As the holidays approach, many online stores like yours are offering sales and promotions in an attempt to lure customers to spend their money with them. To ensure that your business is getting in on the action, it’s important that you have effective Christmas promotions running for your e-commerce store.
When an e-commerce promotion is done correctly, you are getting customers to (happily) part with their money by giving them an incentive to take action before a limited-time offer expires.
So, how can you make sure that your Christmas promotion is successful?
Here are three steps you need to take:
Target Your Efforts
Promotions can be used to do a variety of things. You can use them to
Rarely does a single promotion do all of these things. So, you need to decide what your most important goals are so that you can create effective Christmas promotions to target that specific goal.
- Do you want customers to purchase more frequently, buy in greater volume, or try out something new?
Are you trying to lure new customers into your business?
Are you trying to get former customers to give your business another try?
Once you have defined your audience and the goal you hope your promotion will accomplish, it's time to begin planning your incentive.
Plan Your Incentive
A well thought out and properly targeted promotion will prompt customers to take action. Different incentives may look like this:
- Price savings, including discounts, coupons or added value offers
- Free samples or a trial offer that provides customers with a low-risk way of trying new products or services
- Events or experiences which generate crowds, enthusiasm, sales and publicity
When deciding on your incentives, it’s important to keep several factors in mind:
Christmas Promotion Idea #1: Price savings
These must be strong enough to compel, but reasonable enough that you aren’t losing money. Avoid small, uninspiring discounts, but also avoid very deep discounts, unless you can use them to promote sales in other higher-margin areas of your business, or unless they can attract valuable, long-term customers into your business.
Most people feel like 30% off is a substantial enough amount to take action. If your discount is smaller like 10%, try using a dollar amount like Get $25 off your next purchase.
A photographer friend I have gives out $250 dollar gift cards, but their services run around $1000. But $250 sounds much better than 25% off!
Christmas Promotion Idea #2: Coupons
Coupons are always popular. Even younger consumers and affluent shoppers are using coupons. You can use printed coupons, but coupons distributed on websites web sites or via email provide a great way to test price offers with a specific customer group, all while allowing you to avoid the costs incurred from using other media.
You can easily
add coupons on your Shopify store with this handy tutorial, and if you don't have a mailing list you can use
Storeya's pop-up coupon app.
Christmas Promotion Idea #3: Samples
Another great incentive is to let customers try before buying. If you are offering samples, ensure that you are offering great products that will win rave reviews and repeat business.
You can use free samples prominently in an effort to attract links, visitors, site registrations and publicity. You can also add free samples to your orders to get people to try new things.
If you are a beauty brand, you can add a mini gloss sample or a new fragrance to all your orders.
Effective Christmas Promotion Idea #4: Events or Experiences
These promotions draw customers in for celebrations, product launches, special appearances or presentations.
These can be done at a location in your hometown or can be held as live online events. Just remember to go all out when
planning and hosting an event. A poorly planned or run event can do more damage to your company, so make sure you are fully prepared and that you publicize your event accordingly.
To make things easier, collaborate with other online businesses in your niche or in the area to make it a success!
Know What You Want to Achieve
Promotions are there to assist customers in making the jump from browsing to purchasing. Just make sure that you understand what you are trying to achieve from your promotion.
Set the number of sales you are looking for, the amount of money you want to bring in, or whatever objective you have set out for the promotion. Knowing the potential bottom-line impact your promotion will have for your business will allow you to set an appropriate budget for that promotion.
As with everything in business, knowing and targeting your desired market, setting realistic goals and then following through will give you the best chance at having an effective and successful e-commerce promotion this Christmas season and beyond.
