Make SMB eCommerce Magic Happen This Holiday Season

eCommerce magic

These holidays, the magic of eCommerce can help small business owners to connect with their customers on a deeper level. Purchases made over the holidays are often especially meaningful to those making them, from holiday gifts to seasonal decor to services to prepare a home for company. The well-worn advertising image of a person standing on a snowy sidewalk in front of a warmly lit storefront window is a classic for a reason: it concisely depicts the traditional significance of holiday shopping.

Although the twinkle in the eye of today’s average holiday shopper perhaps reflects the glow of LCD screens rather than the incandescent lights of a storefront, the magic is the same. An online business can share that eCommerce magic by making the most of its digital sales opportunities throughout this special season. Here’s how.

Make the Right Preparations

Preparedness is only effective if you make the proper preparations. By way of example, imagine you whipped up a lavish holiday meal of ham, turkey, and roast beef for your extended family but forgot that your out-of-state cousins are now vegans. Leftover sandwiches, anyone?

Making the proper preparations means focusing on what matters most. Let’s start with the big dates. In order, you have:

  • Black Friday (November 25)
  • Cyber Monday (November 28)
  • Last Shipping Day (December 21-22)
  • Post-Season (December 26-31)
  • New Year’s Eve
  • Post-Holiday Window (January)

Plan for capitalizing on each date/window of opportunity. If you need more time or resources to prepare for all of them, you should prepare for the ones that have been historically strong performers or perform well in the business vertical.

Plan across the consumer eCommerce journey, starting with brand awareness. Of course, you want customers to become familiar with the business and its offerings. Still, the products or services need to excite and draw the attention of consumers who are discovering the brand for the first time. One way to help ensure this is with a seasonal rebrand of the website, changing the appearance of an online storefront for the holidays. You will get shoppers in the spirit of the season and impress on them that this is a special moment, a strategy that works well in tandem with holiday-specific promotions.

On social media, be highly active over the holidays, take advantage of increased eCommerce activity around holiday-related hashtags, reach new customers through lookalike targeting, promote holiday specials and deliver authentic content that engages audiences in a relatable way.

One great way to do that is through video; customers increasingly look for authenticity and sincerity from the companies they buy from. Even brief video clips where that engage with the customer base to share a story and vision directly can make a big difference.

If you need more expertise in video production, you can partner with online creators to develop your content. Search platforms like YouTube, Instagram and TikTok for topics related to product or service offerings, find creators who make content related to those topics and reach out to them directly to discuss content opportunities. Even if the field is a bit niche, you might be surprised by just how much eCommerce relevant content is available for nearly every imaginable topic. The sooner you can get your videos in production, the better, but you also want to think ahead; aim to produce videos that are evergreen, which you can use again next year.

Explore New Products and Services During the Holidays

The holiday season fuels a certain openness to trying out new products and services. Shoppers crave fresh experiences, and you can cater to that instinct by refreshing offerings for the holiday season. Whether these are new, holiday-specific items or old favorites with a creative seasonal twist, making it clear that you are offering something you have never offered before or won’t be available throughout the rest of the year eCommerce magic can make customers feel inspired to try the brand out for the first time.

Use the retail frenzy of the holidays as an opportunity to ignite and accelerate customer action. Add ways to try out products quickly, create a new, more lenient return policy and expand shipping options for last-minute shoppers. Suppose there is a physical location in addition to an online store. In that case, you can provide the option for customers to book in-store appointments for pickup after they buy online, bypassing shipping deadlines altogether. Buy-now, pay-later options are also something to consider if you don’t already offer them; they are increasingly popular in our challenging economy.

Keep the Festivities Going

Local eCommerce magic doesn’t have to end on January 1. On the contrary, around half of retail shoppers planned to shop after Christmas last year. A post-holiday sale is a great way to move excess inventory and keeps customers engaged moving into the new year. If a website and social media go dark as soon as the holidays end, it doesn’t exactly send a message that customers should keep checking back throughout the year. Instead of dropping offline after the holiday sales spree, double efforts and make big moves in sales, promotions, and website updates to keep the new customers reached over the holidays coming back for more.

Thanks to eCommerce magic, planning for the holiday sales season doesn’t have to be stressful. In fact, this time of year is full of opportunities to grow business to new heights. By following these tips, focusing on customers and what they want, and being open to trying new things – when retail customers are open to buying new things – you’ll set up for a magical sales experience this holiday season and beyond.

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