Increasing online Christmas sales
With Black Friday and Cyber Monday just around the corner, how do you compete with your online competitors and get visitors to buy from you rather than someone else?
The answer very much depends on attracting the right visitor to your website, selling the product they desire at the right price and how you treat her or him once they are there.
This is the time to boost your marketing efforts to ensure your business is more visible to potential customers. High impact, short term marketing campaigns are particularly effective over the Christmas period so aim to increase your email marketing frequency, send out regular posts and tweets on social media and either start or amend any pay per click campaigns you might have running.
Once you have attracted a customer it is important to sell the products they desire at the right price and to try and maximise their spending by up-selling and cross selling. It’s all well and good sticking to the RRP however if none of your competitors are then you will be at a disadvantage. So keep your eye on what’s happening with your competitors and try to identify key products to match. It may also be worth considering undercutting them on certain loss leaders. Up selling and cross selling are simple but hugely effective techniques to use. It’s amazing what the power of suggestion can do!
Christmas is a stressful time for online customers and this is where great customer service comes into its own. There is a huge amount of data available that shows that online shoppers value good customer service as much as price. Poor customer service can not only lose you sales but if shared on social media can leave a big dent in your reputation. So make the Christmas shopping experience with you SPECIAL by offering some extra little touches that will make a busy Christmas shopper’s life so much easier. Make a concerted effort over the Christmas period to be more responsive to customer enquiries and look to increase your email communications with regards to despatch notices and expected delivery dates. It may also be worth considering free delivery and an extension to your returns period. Gift wrapping is a great extra service at this time of year but only offer it if you are sure that it will not take up too much time.
So be bold as Christmas is not just for the big online retailers. With some forward planning, increase marketing effort and canny sales tactics, Christmas can be one of your most profitable times of the year.
