Amid the craze of holiday shopping sale craze, it is time to get gear up for what's to come in the fourth quarter of shopping. It is essential not to miss out on any of the top shopping holiday celebration days, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday in the holiday shopping season.
In recent days we have all been hearing news reports about shipping delays in the future, thus leading to many consumers starting their holiday shopping early to stay ahead of the shipping delays. Now is the time to start planning, especially if you plan to try to sell something on Amazon.
Why Should Sellers Prepare For These Shopping Days
The most crucial part of selling during the holiday season is taking advantage of these holiday opportunities as early as possible. The seller is responsible for determining how much inventory he needs to send and when he should send it. The seller may lose a lot of sales opportunities if he does not plan early enough.
There is no point in overstocking because that could result in high storage fees, but understocking will result in the absence of potential sales. To prevent overstocking and understocking, a sound inventory planning system is vital.
Utilizing the Pareto Principle for SKUs that would have difficulty depleting by Q1 2023 can reduce unnecessary storage costs, allowing you to leverage historically high sales products (particularly during Q4).
Tips For Sellers
Sellers need to prepare well before these specific sales cycles. What does this preparation look like? What tips are there for seller success?
Tip 1. Create a Holiday Marketing Plan
The first step in starting an e-commerce holiday marketing plan is developing a strategy. A well-defined process will lay out the tone and the direction of your business for the forthcoming holiday season.
Many retailers struggle with their marketing plan for holiday e-commerce sales. The problem is that many retailers have a marketing plan in place and know what to do, but they just don't have the right strategies in place to increase holiday sales.
Their marketing strategies may seem very solid, but when you start digging into the strategy, you find that many are not entirely geared towards increasing sales. Often these strategies only build traffic to the e-commerce site without the benefit of additional sales.
One of the critical things that a great marketing plan should do is provide a clear path for success. A great marketing plan for holiday e-commerce sales should include clearly defined goals and milestones to track as well as an action plan to move you in the right direction.
Have goals such as:
⦁ How much more sales can we make on our e-commerce site in the next two weeks?
⦁ What is the sales volume expectation for December?
⦁ How many new accounts can we create in the next two weeks?
When you develop your marketing plan for holiday sales opportunities, you will want to make sure that the plan is written to be implemented immediately. Having a marketing plan is essential, but having a plan that you can implement right away will get you to a fast start in the holidays.
Tip 2. Check Your Inventory And The Inventory Of Your Competitors
As many retailers prepare for the Christmas shopping season and often sales reports come in, the annual holiday spirit has arrived, even as competitors increase their promotional budgets and efforts to reach consumers directly. Could this year result in fewer consumers shopping, buying, and shopping at home?
While some analysts see a possible traffic decline, others see a potential rise as consumers work to avoid the crowds.
As everyone knows well, on Black Friday, consumers everywhere would like to get the best deals on all the gifts they need. On December 1st, Amazon reported that independent vendors on its marketplace had moved more than $4 million worth of merchandise to its platform during Black Friday, up sixty percent over the year before.
While life in the United States recedes to normal after the holidays, there is still no sign that shoppers will flock back to traditional malls and traditional retail shops during the coming holiday season.
Whether you're launching a new product, an expansion of an existing product line, or you're just improving a current product line. You must determine how you want your customers to experience your product and customer service. If you expand your product line, you'll need to specify the type of products available during the holiday cycle and what months of the year they're available.
You need to know your inventory at all times, but knowing your competitors is also helpful. If they are underprepared, this is an excellent opportunity for your products. If they are overstocked, maybe you should push another one of your products just in case.
Tip 3. Expand On New Marketplaces Or Sales Channels
Diversification is critical, and that goes for e-commerce as well. Diversify not just your product line, especially during the holiday season but also diversify which marketplaces you are available on.
For example, maybe you traditionally sell only on Amazon, but over the holidays, you may want to venture to eBay or Etsy in addition. Diversification through additional marketplaces and sales channels depends heavily on your products and who your target market is.
Also consider expanding your website traffic sources as well. While it’s likely you’ll be running some ads, now is also a good time to think about your SEO strategy going into the holiday season. Make sure your content calendar develops new posts that’ll ultimately lead to a purchase and be sure to have rank tracking software as well to see how well the articles perform over time.
Tip 4. Improve Customer Experience
Successful e-commerce sellers treat customer service as their top priority. Pay attention to what your buyers are asking about. For instance, if a customer is having trouble making a purchase or has issues with a particular aspect of your product, make sure you respond to their questions promptly. Respond to questions that come up on the product description page. Be a visible and active seller.
Many times, a buyer will tell you what they don't like about an item but not what they do like about it. The goal is to be as proactive as possible in meeting the needs of customers.
The most important thing to improve your selling skills is to always follow up with your customers after every transaction. Offer them valuable product advice, keep track of sales, and address any issues they may be facing.
This follow-up will help you build a positive reputation and maintain it once your business is established. Following up with customers will ensure that you maintain high customer service standards, which is good for your bottom line and the satisfaction of your customers.
Tip 5. Make An Offer For Coupons Or Promotions
Offering deals and coupons are very effective methods to increase your sales, especially during the holidays. If you don’t, you may lose customers because your competitors will be. It is straightforward to offer coupons and discounts to customers, and they will appreciate it and likely become recurrent buyers.
There are many reasons to use coupons for sellers and many ways to utilize discounts. It's possible to rake in substantial profits online when you know how to best take advantage of all the promotional opportunities.
One of the most common benefits of coupons is how they can be used for promotional purposes. This is especially true during the holidays when shopping gets more expensive and when the need for gifts becomes more pronounced.
By using coupons, you can put your purchases on sale early in the season, which means that if you are in business all year round, you won't be left out of the holiday rush when the shopping begins.
Tip 6. Create Product Bundles
Bundles have been incredibly popular over the last couple of years. Customers perceive bundles as a much better value than buying items individually, which is likely true most of the time. But bundled products also make for easy shopping. Why go to three or four different sellers when one seller offers everything you need in a straightforward bundle - one and done!
This practice is effortless to understand if you study fast-food restaurants. Gone are the days of purchasing a sandwich, fries, and a drink. Now you just order a #1 in medium or large. The food items are bundled together for more significant savings, ease of ordering, preparation, and streamlining of available options.
To add product bundles to your store in a matter of minutes, we recommend PickyStory, a top bundles and sales app on Shopify. With PickyStory, you can create bundles to display on your existing product pages, or you can group several products and sell them as one with Combo Products. It's easy to add discounts or tiered pricing, inventory is tracked at SKU level, and deals can be simply dragged and dropped onto any page in your store.
Tip 7. Check the trends and launch new trending products to get more sales
Every holiday season has a new series of “hot” trends and products. This is an opportunity to make huge sales. What are your competitors’ actions showing you? Are you analyzing markets to see what is doing well right now? Watch ads and see where companies are putting their money. Essentially, hop on the bandwagon and as quickly as possible.
Tip 8. Run An Advertising Campaign
Advertising is essential for e-commerce success. Customers need a way to find you. SEO is essential, but you need more than just SEO. An advertising campaign is like leading someone with breadcrumbs through a dense forest to their desired destination. In your case - lead a customer to your product rather than the thousands of other options available.
Conclusion
As a seller, the holiday season is an exciting time of year. Sure there are peak periods in other months, but Halloween through Christmas is huge for sellers. In many cases, their entire future can depend upon how well the holiday season fares. With these tips, you can make the most of the upcoming holiday season and have your best Q4 ever!
