'Net Features : 2012 holiday

Five Post-Holiday Strategies for Merchants

Allison Howen — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 21:16:00 GMT

It's safe to say, the 2012 holiday season has proved to be profitable so far, as consumers spent $33.8 billion online as of Dec. 16, which is a 13 percent increase compared to the same time last year according to comScore. Moreover, the last week had four individual days that exceeded $1 billion in spending.

But all good things must come to an end, and although merchants should stay focused on the last stretch of the holiday rush, it is also time to start preparing post-holiday strategies.

This is because the period directly after the holidays can be a great time to sell excess merchandise, entice people to redeem their gift cards, attract consumers to shop who are at home and haven’t yet gone back to work, as well as start preparations for the 2013 holiday season. Discover five ways to make the most out of the post-holiday period below:

Entice Consumers with Email

Many retailers launch end-of-year sales on Dec. 26, and while email is a great way to spread the word about these sales, merchants should also leverage this channel to target specific customer segments.

For example, merchants can start sending bounce back coupons to consumers that made purchases during the holiday season. These coupons will entice customers who have made previous purchases to come back and make additional purchases after the holidays. Furthermore, merchants can send coupons to customers who made wishlists on the merchant's website earlier in the year. Sending an email with a message that states – “We hope you received everything on your wishlist, but just in case Santa forgot something, use this coupon for 20 percent off your next order.” – will surely bring in some customers who didn’t receive everything they wanted this holiday season.

Switch Up Advertising Campaigns

Don’t be one of the merchants who forgets to turn off his or her holiday campaigns. Instead, it is best to prepare ahead and have end-of-year sale campaigns ready to take the place of holiday campaigns.

The best way to do this is to create strong promotional campaigns around sale and clearance items that merchants want to push off their shelves. By doing this, merchants are publicizing in-stock merchandise so customers won't be disappointed with ads that contain out-of-stock products. Additionally, this strategy also entices deal-seekers to come browse products both online and in-stores.

Stay Engaged with Social

Many consumers are still at home recovering from the holidays during the last week of December and the first week of January, which means that this is prime time to engage with these consumers via social networks.

Not only should merchants use their most popular social profiles to promote end-of-year sales, but they should also engage consumers with interactions, content and contests. One of the most important things merchants can do is respond to customer questions and comments via social media during this time period. This is because these interactions at best can lead to sale opportunities and at worst lead to a stronger relationship with the customer – which makes this a win-win strategy. However, merchants should also consider using social media to launch flash promotions after the holidays, such as “the first five check-ins of the day receive a free gift,” as well as contests and giveaways that will keep customers active with the brand.

Attract Traffic with Daily Deals

Although the daily deal industry isn't as popular as it once was, merchants can attract traffic both online and in-stores by launching a post-holiday deal. Running a daily deal can not only help retailers acquire new customers and increase conversions, but merchants can also build deals around excess inventory, which will help them clear the shelves for new products in the spring.

Clean Up and Organize Data

After the holiday dust settles, it is time to evaluate all of your campaigns and get organized for next year.

In fact, merchants should analyze the performance of merchandise, advertisements and promotional campaigns for every channel, including the traditional Web, social, mobile and email. Once this data is sorted through, merchants will be able to build on the best performing campaigns and throw away lackluster strategies for the 2013 holiday season. By completing this step right after the holidays are finished, data will still be fresh on a merchant's mind, which will lead to better organization and preparation for next year.

Don't Forget Small Business Saturday

Allison Howen — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 16:50:00 GMT

There is no doubt that as November approaches, retailers certainly have Black Friday and Cyber Monday top of mind. With that being said, they should also not forget about Small Business Saturday.

American Express formed Small Business Saturday three years ago to create exposure for small businesses within the United States. The Small Business Saturday campaign asks consumers to support their local small businesses on the day after Black Friday, which is November 24th. Last year, more than one hundred million people came together to participate in shopping at small businesses within their communities.

The best part of the Small Business Saturday campaign is that it provides small businesses with free and local advertising. To participate, merchants simply need to visit American Express’s dedicated website to download free marketing materials, which include email templates, online banners and personalized signage. Furthermore, qualifying merchants can receive free geo-targeted online advertising that drives traffic to either their website or Facebook Page. It is also important to note that the Small Business Saturday website even includes pre-written social media posts, to help businesses and consumers spread the word.

However, since Small Business Saturday falls during the busiest shopping season of the year, participating merchants should definitely take a little time to plan ahead. For example, merchants should consider creating an exclusive promotion for November 24 that will attract consumers into their businesses or onto their websites. Once that has been accomplished, merchants should focus on promoting their special through multiple channels, such as on their website, on their social profiles and within their email marketing campaigns.

Downtime the Focus of Holiday Prep

Allison Howen — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 18:45:00 GMT

Have you started preparing your website for the holidays? If not, you may be a step behind of your competition.

This is because a new study from cloud hosting company Rackspace reveals that 81 percent of e-commerce decision makers (CIOs, CTOs and IT chiefs) are taking steps to improve the online shopping experience for the 2012 holiday season, such as increasing computing capacity, redesigning websites and addressing security concerns.

In fact, the survey found that one of the biggest challenges that retailers are taking precautions against is website downtime, with 77 percent taking steps to reduce or eliminate this problem during the holiday season. Perhaps the reason this issue is top of mind is because downtime posed a problem for 18 percent of survey respondents last year, with losses ranging from hundreds of thousands of dollars to tens of millions. Furthermore, 45 percent of the respondents estimate they would lose between $500,000 and $5 million if their company’s site went down for a single day during the holiday season, which could be the reason why 28 percent of respondents are working with their third-party hosting provider to make sure customers can keep shopping online during high-traffic periods.

“Many online retailers have found out the hard way in 2011 that their internal IT systems and resources weren’t ready to handle large spikes in holiday sales,” said Adrianna Bustamante, who works in commerce channel development for Rackspace. “With 45 percent of retailers expecting holiday sales to grow this year, it is important that retailers take steps to improve the online shopping experience and reduce or eliminate downtime during the all-important holiday season.”

Taking steps to improve site performance is very important, especially with the expectation that this year’s holiday sales will be better than last year. Other findings from the study reveal that 29 percent of retailers are preparing for the season by hiring more IT staff, while 37 percent will use load testing, 33 percent will build up website redundancy and 48 percent will increase computing capacity to improve their site’s shopping experience.