By Ankita Singh
1. Introduction
It’s that time of the year again. Not so long ago, the stores in our neighborhood would be festooned with ginormous diyas and torans for the month of November, and a quaint nativity scene and larger-than-life fir tree bowing under the weight of colorful, glittery ornaments come December. Doesn’t that just paint a picture of true festive magic and the euphoria of store-hopping and discount shopping? But these days, it’s all about online, ecommerce, and digital shopping. How does one bring the same feelings of celebration to a store on one’s phone?
While chalking out a strategy, it is important to learn how to stand apart in the crowded global ecommerce scape. Aping other successful stores and mindlessly copying discount schemes will not do you any good. The least that might happen would be losing out on a whole festive sale season, while the worst would be a tarnished brand reputation and perception. Why? Because your approach would be profit-first rather than customer-centric. Let’s take a look at two key phases to drive increased sales during the festive season- the right kind of marketing & delightful customer experiences.
2. Nurture Wishlists With On-point Marketing Campaigns
The key to perfecting your festive campaigns begins with understanding your target customer. Does your brand cater to the contemporary-design-seeking affluents, Gen Zs on the hunt for the latest cool drops, or the rural and small-town shoppers on the lookout for value buys? This may not appeal to your ‘anti-stereotyping’ state of mind, and while there are cross-overs, this mostly holds true for the season of gifting and household purchases. This consumer behavior is partly due to societal and community-fostered notions around festivities, which differ by a significant degree across various demographics.
2.1. Target Your Audience for Holiday Marketing
Once you have identified your target customer, the crucial step is figuring out your content strategy to hook them in. Right from the models you use in your images and videos, the influencers you hire for promotional activities, and even the keywords that declare what you have to offer, every single thing must work towards luring that perfect shopper to buy from you. Playing to the flavor of regionality is vital. Since this is the first step in your holiday marketing game plan, take the time to fine-tune your intent with your content consciously.
2.2. Tailor Promotional Strategies to Engage Customers
While pricing may not be the first thing on the minds of bourgeoisie shoppers and Gen Zs, it is sure to attract those looking for amazing discounts and legacy/household brand products. And if it is worth the cost, they may even splurge on a new-name product! GenZs and premium shoppers look for limited/special edition curated products with a global design appeal. The core difference between them comes down to the product type, quality, and aesthetics. Prepare a communication blueprint that demonstrates to customers what they can expect when they place an order with you and what value it brings them.
2.3. Leverage Marketing Communications for Festive Promotions
One of the best practices successful D2C brands use in their marketing communication action plan is to choose the communication channel most used by their target segment or trigger uniform messages tailored to suit various channel formats. Regarding CTAs, simple action buttons with curated product recommendations catering to customer expectations work wonders. Any positive engagement can be brought to full fruition with limited-period discounts, flash sale announcements, and special freebies.
3. The Sublime Art of Delighting the Customer
The planning of marketing campaigns does not take precedence over customer experience. Indeed, without the one, the other would not exist. This fine balance needs to be tread carefully and months in advance. While you may be fording the wondrous river of festive orders, you must be like a swan, calm above water, while you race to a glorious finish line behind the scenes. When crafting a wonderful and hassle-free shopping experience, here are a few things to keep in mind.
3.1. Prepare for Incoming Traffic: Automate, automate, automate some more. This will rid you of rote tasks like generating AWB, allocating courier partners, updating customers on order status, and more. Identify and choose a logistics management system that integrates with your marketplace, courier partners, and WMS systems. With seamless integrations, you can heave a sigh of relief and redirect your workforce where they are needed most.
3.2. Personalize all Updates: Tailor all post-purchase notifications to your customer with appropriate branding, personalized content, and thematic designs. Focus on providing accurate and concise order status information. Delight your shoppers with little pops of notifications each time their order crosses an important milestone. Truly, nothing brings as much joy as seeing an “Out for Delivery” alert pop up on one’s phone!
3.3. Novel Fulfillment Options: Free Shipping is so yesterday. BOPIS & BORIS are your two new best friends. Provide your customers with the option to Buy-online-pickup-in-store & Buy-online-return-in-store. This is a truly wondrous win-win situation for you and your shoppers. If there is a size issue, color issue, or in case they want to swap for another product, it’s all quite easily done in a matter of minutes. Consider this a prepaid intention to buy by your shopper!
3.4. Always Be Learning: When customers walk into a physical store, it is often easy to spot what makes them happy or the minute they turn snappy. And you can quickly figure out what needs improvement. In this digital universe, taking feedback from your customers makes sense. During the purchase journey, engage customers in a quick survey and request ratings on product, delivery, shopping experience, and more!
4. Collaborate for Some Magic!
Of course, it is always fun to plan ideal communication flows, create ambassador programs, chart out perfect deliveries & more. But it is also important to acknowledge tech limitations, bandwidth, and focus when it comes to these components of ecommerce. While you helm the vision and mission of your business, collaborate with tech experts in logistics, communication & digital marketing to make your wonderful festive dreams a reality. This November & December, celebrate profitability.
(The author is Ankita Singh, Associate Director, Sales, ClickPost, and the views expressed in this article are her own)
