Prepare Your eCommerce & qCommerce Store for the 2024 Holiday Season

The last quarter of the year is all about holidays and festivities across the globe. Whether it be Diwali-Dusshera sales, Black Friday & Cyber Monday sales, Christmas or New Year festive online sales, it is a fiesta everywhere. This era spoils customers for choices, while brands spoil them with deals, creating a win-win situation for everyone.

It is the best time to scale up your business or enter the market using brand-appropriate strategies and experiment with what works and doesn’t. Our team of experts helps you to scale your business, drive visibility, and increase conversions.

Amid the plethora of holiday and festive gifting options available online, we help you reach your targeted audience to make the most out of it. As an online business, you may use this to your advantage by digging into the right strategies and preparations. We have hereby curated a list of strategies to help eCommerce businesses be equipped for the holiday season ahead of time and devour the last-minute hassle.

Holiday season prep beforehand

1. Inventory Management

Nothing irks customers more than encountering an out-of-stock product. The thumb rule is to keep the inventory in check beforehand and make sure that the suppliers have adequate stock as per the predictive analysis and demand.

Sign up with Kinator to stay ahead of the curve with its automatic stock reminders, saving customers from the extended wait time and dissatisfaction.

2. Retargeting builds credibility

18% of users hesitate to give out their credit card information. Nearly a fifth of customers don’t complete their purchase because they don’t feel their payment details are safe with the retailer, leading to abandoned carts.

Retarget them with eCommerce PPC ads and sponsored social media campaigns to entice them to buy again. To reduce cart abandonment rates, consider the following strategies:

• Use quirky copies in push notifications, encouraging them to complete the transaction. Personalise the customer journey and offer additional discounts and time-sensitive deals to create urgency.
• Simplify the checkout process. Offering a one-step or two-step checkout process may amplify the conversions.
• Provide multiple payment methods. Offer as many payment methods as you can with flexible payment services like Buy Now, Pay Later, and Try & Buy, etc. If your brand has an outlet, then BOPIS (Buy Online, Pay in Store) gives the added convenience to the customers.

3. Monitor your Key Performance Indicators

Without outlining the crucial business KPIs, such as the required percentage increase in sales, cost per acquisition, average order value, ROI, and returns, your holiday marketing campaign isn’t complete.

Optimising Website for the Holiday Season

1. Use a holiday sales calendar to keep track of the upcoming events.

Maintain a holiday sales calendar, as it will help you track upcoming events and provide you with ample time for strategising growth opportunities, brand awareness, product launches, theme-based customisations, and revenues.

2. Mobile-Friendly Website

 

Not just for the holiday season, but in general, it is equally important to keep your website accessible to users on mobile. Accessing a website on the mobile is hassle-free, as you just need to search and surf the website. The website should be simple to navigate with compressed images, responsive designs, a readable font, and minimal pop-up links for an enhanced user experience.

Statistics show that by the year 2024, nearly 80% of websites will have optimised for mobile devices. Here are a few tips to make the user experience worthwhile on the website.

• Simplify your menu and add search functionality.
• Frequently test and optimise your website.
• The font should be large and readable.
• Change button size and placements.
• Create a new holiday-related theme for your online store.
• Use an SEO-friendly URL.
• Run ads specifically for mobile to target customers.

3. Prepare to handle traffic.

Optimising the website is one thing, while preparing it to handle higher traffic, especially during the festive and holiday seasons, is another. To avoid traffic and reduce potential conversions, it’s critical to plan ahead by implementing the following steps: 

• Regularly monitor the loading speed on all devices.
• Simplified checkout process
• Use plugins and extensions to upsell your products.
• Avoid pop-ups on mobile devices, as they may cause the website to lag.
• Declutter the web design

Festive SEO Content Tips for Boosting Product Discoverability and Rankings

Capitalise on Seasonal Keywords: To dominate festive SEO, focus on identifying and leveraging seasonal keywords. Review last year’s top-performing keywords, analyse their success, and assess whether they still resonate with your brand. Alternatively, look for new keywords that match trending holiday terms such as Christmas gift ideas, Diwali gifts, holiday deals, festive discounts, or even corporate gifting. Keeping up with the latest trends ensures you stay competitive and visible.

What to do:

• To adapt to changing trends, regularly monitor keyword performance.
• Publish high-quality, engaging content that resonates with festive shoppers.
• To increase visibility, use festival-related phrases like Christmas presents, Diwali presents, or holiday gift bundles.

