If you are running an eCommerce business, then you know what time of year it is. It is the holiday season, which, of course, means that it is time for you to do your best to be at the top of your game in order to watch those sales go through the roof. If you haven’t started preparing yet, it may already be too late. But, even if you have, you can still improve your efforts by implementing some of the trends that are almost certainly going to dominate this season.
Personalization
While personalization is not really a new trend, it is certainly one that is becoming more and more important. Technology is constantly advancing and enabling marketers to have a better grasp of it than ever before. Artificial intelligence has reached a new high, and it has enabled chatbots to provide the perfect customer support.
One of the methods of implementing personalization into your marketing is most certainly sending out personalized emails. While this is something that can be done quite well by a human hand, AI has made it significantly easier. It gathers essential data from the user’s behavior and makes it possible for you to send the perfectly generated email at the best possible time.
You should know that your clients are much more likely to open an email that has a personalized subject line. Also, you should test your emails, over and over, until you are certain that you’ve got it right. The majority of email marketing platforms out there enable you to do proper A/B testing of pretty much every aspect of your email content, such as the CTA, subject line, color, and so on.
Furthermore, what your clients are certainly going to love is if you greet them as personally as you can. Use their names, mention the items that they might have previously purchased, and then suggest a similar item that could interest them. It certainly works better than just a simple “hello” and “here are some products that you might like”. After all, your brand’s personality is presented via what you send out, so it is essential that you leave a good impression.
Also, in order to truly nail the personalization aspect, you need to really learn what your customers want. So, next to the data that your tools can gather, you should tap into the human side of the process, and simply ask people what it is that they are interested in. Surveys are simple and always useful. Of course, you need to provide some kind of incentive, as people won’t bother with them if you just ask them to do it, even if it is with a “pretty please” and a cherry on top.
Design for mobile
Now, more than ever, designing your website for mobile users has become essential. We live in the age of smartphones, where the majority of purchases happen. Even Google has made it obvious, by making mobile-first one of the most important aspects that you need to cover if you want to get a high ranking. If you don’t meet the needs of your mobile users, you will quickly be thrown out of the game, and the holiday season will prove to be a big failure for your business.
If you already have a website that isn’t mobile-friendly, you need to convert it as soon as possible. It is crucial that the site has great navigation that makes it easy for everyone to find what they need and make a purchase. With each visit, you can collect user data that can help you optimize conversion. Again, A/B testing is one of the best solutions. You need to be aware that mobile brings a huge amount of traffic, and is only on the rise. Still, you should know that mobile shopping apps perform even better than websites. In fact, they are significantly higher than mobile browser conversions, and especially desktop ones.
Offline assets
An important fact that you need to know is that online marketing is a lot weaker if it isn’t combined with its offline counterpart. In fact, a wide variety of offline marketing methods still work just as well as they have in the past.
First of all, people like tangible things. So, if you can provide them with free promotional items, give them your top-notch business card, or make use of an opportunity to shake their hand and speak to them in person, you will certainly leave a strong impression and make them want to learn more about you, so that they can purchase what you have to offer.
Second, people are visual beings. So, next to hiring a web designer who is going to make a fabulous-looking website that attracts attention the best it can, you should also make use of offline visual assets such as signage, posters, billboards, and so on. If your offices are being renewed, make sure that all every fence around your property has a construction fence banner on it.
So, come up with some great designs that will place your products in the forefront, followed by all the necessary information on how to reach you.
In Summation
With the holiday season very near us, you should be prepared for making the right moves so that your eCommerce store makes as many sales as it can. Among other things, this means embracing some of the contemporary trends that are certainly going to mark this period. Personalization is becoming more capable than ever, a mobile-friendly design has already become a necessity, and offline assets are something you should never forget about, as your online efforts can greatly benefit from them.
About the Author
Nick is a blogger and a marketing expert currently engaged on projects for Media Gurus, an Australian business, and marketing resource. He is an aspiring street artist and does Audio/Video editing as a hobby.