7 Ways for Ecommerce Brands to Boost Holiday Sales

The 2021 holiday months are expected to be another major opportunity for ecommerce brands and online retailers, and though every brand likely has its own budgets, campaigns, and goals established for this exciting time, there are still a handful of best practices that apply to just about everyone.

Here’s how to boost holiday sales for your brand and bring a little extra cheer to your customers during this special season.

Bring the Online Shopping Experience to Life with Compelling Creative

Holiday shoppers love the convenience of shopping from home — so much so that this is expected to be yet another record-setting year for ecommerce. But that doesn’t mean some elements of the cheery department store atmosphere aren’t a welcome addition to your customers’ digital experience. Give life to your online store through creative messaging that harnesses the joyous aesthetic of the season and aim to provide the same nostalgic familiarity as in-person shopping (without the hassle of navigating a busy parking lot).

Advertising custom, holiday-themed collections with appropriately colorful imagery is a great way to appeal visually to customers looking to discover new gift ideas and easy impulse buys. Product titles, descriptions, ad copy, and anything that might find its way into your campaign’s metadata should also stand out from your typical ad campaigns as being unique to the holidays.

Create Urgency with Smart Promotions

Especially as key dates draw nearer, shoppers will want to ensure safe and timely delivery of their last-minute gifts. In fact, when it comes to making online purchases, there is no greater needle-mover for your customers than free delivery. Advertising-free shipping upfront and further enticing users with coupons and discounts will cover the two largest determining factors for online shoppers who ultimately convert.

It’s also wise to apply a few of the season’s other trademark eye-catchers — easily gift-able products or collections at key impulse-buy price points (e.g., under $20, $50, and $100), flash sales, personalized emails and coupons, and guaranteed delivery by Dec. 24.

Make Shopping Personal

Part of what draws customers to online shopping is effective brand marketing that not only caters to specific product preferences but appeals to shoppers as individuals. Utilizing first-party data to show users products they previously engaged with is a great way to remain top-of-mind through a season saturated with big marketing budgets and sweeping holiday campaigns.

Personalizing your ad content works for every layer of the funnel. Facebook’s marketing data shows targeted ads lead shoppers to discover new products on social media more often than personal recommendations from family and friends. Outside of social media channels, delivering product listings, special discount codes, and other time-sensitive prompts via personalized emails is a good way to show your brand cares about each individual customer.

Remember to keep these messages short, relevant, and personable. Nobody likes a subject line addressed as “Dear customer” or “To whom it may concern.”

Focus on Best Sellers and Products with Highest Profit

While somewhat intuitive, this time of year is where your heavy-hitting products do the most good. Using data gathered across all marketing channels throughout the year (or even looking back to previous holiday pushes), you should have a good sense of what products get the best reaction when it comes to holiday gift-giving. When applicable, emphasizing these products in their updated versions, colors, styles, or variations can help attract your most loyal customers to make new purchases.

And remember, highlighting your best-sellers shouldn’t just be reserved for emails or banner ads. Landing pages on your brand website should prominently feature your top-selling product, streamlining the path to purchase as much as possible for site visitors, both new and old.

Stay Engaged with Customers Throughout the Season

You want those who hold your brand in high esteem to know about sharp seasonal discounts on their favorite items, especially if your most popular items tend to sell out. Communicate with shoppers throughout the season to ensure they’re up to date on your latest offerings and that they have all the information they need to place an order before the holidays are up or your stock runs out.

Use all the branches of your marketing efforts to your advantage by continuously communicating personal holiday messages to followers, past-purchases, cart-abandoners, and anybody else who had some form of interaction with your business.

Retarget on the Right Channels with the Right Items

This one is hardly a secret at this point, but belongs on every holiday marketing list from now until the end of time. Using your product feed to dynamically target qualified would-be customers with updated inventory and pricing is a powerful low-funnel tool, particularly when shoppers are in an attitude of gift-giving and everyday spending budgets are loosened.

Dynamic retargeting can apply detailed information on users’ individual interests to remind shoppers of products that may have been viewed previously — or even better, products that were once abandoned in a digital shipping cart and are now available at a special holiday discount. There is no better time of year to use existing data to execute low-funnel campaigns across your major social channels via dynamic retargeting.

Find Out How Shoppers Spend Their Time

Noting how and when your average customer uses each channel (and for what purpose) will unlock new heights to your holiday sales capacity. Maybe you have a massive Facebook following, or a youth movement among Snapchat users, or enjoy tons of shares every time you post an Instagram giveaway.

Each of your marketing channels has a role to play throughout the year — this is simply where it all comes together, working in concert to provide consistent reminders of your brand’s value to its loyal customers.

Whatever your brand or industry happens to be, providing valuable content and consistent messaging across all channels during the holidays will position your company to make the most of these busy few months, and plenty of momentum to take into the New Year.