Hit the online retail jackpot with these simple tips to drive online sales for Christmas 2019.
’Tis the season to shop, shop shop. Which means it's the ultimate chance for your business to close the year on a revenue high. In fact, it’s estimated that there are now 1.92 billion global digital buyers.
As more and more shoppers turn to online retailers, the potential for sales has never been greater — and the competition for transactions has never been fiercer. Here are six ways you can stay one step ahead and maximise e-commerce sales during the festive period.
Tip #1: Use a conversion rate optimisation (CRO) tool
The time between Black Friday and New Year is a huge opportunity to boost your website’s performance and increase sales. One of the easiest ways to find out how you can do this is to use a CRO tool. These all-important tools help you optimise your site to enhance the likelihood that visitors will complete the desired action (such as a purchase). Depending on the tool you choose, you’ll be able to see which stage (or stages) of the shopping journey that customers are abandoning your website. You’ll then get recommendations on how to enhance that page (or stage) to deliver the results you want. These could include decreasing the page’s length, adding (or enhancing the colour of) a CTA, adding an exit-intent popup, and so on. Some of the most useful CRO tools include CrazyEgg, Heap Analytics, Smartlook and Google Optimize.
Tip #2 personalise the shopper experience
Shoppers are getting smarter – and their demands are getting higher — so creating a personalised shopping experience has never been more important. Customisations can be as broad or as personalised as you like, so long as the pages and products being displayed are relevant. You can tailor pages (and optimise conversions) by taking into account what products a user has previously browsed, what content they’ve interacted with and what they’ve seen in third-party advertisements.
Tip #3 Enhance the product experience
Personalisation is a recurring theme — and it certainly doesn’t end with the content you display to each user. The ability to personalise products creates a unique, interactive and memorable experience that’s an ideal solution to make your brand stand apart without having to slash prices. As an added bonus, the active user experience can also lead to a more impactful experience and better conversion rates.
Tip #4: Opt for targeted campaigns
There’s no one-size-fits-all when it comes to digital ad campaigns. Gone are the days where you can cast your (advertising) net wide to reach as many customers as possible. With so many online retailers competing for your share of the market, there’s never been a better time to target your ad spend. Whether it’s PPC, Google Ads or social media promotions, each channel should have a clear and tailored approach to keep your costs low and your conversions high.
Tip #5: Use AI to deliver exceptional customer service
Though the majority of digital shoppers will know the ins and outs of online shopping, there will always be questions that need answering. And they will expect to be answered quickly. Having multiple forms of customer communication is vital if you’re expecting a surge in traffic during the Christmas period. AI, on-demand chatbots and automated messaging can all help you meet the demand of Christmas communications, manage customer expectations, and keep your customer service levels high. And the results don’t end there. We’ve helped clients increase ROI by as much as 17,261% with the help of AI.
Tip #6: Don’t forget about video
Digitally fluent shoppers can’t get enough of video content. According to Hubspot, over 50% of internet users prefer video over emails, social, and blogs. Thanks to mobile searches, social media channels and live streaming, video is fast becoming your go-to marketing tool to reach consumers. If you’re looking to drive more website traffic this Christmas then a video is one of the best ways to achieve this. It’s not only linked to increased lead generation, higher conversions and higher click rates, but can also increase sales by almost 150%. In fact, Google estimates that almost half of internet users look for video content when considering a purchase.
There’s no single digital marketing strategy that works for every e-commerce business, so be sure to pick and choose the parts that are most relevant to yours. If you need some help implementing any of these approaches to maximise your sales this December, then drop our digital experts a line here.
