The busiest time of the year is here. The key month for any retailer falls on December that has always been a great holiday season. This holiday season, especially between Thanksgiving and Christmas, accounts for about 20% of annual sales (according to a study by Statista). Today’s shoppers expect a personalized, convenient, and at the same time fast experiences whenever and wherever possible. The risk is exacerbated by the added complexity of today’s omnichannel retailing.
Below are some interesting statistics according to 
- 84% of the shoppers are likely to spend more compared to last year
- 24% will pay by smartphone and 16% will pay via the wearable device [Overall, the US still continues to lag China, where 95% of the population used some sort of smart payment]
- 70% of the consumers said brand trust influences shopping decisions
High earning millennials always care about QUALITY, CONVENIENCE, and SPEED compared to price.
At least a 30-40 percent increase in the revenue usually happens around this holiday sale. To maximize the profitability retailers should leverage the omnichannel capabilities.
In this article, we have provided insights on how to strategically prepare yourself this holiday season to maximize the sales, profits, productivity and customer satisfaction across multiple channels.
To develop an Omni-channel retail strategy the first step is to research where your customers are. The next step is to create a perfect strategy in figuring out on which platform, devices your customers are and where they would like to shop and the overall experiences that motivate them to buy.
Gearing up for the holiday season? Check-out this Omnichannel Trends
Make use of the data:
Holidays are the ideal season to look at historical customer data. Are you worried about which direction you should take? Here are the tips to take a wise decision. Make use of the data to figure out whom to target & how to target with personalized promotional offers.
Use all available shoppers data, traffic history, and look at the existing promotions to find out who’d be the most interested in what and which segments would be interesting in specific categories. Ensure that, you make use of the AI and send out the campaigns on a right day at the right time.
Use the data to localize your personalized promotions to build customer loyalty.
Push notifications:
Utilize the rich customer behavioral data to trigger push notifications and the in-app marketing campaigns. Most of the eCommerce marketers are unaware of the value, perfectly timed and well-written push notifications can bring in, where people are obsessed with their smartphones.
An average person spends $930 on a holiday season. If you truly want to stand out from the crowd and your competitors, simply avoid the regular marketing campaigns. Understand what the consumers want and suggest them personalized recommendations and competitive pricing based on their wants. You need to realize that the right discount is the sweet spot and “How Much to charge for a product” is not too much. This is really important if you’re optimizing the pricing per customer.
Special discounts for customer retention:
Every shopper loves recommendations and personalized discounts! Before offering discounts categorize your customers first as low to medium spends, high spends and Frequent spends. Offer incentives based on these categories.
Reward your most loyal customers and offer them the best-in-class discounts which encourage them to make the next purchase in a short span of time.
Exclusive marketing budget for these consumers is not required as they’re already your long-term customers. Use the best incentive program and a personalized message for the frequent buyers. Marketing is always about doing it at the right time and using the right channel.
[ 8 Best Magento eCommerce Sites for Inspiration ]
Know how to handle those abandoned cart shoppers:
Just like how the conversion rate increases during the holiday season the abandoned cart rates also get increased considerably. Non-frequent buyers and customers who are not loyal to the brands have multiple tabs open and usually search for similar items in comparable online stores. Always treat these consumers with patience and send tailored abandoned cart messages (text and push notifications), as a reminder for them to return to your online store.
Sometimes they might have already made a purchase and you can’t do anything about these consumers. Often, they get distracted due to the online presence and it’s more likely they abandon the cart for no reason. Make that last win-back message a compelling one and be super convincing with a proper call-to-action link for them to view their saved items.
Easy returns:
Customers often expect a proper return policy before they make a purchase, especially the fresh buyers. For a normal sale, it is advisable to have a 30-day return policy, think about the holiday season then where you may have defective products. If you don’t have an easy return policy to overcome this type of purchases it would be hard to convert these holiday buyers into a long-term loyal customer. So ensure you have a bigger picture in mind and align your return policies to this efforts.
Create an extremity:
Create a sense of urgency. Use the dynamic content widgets to create a disappearing availability. Have you ever encountered a countdown timer in some online stores? A great way to gear up your holiday season is to use a countdown clock to push the consumer for sale which can improve the conversion rates on a particular promotion or deal.
Cross-sell during the first quarter of 2019:
Gently upsell and cross-sell around January and February 2019 to the holiday season sale customers. Use “ Also Like” options to boost different product line sales. The AI can do all the work for you, let the machine learning understands which product can well together and it can do the dirty work of high-priced add-ons based on the scenarios.
Product customization:
Product Customization or virtualization or personalization is all about differentiating your product lines from the competition. Nobody hates a personal touch in the products they wish to buy. All that a customer wants is to order a product of their choice in a simple click & by sitting on the couch.
Customization not only helps the sales but also stimulates customer retention. Integrating a custom configurator solution to your online store gets you to set up the custom products in the back-end and the print-ready-files can be directly sent to the manufacturing team.
[Check-out this on-demand webinar on “How product customization can help you to increase your online sales”]
It’s always impossible to get a smooth holiday season. But by taking some precautionary measures at-least we know we wouldn’t face surprising hiccups.
Do you know, a non-standard code can have a negative impact on your holiday sale? Have you done the store audit (Server configuration, SEO audit, Code audit), to make sure the site is healthy? Contact us to learn more about our eCommerce Service offerings and how we can help you to prep for the holiday sale and drive revenue.
The blog post discusses eight strategies that can be used to master omnichannel retail. These strategies include improving customer service, using technology to improve the customer experience, and using data to personalize the shopping experience. The post also discusses the importance of creating a seamless shopping experience across all channels and ensuring that inventory is properly stocked across all channels.