It’s the most wonderful (and busiest) time of the year! From Thanksgiving to Black Friday and Cyber Monday to Christmas, Hannukah, and New Years, eCommerce brands see their biggest sales during the holiday season.
But making sales during the holidays isn’t necessarily a piece of cake. Just like baking, if you forget to grease the pan or don’t allow your dough enough time to rise, the finished product won’t be the masterpiece you’d hoped for. What we mean to say is, you have to make proper preparations and follow all the necessary steps to see the best results.
With a little prep and some pro tips from our team, your brand could maximize holiday sales to an all-time high. So get your aprons on and spatulas at the ready: Here are CAKE’s secrets to boosting holiday gift sales.
Mouthwatering Bestsellers
When it comes to planning for the holiday season, the first thing to consider is which of your products usually see (or are projected to experience) the most seasonal purchases. Consult data from previous years and use this to develop a collection of holiday bestsellers. Then, feature these seasonal favorites prominently on your site and make the collection easily accessible to users. You could even create a landing page for your holiday bestsellers.
However you choose to present the season’s top picks to customers, be sure that you are actively promoting them in email campaigns and throughout your social media. This will generate excitement amongst users and potential customers. Bonus tip: Anything marketed as widely desired or in high demand will only make shoppers want it more. So, use this to your advantage to work up customers’ appetites about your top-selling holiday picks.
You could also create holiday-themed content around these gifts. For example, consider creating a holiday gift guide. Not only does this make shopping for your holiday favorites a cakewalk, but it also allows customers to browse the selection while simultaneously gathering useful information about the products.
Cook Up Some Content
As always, content is crucial to earning customers’ trust and making sales. Optimize your content for the holidays by including call to actions (CTAs) and unique value propositions (UVPs) that will entice readers and direct them to the holiday season’s best-selling items. Give shoppers a reason to invest in your brand’s products by providing them with useful information through engaging content.
Look at it this way: Shopping in-stores awards customers the opportunity to physically engage with a product. They can see, touch, interact, and in some cases even try it out before they buy. eCommerce brands – seeing as their online-focused – are at a bit of a disadvantage when it comes to the physically engaging customer experience.
So how do you make up for this? Through content, of course! Your content should strive to give customers the same or similar experience – digitally interacting with and learning about your products and brand. To create the same valuable and engaging customer experience, the content needs to be rich, relevant, and rewarding, especially during the holiday season.
To boost your holiday gift sales, leverage content to create trust between your brand and consumers. It’s the little details that make all the difference.
The Icing on the Cake
Some say it’s not important how it looks, as long as it tastes good. But at CAKE, we find that a bit of frosting and a dash of sprinkles can add a little extra – and much needed – pizazz! When it comes to the holidays, a site makeover could be that extra boost to attract sales.
Consider redesigning your landing pages to reflect seasonal sentiments like holiday graphics and visuals, fonts, and color schemes. Make shopping your site both festive and fun! A touch of holiday visuals can really enhance the user experience – which directly translates into sales.
Customers Crave Convenience
Convenience is key for the customer experience (especially during the holidays). Go the extra mile and show them you care by making shopping with your brand more effortless. These little extra efforts can really push a customer to commit to a purchase.
Complimentary Gift Wrapping
One way to make customers’ holiday shopping experience less stressful is to offer free gift wrapping with purchase. This saves your shoppers time and effort (during the busiest time of year) wrapping their holiday gifts themselves.
For a little less effort on your end, consider including complimentary gift-wrapping supplies within a purchase. This could be anything from holiday-themed wrapping or tissue paper, boxes or bags, bows, and ribbons. This saves customers time and money purchasing their gift-wrapping elsewhere – and adds value to purchasing with your brand.
Whatever you choose, this sentiment builds customer loyalty, enhances brand value, and adds a fun, convenient touch to your holiday gift specials!
Promotions Are the Chef’s Kiss of Holiday Sales
You can’t expect to boost holiday gift sales without running some promotions. First, be sure to notify your customers about seasonal sales, discounts, and promo codes in email campaigns (and even social posts for greater reach). Making customers aware of any great deals on holiday gifts is the first step in advancing seasonal sales.
You could also feature holiday promotions that offer special deals to loyal customers or rewards members. Consider rewarding these faithful and seasoned shoppers with an additional percent off their holiday shopping, a complimentary gift wrap, or even a free gift with their next purchase. You could also personalize the discount based on their loyalty status (like how many years they’ve belonged to the rewards program, for example).
Acknowledging and rewarding customer loyalty with a little something special is a great way to win back their business this holiday season.
Countdowns: Something To Get Excited About
Generating excitement and creating a sense of urgency are the two best and easiest ways to boost holiday gift sales. A simple yet effective way to do this is through live countdowns. Feature these for holiday sales or seasonal drops on your website or social media. Giving users something to look forward to and anxiously await is a sure way to drive traffic to your holiday sales and seasonal faves.
Get Into the Spirit of Giving
The holiday season would be nothing without the act of giving. Spread a bit of holiday cheer by extending festive and warm feelings to your customers with a little something special!
Free Gifts
A free gift with every purchase is an extra incentive for customers to buy. The best way to embrace the holiday spirit is to give shoppers a small reward for their business and loyalty – it’s also a proven way to drive sales.
Giveaways
Sweepstakes and giveaways build excitement about your brand even more so than a free gift with purchase. Not only is this a super fun way to engage users and spread brand awareness, but it’s also a sweet way to tempt potential customers to browse your products in anticipation of what will be featured in the giveaway. So, while there can only be one winner, users might find something they like better while sifting through your site in the meantime.
Free Shipping and Returns
During the holiday shopping season, especially, additional fees and high shipping costs are the number one reason shoppers abandon their carts at checkout. To secure holiday gift sales, consider reducing these costs for your customers with a special offer: free shipping and returns. Because 90% of shoppers consider free shipping to be a major incentive to purchase, the returns and rewards will be huge.
Donations and Contributions
For some customers, the only thing better than giving away is giving back. In the spirit of the holiday season, giving can go a long way when it comes to making sales. Offering to donate a percentage of each purchase to a charity – like toy drives, food banks, or shelters – is a strong incentive to support your business this holiday season.
Donating a portion of revenue to charity can encourage your customers to buy – and their money goes to a great cause so that they can feel good about their purchase!
Abandoned Cart Campaigns
The inevitable sometimes happens: Shoppers are abandoning their carts left and right. Though abandoned carts are expected, this can hurt your holiday sales if ignored. So this is your reminder to use email and push notifications to encourage shoppers to return to their carts.
Pro tip: Create a sense of FOMO and urgency with these abandoned cart reminders. Inform your shoppers that items in their cart are selling out or in limited stock with messages like “Only a few left!” You could also include a countdown or timer in these notifications that give customers limited time to purchase, or their cart will be cleared.
CAKE Can Handle the Rest!
Need a break from all this holiday prep? Let CAKE take over! Our experienced team can help your brand boost holiday sales with just a sprinkle of marketing expertise. Contact CakeCommerce today.
