Three ecommerce tactics to boost your sales this festive season – Econsultancy

As Black Friday approaches, ecommerce businesses are preparing for the arrival of peak shopping season. And with factors such as huge online demand and a glut of excess stock as a result of Covid-19, many retailers and brands are anticipating this year’s peak shopping season to be a big one.

Research from Fresh Relevance’s The New Normal Festive Shopping Report backs this up, with survey data revealing that more consumers will do their festive shopping online this year. What’s more, online retailers are also presented with the opportunity to convert new customers, as 25% of shoppers plan to use Black Friday and Cyber Monday to buy from retailers they haven’t purchased from before.

But before you sit back and wait for the sales to roll in, this year’s peak shopping season is also set to be more competitive than ever. And with almost one in three businesses starting their promotions and sales earlier this year, it’s time to start preparing and ensure your ecommerce store is ready for the golden quarter.

Here are three ecommerce tactics that will help you resonate with consumers and boost your festive shopping sales.

1. Dynamic content

Dynamic content is a good idea all year round, as it gives marketers the power to personalize every step of the customer journey with minimal manual effort. But during the holiday season, the need to promote up-to-date offers and leverage live inventory and pricing makes it all the more crucial. Fresh Relevance research shows that 41% of shoppers consider value for money a key purchase driver this holiday season and almost one in three will prioritize online sales or discounts when gift shopping online.

Here are a couple of ways to use dynamic content to highlight discounts and value for money in your festive shopping marketing.

Countdown timers

In the lead-up to significant events like Black Friday and Christmas sales, countdown timers build excitement and remind customers to keep coming back to your store. To make your countdown timers even more effective, merge them with customer data – for example, to address a customer by their first name.

Dynamic pricing

During Black Friday, price slashing and extra discounts mean prices are often more fluid than normal. So it’s important to deliver the most up-to-date pricing to your shoppers to avoid frustration and lost sales. Use dynamic pricing in your flash deal emails, serving customers live pricing at the time of opening the email.

2. Back in stock alerts

Increased seasonal demand can often mean products go out of stock. The effect can be highly frustrating for customers, who expect to be able to purchase what they want, when they want it. In fact, 26% of consumers cite products that are sold out online with no information provided if and when they will be restocked as their top Black Friday and Christmas marketing frustration.

But marketers have the ability to turn an out-of-stock product into a positive customer interaction and recover potential lost revenue. Use customers’ browse data to trigger an automatic email to everyone who has shown interest once the product has been restocked.

3. Data capture popovers

The festive shopping season presents a golden opportunity to gain new customers. The quest for deals and discounts can bring many shoppers to your website for the first time, and with Covid-19 driving more people online, the number of new shoppers is likely to increase this year.

Make sure you leverage this behavior and get a data capture strategy in place to grow your email list.

But before you ramp up the pop-ups, traditional data capture pop-ups might be doing more harm than good. Almost one in three consumers claim pop-ups that make browsing harder are their top Black Friday and Christmas marketing frustration.

Instead, consider using their less intrusive cousin – the popover. Here are a couple of ways to increase email sign ups with popovers based on shoppers’ behavior.

Offer a discount

When a new visitor comes to your website, you can present a popover offering a discount on their first order when they sign up. This serves two purposes: the visitor identifies themselves with their email address and is tempted to make a purchase. And we saw earlier, many consumers will be motivated by discounts and sales this year.

Offer Black Friday discount alerts

There’s no need to wait until the holiday season is in full swing to up your data capture game. As the occasion approaches, visitors can sign up to hear first about festive offers.

This year’s peak shopping season is set to be more competitive than ever, but by implementing these three consumer insight-led eCommerce tactics, you can convert more holiday shoppers into customers.