Helping you prepare for the chaos of holiday shopping this year.
Studies show that 70% of holiday shoppers still do not have their holiday shopping complete a week before Christmas, which means your business needs to have a solid strategy in place in ensuring these last-minute shoppers are happy and satisfied.
With shopping habbits changing due to loss of income and stores having tp transition to an online experience, this year, more than ever, the uncertainity of what to come for the holiday shopping consumer and retailers remains up in the air.
Concerns over the pandemic are going to play a major role in consumer shopping patterns, and with that, we can expect the number of online store purchases to outweigh in-store purchases, and with the younger generation of buyers looking to spend more than their older generation counterparts, the strategies for retailers will have to adapt with it.
But how can online retailers begin to pivot, here are a few ideas to get things started:
Invest in digital marketing
60% of online holiday shoppers are willing to buy from new retailers during the Holiday Season. This means it is critical for your business to stand out among your competitors for the attention of these customers.
The best way to start is by diving deep into your ideal customer and finding the right audience for your business. By taking the time to research and understand your target market, you will be able to deliver exceptional, and well-received advertisements that will give you the best ROI, and promote serious business growth.
Invest in creating and curating interesting, unique and thought-provoking creatives for your digital marketing game that will elevate your brand in delivering something unique that no other brand can.
Prepare to target the global shopper
Your business is now online, this means that you have the capability for endless growth, and that’s exciting. Yet, this also requires your business to be able to handle shipping of last-minute shoppers especially if they reside internationally. The shipping costs can quickly become very expensive and convoluted. To avoid these costs, it’s important to have partnered with a shipping company that can support all your international shipping needs including procuring products or raw materials from your suppliers. Heard of eShipper?
And if you deal with shipments regularly going to the US from Canada, there is a solution called PBX that will help save your business money on shipping rates, ensure on-time delivery and provide door-to-door tracking on all your packages from Canada to the US.
It’s done by having a team pick up your already labelled products from you, deliver it to one of our warehouse in the US, and then hand it off to USPS for the last-mile delivery straight to your customer’s door.
This guarantees your business delivery coverage to 100% US zip codes and cuts the costs of cross-border shipping rates while being hassle-free and easy.
Optimize your business website
Your business website is the virtual doors to your store, it’s equal to having a sign outside your retail location reading, “come on in, we’re open”, and you want that sign to be as pretty and efficient as it can to attract the most customers. Especially with last-minute shoppers, you do not want them to be waiting for your website to load or worse crash.
If your site is slow, 2-3 seconds of loading time slow, expect to see a bounce rate of 13-22% because people do not have that sort of patience in 2020.
Here are some other ways to improve your site:
- Compress all your images and make sure you are not using any large resources.
- Provide a smooth scrolling experience, do not try gimmicky methods that lock a user in scrolling on one element(s) of the page.
- Think about the user’s journey across your site, are your most important pages accessible?
- Make sure to inject appropriate SEO keywords, meta description tags and alt description where applicable to increases your site's searchability on Google.
Reconsider your shipping strategy
Provide an incentive to buy more!
A “free shipping” option or a “20% off orders above $X” are all great ways to get people to upsell and with the ability to make sure your orders get delivered to your customer’s doors at a fraction of the cost. To top this, it is a great way to ensure your customers are 100% satisfied with their delivery experience via the best shipping services in the market.
Partnering with a shipping company like eShipper can give you that boost to choose from many carriers to make your orders reach on time irrespective of where they are located.
Create a gift guide
Gift guides are a great way to provide a snapshot of your product offerings to a potential customer. It eliminates the need for them to go through your site, and look for the information themselves. Especially handy for last-minute shoppers who can decide on what to gift whom without having to go through your whole website.
By making their lives easier, you are providing that extra little bit of effort that will go a long way in ensuring customer satisfaction and a better customer experience.
Prepare Social media contests & giveaways
This is a great way to engage with your customer base in a fun and interactive way while building urgency to buy, brand awareness and showing off your brand's personality online!
This ties in well with the first point on digital marketing, as you should be focused on developing a holistic approach to how you want to showcase your brand online, and typing in contests and giveaways will only benefit your overall social media game and increase brand loyalty.
Support a cause you care about
Providing support to an organization that you care about is a great way to tap into the hearts of your customers and align their feelings with your brands.
Especially with the efforts of all the present-day front-line workers, a lot of people can get behind a brand that is willing to cut into their profits to give back to the people that matter. For those holiday shoppers who want to give back and contribute along with purchasing gifts for their loved ones or themselves.
This is a powerful way to connect with your audience, while also showing love and appreciation for a good cause; it's a win-win.
List your products for free on Google Shopping
Tying together with all the above points, and the most important element for your online retail business is having it accessible and searchable online. We are in the midst of an eCommerce boom, and with the amount of online shopping predicted to increase by 61% this year, make Google your best friend.
Heard about Free Product Listings by Google?
Start by making sure your products are listed on Google Shopping for free to tap into a massive customer base searching for products to buy, and optimize for consumer behavior by keeping your inventory information up to date: including quantity, return shipping labels, route planning, and courier information.
Don’t be afraid to add great creatives to your product listings, as another major benefit of Google Shopping is its ability to showcase your products in a text-heavy search environment. Pair that with an increase of 30% conversion over regular text- based ads, multiple SERP placements and a dedicated shopping tab, this where your business needs to be.
For thesereasons, eShipper is proudly associated with Google Shoppingto support Canadian businesses to list their products on Google to increase visibility and sell more. Reach out to us today to see we can help you get started to list on Google.
To sum it up
With the online retail space becoming more digitized and transforming almost into a virtual mall of sort shoppers are expected to increase the amount of time they spend searching, browsing and buying online for this coming holiday season.
Having your business setup in this space will allow you to tap into this newfound market of last-minute shoppers, and increase the chances of your brand being on a global scale while boosting your profit margins.
And by adapting your business today with the buying habits of the new generation of consumers, you are future-proofing your success in delivering exceptional customer experience for generations to come.
