Five Holiday Promotions for Your Online Store

It’s Christmas time! Well, not according to the average calendar, but if you’re a retail business gearing up for the holiday season, November 1st marks the start of the busiest shopping season of the year. Whether you own a clothing and accessories store, or a bath and body boutique, now is the time to start rolling out your biggest and best holiday promotions. The same goes for online retailers. If your online store has been struggling in the past few months, now’s your chance to turn things around by attracting and retaining new customers.

Make a Plan

The first step in a successful holiday marketing strategy is planning. What sort of promotions do you want to offer? What items are popular this season? Should you feature a new item every day or every week? Is your shipping center capable of handling increased demand? Do you have enough stock on hand for the holiday rush? All of these things need to be considered before you can start designing your campaign.

Five Online Holiday Marketing Campaign Ideas

Need help coming up with a great holiday promotion for your online store? Here are five great strategies that practically any e-commerce store can implement:

1) Bounce Back Incentives

What’s better than one holiday sale? How about two! Successful online holiday promotions are designed to capitalize on increased traffic numbers. How? By offering incentives to come back and purchase again. Reward holiday shoppers with 10% off their next online purchase and watch how quickly one sale turns into two. You’d be surprised how many of the holiday shoppers become year-round customers.

2) Bundle It

Make holiday shopping easy for your customers by offering bundled gift options. These types of offers are popular for a number of reasons: 1) they’re convenient, and 2) they’re perceived as being more cost-effective. The value of a product bundle can be perceived as greater than the sum of its parts, satisfying bargain-savvy shoppers. These types of promotions also help you move stock from your store, which is always a good thing.

3) Give a Gift

The holiday seasons are all about giving, so why not join in the fun? Give your online customers a special gift item once they’ve met a threshold order amount. Not sure what your threshold should be? Take a look at your average holiday sales from last year and then bump it up by a few dollars. Just remember to make sure you offer a suitable free gift – no one wants to spend $200 in order to receive a chintzy magnet!

4) Run a Clearance Special

Everyone is after a bargain during the holiday shopping rush, so why not provide your customers with a deal they can’t resist? Showcase your clearance items prominently on your site, and make sure you include the original ticket price in the layout. People want to see just how much they’re saving by shopping your sale. Not sure how low you should go with clearance items? Well, how much do you charge your customers for shipping? People hate paying extra for S&H – if you can discount your item enough to cover the shipping costs (and maybe a little more), your customers will be happy to oblige you with a sale.

5) Run a Shopper’s Choice Promotion

Want to really wow your customers this holiday season? Then ask them to supply you with a holiday promotion idea. Have your shoppers submit or vote on an item that they would like to see featured as part of a holiday special – the item that receives the most votes gets a price cut and prominent feature on your website. What better way to guarantee sales than by giving the people what they want?!

How are you ramping up for the holiday shopping season? Share your ideas with the CIK Blog readers!