One commonality among all the eCommerce giants is that during the festive season they’re all hyperactive with their festive marketing strategy. It’s that time of the year when online shoppers go on a shopping spree! From Walmart, eBay, Etsy to small-and-medium online retailers – everyone has their festive marketing strategy ready for the holiday season! Online stores during the festive season might look easy to set-up but it’s not as easy as it sounds!
If you think that last year’s festive marketing strategy would do well this year then you’re probably wrong! Something’s different about this year’s holiday season. With the pandemic & festive season together, online retailers need to revise their festive marketing strategy.
Keeping the sudden shifts in mind, this article is for online sellers. It’s going to help them to add life to their festive marketing strategy.
Do you know the flip side of the whole story? While the pandemic & festive season are together this year, a lot of people think that it’s not the apt time to set up an online store. But if we take a closer look, you’ll come to know that online selling is at a whole new frequency!
Festive season 2020 is probably the best time to go online!
This article will help you in revamping your festive marketing strategy. As eCommerce enthusiasts, there are CedCommerce services for online retailers to make sure that you don’t miss out on the opportunity to sell online during this holiday season.
23 Checkpoints for Festive Marketing Strategy 2020 –
We have compiled 23 checkpoints that you can incorporate into your festive marketing strategy this year. Let’s have a look at each one of them –
- Find Superstar Products in Your Store – Before festive season takes on its heat, it’s advisable to jot down a list of items that have been purchased the most by your customers previously.
You can promote these products as a great gifting idea during this holiday season! - Check Inventory Levels – Inventory management is of utmost importance. Don’t ever let shoppers know that your online store during festival time is running out of inventory.
- Invest in Video Marketing – That’s the most underrated (yet an important) part of a festive marketing strategy. With a one-minute video of product showcasing, you can do wonders!
Internet users spend at least 6 hours every day watching videos!
If you come up with a catchy product showcasing videos, then results (in the form of traffic) are unimaginable! Video marketing is one of the CedCommerce services for online retailers.
Get in touch with our creative team & see your products talking in the video! - Create Festive Specific Landing Pages – After you’ve decided which festivals and holidays you’re targetting this year, the next step is to create festival specific landing pages. During Halloween time, give your store a spooky look! During Diwali and Thanksgiving light up your online store with shimmering effects!
Festive specific landing pages have more chances to get clicked!
- Enter Marketplaces – If you haven’t considered selling on marketing, then you’re missing out on a great opportunity! There are 60+ global marketplaces with an unimaginable customer base!
Having second doubts? You can get in touch with us and we’ll assist you. With CedCommerce services for online retailers, you can start selling on marketplaces like Facebook, Walmart, eBay, and Etsy. There is much more to it. Go global by entering marketplaces during this festive season! - Sponsored Content – Don’t forget to reach out to influencers during this festive season! Influencers are the best way to promote your product. You can offer them your product for free and ask for a video of product unboxing! You should include influencers in your festive marketing strategy if you want to generate hype about your product!
- Gift Cards – They are useful for the hard-to-buy-for crowd. With pandemic & festive together this year, online retailers are doing well because of gift cards. It’s a good way to hold customers so that when the time is right they can shop at discounted rates.
- Allow Personalized Gift Messages – Who doesn’t love personalization? Let customers add a message for the gift recipient at purchase. Depending on your fulfillment strategy, you can either have them printed on the packing or include them separately on a holiday card from your store! These small-small value additions are going to boost your festive marketing strategy this year!
- Make Your Store Ready to Handle the Traffic – You sure don’t want your eCommerce store to crash during the festive season! CedCommerce services for online retailers make sure that store owners are running a responsive and speedy website that’s crucial from the SEO point of view.
- Are You Having the Must-Have Apps? – Abandoned carts, email marketing, CTAs in your online store during the festival time can do wonders!
Don’t you want your customers to receive an email as soon as they place an order? Sure you want to!
With CedCommerce services for online retailers, back-up your eCommerce store with the necessary apps so that you don’t miss out on an opportunity in convincing, and converting your target audience! - Run Broken Link Checker – You surely don’t want your customers to bump into a page that doesn’t exist. Before the festive season begins, you need to run a broken link checker and make sure that there are no pages like –
It’s our suggestion to not only run a broken link checker during this festive season, but you should be doing it at regular intervals of time! - Decorate Your Online Store During Festive Season – Sometimes a couple of brains are better than one. You can get in touch with our designers and give a festive touch to your online store!
CedCommerce services for online retailers include store development, customizations of all kinds. - Use Header Area to Sell – Copywriting! During normal days, your store’s header area might have a menu and a logo. But during the holiday season, you can utilize this area and convince visitors to take action! Just one of the creative festive marketing strategies that you can test and see the magic happening!
