25 Innovative Ideas for a Stress-Free Holiday Season
Smart retailers know to begin planning for their holiday whirlwind long before the season is upon us. Marketing promotions, merchandising strategies, and shipping management all must be well-planned in order to tackle the holiday shopping season with gusto.
Fifth Gear works closely with multi-channel retailers to keep the orders coming and the packages moving with efficiency.
Whether you're a powerful brand or a strong specialty store, Fifth Gear can help make the holidays less stressful and more profitable.We'd love to tell you more.
In the meantime, we hope these ideas will boost your season beyond expectations.
infifthgear.com
800.383.2411
tellmemore@infifthgear.com
1. Plan to Retarget
Put plans in place to lure back browsers through emails that showcase products shoppers looked at online, but did not purchase.
Think about including similar products as well in the email for the best chances of conversion.
2. Get Social Now
Leverage social networks to identify potential customers. Find segments that match your target audience and look for ways to interact with them.
Building your followers now means a bigger audience for social media promotions in a few months.
3. Tell Them It's Available
Product availability is a big deal to buyers during the frenzied holiday shopping season.
Be prepared to promote what's in-stock along with touting your delivery times. Test a ticker on your site to let browsers know how many are remaining.
4. Make Navigation Easy
Take a look at your site's top navigation - many retailers have gotten lazy with this.
Make sure the right product categories are emphasized. If lots of users navigate through a certain area, such as clearance or new items, make that selection stand out with color or size, or both.
5. Ask What Shoppers Think
If you don't have a review program on your site, now is the time to implement one. Plan on some ways to get participation and work with your program provider to organize how those reviews appear on your site. Also, be committed to managing the reviews you get. Don't hide or remove negative feedback - respond to it. Shoppers love that level of authenticity from the brands they love.- Learn from the
Ghost of Holidays Past
Be brave enough to look back to last year - the good, the bad, and the ugly. Ask questions about what caused unexpected peaks, what shipping offers worked the best, which vendors caused inventory problems, and how your shippers performed.
Plan around last year's experience for improvement in 2011!
7. Extend the Hoopla
Consumers start using gift cards on Christmas Day. Think of ways to entice gift card recipients to use those cards quickly, along with additional purchases.
You can extend the season with solid plans for post-holiday sales that were thought out long in advance.
8. Take Good Notes
In the midst of chaos, holiday season survival may seem to be more than you can handle. But it's smart to document things - while they're happening.
Try to log what you observe. Engage your contact center agents to do this as well. The questions and issues they capture can be key to planning for 2012 - once the dust settles.
9. Make Mobile a Must
Mobile shoppers are a reality, so don't ignore the opportunity to target customers who are busy, stressed, or simply mobile-savvy.
At a minimum, launch a limited mobile commerce site for your most popular product categories. And do everything possible to minimize clicks in the mobile purchasing process.
10. Resist the Urge to Get Post-Happy
Conversations must be consistently maintained on your social networks, no matter what the season. However, marketers must resist the temptation to blast offers non-stop during the holidays.
Consumers want to see posts that are informative, valuable, and most importantly, relevant. If you go crazy with frequent posting, you'll find your brand "unliked".
11. Make Yourself Searchable
In order to generate maximum sales, retailers must evaluate their existing search marketing efforts. Take the time to build a list of relevant keywords and combine them with creative ad copy. Ensure that keywords are updated during the holidays to include seasonal products and best sellers. Also, apply seasonal modifiers to keywords, such as 'Christmas sweater' or 'gifts for golfers', to maximize click-through.12. Wrap It Up
It only makes sense to offer gift wrapping as an upsell during checkout. Be sure to plan ahead and get the processes and supplies in place to handle the upswing in gift wrap requests.
Think of this value-add service as a way to further your own brand. Invest in custom paper, embossed stickers, branded gift notecards - anything that can provide another brand impression.
13. Update Returns Policies
Don't wait until the season is here to review your returns policies. The policy should be easy to find and easy to understand. Now is the time to look at how your policies impacted shopping last year. Re-write copy to ensure confidence in the shopper.- Spread Cheer from the
Contact Center
The contact center can make or break your brand, so be ready this year to "wow" your most vulnerable customers - those who need a little extra support.
Work with your contact center to ensure staffing and get them trained as early as possible on your marketing strategies for the season.
15. Solve Site Search Problems Now
Nothing can kill conversions like a customer's inability to find a product on your site. Partner with a site search vendor to rectify any issues with your site's search function and, if possible, allow for relevant product suggestions to appear with each result.
Don't forget to include synonyms for products whenever possible (i.e. a robe could also be called a "housecoat" by some customers).
16. Honor Santa's Delivery Deadlines
Your fulfillment center knows how to make the holiday season a success. Work with them now to document those "last day to ship" dates and get them on your website, in your catalog, and in the hands of contact center agents. Be as detailed as possible with every option and destination thoroughly explained. If it's the last day to ship a ground package, say so very clearly.
17. Mark the Calendar
Develop a range of promotional strategies and get them on a shared calendar. This is a critical communication tool to ensure that every team knows what's coming and when.
Talk with your fulfillment team to create efficiencies in the warehouse to align with the products you'll be promoting throughout the season.
18. Link Ads to Product Landing Pages
Brand your landing pages to match holiday marketing campaigns. By linking ads to specific landing pages, you're sending shoppers exactly where they wanted to go - not to a home page where they may not be willing to search further.
19. Plan to Test
Retailers know that the same marketing techniques that worked like a charm last year may not necessarily yield the same results year after year. So, plan to run A/B and multivariate tests on your campaigns. History is a good guide, but economic factors will always influence seasonal shopping.
See what works best, and do more of that.
- Give Loyal Customers Some
Milk & Cookies
All retailers have a database of their past customers. These shoppers should be honored, not ignored. A creative email campaign to thank them for their loyalty can be an important tactic in staying top-of-mind leading up to the holiday shopping season.
Ask for their input, for referrals, and for their repeat business.
21. Capitalize on the Upswing
With some economic rebound, ecommerce is on the upswing according to all reports. Retailers have the opportunity to capitalize on a new level of spending confidence. Now is not the time to rest on your successes.
Consider aggressively expanding marketing campaigns, including email, search marketing, and social efforts to maximize returns in 2011.
22. Develop Daily Forecasts
If you haven't already, get busy on a daily sales forecast for the holiday season. This is the only way to compare results against the plan, and react accordingly. Indicate days of highest opportunity, and be prepared to make on-the-fly adjustments based on sales results.
The forecast is also your tool for ensuring smooth operations in the warehouse during the order fulfillment process.
23. Listen Up
The contact center can provide amazing insight to questions your customers have when doing business with your brand.
Listen to their feedback regularly. You'll soon uncover the problem areas that may not have been obvious to you before. Then, focus your efforts on modifications to fix them, whether on the website or in the fulfillment warehouse.
24. Say What You Said
Contact center scripts should be written well in advance to correlate other forms of customer communication. Review upcoming promotions and hot ticket items with your agents to prepare them ahead of time for potential issues.
Call hold times are likely to be longer during the holiday season, so incorporate entertaining messages and promotional verbiage to your on-hold messages as well.
- Light a Fire for
Customer Communication
Even retailers at the North Pole should be easy to reach in today's world.
Give customers several ways to contact you during the busy season - including the opportunity to request a call-back instead of waiting on hold. Implement live chat and email support to maximize your customers' options during their holiday shopping.
Ready to Put Your Business In High Gear For The Holidays?
infifthgear.com
800.383.2411
tellmemore@infifthgear.com