Best Practices For Running Holiday Promotions
by Larry Kilroy (Unlicensed)
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During the busy giving season, not unlike the rest of the year, price will always be a huge factor when shopping online. Offering well timed and meaningful promotions that give shoppers a break on price is a good way to build loyalty with current customers and attract new ones. Not all promotion strategies fit all stores, factors like profit margin and ability to ship can make a store's circumstances unique. Having a plan for promotions before the holidays can greatly increase your profits heading into the new year. Today we will cover some basic best practices for running holiday promotions.
Having an eCommerce platform that allows you to quickly create promotions, such as discounts on shipping, ordering, and products, is an important feature to have during the busy holiday season. Your platform should not require you to spend countless hours setting up promotions (or worse require you to pay money out of pocket for a 3rd party to create a promotion). There are many seasonal events you can plan for. Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Christmas, and New Year's Eve are examples of opportunities to run specific promotions for your customers. Make sure your promotional tool is efficient and easy for you and your staff to work with.
Research shows that free shipping offers are especially effective during the holiday shopping rush. Often times, cutting the cost of, or eliminating shipping costs, can sway a customer to spend in your eCommerce store rather than a competitor's. If you cannot afford to cover all of the shipping, data shows that even reducing the cost by a fixed amount can win over customers.
Studies show that percentage discounts ("10% Off) are as effective as fixed amount discounts ($25 Off). So get creative with your promotions, "12% off for the Twelve Days of Christmas" or "$20.19 off an order for the New Year" can prove equally effective in drawing shoppers to your store.
The end of the year is a great time to reward your loyal customers with a discount just for them. Even small breaks in price can be meaningful to keep your customers coming back to your store for their wine and spirits needs.
The season creates many opportunities to host one day or time fixed promotions. Building up excitement with your customers before the promotion is actually available will help create interest and convey a need to take advantage of the limited time offer.
As they say, "a picture is worth a thousand words" and can be worth thousands of dollars in additional sales this holiday season. Take advantage of the real estate available on your site to use holiday themed images and graphics to highlight available promotions. An eye catching image or slideshow on your homepage will do more to drive customers to your shopping cart than all of the words that could fit in that same space.
Learn more about the Bottlenose Promotion Engine.
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