- Redo Product Descriptions – Usually, store owners hardly revise product descriptions during the festive season!
An effective festive marketing strategy calls for the revision of product descriptions. Take festive related keywords into consideration. SEO practices are never static – they are dynamic in nature. With pandemic & festive season together in 2020, product descriptions call for reconsideration. - Work on Cross-Selling and Up-Selling – One great example is Amazon! You might be out there purchasing a backpack but you’ll also see water bottles, wristwatches, and whatnot. That’s cross-selling and up-selling!
Always include cross-selling and up-selling in your festive marketing strategy. You can also get in touch with us to understand how this concept works and how you can reap the best out of it.
Reconvert is a great app for Shopify store owners to make sure they have done everything for a great cross-selling and up-selling platform in their Shopify store. - Highlight Product Reviews & Testimonials – This helps in building customer’s trust and confidence. Don’t forget to add customer reviews to your festive marketing strategy! This might not directly bring traffic to your store, but it’ll definitely help the existing traffic to build trust.
Before finally purchasing a product, customers lookout for product reviews and testimonials!
- Display Recognizable Logos – Work on your favicons, security badges, and logos of payment options, suppliers. Your store’s logo should be visible, and intriguing!
Logos are more recognizable than a company’s name or its USP!
- Run Contests or Giveaways – You can include contests and giveaway in your festive marketing strategy. Ask your target audience to act! Create unique hashtags and ask your customers to use it during the time of contests! This might just be a turnaround point for your online store during the festive season!
- Use Simple & Relevant Keywords – An effective festive marketing strategy is incomplete without a great SEO plan. Do your keyword research well and make sure you optimize your online store during the festive season.
Words like Christmas and gifts are magical as we move towards the 4th quarter of the year. Be sure to include such keywords (depending on the festivals you’ll be targeting). - Create Urgency for Cart Abandoners – Cart abandonment is inevitable. During the festive season, you need to create urgency by sending mails to the people who have abandoned their carts.
CedCommerce services for online retailers make sure that your store is backed up with essentials so that you don’t miss communicating with your customers. - Free Shipping – This might cost you some bucks. But don’t hesitate to do this – Add free shipping throughout the holiday season!
If you’re able to give the same-day shipping, then that’s something commendable. It’s going to help you to stay ahead of the competition. - Consider Gift Wrapping – Small-small value additions in your festive marketing strategy could do wonders! If there’s a gift-wrapping service in your online store during the festive season, it’s something great and adds a lot of value!
- Install Live Chat – We recommend that you should add chatbots to your online store. Program chatbots to wish users, ask them to stay safe, and see the impressed expressions of online shoppers!
So, there were 23 checkpoints that you can consider while planning your festive marketing strategy! Before we conclude, here are some dos and don’ts that we thought of sharing –
Do’s –
- Start Early – Promotion and spreading the word takes time. Don’t wait for the festive season. You should start promoting your online store during the festive season way before people get into a festive mood!
- Know Your Store’s Limits – Managing humongous traffic is not an easy thing to do! Make sure your eCommerce store is fully optimized before you bet heavy bucks on it.
- Imagine Worst-Case Scenarios – Always have a back-up plan during worst-case scenarios. Sales not happening? Run aggressive ads. Still not happening? Try integrating into a marketplace for better exposure.
- Make the Payment Method Easy – Put quite a few popular options for payments especially during festival season. You don’t want your customers to abandon the cart just because your store doesn’t allow credit card transactions.
Don’ts –
- Ignore Timing – Ads, landing pages, promotions on social media, everything should be done timely (and with consistency). Starting too early might dilute the aura of your festive marketing strategy Starting too late will definitely land you nowhere!
- Forget Your Loyal Customers – Consider VIP incentives and always give your loyal customers a reason to shop only through your online store.
You can get in touch with CedCommerce services for online retailers to know more about how you can manage your loyal customer base so that they help you in bringing more traffic to your online store during the festival time! - Make Major Changes – If you’re considering making some major changes in your online store, you should do it 6 months before the festive season kicks off! If you’re willing to make big changes (like entering marketplaces, domain changes) you should consider an expert.
Big changes might cost you traffic (forget about the monetary expenses) if you don’t do it on time and if you don’t do it correctly!
Summing Up –
So this was all from our end. The Internet is full of many other checkpoints, but we don’t want you to get lost and end up doing minimal things!
With the pandemic & festive season together this time, you just need to revise your festive marketing strategy and stop worrying much about the results.
And don’t forget, there are CedCommerce services for online retailers, to make sure you have a smooth eCommerce journey during any time of the year!
Happy selling!