How Can I Increase My Christmas Sales?
Sure, that’s a cliche question. But, as soon as we enter the fourth and final quarter in a year, it becomes the most asked one! Christmas promotion ideas become the talk of the town. Every seller on the internet st\\arts seeking new and improved ways to increase sales and profits during Christmas.
And, why wouldn’t they?
Christmas, after all, has a track record for being one of the most successful annual sale events with a massive potential for profit generation.
- The year-on-year growth in holiday retail sales went up by 8.2% in 2020
- 40% of all Christmas shopping last year occurred between December 15 and 24
- US consumers plan to spend around $886 on gifts in 2021: a 20-year record
The holiday shopping rush picks up momentum every year and reaches its peak around Christmas. How do you promote holiday sales and leverage this opportunity makes all the difference in eCommerce.
Have a merry season with these ten tried, tested, and foolproof tips to increase sales on Christmas this year.
1. Be Very COVID Conscious
Two years of virtual-everything has left deep marks in the fiber of online behavior. With the shift from in-store shopping to online, the record-breaking number of intelligent device sales- there is enough proof to notice the elaborate jump in digital transformation experienced by the world.
This year, keep that change in mind when implementing Christmas promotion ideas.
Customers of the present times are well-versed in online interactions. Therefore, when you create a strategy to bring them to your store, keep in mind these marketing tips to increase Christmas sales while building a healthy customer experience.
- Create a careful communication plan for loyal customers
- Encourage COVID-friendly behavior, like cashless transactions and contactless deliveries
- Include the new trending product categories in your catalog
- Use social media to increase sales and profits during Christmas
- Establish an omnichannel selling strategy for higher reach
The holiday season is always a profitable time. Christmas, even more so. Just factor in COVID constraints when formulating Christmas promotion ideas, and you will surely see promising results.
2. Use Popular Keywords
Keywords are the search terms that people use to find products online.
To plan a successful Christmas marketing campaign, you will need to cover maximum ground. That is where including the popular keywords in your eCommerce store’s content comes in handy.
When your eStore content has the right or relevant keywords, it has more chances of being found in the search results, giving you more opportunities to sell.
But, make sure you only ‘use’ popular keywords, but don’t ‘abuse’ by stuffing them too much in your content, or it will backfire. For example – people like to buy Christmas holiday decorations online, so make sure to include such keywords in your online store’s product pages, titles, descriptions, and so on.
3. Start A Referral Program
Referral programs work like a magnet during the holiday season to attract potential buyers. You can quickly increase sales and profits during Christmas with this little tip.
Online sellers can put up a referral program and reward shoppers once they invite a friend, family, or anyone through a unique code.
Not only is this a great Christmas promotion idea, but it can also help you build a broader customer base for the rest of the year.
A referral program will help sellers spread the holiday shopping buzz through word-of-mouth marketing, which arguably, is one of the best ways to tell people about your brand. Sweeten the deal by offering free and express shipping to customers who refer another shopper to your store during the Christmas season.
4. Run Cart Abandonment Protection Programs
You can study and implement a hundred marketing tips to increase Christmas sales. Yet, there is a chance that none may work.
Not unless you follow the Christmas promotion ideas with a fulfilling user experience.
The average eCommerce cart abandonment rate crossed nearly 70%, with recoverable losses of up to $260 billion.
To achieve a successful holiday season, you need to avoid abandoned carts at all costs. Here is how you can do so when implementing tips to increase sales on Christmas.
- Create email campaigns that follow abandoned carts with meaningful user communication
- Use retargeting ad campaigns
- Send new coupons, offers, and loyalty programs for the abandoned carts
- Send purchase completion to users at regular intervals
- Create content to convince your customers to complete the order
5. Strategize Your Social Media
When it comes to Christmas promotion ideas, using social media can be a tremendous advantage for eSellers. However, the critical element, in this case, is to strategize your social media marketing to extract maximum value out of your efforts.
Start by identifying what social media channels work best for your eCommerce channel. Plan your marketing efforts around those channels and users. Your Christmas season social strategy should revolve around the festival and its spirit of joy and celebration.
Kick-start your Christmas celebrations by updating the profile and cover photos, banners, and every other visual aspect of your social media profiles. Your social media imagery should highlight the great deals, discounts, and offers your fans can expect.
6. Engage Customers with Exciting Email Programs
Email marketing is still one of the most popular ways to create awareness among your prospects about exciting deals and discounts. Especially during the holiday season, you can leverage email as a fruitful medium to execute your Christmas promotion ideas.
