How to be Successful During the eCommerce Holiday Season
What to expect
The coming period is known as one in which sales are vastly rising compared to the rest of the year. Not only holidays like Singles Day and Christmas are responsible for this growth, but new trends taking over Europe like ‘Black Friday’ (23 Nov), ‘Cyber Monday’ (26 Nov) and ‘Green Monday’ (10 Dec) are also quickly becoming very big and popular high sales days. Bol.com shows us in the table below what growth they expect in weeks 47 to 51 compared to average weeks from May-August 2018, but what’s the best way to prepare?
The most important advice is to make sure you have your stock ready before the holidays. Often, suppliers sell out much faster or have no time to process orders quickly during the peak period. Do you work with LVB or FBA? Then make sure you have the stocks there before week 47. In recent years, the incoming goods at Amazon and Bol’s fulfillment centers have been greater than their operational capacity, so a delay in processing is a logical consequence.
Before the holidays, you still have a little extra time to prepare in order to stay on top of the excessive orders. You can use this coming week to show your top products to the consumers. It is also quite normal to already start promoting new deals and discounts a few days before, so don’t wait until the last minute to show your awesome deals! Our quick tips will give you a head start into the preparation for the next few weeks and this winter holiday season. You can use them as a checklist to ensure a smooth flow of operations during this competitive online sales period.
To keep in mind
Firstly, make sure to double check that all the products in your listing are actually listed on the marketplaces. Are the products unknown in the marketplace catalog? Use our content mapping tool.
What can I do to reduce product returns? You can reduce your returns by focusing on your best quality and best-selling products. Make sure that the description is complete and accurate for each product, so customers have no doubts they are purchasing the desired and displayed product. Also, don’t forget to make sure you have sufficient stock of the products you expect to sell the most.
Do you have any problems with overselling or think that your offer isn’t being updated fast enough? You can contact our technical support team at support@channelengine.com with the request to have the product update time reduced for a specific period.
Quick succes tips
Sharp images, try to use several images to display the product at its best to improve conversion. Delivery time, is the time you communicate still accurate? This is very important and the key to standing out over the competitors as delivery time and the cost will have a significant impact on the customer’s purchase decision. The faster and the cheaper the delivery is; the more appeal your product will have over the competitor. Finally, do you want to offer discounts, just use our pricing rules to offer a percentage or between two specific dates? Not what you wanted? Then go to ChannelEngine and check all the other available options. For the reason that there will be high expectations this shopping season, remember to focus on these important tips in order to be successful and continue building a lasting loyalty with your customers.
ENJOY THE HOLIDAYS
Congratulations, you made it! ChannelEngine will continue to work through this high sales period and keep improving and giving support so you can relax and enjoy the endless stream of orders. We are on stand-by to answer any questions you might have and can be contacted by E-mail at support@channelengine.com or by telephone +31 71 52 88 795.
