A SMARTOSC WHITE PAPER. E-commerce Guideline to the Holiday Season

Transcription

1 A SMARTOSC WHITE PAPER E-commerce Guideline to the Holiday Season

2 INTRODUCTION 1 With the holiday season approaching, customers will be flocking into stores and online to find gifts for their friends, loved ones and themselves. With the sudden increase in customer demand, stores will be tested on their ability to scale up and operate at high capacity, while also successfully promoting their brand and converting visitors. Throughout the year, there are several periods where online retailers see a dramatic growth in traffic, usually corresponding to a holiday, raising concerns about how these brands can get the most out of these opportunities. Promotional holidays like Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Singles Day and Christmas are particularly busy periods for stores around the world, making them the biggest tests for merchants. In the UK, a total of 25bn (~US$32bn) was spent online in the run up to Christmas, showing the importance and potential of the season. Sales during the holiday season can even account for as much as 30% of a retailer's annual sales. Marketing is important for brand and store recognition year round but, come the holidays, the competition will ramp up. It is up to the retailer to find what makes them stand out from the others. While making use of promotions is a great way to attract customers, they will first need to know what the store has to offer. When it comes to marketing online, the medium is just as important as the actual message, and finding the most effective and unique ways to contact customers with the message is the key to a successful holiday season. Preparation should be the top priority of every business in the lead up to the holidays. To be in the best position to benefit from the holidays, retailers should plan ahead their strategy. We highlight the main areas that play an important role in helping companies operate smoothly despite the dramatic increase in sales during the most vibrant shopping season. 3 Steps to Boost Sales This Holiday Season Driving Traffic Increase Traffic with Search Engine, Social Media, and Handling Traffic Driving Customer Experiences on Website with Scalable Solutions Converting Traffic 6 Promotion Tactics to Increase Conversion Rate

3 DRIVING TRAFFIC 2 Getting footfall into the store is difficult to do online. While brick and mortar stores have the benefit of physical locations with which to attract attention and take advantage of the traffic in the area, their online counterparts must utilize a diverse range of channels to find their audience. SEO/ SEM Relevant Keywords Optimizing SEO for a brand s website that match with keywords associated with the holiday season will help to drive organic traffic to their site. Besides the popular keywords that customers use to find a brand s products, making products appear in the search result as a gift option for the friends and beloved ones of customers is another way to drive traffic through search engines. Google Trends reports offer a convenient way to discover which search terms customers are frequently using and how the search volume changes throughout the year. Optimizing Keywords To be featured at the top searching results takes effort and understanding of how the search engine works. Some key factors to pay attention to include how frequently the website is updated, how often the search engine crawls information, and how relevant the content of the store is to the need of potential buyers. Buying Keywords Buying keywords on a search engine is another option to make a business stand out and be on top of their potential customer s search results. Keep in mind that Google and other search engines pay attention to how their users react to paid ads to determine whether the ads are shown or not, which is an important consideration for a successful PPC campaign. Retailers will need to think about these seven key areas: - Keyword Lists - Negative keywords - Budget - Bidding - Ad Copy - Ad Extensions - Day-Parting

4 DRIVING TRAFFIC 3 Social Media Social media is becoming more and more important part of modern customer journey, offering the most potential as a marketing channel. Customizing the Appearance During the holiday season, social media can be used to promote deals by making the fanpage look and feel reflective of the holiday spirit while communicating clearly what special offers will be available. Changing the cover photo to an image that features the colors and themes associated with the holidays along with a message can be an effective way to inspire potential customers to engage with the brand. Set Up Retargeting Campaigns Online shoppers take a complicated journey before they make their purchase decisions and very rarely do they buy after seeing offers the first time. The key to bring them back to the brand s ecommerce site is a solid online retargeting strategy. Retargeting ads remind customers about the offers or products that they previously viewed on the website and helps to convert potential leads into paying customers at the time they make their purchase decision. Automated ecommerce marketing solutions give merchants full control over their online ad campaigns across the web, Facebook, and Instagram, while suggesting the best performing ads to boost the overall ROI. Use Advanced Targeting Many online advertising platforms such as Facebook and Linkedin offer advanced targeting tools that an online retailer can take advantage of. An important consideration for these brands while using these tools is to make sure not to waste money by targeting the wrong audience. Based on variety of criteria, these platforms make it possible to exclude irrelevant audiences, helping brands spend their ad budget effectively. Facebook Tip! Website speed affects a Facebook post's position in the news feed. Be sure to optimize the landing page and avoid the use of excessive plugins and redirects for the best results.

5 DRIVING TRAFFIC 4 marketing is one the oldest form of online marketing but it continues to be one of the most effective channels. The ability to create personalized one-to-one conversations with customers makes the secret weapon for the most competitive sales season of the year. Gift Suggestions During the holidays, people will be thinking hard about what they will get for their friends, family and loved ones. For many, finding the right gift is a challenging task. Brands can however help them to find the ideal gift by combining and website content. Design Specialized s In the UK and US, Cyber Monday is ranked the highest online spending day of the year. In the East, Singles Day is the most anticipated shopping day amongst online shoppers. Customers will be researching special deals for these days weeks before they come. Retailers should be advertising their exciting loyalty or promotional activities aggressively to not only boost sales but also to help their store get noticed. Exclusive Mobile Deals Holiday season is the best time to roll out the app and offer exclusive deals at the same time. Fear of missing out and the excitement of getting better offers are the main motivations for selling the app to customers. Personalized Push Notifications While s have proven an effective method for promotion in ecommerce, marketers witnessed 50% higher open rates using push notifications compared to . Clickthrough rates are twice as high too. Push notification is available on various user devices including smartphones, tablets, computers, and smart TV s, making it easy to reach customers. Similar to , creating push notifications with personalized promotions and relevant coupons will keep customers highly engaged with the brand. Delivery Cut-Off Reminding customers of the impending delivery cut off will create a sense of urgency that will engage with last minute shoppers. Establishing a last order date for guaranteed delivery by December 24th for example combined with an irresistible offer will help brands to stand out from the competition.

