No, you aren’t seeing things… it’s that time already. The holiday season is upon us.
If you haven’t started planning, then it’s about time that you do – and if you’ve already started, it’s time to ramp that up too.
Holiday shopping may be a staple of retail, but with each passing year, it grows more on e-tail. For many a reason, more and more people are shopping online for the holiday season.
Alright, that’s enough with the rhyming.
It goes without saying, ecommerce makes holiday shopping practical and fun.
According to Adobe, holiday shoppers spent $142.5B online in November and December of 2019 – a 13.2% increase from 2018 (which saw 15.2% growth from 2017 sales). This holiday season, ecommerce sales are predicted to grow by as much as 25% to 35%, generating between $182B and $196B.
Historically, each year has seen substantial growth, but this year's predictions are bolder than usual considering COVID-19's effect on ecommerce. The challenges of 2020 have simply sped up the adoption of online shopping.
As always, preparation is key to acing 2020's upcoming holiday season.
Develop a holiday strategy
As much as there is to gain from holiday sales, there’s also much to lose if you don’t develop a well-rounded strategy.
After such an unprecedented year, consumers and businesses are well aware that this holiday season will be largely void of traditional holiday shopping. As a result, Bazaarvoice reports that 85% of surveyed retailers think online sales will increase compared to last year, and 61% expect higher engagement and/or purchasing through social media channels.
There's no doubt this year is going to be different (in a good way) for ecommerce, to say the least. A new Google blog details 5 major shifts in shopping behavior that we can expect this year:
- A month-long Cyber Monday: 62% of US shoppers say they'll start holiday shopping earlier to avoid crowds.
- Digital newcomers driving growth: 69% of US shoppers plan to shop online for the holidays more than in previous year.
- A skew toward online SKUs: 77% of US holiday shoppers say they intend to browse for gift ideas online, not in-store.
- The purpose-drive shopper: 66% of US holiday shoppers say they will shop more at small local businesses.
- Something new & something known: 1/3 of US shoppers have purchased from a brand that was new to them this year. Shoppers are ready to discover new brands and retailers as they shop for what they already know.
Check out Google's full holiday guide.
You want to set realistic goals and plan accordingly. If you overestimate your necessities, you may be left with excess inventory and wasted resources.
It's time to get proactive – especially if you haven't already kicked it into high gear. Your shoppers are already out there searching.
General prep
A good holiday strategy needs a strong foundation to function properly. You want the following to be covered by the time you're refining your holiday strategy.
- Strong product data: The importance of optimized product data cannot be overstated. Your product data needs to be clean, complete, SEOptimized, and tweaked for individual channel effectiveness. It's never too late to take your products to the next level.
- Peak channel compliance: If anything, this goes hand in hand with optimizing your product data. Make sure your products across all of your channels are fully compliant and error-free.
- Optimized channel presence: Involves both peak channel compliance and strong product data, plus fully utilizing all channel-specific options to boost your business. Are you taking advantage of all of your channels’ reporting tools? Marketing options? Brand personalization features?
- Polished website: Take time before the holidays to address any potential issues with your site, particularly when it comes to customer support and connecting with you.
- Mobile readiness: Far too much online shopping happens on mobile devices for your site to not already be mobile optimized.
Deck the halls with holiday content
Holiday-centered advertisements, blogs, social posts, etc. garner attention because they're all relevant to what people are shopping for. Before you start creating and distributing your holiday marketing content, be sure to do extensive holiday keyword research.
Holiday shopping references on your website also helps get visitors in the holiday shopping spirit. Don’t go overboard though, a little goes a long way here. The same goes for product listings, as well.
Consider the reasons that shoppers will be looking for your products. Framing products as “great stocking stuffers,” “techie gifts,” or “perfect for mom” will help connect your items with specific needs. Presenting your products in a certain way may be all it takes to get someone to consider one of your products over something else they had in mind.
If you do plan to create holiday content or theme your site and/or products, be sure to update your content calendar accordingly. Having a plan of action and a schedule to guide it is key to effective marketing. Just winging holiday content is less effective than having strong regular content.
Don’t just make holiday content for the sake of putting something out there. Make it useful and weave in some promos. People love promos.
Line up those promos
Nothing says “you should buy this right now” like a good promo.
A good promotion – especially one with a time-sensitive discount, bundle, or gift – creates a sense of urgency. In a world of fleeting attention spans, this is the best way to stand out against the competition.
Special event days such as Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Green Tuesday are the best days to offer deals and discounts. With the buying energy that is baked into these shopping holidays, the best of those deals have a chance to overperform.
Aside from the specific shopping holidays that benefit all who partake, you want your holiday strategy to involve other promos. The same hype can be drawn up at a personal level with the right promo(s) and the right marketing.
The easiest (and most functional) promotion you should always be leveraging is free shipping. After analyzing billions of advertiser data points, marketing firm Pattern89 found that there is large strategic advantage to promoting free shipping because it has the highest click-through rate of most common promotions.
“Most people would rather spend more money buying things they don’t need than pay for shipping costs” - Andrea Woroch, Budgeting Expert
When offering free shipping, be sure to take a close look at low-margin products or heavy freight items to ensure you’re still turning a profit.
Aside from free shipping and discounting your best sellers, consider your buyer's journey. When are buyers browsing for different products? When are they getting serious about making purchases? What holidays are they shopping for? The answers to these questions will help plan out your promotions.
You can also get tactical with gift bundles. Good bundles can increase your average order value, among other metrics. Not to mention, they can help push products that need some support.
It’s important to mindfully plot out your promos and distribute them in a way that is balanced and fair to buyers.
