Do you own an online business or retails store? Looking to acquire more business this holiday season, this article is for you. Before we start sharing tips, here are 3 early holiday shopping trends you should know.

First – In USA, people started their holiday shopping early this year and accordingly given research over 31% of US shoppers started their shopping in June.

Second – As you already know that the Covid has largely impact the buying behavior, over 47% of US consumer expect that the Covid-19 will impact how they shop this holiday season due to supply-chain challenges and other covid related safety measure.

Third – This holiday season, people are more inclined to support local businesses for holiday shopping. Over 60% of US consumers who are planning to shop this holiday say they will shop more at local small businesses.

With the holiday season knocking round the corner, it will be a busy time for shoppers and as such online retailers. According to given statistic, more than 31% of shoppers already started their holiday shopping long before black Friday.

Retailers, all across the globe will be fighting hard to make their catalogues stand out and attract the maximum amount of traffic to increase holiday sales. Looking back at the shopping behavior and the changing trends during the past few year, you need to understand the micro moments which maximize holiday sales.

Tips to Increase Holiday Sales this Season

As there are various ways to increase sales but in our list; we will mainly focus on tips to implement within small time frame as holiday season is nearby.

#1  Be Prepared for Increased Demand

Checking data since a last couple of seasons, the traffic on eCommerce websites have double on a yearly basis. More and more consumers are looking to place their orders online than visit real time stores. The traffic for all combined eCommerce site started increasing from the month of July. This year, we can confidently say that not only are the modern consumers shifting towards online marketplaces but they are also earlier to book their orders as compare to previous year.

As per recent research published by Think With Google, over 55% shoppers says, they would buy from the companies which make it easy to do what they want without talking with anyone. It is thus advisable to place your marketing goals early and try to push them through to the potential crowd. You should not forget to test your holiday readiness to avoid real-time crashes.

If you are an offline store, you must keep focusing on your inventory in advance. According to recent study published by Google, searches for “in stock” related key phrases has grown over 800% year over year! This rightly represent the intent of prospect who are more interested to buy product from local store who already stock the product.

Solution for you

If you are an online retailer and operating your business since long, you must have data for previous period. Start gathering those data and compare different metric to drive some conclusion. You can also study your competitors to understand the increased demand and can accordingly stock the products.

Pro Tip

As demand increases, you will have added opportunity to capture this open market by adapting different marketing channels.

Now, big shopping days are divided in to smaller span upon increased use of smartphone purchase. According to Google, around (31%) of shoppers already started their shopping from June, we should keep running highly targeted ads to acquire these shoppers as well. Rather than focusing on only specific holidays dates, you should study your website traffic and user behaviors and can start promoting your products in advance.

#2 Local + Online = Best Combination Ever

If you are operating your business online and also having your offline store, you can utilize this combination with the help of below Google feature:

1. Create and maintain your local business listing (Built your digital store front)
2. Now add your in-store product inventory
3. Showcase your inventory with local inventory ads
4. Grow your omnichannel sales

There are various success stories about this multi channel marketing strategies and you can replicate the same strategy by implementing below detailed guide.

#3  Play Smart to Beat Your Competitors

Holiday season is considered as the most competitive shopping season for retailers. You need to play smart to stay in competition by keeping your eye on competitor’s pricing and offers. Marketing and promotions has been a key driver to getting over the increasing competition in online marketplaces.

As per recent research published at ThinkWithGoogle:

• Over 92% of shoppers will check and compare the price of same product on online sellers to get lowest possible price.
• Over 91% shoppers say that the lowest price is the most important factor they consider while buying any products online and FREE shipping is second most important factors.

Apart from these, there are numbers of factors that affect shopper’s buying decisions.

Solution for you:

Experts advise online retailers to make maximum use of Google shopping campaign this year and add to the credibility of their business by registering as a Google Trusted Store. Elements such as product reviews and ratings, Google product shopping campaign and competitive pricing analysis can give added advantages.

Pro Tip:

Keep monitoring the pricing strategies of your competitors and accordingly increase or reduce the price of your products. It will help you to reduce the abandoned shopping cart rate on your eCommerce website. DigiFloor has recently published a detailed article explaining the importance of competitive pricing analysis.

#4  Connecting with mobile shoppers

The modern customer always looks for convenience and mobile presents a great platform for the same. Globally, the statics portray that Google Shopping has sent three times more traffic every year. As such, retailers this year should make sure that mobile shopping gain prominence in their marketing strategies.

As per Google’s research data:

This includes app usage and downloads, which we’ve seen reflected on Google, where searches for “online shopping app download” have grown globally by over 300% year over year.

Solution for you:

To acquire mobile users, it is very important for you to have mobile browser compatible website. If your website is still not support mobile browsers, checkout our creative services to get your responsive design.

Pro Tip:

Once you are ready with mobile browser compatible website, start promoting your products by targeting mobile audience too. Google ads provides flexibility to target specific audiences based on their interest and search habits. You can also launch mobile application for your business to offer additional facilities to your customers.

As per recent study published by Google; on an average mobile shopping is 18% highers on Sunday. This study will help you to increase or decrease your mobile paid marketing budget during weekend to acquire this customers. Checkout below image depict this behavior of mobile shoppers.

#5  Omnichannel Engagement

Consumer journey is now not limited to just retail or online touch point. It is more omnichannel than ever and considered as a key element to achieve success online. If you haven’t already, make sure you engage more with your customers, asking what they demand, finding every customer the right gifts, offering special services to loyal customers, and make sure that they come back to your site more than often.

As you can see the complete life-cycle of the shopper’s behavior here, a well define strategy can drive great success this holiday season.

Here are certain key elements of customer engagement:

• Give quick response to your customer’s query
• Unique holiday promotions (offering free shipping, 24 hour cyber specials, etc)
• VIP treatment to loyal customers (special flash sales, shopping cart discounts, etc)
• More gifts and freebies
• Customize your website in holiday theme to give fresh look
• Starting with a holiday oriented SEO strategy
• Omni channel sales, adding convenience to the shopper
• Test everything and be ready for the surge in traffic!

Solution for you:

Social media is considered as the best platform for customer engagement. If you are not active on social media, do it now. Building social media presence requires skill and time. Initially start with few platforms and eventually increase your reach. Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest are the most suitable social media platforms for customer engagement. Create your brand and local business pages on given social media website and start engaging with your customers.

Pro tip:

Keep running paid campaign at given social media platform during festival season. You can promote your brand or products by targeting specific audiences based on their interest, age, location and many more factors. You can also push your reputation management campaign to improve your brand visibility across different platforms like Yelp, Local circle etc.

#6 Utilization of Video Platform:

According to Google’s, over 90% of people are discovering new brands and products on YouTube and over 40% of these people have purchased one or more of these brands and products.

Solution for you:

Start creating videos or ask your existing buyers to share their experience buying your products and publish them on their YouTube channel.

Pro Tip:

If you are having marketing budget, hire influencers from influencer marketplaces like YouTube BrandConnect and create marketing campaign about your products. This will help you to reach large audiences through influencer who can produce and publish review at respective YouTube channels.

Over to you:

The next couple of months will be a busy time for all types of retailers, be it online or offline. Make sure you get the best out of the opportunity by considering tips and solutions discussed in this article. Do you have any query or need any help to promote your business on this holiday season; Contact Us now! We will get back to you within 24 hours!