OPTIMIZATION
10 Steps to Keep Your Business On the Nice List This Holiday Season
OPTIMIZATION
10 Steps to Keep Your Business On the Nice List This Holiday Season
As temperatures continue to rise, so do retailers’ concerns about the upcoming holiday shopping season. With inflation already forcing consumers to make tough purchasing decisions, you don’t need a crystal ball (or, is it a snow globe) to know that inflation will likely impact what people are willing to spend on holiday gifts for their friends and family.
10 Areas of Your Business That You Should Focus On
1. Strategy
With the supply chain issues many retailers continue to face, your strategy this year should be built around the products that you know you’ll have in stock or that you have excess of. Working cross-functionally, you need a plan to merchandise and promote those items, while optimizing your website to make it easy for your customers to find and purchase them.
2. User Experience
Whether your website is your primary or secondary sales channel, you will want to prioritize its user experience and make the necessary optimizations in order to provide your customers with the most seamless, frictionless shopping experience possible.
3. Data Analytics
Data is the best way to gain insight into customer behavior, and inform your optimization decisions. Analyzing key metrics across the full customer journey will not only help you improve your site experience, but can increase your rate of site conversions, and thereby increase your sales and revenue.
4. Mobile
When it comes to consumers looking for the best possible deal —especially this year—you can bet they’re going to do their research. One of the most convenient ways for them to do that is through their mobile device, especially while they’re in a physical store, where they can easily compare prices between competitors and purchase in-store versus online. Of course, mobile also offers consumers the convenience of being able to make a purchase anywhere and anytime.
5. Technology
With all of the tinsel, twinkling, and lords-a-leaping, it’s easy to forget that a big part of the holiday shopping season hinges upon technology working flawlessly. Unfortunately, during such an intense shopping period, even the very best technological tools can fail to perform the way you need them to. It’s imperative that you do all you can to ensure that your technology’s prepared for anything.
6. Search
One of the hardest challenges for gift-givers is figuring out exactly what gifts to get for their friends and family. Once they figure that out, the next question is: which company should I buy from? This is why your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) program needs to be as good as it can be, especially this year when consumers won’t just be searching for the perfect gift, but the perfect price, as well.
7. Social Media
There’s no more effective tool to promote your products or services, especially during the holiday season than social media. Whether it’s through organic social efforts or paid social media, you need to be cutting through the clutter and shouting from the rooftops to get people talking about your brand and, most importantly, making them consider buying from you.
8. Email
Email remains one of the most effective and affordable ways to communicate with your customers. In fact, it’s the perfect way to help establish and nurture a relationship with them. Doing so could very well be the difference between a customer giving you their business or going straight to a competitor.
9. Logistics
There’s nothing worse than a customer finding out at the last minute that the gift they bought for someone special isn’t going to make it in time for the holidays. To help avoid this all-too-common seasonal scenario (it’s not uncommon for UPS and FedEx to get overloaded), we have a few suggestions.
10. Customer Service
Convincing someone to make a purchase seems like the obvious end of the sales process. However, the real end goal is to make that customer want to buy from you again, and, during what promises to be an even more competitive holiday sales period than usual, exceptional customer service is what will make that end goal possible.
The Holidays Start Now
If you’re a retailer, the time to prepare for a successful holiday season is now. Fortunately, we’ve taken the guesswork out of it, so you don’t need to spend time wondering how to get started. Simply download your complimentary copy of this Holiday eCommerce Guide and you’ll have a step-by-step game plan to help ensure that your holiday season will be something to celebrate.
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