Cyber Monday is fast approaching. For two years running, this has been the single biggest sales day for online retailers, and we can expect more of the same this year. Even software merchants can take advantage of this time to increase their Q4 revenue.
Of course, the ecommerce bonanza doesn’t start and end with Cyber Monday. The holiday season as a whole, from Halloween to Christmas, is a time for online merchants to offer attractive deals without over-discounting and killing their margins.
This topical inforgraphic from Monetate shows that email campaigns and direct website visits are the dominant channels used by consumers for discovering holiday deals.
Multi-Channel Marketing
Merchants must make sure that their landing pages are optimized for their holiday visitors. If changes are made to a website reflecting new deals for the holiday season, then promote those changes with effective calls to action. Beyond email and website visits, a multichannel strategy should also include the optimization of social media offers.
Free Shipping
More than half of consumers expect no charge for delivery during this time. Therefore, free-shipping offers are sure to convert better than offers where the customer must pay more money for product delivery.
Since software is typically delivered free of charge via email and through the cloud, software merchants might want to offer backup CDs or other physical cross-sells free of charge as a way to increase conversions on their digital products.
But it’s important to understand how free shipping offers affect one’s margins. The decision to offer free shipping often increases conversion rates, but reduce profit margins. However, the benefit of increasing your customer base at the expense of Q4 margins may be worthwhile in the end.
Customer Relationships
Smart companies know that an initial sale is only one part of the lifetime customer relationship. With future product iterations and releases, existing customers are easy targets for further marketing opportunities.
Ultimately, online companies should use the holiday season to target and segment their various customers, seeing which offers perform best through which channels.
Let us know how you capitalize on this time of year.
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