For example, an approach that involves an “early bird special” with more incentive than later promotions, coupled with some flash sales, and some last-chance sales – that don’t undermine each other too much – makes more sense than making your last sale more potent than your first. Reward those willing to commit early on, but give late buyers a reason to jump at your goods.
Buyers tend to remember your approach and act accordingly next time around… for better or worse.
Invest in ads
What good are promos if they’re not marketed effectively?
The majority of holiday shoppers don’t wait until the last minute to start searching for gifts. During the holiday season, ad impressions typically increase 50%, click-through rates rise 100%, direct traffic increases 150%, average order value grows by 30%, and conversion rates go up 60%.
Your buyers are actively preparing, so you better do so too.
“If there are disproportionately more impressions, click-through rates, visitors, average order values, and higher spending around this time of year, it means you should be spending a disproportionate amount of money on advertising to balance it.” - Neil Patel, Digital Media Expert
Your ads need to be enticing. They need to be in the right place at the right time. Don’t skimp on your advertising. Effective ads for good products will more than pay for themselves.
Inventory and fulfillment
As troubling as selling out can be, excess holiday inventory can also be problematic.
Don’t put yourself in a hole by overestimating how much product you’ll need. It’s best to buy more than you think you’ll need, but don’t go overboard. Inventory needs are personal, so there’s no generic advice to give other than to not overcommit.
As for fulfillment, the timing of your products’ arrival matters more during the holiday season than any other time of the year. Consumers may opt for brick-and-mortar shopping if they are concerned their shipment won’t arrive on time. Obviously this matters far more the closer we get to key dates, but you want to be consistent at all times.
It’s best to offer a wide range of shipping, from free ground shipping to next-day shipping with accurate wait times for each. Highlight important deadlines on your site and within product listings, make it abundantly clear when products are set to arrive. This is especially important with free shipping – it’s common knowledge that it’s slower, but it’s important to set proper expectations.
USPS shipping deadlines
- 11/6 – APO/FPO/DPO (all ZIP Codes) USPS Retail Ground service
- 12/9 – APO/FPO/DPO (ZIP Code 093 only) Priority Mail and First-Class Mail
- 12/11 – APO/FPO/DPO (all other ZIP Codes) Priority Mail and First-Class Mail services
- 12/15 – USPS Retail Ground service
- 12/18 – APO/FPO/DPO (except ZIP Code 093) USPS Priority Mail Express service
- 12/18 – First-Class Mail service
- 12/18 – First-class packages
- 12/19 – Priority Mail service
- 12/23 – Priority Mail Express service (not guaranteed unless specified)
FedEx shipping deadlines
- 12/9 – FedEx Smart Post
- 12/15 – FedEx Home Delivery, FedEx Ground
- 12/16 – FedEx Ground Shipping
- 12/19 – FedEx Express Saver Shipping
- 12/21 – FedEx Express Saver, Three-Day Freight
- 12/22 – FedEx Two-Day, FedEx Two-Day Freight
- 12/23 – FedEx Standard Overnight, FedEx Priority Overnight, FedEx Extra Hours, FedEx One-Day Freight
- 12/25 – FedEx SameDay, FedEx SameDay City Priority, FedEx SameDay City Direct
UPS shipping deadlines
- 12/13 – UPS Ground Shipping
- 12/19 – UPS Three-Day Shipping
- 12/23 – UPS Next-Day Air Service
The same level of expectation setting is important for returns. Do you have a smooth return process year-round? Are you changing anything up for the holidays – making it more efficient, free, etc.?
“The return expenses for an organization can be anywhere from 20% to 65% of the cost of the goods, and poor execution and policies can exacerbate the problem.” - Jake Rheude, RedStag
Being good with returns leads to an increased likelihood of future purchases. While it may seem a bit counterintuitive, providing shoppers a seamless and easy returns experience is a great opportunity for retailers to capitalize on additional sales. And that's not exclusive to the holiday season.
Your customers want a frictionless buying experience, that includes the possibility of returning.
Prepare your inventory, highlight deadlines, set proper shipping and return expectations, hire seasonal help if you need to – do anything and everything else you can to rock your holiday fulfillment.
Prime your contact information
Speaking of returns and a well-rounded customer experience – people need to be able to contact you with ease.
Ask yourself these questions:
- Can visitors easily find my contact information on every page of your website?
- Does each page of my site have an area where visitors can sign up for a newsletter and/or other promotional materials?
- If you utilize marketplaces - Is my contact information accurate on these as well?
If the answer to any of these questions is no, it’s time for an update.
Expand... if possible
Though a bit of a stretch if you already have a lot on your plate, it’s never too late to expand to new channels – especially if you’re using a product feed tool.
The holiday season brings out more consumers than usual. Each year, more people turn to online shopping for some (if not most... or all) of their holiday purchases. You want your products to be available on as many of the top platforms as possible, where they’ll be seen the most.
If you plan to expand to additional shopping channels for the holiday season, don’t wait. Get on those channels now. The more time you have to test, adjust, and optimize, the better your chances.
At the very least, the most promising channels you want to consider are:
- Bing
Final thoughts
The holiday season is a wonderful time of year, but it can be a stressful time for merchants if not properly planned for. If you haven’t already started, it’s not too late.
Be sure to check out our Holiday Prep Checklist, which itemizes what you'll need to focus on to have a well-rounded approach to your holiday preparation.
Deck the halls with holiday content, line up those promos, invest in ads, prep your inventory, sharpen your fulfillment process, and make sure your foundation (both personal site and channel accounts) is in tip-top shape. If possible, expand to major channels that you’ve been meaning to get on – we can help with that.
The earlier you start developing your holiday strategy and adjusting your workflows, the better off you’ll be.
