How to Drive Higher Revenues this Holiday Season

Holiday Season Potential

In the last few months, inflation has affected consumers' lives from gas stations to online shopping. It’s not much of a surprise with supply chain issues arising from the pandemic compounded with shortages from the conflict in Ukraine.

Drawing from basic laws of demand, the less there is of something, the higher its price will be. This explains many of the issues in our current economy, as prices for just about everything seem to be rising with no end in sight. But higher costs are not the only concern businesses face: with tighter wallets, customers become choosier, meaning a positive memorable shopping experience is more important than ever. 

Consumers bear a large part of the burden with increasing prices, making access to routine as well luxury goods nearly impossible at times. But still, producers, and specifically e-commerce brands, are impacted by the current crisis. The challenge is to navigate how to run a profitable business while keeping customers happy when production costs seem to be growing every day.

So, how can you balance rising costs while maintaining a positive consumer experience? Find our advice below!

Organize Your Teams and Processes

Online sales move quickly and are only heightened during the holiday season. Making sure you have the right people and the right processes in place is vital for seamless online operations. Get your operations in place as far in advance as possible to avoid any blocking points starting on Black Friday.

Centralize your E-commerce Tools for Efficiency

Jumping from tool to tool not only wastes time, but also increases the chance of error both for operations, but also for making sense of the data. With a support ecosystem integrated to one platform like Shipup, your teams can be proactive rather than reactive both managing orders all while accurately remaining data-driven. Black Friday will have an overwhelming amount of support tickets and your teams need to be prepared

Assign Responsibilities Accordingly

Work with your teams in advance to create common goals and assign who takes which tasks. Prioritize your tasks list and after the minimal amount of people needed to complete those tasks and reach those goals.

Build a Marketing Strategy that Wins

The holiday season brings brands huge earnings if done well. Creating strong marketing and communications about promotions, new product offers, events, and more can help to build anticipation from your audience and increase sales. Don’t overlook abandoned cart alerts! According to statistics published by Societal, abandoned cart pop ups have a conversion of 21.68% on Black Friday and continue during the entire holiday season.

Prepare Your product Pages and Gain Visibility

Whatever you decide to do, be honest with your customers. While the news is filled with stories of shortages and ever increasing prices, some consumers don’t realize the true impact this has on businesses. All they see is that their expenses have risen.

So be clear with them! What were your options? Which one did you pick? Why did you pick it? While you can’t do much about the negative impact it has on your clients, you can at least make sure they feel listened to and consulted. This can only strengthen their loyalty towards you and, while they may not be able to stay with you now, you’ll be first in their mind when their wallet allows. You can find a great example with this article by Asphalte!

“The big mission is to straighten out an industry that has gone into a spin.”

^{-Maxime, CAL/CRM Manager at Asphalte}

Go Beyond With a Unique Customer Experience

Shopping virtually still requires a few personal touches to stand out against the competition. Remain memorable this holiday shopping season with a unique, personalized customer experience. 

Give as much precise information as possible while remaining easy to understand

The more content you have on the product and check out page, the more conversion you will get. Including reviews, new product offers, sales and delivery estimates throughout the website are effective ways to automatically communicate and inform your customers at every step of the buying journey.

Show off the ways to use your product‍

Part of branding is showing how the product is used everyday. Investing in the images and descriptions on your website helps your customers envision how their gift will be used on the daily. Go a step further and reinforce the holiday theme within this content.

Don’t overlook the post-purchase and return journey

Keep your customers informed, specifically during the delivery. Creating a branded, seamless delivery experience filled with exact delivery steps, additional product offers, and more will increase satisfaction and the chance of repurchase. Don’t forget to include cart abandonment emails as well.