5 Proven Ways To Prepare Your Business For The Year End Sales Season 2021
1. Personalized Holiday Incentives
Who doesn’t love a good deal? More so during the holiday season when buying mode is switched on. Studies show that 48% of buyers are constantly on the lookout for the best price or promotions, it’s difficult to count on loyalty. The challenge for most merchants is to stay top-of-mind with current customers during this high-volume time of year.
A survey by McKinsey has shown that since March, over 60% of global consumers have tried a new shopping behaviour in response to economic pressures, store closings and changing priorities. In particular, 40% have shopped at a new retailer and one-third have experimented with a different brand of product. Gen Z and high earners have been the most prone to switching brands. The survey goes further to show that only 12% intend to stick with the same retailers they shopped with last year.
Merchants have an opportunity to win back loyalty by making their omnichannel shopping experience stand out, understanding what their customers want and zooming in on your audience with relevant gift ideas.
Personalization and social media engagement could hold the key to winning new and existing customers this holiday season.
2. Know Your Audience & Align your Inventory Plan
Understanding your shoppers’ preferences is going to be critical as you plan inventories for the holidays and beyond.
Wellness, physical activity and outdoor activities are booming.
As more of us return to in-person activities and step back towards normalcy, many are looking to revamp wardrobes and shift away from stay-at-home outfits.
Be sure to use the tools available on your marketplace platforms to understand site traffic, sales and conversion rates, average order value and other available statistics to understand where or what they are looking and buying. It is only when you know how your customers shop, you can optimise your site and inventory to deliver what they want.
3. Ensure Inventory Is Adequate & Accurately Updated Across All Channels
As the holiday season is peppered by various campaigns across the various marketplaces, it is pertinent to ensure that your inventory is adequate and promptly updated across all platforms to prevent overselling situations. As studies have shown that buying behaviours during the holiday season is less tolerant than that of a regular period, hence the importance of maintaining up to date & accurate inventory across all your sales channels.
4. Shorten Steps to Cart Out
To ensure an optimal user experience, businesses should consider the entire customer journey. Every click and touchpoint from the start to end should be purposeful and simple.
Businesses’ can reduce friction by ensuring fast loading of the sites, mobilie friendly navigation, and that customers are not required to create accounts to cart out.
Ensuring quick, convenient transactions is essential in today’s digital world.
By integrating a seamless checkout option that works just as well on mobile phone and tablets as it does on desktops and laptops is crucial. By enabling ayment options like buy now pay later, credit cards, digital wallets, contactless, paynow and others, you can let customers pay their preferred way without slowing things down.
Zero friction, reduced cart abandonment and more satisfied shoppers.
5. Mark The Dates & Prepare Early
With multiple campaigns across multiple platforms, it can get quite confusing as a seller. As every platform e.g. Shopee / Lazada / Amazon has their respective campaign days for different category segments. Do ensure that you are consistently aligned with the dates and apply early during the nomination periods to prevent missing out on the action.
Campaign participation may vary across multiple platforms with differing requirements e.g. cover pictures of certain size and specifications. Hence it is good to find out what the requirements are in advance such that early preparations can be made before nomination day.
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