How to plan for Holiday Season Sales to increaseecommerce Profits?

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Most ecommerce businesses account for 40 percent of their sales during holiday season. People arelooking for gifts, furniture, electronics, jewelry and almost everything. In the shiny shopping fiesta, howcan you attract relevant web traffic to your website and boost sales?

There are various tactics to attract audience like offering gift cards, promotional items, discounts,oversea free shipping and many more.

It is important to plan ahead of time for Holidays to capture larger portion of ecommerce holiday sales.

UPCOMING HOLIDAYS

Below is a chart of holidays which record mostsales in the year from ecommerce websites.

Green Monday – December 9th – Green Mondayis the last Monday prior to Christmas. It is usuallya shipping cut off by most outlets to send standardshipped packages to customer before Christmas.

Free Shipping Day – December 22nd – FreeShipping Day is a one-day event held annually inmid-December (this year it is December 18th).

Super Saturday – December 22nd – SuperSaturday is the last Saturday before Christmas, achief day of revenue for American retailers,pointing an end of shopping season starts on Black Friday. Super Saturday is best for last-minuteshoppers.

How to develop HOLIDAY Ecommerce Strategy to target potential customers?

Follow the steps and you will be capturing most of your targeted audience during holiday season in2015

Plan Ahead

You know it is important to plan ahead of time to target potential customers. Here are some tips on howto plan and organize your daily charts to attain maximum profits.

Pin down the Holidays for offers

Pick out all the holidays you are targeting in the year based on your customer-need analysis. It isessential to do that in advance so that you can start promotion in time. Remember it is better to targetcustomer specific holidays keeping in mind the competitors’ strategy. So, a balanced attack wherecompetition is acceptable compared to expected sales.

It is important to start advertising your holiday offers 2-3 months in advance. Google trends in the lastyear showed ecommerce sells for Christmas starting in August. Therefore, the sooner the better is the

step ahead for targeting a holiday.

Holiday Calendar

Maintain a holiday targeting calendar to organize your activities without a miss. Some of the basicpoints you must add to your calendar are:

Banner Publishing date for your ecommerce website

Promotional E-mailing date

Ecommerce holiday update date for your ecommerce website design

Last few days email notice before closing holiday campaign

Closing sales campaign date

Try to use simple calendar while presenting your data. It is preferable to use online calendar as theyoffer quick access from your smartphone, laptop, desktop, tv, etc. with an add-on alarm feature.

Be Creative: Offer Return options with various Payment modes

Your customers appreciate extra benefits and security features during holiday season. Offering variousmodes of payment facilitates sales for your ecommerce site. Higher flexibility and liberalization ofreturn policy and payments gives your customer a vital mental security as they purchase gifts for abeloved. Some people might be ready to pay a few extra bucks for this return assurance.

Try adding more facilitates to your visitor to increase conversion rate

Add more payment options

Try a limited time return policy as most purchases are gifts

Decide appropriate Marketing Channel

Every ecommerce business is focusing on different needs of a customers and the right channel toreach them is different. For Example, the likelihood of a customer following Facebook advertisement ismore as compared to pay per click in case of buying watches.

Different Marketing channels with the type of customers they attract

Blog Posting: It helps in attracting new visitors to your store by using SEO strategies. Conversion ofvisitors to buyers depends on your ecommerce website presentation, ease of use, and other factors.

E-mail Marketing: It invites your existing customers to browse through your new product collection. Itcosts less than PPC and produces higher results if you have a wide customer base.

Pay-Per-Click (PPC)/ Google Adwords : You can attract new audience using PPC but during holidayseason you might have to increase your investments and bid higher. Target words like, “Free Shipping”,“Holiday Sale”, “Black Friday”, and “Cyber Monday”.

Facebook Ads: You can focus your ads to specific group of people based on age, gender and otherdemographics through Facebook ads.

Social Media: You can use software like Buffer to spread awareness about new offers on yourecommerce website. Schedule appropriate number of post on different social media channels.

Retargeting: It is most effective during holiday season as people feel nostalgic. You can use Googleads and Facebook Ads to re-target your previous customers creating a brand image.

EXECUTION OF PLANNED STRATEGIES

Emails: Gather your list and create an attractive email to target your present customers.

You can track your email efforts using Klaviyo email platform.

Remember to add your ad copy.

Write short, strong and compelling advertisement.

Get professional help if you need to from GoWebBaby expert.

Blog Content: Attractive and holiday seasoned blogs make your ecommerce look welcoming andattractive.

Optimize your content for copywriting.

Add fun holiday images.

Connect to your audience sharing holiday memories and fit in your products.

Landing Page: Optimize your landing pages according to holidays where your customers can feel achange in your ecommerce website. It is a promotional tactic which is well known for boostingconversion rate.

Design and Graphical advertisements : Publish your creativity using the art of designing on yourecommerce website. Add special decoration in your emails, promotional banners, Facebook andTwitter pages showing that you are celebrating the holiday with joy. It touches emotional side of thecustomer and boost sales.

Track changes in your Growth

Guessing game is a big NO-NO for ecommerce websites.

Analyze the progress of your strategies and consequences of your actions using analytical tools.

Track customers coming from various marketing strategies to discover which works best for you.

Tools: Google analytics, and UTM (Urchin Tracking Module).

Update, Change and Optimize to increase sales

Based on your study and research analysis, track the strategieswhich are working best for your ecommerce business and investin them. Eliminate the strategies which are not producing desiredsales.

Continue auditing the effect of your plans and studying theperformance of your ecommerce website.

START MAKING YOUR CALENDAR FOR 2015!

Conclusion

Update your holiday calendar regularly and target different holidays to attract different customers.Dynamic working is essential while planning a holiday game on your ecommerce portal. Make the bestsales in the year by targeting appropriate number of holidays.