Now that summer has come and gone and we’re in the middle of fall, it’s time for ecommerce business owners to start thinking about the holiday season and how they can make the most of the impending lift in sales. Are you prepared?
5 Tips for Maximizing Holiday Sales
For all the stress that the holiday season can bring ecommerce businesses, you have to remember that this is also one of the most profitable times of the year. If you want to close out the year on a good note, here are some tips you can use to maximize sales.
1. Prepare Your Supply Chain
If you’re expecting a dramatic increase in sales over the holiday season, it’s probably a smart idea to prepare your supply chain for the uptick. This may mean notifying suppliers, hiring part-time contractors, and changing up how different processes are handled.
The last thing you want is to experience massive sales numbers and be incapable of filling the orders. Not only does this force you to forgo revenue, but it also hurts your brand image.
2. Run Free Shipping Promotions
Demand is high during the holiday season, but so is competition. In order to differentiate your brand from others, try running promotions. Free shipping is always popular during the holiday season – especially when you offer something like free two-day shipping in late December. Keep this in mind as you drive traffic from social media to your website.
3. Open a Pop-Up Shop
A number of ecommerce businesses have found it profitable to launch pop-up shops or rent physical retail space for the months of November and December; this increases sales and reaches a new demographic. While this requires a lot of planning, it can provide a significant lift in sales if you have products that are conducive to this sort of technique.
In order to make a pop-up shop work, you simply need to rent out some space and utilize the right POS technology. Try talking with others who have executed pop-up shops in the past to get an idea of what it takes to be successful.
4. Make Sure Your Site is Running Fast
Did you know that website speed and conversions have a direct correlation? The longer a web page takes to load, the lower the conversion rate will be. In fact, a one-second delay in page loading time can result in 7 percent fewer conversions. For a website that does $10,000 per day in sales that’s $700 per day. When you calculate that through November and December, it would result in more than $40,000 in lost sales!
It’s not that hard to make sure your site is running fast. Use a tool like this one to check your speeds and make the recommended fixes sooner rather than later.
5. Run an Instagram Contest
Gamification is hot right now. People love having the chance to win something and you can create a timely surge in brand exposure by running an Instagram contest. One particularly good idea is to run a contest that focuses on user-generated content. Not only does this get people excited about your brand, but it also dramatically increases your reach and allows you to tap into each user’s online network.
Give Your Ecommerce Business a Boost
So many ecommerce businesses wait until the middle of November or early December to start developing an ecommerce strategy. The problem with this approach is that it’s often too late. You really need to develop your holiday sales strategy in the early-fall. This gives you the chance to get ahead of the demand curve and maximize the rush. Give some of these techniques a try and prepare for the best.
