Last Minute eCommerce Holiday Tips and Tricks

It’s the most beautiful time of the year unless you’re an eCommerce business owner scrambling to get everything ready for the holiday rush. 

If you’re behind on your holiday preparations, don’t worry. There’s still a lot of time to get everything ready and prepare your business for the influx of holiday shoppers.

This article will discuss a few last-minute tips and tricks to help your eCommerce business make it through the holiday season.

Let’s start.

Level up your customer service strategies

Your customer service team will be working overtime during the holidays, so it’s vital to ensure they’re well-prepared. Have friendly customer service representatives on standby for any questions or complaints.

Customer service representatives are essential during the holiday season. How they handle your customers can make or break your business, as shown in the data below:

• Statistics say 81% of customers consider excellent customer service a critical factor in making another purchase.
• A single negative customer experience is enough to make 61% of consumers switch to another brand.

Your customer service representatives are the ones who will be dealing with any queries and other types of grievances from customers, so it’s necessary to keep them well-equipped for the job, especially during the holidays.

• Ensure your customer service team is friendly and knowledgeable. Train them on your company’s policies. They should also be familiar with the products you sell so that they can answer any customer questions.
• Create a holiday customer service plan that outlines how you’ll deal with increased call volume, longer wait times, and other common issues.
• Establish a system for processing returns quickly and efficiently
• Train your team on handling disgruntled customers

Don’t forget to offer holiday-themed customer service perks, such as extended hours, holiday discounts, or free shipping. These few extras can make a huge difference in making your customers feel valued and appreciated.

Check out what worked last year

Determine what you did last holiday season and see how you can improve it this time.  After all, 61% of small-to-medium businesses found that more than 50% of their revenue comes from repeat customers, so using the same methods might lead them to shop back at your store.

• Determine what type of content or advertisement performed significantly well at that time and identify whether you can replicate or improve it.
• You can also examine your site traffic and sales data to see which marketing channels generate the most traffic and conversions. Doing so will help you focus your resources on the areas that give you the best ROI. 
• Refer to Google Analytics to see which pages on your website got the most traffic and for how long each visitor stayed on that page. From there, you can further analyze which products were the most popular and see how you can position them better this year.
• Knowing what days were the busiest in the past can also help you prepare your inventory and staffing to avoid getting overwhelmed and stressed during the holiday rush.
• Also, don’t forget to check what deals and promotions you ran last year. If they gave you increased revenue, see if you can either repeat them or offer something even better this holiday season.

Use striking visuals

Make sure your website and social media platforms are visually appealing. Images are an excellent method to convey a message fast since the brain can comprehend them in less than 5% of a second. 

Furthermore, making them is simple if you have the right tools. To make your website more visually appealing, consider the following:

• Adding holiday-themed banners or images. Doing this doesn’t have to be expensive. You can always look for free tools to use, like Canva, to create them.
• Using high-quality product photos or videos. If you don’t have any, you can take some yourself with a smartphone or hire a professional photographer.
• Utilizing engaging visuals, like infographics and GIFs, to show off your products or services’ features and benefits.
• Including customer testimonials and reviews in images to build social proof and increase your conversion rate.
• Sharing this content on social media and using relevant hashtags to attract more attention.

Remember, you don’t have to spend much time and money creating good visual content. You can even find free stock photos online that you can use for your website or social media posts.

Just make sure they’re high-quality and relevant to what you’re trying to promote.

Offer a variety of options for pick-up

Shopify reports that a buy online, pick-up in-store type of shopping appeals to 59% of shoppers. If you have a physical location, take advantage of this by offering customers the option to pick up their orders instead of waiting for them to arrive by mail.

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced many businesses to change the way they operate. And since the virus is still active, you need to take the necessary precautions to protect yourself, your employees, and your customers.

Offering a variety of pick-up options for your customers provides them with a safe and convenient way to shop while reducing the risk of exposure to the virus. It also offers flexibility, which is something that highly matters to shoppers. 

You can allow them to choose between curbside, in-store, or contactless pick-up. And if you want to be extra safe, you can set up a drive-thru pick-up system.

This way, you can make safety a priority while making the pick-up process more efficient at the same time.

When offering pick-up options for your customers, keep in mind to:

• Have enough staff to handle the increased number of orders.
• Ensure your pick-up area is clean and organized to minimize contact between employees and customers.
• Communicate with your customers about the pick-up process and what they need to do to minimize contact and exposure to the virus.

Use a mobile-friendly page or website

Because smartphones are convenient for shopping, an increasing number of people use them to shop for the holidays, so having a mobile-friendly website is essential for your eCommerce business.

In 2021 alone, Americans spent more than $200 billion online during the holiday season, and 39% of the completed online transactions made from November 1, 2021, to December 31, happened via smartphones.

To create a mobile-friendly website:

• Use a responsive design that adjusts the page layout to fit the screen size of the device used by the customer, or create a separate mobile website.
• Use a plugin or app. There are plugins and apps you can use to make your website mobile-friendly.
• Simplify the design. Always keep the layout clean and easy to navigate.
• Use large, easy-to-read text.
• Use large buttons and icons.
• Minimize the use of drop-down menus.
• Use mobile-optimized images.
• Speed is essential. Make sure the website loads quickly.
• Include push notifications to keep your customers up-to-date with your latest deals, discounts, and promotions.

On top of providing a mobile-friendly and easy-to-navigate website, don’t forget to make the checkout process as smooth and quick as possible to guarantee a hassle-free purchase.

Understand your customers

To create a successful holiday marketing campaign, you must understand your customers’ needs and pain points.

Knowing these things can help you secure products and offers that address their problems and needs.

For instance, if you know that your customers are looking for unique and personalized gifts, you can create content that showcases your unique and customized products to encourage them to browse through your site and make a purchase.

If your customers are looking for gifts that are easy to wrap, you can make a list of suggestions and demonstrate how your customers can present them as nicely, quickly, and efficiently as possible.

Since affordability is always a plus, you can introduce your most affordable products, offers, and deals to your customers, including discounts and other coupons, to express gratitude for their continued support.

The bottom line is you need to understand your customers’ wants, needs, and pain points so you can make a campaign that will strongly appeal to them and encourage them to buy from you.

You can also connect with your customers in-person to build a sense of community, making them feel appreciated and more likely to return to your store in the future. Organize events, such as holiday parties, meet-and-greets, or gift exchanges, and provide exclusive deals to customers.

Key takeaways

As an eCommerce business, you can develop a relevant and successful holiday marketing campaign that will help you grow your sales and business by:

• Leveling up your customer strategies
• Checking out previous years’ data
• Using striking visuals
• Offering a variety of options for pick-up
• Utilizing a mobile-friendly site, and 
• Understanding your customers

Conclusion

The holiday season can boost your eCommerce business, but you must be fully prepared to handle all the surges of customers coming your way.

However, doing this doesn’t have to be expensive. Bookmark has all the solutions and tools you need to build a strong online presence for your business.

By following the tips in this guide, you can create a successful holiday marketing campaign and attract more customers willing to buy from you.

Stay tuned with us in the upcoming weeks for more guides on eCommerce and the holidays!