Shopify Merchants – It’s Time To Start Planning For 2018 (Part 2)

Welcome back!

We are now at the second half of this series for planning 2018’s holiday marketing campaigns for your Shopify store. In case you need a refresher, you can check out part one of the series here. Otherwise, read on for the rest of our tips:

Offer Convenience

A major reason shoppers turn to online shopping is convenience. In other words, make the entire shopping experience from finding your products, checking out, tracking deliveries, and all the way to receiving their parcel as easy and as convenient as possible for your customers. For example, consider offering multiple shipping options: shoppers who make last-minute purchases may appreciate same-day delivery, while others prefer longer delivery time in exchange for lower shipping charges. Not to forget, with seasonal peak shopping comes a higher volume of returns, hence you should also take steps to help shoppers make better buying choices so as to reduce your returns rate.

It helps to keep customers in the loop with timely email notifications throughout the delivery process instead of having them reach out to you for help and updates. You can also link customers to your own branded tracking page where they could revisit to track their order deliveries anytime they like. Such parcel tracking services will not only offer customers a sense of control over their own purchases, it also reduces the chances of them having to contact your customer service staff.

There are many more ways you can make shopping at your store more convenient for your customers. This includes having a clear and easy-to-find shipping and returns policy, and making your payment process hassle-free. So think about how you can make the buying process so easy that customer would enjoy buying from you over and over again.

Be Sociable

Participate in the major social media platforms – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and add Instagram in there too if your business is image-oriented. Just look at what Coca-cola has done here on Instagram for Valentine’s day: Social media marketing puts your branding and products right where your target audience spends their time. Millennials especially, spend lots of time online, where they also do a lot of research via social prior to purchase as well as social media posts such as photos of gifts received, or items purchased for special festivals like Valentine’s Day or Halloween. This makes it a great opportunity to engage shoppers with promotions like holiday contests or flash sales. For instance, encourage shoppers to hashtag and share photos of their purchases on Instagram. This will not only boost sales but also increase the exposure of your brand.

Encourage Shoppers’ Participation

User-generated content is powerful as word of mouth makes an effective referral - 92% of people trust recommendations from friends and family more than all other forms of marketing (Source: Nielsen). For example, celebrate Valentine’s Day by offering a digital platform for people to showcase the best photos taken with their loved ones (maybe also with your product?). This can be done on Instagram with a hashtag campaign. While you may have to crank out some money for a prize to encourage participation, you get to leverage on the networks of your audience to generate publicity as well as tap on their creativity to generate ideas on how to present your products or services.

Reward Your Customers

An upcoming holiday event is a good opportunity to remind your existing customers it is that time of the year again to make another festive purchase. Send them personalised holiday greetings and promotional emails to invite them to exclusive sales, give them special discounts via promo codes or simply offer free products to attract them back to your store. Otherwise, you can also entice them to buy something from your store with a ‘purchase with purchase’. Remember to leverage word-of-mouth to promote your brand - Offer an incentive to your existing customers for referring new customers.

Happy planning!

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