The last quarter of the year is traditionally the busiest and most profitable time for e-commerce worldwide. However, this year’s events unfolded a strange and unusual reality, meaning this year’s peak shopping season will look very different from what we know and expect.
Since January of 2020 more people are turning to online shopping, which makes room for many early-bird sales, as a result, lots of items are going out of stock faster than ever.
These last months of the year are the opportunity to achieve the sales and numbers goals you set early in the year. Failure to adequately prepare for this event could be catastrophic and result in big losses of potential earnings and customer confidence. According to a Statista 2020 survey among U.S. consumers, 49 percent of respondents were more interested in doing their holiday shopping online when compared to last year’s data. This accumulates to 50%-60% of US shoppers who are planning to do their holiday shopping online.
This shopping season, we are possibly going to see a sustained period – months even – where every day is like Black Friday. Online businesses should get ready and prepare for Black Friday, Cyber Monday (collectively abbreviated BFCM), and all the shopping holidays beyond.
Start today!
If you haven’t done so now is the time to get started. Black Friday is just a month away, and people are home searching away and saving those favorite products in their Wishlist. If you’re able to create a pre-party and offer those promotions early, it will also work to your advantage. People are home and, in most cases, won’t wait for those last year sales if they can get them now.
Know your audience – with your site search data
Knowledge is power, and knowing what your consumers search for during this year, compared to the same time last year, will give you vast knowledge and understanding in where to direct your resources – which product was a best seller, or what could have been a best seller if you had more supply of it.
Your website search tool can give you so much – as Zoomd Adam glass explains, both on the button line earnings and on your strategic plan.
Share those coupons away
This is one of our golden rules, so we’re keeping it up high, same as last year. This is the time to enrich your offerings with coupon codes, giveaways and special offers, not only to keep the loyalty of existing customers but to attract a new batch of consumers eager to get their new holiday shopping at a discount.
Be competitive as most retailers offer at least 20% off during black Friday, with some offering even 30%-50% off for first time orders, or over a certain number of items selected. Present those discounts clearly on you home page for new and existing customers to see, send it to your existing subscribers. A last tip here will be to add a countdown banner, not only to add urgency to your amazing offer, but it creates excitement and something to look forward to.
Avoid the “holiday” or “covid” offers and keep it simple
According to a May 2020 survey by Adobe, both in the U.S. and in major global economies, people are way less receptive to “Covid-19” type of messaging now. The survey found that a brand’s COVID-19 response was way more important in June when 72% of surveyed shoppers factored it into their purchasing decisions. In the most recent survey, only 44% of consumers do so.
Naturally, people want some escapism from current events – this is true even when it comes to advertising and also when it comes the other relaxation methods such as online shopping 😊
Do not abandon the brick and wall store if you can
Earlier this month in a different analysis for the upcoming M-commerce season, we learned that shipping and last-mile delivery are going to be under very big demand, thus slowing down shipments and making them less cost-effective on both the seller and buyer side.
According to Salesforce, in-store, drive thought and crowdsourcing services will see 90% spike in over the previous holiday season.
People do want to buy online in the safety of their own homes, keeping social distancing, but they just can wait for the shipment or carry the higher than last year’s costs of shipment, preferring to pick up with convenience at their local store.
Technology maintenance
Even before making sure you have enough products or supply, make sure your website or app will support this end of the year high traffic peak. No use in having big promotions, exclusive items and offers if people can’t reach it. To thrive in today’s retail climate retailers must invest in scalable technologies to help them prepare for unpredictable spikes in online business.
This strategy likely includes upgrading to a flexible e-commerce platform that’s ready to scale with fast-changing traffic demands. And retailers new to selling online (or selling at a much higher rate than before) must also consider the security implications of shifting to online sales. Malware blockers, firewalls, and security certificates are critical to protecting customer data. Going back to your search tool, spending time looking at search terms that are driving 0-result errors and fixing these using synonyms is another good quick win.
Plan your media mix and optimize as you go
Mix your ad formats: You’ll absolutely want to utilize different ad placements as you start to deploy your holiday paid and social campaigns to support your KPIs. By playing with different formats across different platforms, you’ll win on cheaper ad real estate and then drive a higher conversion rate.
It’s easy to get into the habit of repeating what works. To grab ahold of the highest returns this holiday season, you’re going to have to crack open those analytics and be smarter with your paid media. Being smart also means testing and learning. Stick to the methods that are tried and proofed, but also dedicate a small amount (5-10%) of your overall paid media budget to test new channels, strategies, promotions and more. While the digital era has created many powerful new opportunities, it also poses challenges when tracking, analyzing and optimizing marketing and advertising performance across different platforms. Even more so, in the busiest time of the year you can’t afford to invest so much of your time optimizing your campaigns on all of the different platforms.
We absolutely get this, and that’s why we opened our robust mobile user acquisition platform to advertisers of all sizes who are looking for a simple and clear UA platform connected to premium media channels such as Google, Snap, Tiktok and other ad networks. This way you gain by running on those familiar media sources you love and know that works for you, while testing new sources in a clear performance model of no results, no pay.
If you are eager to learn more about our technology, we’ll be happy to help you grow. Let’s talk.
Stay Safe
Happy M-commerce season