In 2017, online e-commerce was a 2.3 trillion-dollar industry. Projections for 2021 put the number at 3.5 trillion dollars. With the huge spanner in the works that is the COVID-19 pandemic, the figures for online e-commerce in 2020 may be equally staggering due to social distancing.
Subsequently, online shopping has grown in popularity, but even more so in 2020. The months of November and December have typically experienced spikes in online sales of up to 30% in the past. Likewise, those numbers could be slightly higher in 2020 due to more people staying home. The point is, it’s time to start putting your holiday shopping marketing plan into action. Here are a few ideas on how to grow customer traffic to your ecommerce website.
Create Themed Content for Your Website and Email Marketing
Vector illustrated by Ganna Syvak on 123RF.
Plan holiday-themed content for your blogs and create a newsletter themed around the upcoming holidays to create value for your customers. Gift ideas, historical facts, recipe ideas, and decorating guides are just a few ideas to start with. Create a holiday shopping guide with your brand’s products to help ease your customers with purchase decisions, for example.
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We’re sure you will be able to think of many more marketing ideas to attract more customers. Stock image sites have all sorts of themed content for special times of the year, so use it to your advantage. Black Friday is huge for retailers, but it’s not the only day consumers will be shopping for gifts. In fact, some major brands are conducting Black Friday sales as early as October to offset loss of sales during the pandemic. The earlier you can put your themed content out there and inspire people with ideas, the more holiday profits you will create. You’ll probably want to read how to increase your business’ online sales for the coming holiday season.
Create an Advocacy Marketing Program
Did you know that the average person has a reach of about 600 people? If you can get your social media followers on-board with an advocacy marketing program, that’s a lot of extra market penetration. In short, customers join your advocacy program by signing up. So in return for sharing your content, they receive points to redeem for discounts or entries in a competition. Something as simple as a ‘give one, get one’ deal can attract more customers, for instance. Here’s an example: Give $20 off to a friend referral, and get $20 off your next purchase. And if you’re targeting a bigger audience pool, hiring micro influencers can give your brand’s reach a better boost.
Use Social Media Tools
Want to attract more customers by integrating social media into your e-commerce marketing plan? Social media tools allow you to sit down for an hour or two and schedule all of your posts for weeks or months in advance. The program will then send outposts according to the schedule you set. Some applications even have features that track analytics and make it easier to engage with your followers on multiple platforms from the one interface. Check out the following link if you need some inspiration for designing content for social media.
Use Retargeting Ads
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Remarketing allows you to catch up with visitors that have left your website without converting. It’s pretty safe to say that around 90% of your traffic will be non-converting visitors. Consequently, retargeting is an effective strategy for reconnecting with people who have already shown an interest in your product or service. That’s basically how to grow customer traffic and retain potential buyers on your ecommerce website. You will want to get creative with your retargeting ads and add personalization for the right audience.
To sum it up, a lot of your e-commerce visitors will be using your site as a research portal for gift ideas. In 2016, around 54% of shoppers reported they had started researching gift ideas as early as October. You can retarget these shoppers by making it more tempting to come back. You can offer discounts on their first purchase, free shipping, or show them specials on related categories they may have missed the first time around. Basically, you’ll make more sales if you give your online shoppers what they want. With online retail making up 30% of sales in the 2020 holiday season, everyone wants to attract more customers to their online businesses. Follow our holiday shopping guide on how to grow customer traffic and you may just find positive converts.