds trust and customer loyalty.
My name is Anže, I am a certified Magento solution expert and the maker of several award-winning online stores. I am the architect of all Degriz projects.
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