2. Create a customised holiday landing page:

A dedicated holiday landing page can enhance your festive season SEO by centralising your holiday-related offers, products, and keywords. It allows you to craft precise, goal-orientated strategies, such as holiday-themed CTAs like Shop Diwali Discounts Now or Christmas Sale Offers. These pages help attract more holiday shoppers, increase conversion rates, and rank higher due to their focused, holiday-specific content.

3. Prepare for last-minute holiday shopping and create urgency.

Last-minute shopping is inevitable during the festive season. Use time-sensitive deals like “Only 3 Days Left for Christmas Sale” or “Hurry! Last-minute Diwali gifts” are available! To convert last-minute shoppers, prominently display your bestsellers and new arrivals on your homepage.

4. Incorporate festive-themed videos and images: Leverage the power of multimedia during the festive season. Adding vibrant, holiday-themed visuals or videos to your content can significantly improve engagement. Consumers spend an average of 100 minutes daily watching online content (Statista).

Source- Amazon

Whether it’s Christmas jingles, Diwali lights, or Thanksgiving themes, visually appealing content encourages shoppers to explore your products and boosts your holiday discoverability.

Plan your holiday season with PPC

1. Create Separate Campaigns for Top performers.

The holiday season sees a significant increase in ad traffic. With higher demand, your campaigns may deplete budgets faster than anticipated. To avoid losing out on your top-performing products, break them into individual campaigns. This allows you to control the budget for each campaign and maximise ROI on your best-selling items.

2. Bid Aggressively

During the festive season, not only does traffic surge, but the level of competition intensifies. Cost-per-click (CPC) for popular products and keywords can spike during this period, requiring you to adjust your bidding strategies. In 2024, CPCs for highly competitive keywords are expected to rise by over 20% (Statista). Be ready to adapt to this increased competition by raising your bids accordingly to stay visible and competitive.

3. Launch Festive-Specific PPC campaigns

Running PPC ads tailored for the holiday season is essential. Use holiday-themed power words such as Black Friday Deals, Christmas Discounts, Diwali Offers, and phrases that resonate with your audience. These ads should focus on what buyers are actively seeking during this period to drive higher engagement.

Holiday promotion

1. Give your customers bundle offers.

Maximise your sales by offering attractive bundle deals and promotions. Combining fast-moving products with slow sellers or allowing customers to customise bundles can significantly boost your visibility and sales. Festive bundles appeal to shoppers looking for convenience and value during peak seasons.

Include Holiday Giveaways: Giveaways boast a 34% higher conversion rate than other types of promotional content (2024, HubSpot). Offering festive giveaways can increase participation and inspire subscribers to engage with your brand.

2. Leverage Social Media for Festive Promotion

Source- wordstream

Social media is a powerful tool for brand awareness and holiday promotions. In 2024, it’s projected that 58% of consumers discover new products via social platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube (Statista). Work with influencers, run ads, and maintain an active presence throughout the holiday season to tap into this potential.

3. Send Holiday Email Marketing Campaigns: Email marketing continues to be one of the most effective ways to reach your audience during the holiday season. Use personalised email campaigns to promote sales, send holiday gift card offers, or recover abandoned carts. Make sure to craft compelling subject lines, such as Exclusive Diwali Deals or Christmas Sale Ends Soon!, to boost your open rates and conversions.

What to do:

• Send welcome/thank you emails upon sign-up.
• Promote holiday gift cards and discounts via email.
• Optimise subject lines for festive engagement.
• Use abandoned cart emails to re-engage customers.

4. Add Free Samples with Orders

Source- flashsaletricks

For industries like beauty, food, and beverages, adding free samples with orders can enhance customer loyalty. Offering a free trial of new products alongside an initial purchase is a win-win: customers get a taste of something new, and you build stronger brand connections.

5. Customer Support Strategies During the Festive Season

• Reward loyal customers: Show appreciation to your loyal customers by offering them exclusive gifts or special offers during the holiday season. Companies like Starbucks have successfully used this strategy to enhance customer loyalty. Add a personal touch to make your customers feel valued, increasing the likelihood of repeat purchases.
• Expand Your Communication Channels: A smooth flow is essential to maintaining transparency, and creating multiple streams of communication is a must for your customers to reach you out at any moment. Real-time messaging, social media, and traditional phone or email support can cater to a diverse customer base, improving overall satisfaction.
• Deliver exceptional customer service: With the holiday rush, customer service must be top-notch. Enhance your website with more FAQs and utilise chatbots to handle common queries in real-time. This will allow your team to focus on more complex issues while ensuring customers receive timely responses.