Busy Shopping Season – Key Dates and Tips

The Busy Shopping Season is almost upon us. We have prepared some key dates and tips to make sure you are prepared !

Creepy October

Creepy October is here already. Use this time to ‘hook’ new and existing customers with exceptional customer service and they will come back. Make sure you are collecting customer email addresses and build your database. Remember that 40% of holiday shopping begins around Halloween, consider developing Gift Finders to help the busy or last minute shopper !

Black November

Decide on your promotion strategy, our experience is that a large discount on a few key items is enough to attract customers and then a standard discount across your other product lines.

Start building your Black Friday campaign from mid November, avoid repeating messages and have a plan to keep it fresh. Traffic will start building from around November 23rd so make sure if you are planning on running Black Friday promotions that you are advertising them on your Home Page , Category and Brand Landing Pages.

A Countdown Widget is a very good way to create some urgency.

Grey Thursday is on November 28th, consider rewarding your loyal customers with early access to your sale on grey Thursday or even before, a promotional code is a great way to do this . Everyone loves to be first in the queue !

Be prepared for Black Friday on November 29th, ensure your team are ready to process orders and remember that happy customers are repeating customers.

You should experience good sales throughout the weekend with a possible surge on Cyber Monday. Consider Retargetting Tuesday for those who resisted impulse buying or abandoned baskets, now is a good time to target email them again !

December Conversion Season

Advertise your Last Shipping Day around Mid December to create some urgency around shopping, again the Countdown Widget is a great way to do this.

Online Christmas Shopping may start dropping off around 18th /19th if people think they have missed the shipping deadline so if you offer next day delivery ensure this is a great opportunity to tell them.

Super Saturday is traditionally the Saturday before Christmas so be prepared for last minute sales. Make it easy for the last minute shopper by using Gift Finders and promoting Gift Vouchers.