The holiday season tends to make or break many fiscal years and can be a time when owners and managers walk on pin-and-needles. Depending on what you're selling, chances are there are many options for consumers to buy from and you need to set yourself apart from the competition. Promotions on your site can make this a holiday to cheer for and make your bonus check a lot fatter. Here are some basic promotions you can execute that will have immediate impact on your sales.
Free shipping has become ubiquitous online...surely you've been to a site that offered free shipping and it helped close the sale. You should do the same. Research has shown that at least 45% of consumers will abandon a shopping cart because of shipping costs. If you offered free shipping you can incresae your sales tremendously. The smart way to do this is to calculate your site's Average Order Value (AOV = Total Sales/Total Orders), Units per Transaction (UPT = Total Units Sold/Total Orders) and determine thresholds that will help you achieve your financial goals. For example, if your sites AOV is $75, then you may want to consider offering Free Ground Shipping in the Continental U.S. for orders of $85 (15% higher than AOV) or more. You'll be surprised at how many customers will buy another product just to get free shipping. Be sure to advertise this promotion in your email campaigns, paid search spots and anywhere else you promote your site.
Gift With Purchase. Another great tool to increase your sales by offering value to your customers. This can be a great tool to liquidate old inventory. Be careful though...don't give away anything of perceived low value because that can be detrimental. Use the same concept as above...create a threshold for qualification and promote it in emails, home page and paid search placements.
Percentage Discounts. This one is very simple, but, I've seen retailers lose money because they didn't execute properly. Again set a threshold for qualification and give a nice % off. For example, get 10% off your purchase of $85 or more. And again...be careful! Be sure you exclude gift cards and exclude baskets that have minimum shipping/handling fees because they're awkward to ship. There are other things to be weary of and be sure you understand how you implement this promotion.
I've got a long list of other effective promotions. Email me at info@mjmecommerce.com for the list.
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