Online Holiday Sales Surge Spurs Continued Marketing Efforts

The 2015 holiday was a successful sales period in e-commerce. According to stats published by Internet Retailer magazine, ecommerce sales surged 20% between Black Friday and Christmas Eve, total retail sales increased by 7.9%, and the industry saw several billion-dollar online sales days.

Merchants can continue to capitalize on repeat holiday shoppers and target those who forgot to shop online by continuing to develop a relationship with them in the new year. These general marketing tactics should be implemented if you’re not already using them:

• Network via social media, including posting Facebook-only coupon codes regularly and running published contests to entice new Likes.
• Send monthly email newsletters that announce your new products and special sales, give tips about your products, and more.
• Continue adding new products and content to your website to keep shoppers coming back for more.
• Advertise with Google to capture new shoppers searching for the products you carry
• Build a community to reward visitors for creating content on your website so you don’t have to.

When planning promotions around holiday-specific events, remember sometimes a sale would run for only a few days surrounding the holiday, but others (like Valentine's and Easter) should be promoted well in advance to allow for order fulfilment and time in transit. Most retailers run special sales or provide freebies or free shipping for some of these Q1 holidays, depending on what makes sense for their stores and product lines:

• National Freedom Day (Feb 1)
• Groundhog Day (Feb 2)
• National Wear Red Day (Feb 5)
• Mardi Gras (Feb 9)
• Valentine's Day (Feb 14)
• President's Day (Feb 15)
• Employee Appreciation Day (Mar 4)
• Daylight Savings Time (Mar 13)
• St. Patrick's Day (Mar 17)
• Easter (Mar 27)

The WTE Solutions emarketing team can assist with planning promotions, creating graphics for your special sales, sending email newsletters to your shoppers, and social media and community marketing. Contact us about ways that can help to grow your ecommerce business.