Christmas is only a few days away, which means that as an online retailer you should be taking full advantage of this peak period, and preparing your business for the imminent last-minute panic purchases. These are the best moments for retailers to increase their sales. However, the success or failure of the sales actually depends on the marketing strategies and promotions you use.
And yes, stop having that mindset of there is no money, inflation is here, blab la bla.. Money is still very much circulating and you have to be prepared with some great strategies to collect your share.
In view of that, let’s see a few strategies that you can implement to boost your sales and profits during this Christmas and New Year period.
1. Forecast Your Inventory Demand
You may have to sell more products during the Christmas and New Year holidays but how do you know exactly how much inventory you should carry in your store or warehouse?
Without the right forecasting technique, you could end up having too little inventory which could cause delays in the order fulfillment process. Conversely, you could also end up with too much inventory so that there would be a lot of neglected, unsaleable items in your store or warehouse. This is such a wasteful activity every retailer must avoid.
Therefore, it is important for you to be able to forecast your inventory demand this holiday season. Go through your sales data from last year to see your customer buying patterns. Find out which products were sold the most and which ones were not very popular.
2. Provide Combo Products & Special Offers
Whatever type of products you offer, you can always bundle them during this holiday season. You can combine multiple products into a set and create special prices for them. You can also use the Buy 1 Get 1 Free marketing strategy for certain products that won’t affect your profit margin.
Another thing that you can do is to hold a big sale day on Christmas Eve or New Year’s Eve. Focus on items that have been around for some time in your store or warehouse, rather than new ones (remember first-in, first-out). This is a fast and effective way to increase sales while having inventory under control.
3. Optimize Your Website Content
This is important especially for those who sell products online. Start by updating the theme of your website. Consider adding Christmas and New Year themed banners to your ecommerce site. This is a practical way to add a cheerful impression to your brand during the holidays.
Here are some other things you can do:
✓ Create a sense of urgency by adding a countdown timer for the sale days on the main page of your website
✓ Show holiday-related products and make it easy for visitors to your website to find them
✓ Provide holiday themed content on your blog, e.g. Christmas gift ideas
✓ Rewrite your product description and include gift references to the items that would be good gifts
✓ Make sure your website content is SEO friendly to make it easier for people to find your website when they search for certain products through search engines
✓ Use your customer testimonials from previous holidays (if any)
4. Use Christmas & New Year Themes in your Email Marketing
Email marketing is essential for a successful holiday marketing strategy. This holiday season, beautify your email marketing campaigns by adding holiday elements through Christmas and New Year greetings, pictures, and special offers.
With mobile shopping on the rise and people keeping an eye out on discounts during holidays, there are many other ways you can increase sales with email marketing.
✓ Send reminders to buyers who abandoned their carts once a week to encourage them to complete their their purchases
✓ Consider providing discounts for those who haven’t completed their payments after a certain period of time
✓ Improve your email list by actively organizing the categories before Christmas and re-engage your buyers by sending them New Year greetings
✓ Give special offers to your loyal buyers by offering voucher codes on the products they are interested in
5. Create an Interesting Social Media Campaign
This month is the right moment for you to use social media as a means of your promotions. If you have not actively managed your Instagram business, this is the time to re-enliven your Instagram content.
In addition to posting your promotional photos on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, you can also create a new creative campaign, such as an Instagram photo contest that requires the participants to display your brand, comment on your products, and use interesting hashtags that have the potential to become viral.
In return, you can give them discounts or other attractive offers, such as merchandise or exclusive membership cards. In addition to increasing brand awareness, another positive impact that you can get from a social media campaign is that you can re-use the documentation for your next year’s promotions.