Staying on top of holidays means much more than having a Christmas sale special. Most holidays nowadays are commercialized to some extent, which has built up customer expectation – you need to have something ready for Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Halloween and so on and on all year round.
This has turned into a vicious circle of sorts, because people’s frame of minds are set into “holiday mode”, brands or companies that do not follow suit are seen as uncaring at worst or out of touch at best. So what can you do to make the best out of this situation and make every holiday season work for your ecommerce business?
The holidays are an ideal time to give yourself and your customers a gift that keeps on giving – a fast-loading, responsive site and reliable hosting. You may experience a spike in visits and an increasing number of those visits are from mobile devices, so your if your site isn’t ready for that, it’s been long overdue. Research has shown that 57 percent of visitors will bounce if the site does not load after a mere 3 seconds, so do whatever is in your power to ensure that happens.
Utilize your Social Media channels with a themed content and ad campaign. Holidays are an ideal time for a photo contest – people travel, parties are thrown, families gather, photos are shared. Keep your posts – and your promotions – relevant to the holiday and to your audience, like a best costume contest for Halloween or unboxing videos of your product for Christmas.
Color your email communication accordingly – offer content, deals and product that are in tune with the holiday for that extra push that will get the customer to buy from you. Also, holidays that see gifts being exchanged, like Valentine’s Day or Christmas, are a great time to launch a referral program, not only because people buy more, but because most of us look to friends for gift ideas.
Finally, be creative – even if you are selling a service or an app, you can get into the holiday spirit with simple design touches. Your ads can be holiday-themed, but why not your entire store, or at least the blog section, where you can post pictures from your office party. Try and have fun with it, keeping true to the spirit of your brand and making the most out of the holiday spirit!