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October may only have just finished, but sooner is always better than later when it begins to preparing your online shop for Christmas. Analytics from Google Trends has shown that consumers begin to look for ‘Christmas Gift Ideas’ in August – a good reminder that it is never too early to start feeling festive and planning a marketing campaign that will attract both new and existing customers.
Before you roll out your campaign, there are a few critical components that you need to plan and prepare in advance. Here’s how you can stay ahead of your competition and attract even more visitors to your online shop this Christmas.
Practicalities first
Before the Christmas buzz starts in earnest, you will want to reconsider a few of your current store policies. Many online retailers offer an extended return and exchange policy over the Christmas period, so you will need to consider if this if the correct move for you and your business. You may also want to rethink the payment methods that you have in place – and consider adding alternative options such as Paypal or even Bitcoin. Easy to switch to, these options can generate revenue from eshoppers that may previously have discounted your shop in the past.
Choose your ad channels
In order for your Christmas campaign to generate new sales and revenue for your online shop, you will need to determine which ad channels to focus on. Ensure that your site blog contains a steady flow of relevant and topical content that you can share via email marketing campaigns or across your social media channels. Create an editorial calendar for your email marketing, using your existing customer database to highlight flash sales and offers exclusive for returning shoppers. Finally, consider using a Comparison Shopping Partner to help you improve your ROAS.
Kelkoo Group has 20 years’ experience in ecommerce, digital advertising and consumer analytics. We can support your entire campaign, from set up through to tracking sales and conversion data to help you get the results your business needs to succeed.
Get Tracking
No matter the approach for your marketing campaign, the second and most important step, is tracking your efforts to make sure you are sure of the success and impact of your Christmas push. Set up Google Analytics on your store to keep tabs on your specific campaign, to better manage results from individual promotions and channels. You will need to use a unique trackable link, called a UTM (Urchin Tracking Module) as a parameter for your Christmas marketing campaign. Once your tracking is set up, you can begin rolling out your festive sales drive.
The Christmas season provides a myriad of opportunities for your ecommerce business, so get planning, preparing and tracking to increase your conversions and average order size.