For many businesses, the holiday season is by far the most profitable time of year. The number of orders goes up as does the size of the average order.
Holidays can sneak up on people, though. The day-to-day operations can be taxing enough to handle, and people can forget to prepare for the upcoming holidays.
Being under-prepared can mean leaving a lot of money on the table, however. So to help get your business in top form for the holidays, here are four changes you should consider.
More Liberal Return Policies
When people shop online for holiday gifts, one of the biggest reasons they hesitate to buy is because they’re concerned about the hassle of returning unwanted items. Shoppers also worry about recipients of their gifts wanting to return or exchange items and whether or not this will be a challenge.
To assuage these concerns, ecommerce retailers can offer free and convenient return and exchange options during the holiday season.
For example, if you usually offer a 30-day money-back guarantee, try extending that to 90 days or longer. People are extra busy this time of year and they may not have a chance to return or exchange items as quickly as they normally would. So cut them some slack. Your bottom line will thank you.
And if you do decide to go with a more liberal return policy during the holiday season, make sure you clearly communicate the policy across all sales channels, including any third-party marketplaces.
Additional Payment Methods
You don’t want to lose customers during the holidays simply because you don’t offer a shopper’s preferred payment method.
So, for example, if you usually accept only Visa and MasterCard, consider adding PayPal or another payment gateway, such as Stripe, Payline, or Authorize.net, as options.
(To learn more about the pros and cons of various payment gateways, click here.)
Automating What You Can
As the holiday season picks up, so too will your business activity, leaving you with less time for tasks like sending emails, handling customer support, and posting to social media. To make sure these tasks still get done, you can look for ways to use automation tools wherever you can.
You don’t want to automate these tasks all time, though, because a personal touch is needed to maintain your business’ authenticity.
But to free up some of your time, you can automate your email marketing, including how you respond to abandoned shopping carts, with software like MailChimp or ConvertKit.
Facebook messenger chatbots can help with customer support. Or, you can keep a running document of customer service scripts and templates that you can copy and paste, as opposed to writing responses from scratch.
And services like BufferApp and MeetEdgar let you pre-populate your social media feeds by scheduling posts in advance.
Presenting Your Offers In A More “Gift-like” Way
Not every business is able to develop holiday-specific products or services. But what most businesses can do is present their offers in a more gift-like manner. For example…
You can go through your existing inventory and bundle related or complementary products into gift packages. You can offer digital gift cards, featuring festive designs. Then, you can follow up with people letting them know their gift card balance, which, in turn, helps people keep your store in mind. Or, you can add a gift wrapping option (for an additional charge) either to your product pages or as shoppers are checking out.
And as one closing tip for getting your business in top form for the holiday season, make sure your shipping information is up to date. And let shoppers know when the order deadlines are to have their items arrive in time for specific holidays.
What do you think of these tips to get your business ready for the holidays and boost your conversion rates? Do you have any other tips to share? Contact us via social media and share your thoughts.