A few emails, worded just right and sent in a planned manner, can help you increase sales and profits during Christmas.
- Use wish lists to create emails with relevant purchase suggestions
- Offer personal discounts
- Use gamification to put your offer across while entertaining the users
- Run contests and loyalty programs
- Promote gift cards
- Brag about your brand with meaningful achievements and declarations
- Christmas special deals
- Early season offers
- Abandoned cart reminders
- Special rewards for loyal customers
- Last-minute offers
- Countdown deals
- Referral programs
- Gift guides for different types of consumers
- Sneak peeks for elaborate shopping-related content
- Holiday-themed tutorials
- Create content that your customers will find useful
- Create How-tos, DIYs, and Celebration Ideas
- Lead your email marketing campaigns with positive customer stories
- Use decent feedback in holiday campaigns and ads
- Use social media content from users about your brand to promote it across different channels
- Create a section for associated products just below a listing
- Offer add-ons during check-out or with the ‘add to cart’ option
- Create and offer Basket Spend deals
- Automate product recommendations based on client interests
- Offer service add-ons, like gift wrapping, seasonal cards, etc.
- Star and showcase the biggest savings deal across user dashboards
You can also structure your email campaigns smartly using the following themes.
7. Create Relevant, Contextual, & Seasonal Content
Creating seasonal content is the best way to put out a word among your existing customers and reach more buyers.
Popular holidays like Christmas are often an excuse for people to shop for stuff online. Bu, a great deal of confusion prevails amidst consumers during this season because of the abundance of choices and offers.
You can increase sales and profits during Christmas by creating content that can help customers save time and make the right purchase decision.
Start early by creating classic holiday shopping guides. For example – ‘Must Buy Christmas Deals,’ ‘Best Christmas Gifts for Dads,’ ‘Holiday Shopping Guide for Christmas’ and so on. This way, you will also get to cover popular Christmas season keywords. In addition, here are a few other content ideas for the Christmas season.
You can also release eBooks and tie that with your content’s Christmas promotion ideas.
The key here is to excite, inform and educate your audiences with seasonal content. People like to make informed purchase decisions, and if you can help them get there, profits are bound to follow.
8. Reward Your Customers with Holiday Special Offers
Rewards are one of the most popular marketing tips to increase Christmas sales. They are also a decent way to keep your online business’s sales momentum going strong.
You can offer cashback, coupons, and special deals. This will not only encourage customers to shop more but also motivate them to share the deals and refer your brand to friends and family.
You can also use holiday season rewards or ‘gift cards’ as a way to ‘re-pitch’ deals to old customers who haven’t shopped from your store in a while. This is a popular customer retention strategy that can help you increase sales and profits during Christmas.
9. Utilize Customer Reviews and User Generated Content
Successful online sellers know this secret – sell the solution, not the product. Showing customer reviews and feedback upfront can advocate the fact your product solves the problems and meets the needs of users. Thus, testimonials from real people can be an excellent way to attract shoppers and increase sales and profits during Christmas.
Especially during December’s busiest weeks, people are in a rush. They want quick purchases. They do not want the hassle of weeks’ worth of research. But, at the same time, they also do not want to risk buying something that isn’t worth the expense.
This is where user-generated content, social media messages, reviews, and feedback become handy marketing tips to increase Christmas sales.
Using your existing customer reviews and testimonials in a powerful way can instill confidence in online shoppers during Christmas.
10. Upsell and Cross-Sell at Every Opportunity You Get
Here is the last but one of the most crucial tips to increase sales on Christmas.
Give your customers more and more opportunities to buy from you by bundling complementary products. In other words, create a wide range of options for upselling and cross-selling.
Customers are ready to spend; you already know this. Create a strategy to motivate them to buy more, and the profits shall fall in your lap quite easily.
There You Have It- Good Luck For The Christmas Sales Season
We have already discussed ten exciting marketing tips to increase Christmas sales this year.
But, this is only the tip of the iceberg. You will come across several other ideas to boost profits and improve conversions before, during, and after Christmas. Do share your favorite ones with all our readers in the comment section.
Also, if you are in a hurry to implement Christmas promotion ideas but do not have enough time or the right staff to dedicate to this purpose, let our experts know. At SunTec India, you will easily find eCommerce specialists for store optimization, catalog management, product description writing, order processing, and several other similar requirements.
To get in touch with us, simply share your requirements at info@suntecindia.com and receive prompt support.