If you are new to the world of eCommerce, then you really need to be aware of the period that is almost at the doorstep – the holiday shopping season. This is the period when your sales are going to be the largest during the entire year, and it means that you require to prepare yourself for the huge wave of demand that is coming. In order to do this, you need to have a proper plan for your sales. November is coming, and you need to be ready because once the season is open, it will be a fight for who’s got the best marketing strategy and exposure.
In this article, we are going to discuss what you can do in order to boost your eCommerce exposure just before the holiday shopping season begins.
What holidays should you prepare for?
As we have previously mentioned, November is when all the rush begins. First of all, you must think about Thanksgiving Day, even though it is generally an American holiday. When it comes to retail, and especially eCommerce, this is considered the official first day of the holiday shopping season. In order to make your best of it, roll out your campaigns the day before.
Still, the day when everything really begins to unravel is Black Friday. This is when the biggest sales begin. It starts off on a Friday when businesses decide to allow their employees to take the day off after Thanksgiving, and in time, it became the biggest shopping day for everyone, as it is the perfect time for people to prepare for the Christmas holidays. This is when you need to prepare your best discounts, and experience the largest conversion rates.
The original idea was for Cyber Monday to be the Black Friday of eCommerce since, before that day, people would mostly go out to brick-and-mortar shops. However, in time it has blended with its counterpart and became an entire weekend of huge sales both physically and digitally.
After that, December comes along, and next to Green Monday, Free Shipping Day, and Super Saturday, the biggest events coming your way are Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. The idea is to make the best out of all the days leading to the two major holidays because that is when the majority of people in the West are going to finish their shopping spree and spend their time with their families. However, in the world of eCommerce, the whole planet is your market. So, at this point, you can shift your audience to the East, and sell the remaining products that you’ve got, as there are people on the hunt for sales at the very end of the season, or after it has finished.
How should you prepare for the holiday season sales?
First of all, you need to set up particular goals which you are going to achieve by coming up with the perfect strategy. In the case that you already have some experience with this, you should check your last year’s results. See what made your marketing efforts work well, as well as how well your website handled the huge waves of traffic. Here, it is the best to have some proper analytics tools which will help you get the best answers.
As for the very strategy that you are going to develop, it is important that you make sure that your eCommerce and logistics departments have perfect and consolidated communication. It is crucial that every order you get is fulfilled as soon as possible.
A strong SEO strategy is always essential, and you need to put your effort into creating the best possible landing pages for product categories that are most sought for. Not only will such pages get a great organic ranking on Google, but they will also be the perfect target for PPC. So, have a good talk with your trading department in order to properly anticipate trends and come up with a list of products that your SEO and PPC strategy are going to pay the most attention to.
As for the PPC strategy, you need to make sure that:
- Your product feeds are optimized
- There is a list of products that arranges them according to seasons and trends
- Your keyword range includes seasonal searches and products
- Make the best out of Dynamic Search Ads. Your campaign needs to have specific ad groups for each and every product category.
- You have campaigns and ads that are particularly made for searches focusing on Black Friday and Cyber Monday
- Use Gmail Ads campaigning to present your best products.
- Make sure that your campaigns are organized according to product groups. This will help you to properly set bids.
You should also opt for a multi vendor eCommerce platform so that you can cover all the bases that you can, and make sure that not your sales are at the max, but your exposure is significantly increased. Finally, be in close contact with your web developing team, because you need to make sure that your website performance and speed are always at their peak. You don’t want to lose customers because of setbacks in this area.
The holiday season is near, and it is the time when you need to be ready for your largest eCommerce sales during the year. Make sure that you cover all the vital holidays, and prepare the best strategy you can in order to get the most exposure. If this is your first time, then do the best you can and don’t beat yourself up if you make some setbacks. On the contrary, note them down, and make sure that you do better next year.
