Top 7 Tips to Boost Your eCommerce Sales This Thanksgiving

As is the case every year, the holiday season of 2022 is expected to be a massive event for sellers and shoppers alike. 

To add some context, according to Adobe Digital Insights, American consumers spent $109.8 billion online between November 1 and 29, 2021. That’s an 11.9% year-on-year increase. But, from Thanksgiving Day through Cyber Monday (a period popular as Cyber Week), only $33.9 billion was spent online in 2021, i.e., 1.4% less than in 2020. That slight dip was observed in the Black Friday sales while Adobe reported that the Thanksgiving sales observed no decline.

For sellers borrowing insights from the 2021 holiday season, the primary focus in 2022 is to convert early-shoppers with engaging deals. This rationalizes why online businesses are already on their toes to cash in on the holiday season. 

In case you are looking for actionable tips to build a solid Thanksgiving eCommerce marketing strategy and boost sales, we have put together these seven tips to help you reach the following goals.

• Attract shoppers to your online store for Thanksgiving
• Boost eCommerce sales through thought-out strategies
• Optimize store for the holiday season

Use these tips to achieve high revenue and strategically meet your sales goals this Thanksgiving while kicking off Cyber Week with a good start. 

Tip 1 – Reach out to existing customers

Cashing in on your existing customer base is the easiest step to boost sales during the holiday season of 2022. They know your brand and the products you sell, so keeping your existing customer base at the center of your eCommerce marketing strategy makes sense.

How to get your existing customers to spend during the Thanksgiving weekend?

The answer is to start pitching them in advance because you don’t want them to head elsewhere for holiday deals. Then, use channels like social media and email marketing as part of your Thanksgiving eCommerce strategy to show the deals and discounts you have in store.

• Prepare an email list and segment it according to the holiday-specific events. 
• Don’t just create emailers for Thanksgiving, but also for the following holidays like Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
• Use personalized subject lines.
• Offer exclusive deals and discounts to loyal customers.
• Schedule emails based on time zones and specific days with the best performance regarding open rates and conversions.

Tip 2 – Set up a referral program

A smart way to get the maximum value out of your existing customer base is by setting up an attractive program that rewards them for referring.

For example, to boost eCommerce sales on Thanksgiving, you can float extra discounts and exclusive deals for shoppers who refer a friend, co-worker, or family member on Black Friday. Since there’s only a day of gap between the two dates, customers will see the benefit in referring someone to your eStore in exchange for more savings. As a result, you will sell more and further build your customer base during the holiday season.

Think of it as killing (or selling) two birds with one stone. You can plan out your referral rewards campaign in this way –

• Pre-season: a week or ten days before the holiday to build hype.
• Launch day: on the specific event or holiday to boost sales quickly.
• Post-season: a week after the season to clear stocks and inventory.

Tip 3 – Revamp your landing pages

Your landing page is the first thing shoppers will see, so you should start by optimizing it for improved engagement. 

One way you can do this is by giving your online store a holiday makeover. Use holiday-specific banners for Thanksgiving. Let shoppers know you are ready for the season with great offers. In addition, consider including holiday-themed copy and content on your website to make it engaging. For example, use phrases like ‘Thanksgiving Sale,’ and ‘Best Thanksgiving Deals’. This may help direct consumers towards the right deals. 

To optimize the landing pages, use the following eCommerce store optimization tips for the holiday season –

• Optimize your online store for desktop, mobile, and tablets. Shoppers don’t want an unresponsive, slow-loading website during the holiday rush. Instead, give them a smooth, easy-to-navigate shopping experience to avoid conversion drop-outs and reduce cart abandonment. Be prepared for high traffic volume during the holiday season.
• Run discounts on popular products in your niche. For example, the most popular products sold during Cyber week last year were toys, video games, smartphones, and laptops. So, it’d be a good idea to make sure your eStore has offers running on these products (if you sell these).
• Optimize your online store for holiday-specific search terms. Almost half of the online searches start with a keyword or phrase. You acquire improved visibility and sales if your store can rank high on those keywords. So, include popular keywords like ‘Thanksgiving deals,’ ‘Cyber Monday offers,’ and Thanksgiving gifts’ in your product listing pages, titles, and descriptions.

Tip 4 – Utilize buyer’s psychology

Selling is easier when you know what makes people ‘buy’ things. Yes, the rush of holiday sales is a huge motivator to purchase products, but buyer psychology goes deeper than deals and discounts.

