According to eMarketer, “The online holiday shopping season is officially under way, and internet retailers are expecting the dollars to roll in on digital channels.” The article explains that ecommerce is expected to drive over half of all holiday season revenue for online retailers, while m-commerce will provide 6% of total sales.
Social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter are also expected drive sales by offering major promotions involving discounts and coupons. With such an interested and focused consumer base, ecommerce merchants should do all they can to grab their share of both the desktop and mobile holiday audience.
If you’re looking for some ideas on how to get started, our Ecommerce Eye Candy showcases some social advertising from Amazon on Facebook and Twitter. Amazon does a great job of using its Facebook page to direct traffic to product pages that are themed appropriately for the thanksgiving season.
Since I “like” Amazon on Facebook, I receive great offers that are only a few steps away from conversion. The link from this Facebook post leads directly to a product page less than three clicks away from a buy button. It is a convenient and easy way for me to buy. In general, I’m surprised to see how many Facebook pages are so underutilized. These pages often sell themselves short by not directing followers to targeted landing pages with a short path to conversion.
So how can you capitalize on all this mobile holiday traffic? First, determine how many of your visitors arrive from mobile devices and set a modest goal of capturing sales from 1-3% of them. You know the eyeballs are out there. Why not try to capture some of that attention?
Based on Amazon’s efforts, I would also try to drive more sales through social networks. Besides your mobile traffic, it’s important to look at the traffic you get from Facebook or Twitter. Set a revenue goal for social commerce and create marketing content appropriate to your traffic base and their holiday seasons. It’s a good idea to use your analytics data on keywords that drive traffic to your product pages as a way to brainstorm effective marketing copy.
B2B software companies can also benefit from the retail bonanza that happens every year around this time. With ecommerce driving bigger percentages every year, online retailers are probably looking for more sophisticated and efficient ways of conducting business. B2B companies can create effective marketing content by highlighting how their product or service can support retailers.
In the end, by targeting shoppers during holiday season, retailers can boost mobile and social channels and B2B companies can help those retailers more effectively support their consumer base.
If you’ve come across any noteworthy B2B holiday marketing campaigns, please share your example in the comment section below.