6 HANDLING TRAFFIC 5 Perhaps the biggest strain on an e-commerce infrastructure is the sudden increase in traffic. Potentially thousands of customers will visit and purchase from the e-commerce site everyday, and so keeping them all happy with a consistent, usable experience can be very difficult. There is plenty of evidence proving that customers care about the shopping experience, especially when it comes to the speed and stability of the website. 86% of customers would even pay more for the privilege. However, while traffic and sales on the website grow, so too does the possibility of the system crashing from the load or a collapse of the delivery process, leading to delays. Not only will this result in a loss of potential sales, but it can also tarnish the reputation of the store and brand. As a result, peak periods can present a somewhat bittersweet experience for online retailers. Optimizations Mobile First Design Optimized themes can improve performance and across multiple devices at that. Given the popularity of mobile, considering a responsive, mobile first design will help brands dramatically improve the overall online experience. Caching To present products effectively, e-commerce sites are often very rich in content. Caching is a popular method for reducing loading times. Keeping data of the previous visit sessions on the customer s browser is a reliable and efficient way to reduce the amount of data that needs to be downloaded for browsing the store. CDN Content Delivery Networks are another method of reducing the load by spreading it out across a global network of servers, creating a more reliable connection. Cloud Hosting For a more long term solution, changing how the store is hosted can dramatically increase the capacity of a store. Cloud hosting, for example, can scale on a short term basis to handle peak traffic, and scale back when traffic returns to normal levels. Load Testing Throughout the year, there are several chances to test the system s ability to handle large traffic. Regular load testing is highly recommended, and is important for finding any bugs or faults in the system that can reduce the efficiency of an online store.

7 HANDLING TRAFFIC 6 Stock Synchronization and Order Processing Another concern retailers face during the particularly busy periods is their ability to keep up with orders. Facilitating orders is a key part of the operation, ensuring purchases are handled and delivered correctly and in a timely manner. With large numbers of customers ordering and paying at any one time, there is the potential for the system to fall behind or collapse all together. With over $3.4bn in sales on Cyber Monday in the US last year, stock synchronization may also become difficult to maintain. Merchants often sell the same inventory across numerous channels to increase the possibility of selling their items. Accordingly, stock synchronization becomes difficult to maintain. Failure to stay updated with available stock can lead to disappointment amongst customers who miss out on a purchase they had made. Real-Time Stock Updates Creating a real-time connected inventory management system across warehouses and online stores keeps all the related channels updated with the real-time stock level. The system also allows for eliminating items that are out-of-stock from all selling channels and republishing them as soon as new inventory is filled. Brick and Mortar Store Integration Many retailers go further and implement omnichannel retail solution with retail network spreading to brick and mortar store. The inventory management system for these retailers requires the ability to link their ecommerce platform, marketplaces, and POS system. This system not only keeps the stock level updated across channels, but also provides retailers a holistic view of the quantity of every product in every store and where all the inventory is being assigned. "With over $3.4bn in sales on Cyber Monday in the US last year, stock synchronization may also become difficult to maintain."

8 CONVERTING THE AUDIENCE 7 Promotions are what will really drive sales during the likes of Singles Day or Cyber Monday, and so creating an effective campaign can really make or break the holiday season. On Singles Day alone, promotions and sales achieved over US$25bn in sales this year in China. Other promotional methods have also proven popular. In the US for example, online coupon codes have seen considerable popularity, with 59% of adults having used a digital coupon when making a purchase. Promotions Discounts Discounts are the most obvious promotion choice, presenting a potential bargain in the eyes of the customers. Free Shipping Free shipping is another example of adding value that could entice users to convert into paying customers or for up selling. Adding a sense of security they want to return something, while also removing what can be seen as an additional cost. Bundles Bundles can be an effective promotional method, with the potential of up selling to customers by adding more value into a package. Personalized Holiday Cards Brands can make themselves stand out from competition by making an extra effort to interact with customers. Creating personalized greeting cards with special offers that can be sent to loyal customers will build up their loyalty in the long run. Flash Sales Deep discounts or special discounts on high demand items will make an ad attractive and drive a lot of traffic. The use of targeted ads will help to boost the ROI of the campaign. Converting these new customers into loyal customers will bring long term value to the brand. Gift cards and Coupons Sending out coupons to online customers that are usable online and in the brick-andmortar store will help to tailor the customer experience, increasing the chance they engage with the brand when using the coupon.

9 CONCLUSION 8 Modern technologies are now allowing online systems using hardware resources flexibly, meaning ecommerce stores are in a better position to cope with sudden increases in traffic while still offering the pleasant, speedy experience expected by customers. Alongside this, following best practices for optimization such as regular load testing, along with careful consideration on the appropriateness of the chosen ecommerce platform will go a long way in ensuring an online store is able to scale with traffic, while considerably improving functionality and endurance. Peak periods like holidays need not cause anxiety for online retailers. Whether merchants are concerned of the increased traffic or their ability to stand out against the competition with tempting promotions, the opportunities offered by the season should always be on the top of their minds. Sources:

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