Our 5 Ecommerce Secrets for your Best Year End Ever

The end of the year can be extremely stressful for many businesses, especially if you rely on a big Ecommerce push in the fourth quarter for a successful year. There is a big focus on tips and ideas to ensure you are maximizing your sales, many of which top web development companies like ourselves covered in articles last month and for the most part are things that most successful business do. But what about doing some of the things that aren’t being done by most businesses? Our 5 Ecommerce Secrets for your Best Year End Ever are a handful of great ideas that you might want to consider.

Ecommerce Secrets for the Best Year End

• Wish List – The king of online retailers, Amazon, had a nice idea to incorporate wish lists on their ecommerce site. This concept has proven to reduce shopping cart abandonment and also drive additional sales at a later point which is a win-win scenario. By having a list you are providing a consumer with additional shopping options. They can keep items they like on a wish list for both themselves and other people to buy it for them. For an ecommerce business looking to boost sales not only now but also later, this is the perfect addition to your website. It is also not that difficult of a task for an experienced web development firm to complete.
• Buy It Later – This idea is similar to the wish list in that you are giving your buyer options. Maybe they can’t afford to buy something now because they are tapped out financially from all of their holiday shopping. However that doesn’t mean they won’t have money to spend in the near future. Plenty of people receive gift cards or cash as presents and the tax filing season is right around the corner which provides some purchasers with big refunds they will be looking to spend. To capitalize on this you can set up a buy it later option which then tracks the user (either with just an email address or a user login) and the item or items which then opens the door for voluntary retargeting emails.
• Pricing Bump – This might seem counterintuitive around the holiday season when everyone is offering discounts and price drops, but this is actually a great time to add in very small price bumps. The fact is people are going to spend money and will make a lot of purchases before the end of the year. The closer it gets to Christmas the less cost conscious people are which means adding in a $1 handling fee or a $0.50 charge for restocking, or whatever will be paid due to the urgency of the situation. It should be noted that this idea should be used very carefully and at low amounts because you still want maximum volume of sales, but with a little extra on the side. Even a $0.10 addition to your tax costs that are being charged adds up over thousands of sales.
• New Launch – Product launches can fail because of timing. Yes, people are focused on buying everything on their lists and aren’t necessarily on the lookout for new items, but they also aren’t not looking for them. At this time of year you have a lot of engaged consumers and as we mentioned in Buy It Later there will be many that have holiday cash to spend or tax refunds on the way in Q1. So you combine that engagement and available spending power with something ‘new’ for the New Year which creates a positive reception for your item. On top of that, launching something new post-holiday forces your business to start the year with guns blazing which can prevent the common post-holiday ecommerce drop off.
• Q1 Strategy – Just because Q4 is busy does not mean you should avoid Q1 strategy preparation! Unless your products are directly related to the holidays, such as selling wrapping paper or Christmas ornaments, there is nothing that says your products can’t sell in January; you just need to be preparing for it. Your Q1 strategy can include the above mention new launch but should definitely include creative ad campaigns for Q1, social media campaign planning, reviewing email lists and updating your email marketing planning, reviewing your website for issues that have popped up during the holidays that need to be corrected, and looking for sales initiatives that will be effective. Don’t settle for a great Q4 and then coast down into a weak Q1; plan ahead now to blow the doors off your previous Q1 numbers!

Last but not least we want to remind everyone the value of A/B Testing. We have written about this many times because there is a lot of value in split testing ideas prior to implementation. This is one of the best ways to increase conversions! You can monitor and make adjustments during Q4 and should do so because it will help you not only plan for the upcoming Q1 but will also provide better ideas for a more effective Q4 in the coming year.

The bottom line is that if you want your business to have consistent success then you need to consistently look for ways to gain advantage over the competition. Our 5 Ecommerce secrets for your best year end ever is the perfect example of ideas that you can apply to expand your edge along with setting your business up for a great start to the next quarter.

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