Buyers are driven by impulses (especially during the holiday season). As an eSeller, applying buyer psychology to your eCommerce holiday marketing strategy is an art. Below we’ll discuss a few ways how you can use it to your advantage –

• Create a ‘fear of missing out (FOMO)’ – Buyers are often looking to get their hands on great deals and fear missing out due to the seasonal rush. You can use popular hooks like ‘countdown deals,’ ‘last-minute offers, ’ and ’till stocks last’ to help buyers quickly make the purchase decision. Once they know they’ll miss out on a great deal, they’re twice as likely to make a purchase.
• Put social proofing in place – Social proofing works to build trust among shoppers and help them make a purchase decision. People often like to know how a product works; the best way is to know what other shoppers say. To execute this, utilize the power of customer reviews and testimonials. Let shoppers know what others think about your product, service, and brand.
• Help people save time – The holiday season is usually busy, and deciding what to buy can take time. As online sellers, you can use this buyer psychology to your advantage. If you can help people save time with decision-making, they’re more likely to trust you. To implement this, create evergreen content around popular topics like ‘holiday gifting guide for men,’ ‘top 10 tech deals for Cyber Monday,’ and ‘best holiday gifts for moms.’
• Sweeten the deal – To sell more products, tap into the classic buyer mentality of ‘buy more to save more.’ Offering extra discounts on product bundles is a great way to upsell. You can also cross-sell by suggesting products that a buyer considers. Offering ‘free shipping’ and ‘same-day delivery’ are two more great ways to sweeten the deal and nudge people to buy from you.

Tip 5 – Use social media marketing

Smart online sellers know that millions of people are talking about holidays like Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and Christmas on social media, so they use social media as part of their selling strategy.

But don’t just jump into pushing posts on social media; take some time to think of marketing themes and ideas and draft a holiday marketing strategy.

Once you have a plan in place, here’s how to use social media as part of your Thanksgiving marketing strategy:

• Find your most popular social media channels. Know where most of your followers are and plan your marketing strategy accordingly. To reach out to new audiences, research their age, demographics, etc., and find out which social media platforms they use most often.
• Segregate your marketing plan according to the target audience, develop different campaigns for events, and plan your social media posts for each event.
• Find the most popular times to post on different social media channels and promote your posts accordingly. Mix the content and try to get creative with videos and gifs. Usually, social posts with an emotional feel attract buyers.
• Run paid and promoted posts on your best product deals and discounts across different social media channels.

Tip 6 – Deploy chatbots

Artificial intelligence has brought a paradigm shift in the eCommerce industry. Chatbots are one of the most popular AI applications. Businesses prefer to deploy chatbots for sales and lead generation. This assists them in increasing consumer satisfaction through prompt support that’s available 24*7. 

Here’s how chatbots help your eCommerce store boost sales:

• Prompt response: Even when your sales team is unavailable, an AI-enabled bot keeps visitors and clients engaged 24/7 by delivering prompt responses.
• Pre-qualify your sales prospects: By utilizing pre-set questionnaires, a well-designed chatbot assists in pre-qualifying sales prospects even while your sales personnel are busy.
• Handle online orders: AI-powered chatbots are highly efficient in handling online orders.
• Schedule appointments: After qualifying the leads, chatbots can direct them to the sales team for quick conversion, scheduling an appointment, or meeting a sales executive. 

Tip 7- Reduce abrasion on checkout pages

Online retail stores expand quickly, but many eStores struggle with checkout conversions. If the checkout procedure is challenging or full of friction, customers usually bounce back despite adding items to the cart.

The average cart abandonment is nearly 70% (nearly 85% for mobile users) across all industries. Due to cart abandonment, online retailers lose $18 billion in annual sales. This is one of the top reasons why online businesses lose sales. Therefore, it is crucial to eliminate the components on the checkout page that cause friction and disappoint the customer.

Here are some of the ways by which you can reduce the eCommerce cart abandonment rate and boost online sales:

• Utilize live chat or chatbots to give consumers real-time sales support.
• Reduce the number of steps and streamline the payment process to enable frictionless checkout.
• Be transparent about all fees, including taxes and delivery expenses. Unexpected fees will undermine your consumers’ loyalty and confidence and discourage them from completing the transaction.
• Offer a wide range of payment methods for your client’s convenience.

Implement these tips carefully for successful Thanksgiving sales 

From eCommerce listing optimization to theme-d marketing, whatever strategies you create would require perfect execution. Online competition is stiff and will only get more challenging during the holiday season. So it makes sense to start preparing now if you want to boost holiday sales for Thanksgiving, Cyber Week, and Christmas.

At SunTec India, we understand the pain points of eCommerce businesses, which is why we’ve been serving as a trusted partner for global sellers who want to outsource the ‘non-core’ tasks to a reliable and professional pool of talent. Our dedicated team of professionals can take your online store to the next level with a comprehensive suite of services, including –

• Catalog Processing
• Image Editing
• Product Description Writing
• Product Upload
• Amazon/eBay Listing
• SEO/Digital Marketing

Sometimes, finding the time and right resources required for the job can be strenuous. Online sellers already have tons of business activities to take care of, and making time for marketing, planning, and store optimization can be challenging. With SunTec India, your online store is in safe hands. Get in touch with us for a quick chat, and let us help you have a successful holiday season.

Write to us at info@suntecindia.com today!