It’s the most wonderful time of the year, especially for eCommerce retailers. The 2017 holiday season is crushing last year’s sales records, bringing in an astonishing $6.59 billion on Cyber Monday alone.
But smart marketers know that additional sales opportunities are just around the corner. Starting as soon as the day after Christmas, many consumers armed with holiday gift cards begin their hunt for post-holiday sales.
To maximize eCommerce revenue in the new year, you need to plan accordingly to drive conversions to your site. Here are five marketing strategies to encourage sales after the holidays:
Thank Your Customers With Special Promotions
Your customers are the lifeblood of your eCommerce store. Once the holidays are over, it’s important that you express your gratitude with a sincere thank you message. To drive post-holiday sales, add a discount or special offer for your customers. Leverage email marketing to segment your customers and tailor your messages to each group.
For example, new customers might receive a “welcome to the family” message and a time-sensitive discount to encourage a second purchase. You can also target your most loyal customers and give them an exclusive sneak peek into your newest products.
Analyze Data to Inform Your Post-Season Marketing Strategies
Why wait to analyze your holiday data? Diving deep into your analytics, you can immediately begin putting these insights to smart use.
Which marketing channels performed best for your eCommerce store? Which products were best-sellers? Use this insight to inform your post-holiday marketing strategies and start improving your marketing campaigns for the new year.
This is also a good time for you to take stock of all your inventory. By making note of excess holiday inventory, you can form a strategy for how you will get rid of unnecessary stock and make room for new arrivals.
Don’t Turn off Campaigns Too Early
Holiday shopping doesn’t come to a halt after Christmas day. In fact, many consumers are now eager to use their holiday gift cards. Not only are they convenient for the gift-giver and the recipient, but consumers can enjoy the downtime after the Christmas rush to treat themselves.
Take advantage of this by running your marketing campaigns until the end of the year. Get your customers excited about your post-holiday sales by sending them email campaigns and posting about upcoming sales on social media.
As you begin thinking about your post-holiday deals and promotions, remember that you don’t always need to offer a discount! If you have products that have a limited shelf life, consider adding them as a special bonus for those who purchase another specific product or those who spend above a certain amount.
Get Ready for Returns
Gift returns are a make or break moment for your eCommerce store. Do it wrong, and you have a dissatisfied customer who may swear off your brand for good. However, if you get it right, you can boost customer loyalty and increase their long-term value.
To keep customers coming back to your store, you must make gift returns seamless and hassle-free. If customers request a return, send them a shipping label to make it easier for them. Anything you can do that results in a positive shopping experience will benefit your bottom line.
This is also a good opportunity to better understand your customers. Be sure to get their email address if they haven’t shopped at your store before and ask them why they are returning the product. This will help you understand why your products are being returned and may help you decrease the number of returns in the future.
Allow Your Retargeting Strategy to Shine
In the post-holiday season, it’s the perfect time for your retargeting strategy. By remarketing to holiday shoppers, you can drive additional eCommerce revenue in the new year.
Retargeting with dynamic ad creatives is an effective way to bring back shoppers who interacted with your brand during the holidays. Plus, it’s easy to get started with Springbot’s behavioral retargeting ads.
Launch your dynamic ads the day after Christmas and remind shoppers that the product they browsed on your site is still available and waiting for them. You can also retarget customers based on their past purchase history and use this opportunity to upsell them.
Conclusion
After working hard on your holiday marketing campaigns, it’s tempting to sit back and relax. However, this could cause you to miss out on not just sales, but also key opportunities to engage with new customers.
Don’t allow the post-holiday slump derail your momentum. With the marketing strategies outlined here, you can keep eCommerce revenue going strong into the New Year.
