Despite bringing in a wave of new customers, the holiday season introduces stress for eCommerce businesses as they prepare for the busiest shopping time of the year. Many companies will kick into overdrive during the year’s final quarter as they put more energy and budget into promoting products, managing inventory, and fulfilling customer orders. As consumers add gifts to their wish lists and shop for loved ones, the arduous task of predicting consumer behavior passes on to eCommerce businesses of all sizes.
But fear not! As a business owner, you can tap into a multitude of resources to help you thrive during the hectic holiday season. From product promotion to supply chain management, eCommerce platforms such as Amazon Seller Central and Walmart Seller Central provide assets to businesses to ensure teams connect with the intended market, potentially converting them into loyal customers and brand advocates.
Keep reading to explore how your eCommerce business can leverage multiple storefronts to flourish this holiday season!
Understanding Your Holiday Consumers
In a post-COVID society, the holiday season will look much different this year compared to the past two years, particularly with increased gatherings and traveling. Due to this, consumer behavior will also change, and because of this consumer behavior will change as well with an uptick in online shopping. Holiday celebrations and family gatherings, once difficult to manage, are expected to increase in frequency.
With holiday celebrations afoot, customers will remain sensitive to prices due to prominent levels of inflation. Customers want to stretch their dollars further through discounts or deals. So, having a firm understanding of your target customers’ profiles (as well as the items they will likely purchase) will help you fine-tune your marketing strategy. By focusing on your ideal customers, you can cut unnecessary spending that does not yield satisfactory results.
Amazon’s Life Event Audiences
Designed to gain a superior understanding of audience needs, Amazon’s 1P Life Event Audiences tool aids businesses in accessing critical consumer information. The Life Event Audience tool uses signals to inform eCommerce businesses about critical life events in their consumers’ lives: recently moved, new parents, new home buyers, getting married, etc. By using these signals, brands can hone in on potential customers during key consideration periods. For example, mover audiences who are purchasing travel & auto accessories several months before moving can be shown packaging supplies, cleaning supplies, and organization tools a few weeks later to help better prepare for their move. Even during the most moving phase, furniture, home décor, and laundry tools are the perfect sponsored products for recently moved audiences!
Creating a Holiday Season Timeline
Be careful not to fall into the trap of starting holiday season preparations too late! We’ve seen too many smaller businesses mistakenly wait until November to launch a holiday marketing campaign. While we may assume the start of holiday shopping to begin on Black Friday the season begins back in October! In fact, some companies like Target already send out notifications on Black Friday deals through the mobile app.
October marks the unofficial start to the holiday season, which means customers begin their research and planning early in the fall. What does that mean for you as a business owner? Start setting up ad campaigns at least four weeks ahead of key events! Prepping ad campaigns early will help your critical events in November and December, such as Cyber Monday and Black Friday, run efficiently and effectively!
Optimizing Holiday Advertising & Product Placement
As more shoppers shift to online shopping during the holidays, visibility on optimized eCommerce storefronts remains a critical step in converting sales. Proper advertising ensures that products are visible to online shoppers who are seeking a product such as your own.
Walmart Search Advertising
With Walmart’s Search Advertising tools, businesses improve discoverability and increase customer loyalty by matching advertised products to a customer’s search intent. With more sponsored product placements and real-time metrics updated every 15 minutes, you can stay on top of your advertising campaigns as they go live.
Try selecting either automatic or manual campaigns that help you to increase awareness and drive conversion. Factors such as suggested keywords and keyword recommendations drive holiday traffic to item pages and identify new keywords to increase visibility and boost sales! Keyword recommendations increase visibility by identifying keywords that align with your products and cover the queries related to your product category, as well as more specific queries relating to your brand and holiday-focused keywords.
Amazon’s Custom Creative Tool Pack
Over 75% of U.S. shoppers use Amazon to discover unique brands and products. Amazon’s Custom Creative tool pack gives businesses a multitude of advertising strategies to help teams find success this holiday season by creating engaging content that draws consumers to your storefront’s landing page. With formats such as product collection, store spotlight, and video, you can use one or multiple strategies in conjunction with each other to help your ads reach more sets of eyes.
Sponsored displays remind shoppers who have visited your detail pages to go back and make purchases, while contextual targeting promotes your product among audiences who are actively browsing equivalent products! Auto-generated or customized advertising campaigns are available to Amazon sellers looking to drive purchases, build loyalty, increase consideration, and build awareness. With the end goal being more customers, Amazon’s Custom Creative gives you the resources to build from scratch or work with pre-existing campaigns to drive sales through content engagement!
Enhancing Your Holiday Supply Chain
The holiday season is bustling, with a vast surge in product sales in such a brief period, and with a wide range of supply chain issues arising this year, supply chain management can seem incredibly daunting. Managing your supply chain not only guarantees your end customer receives your product in time for the holiday but also helps convert consumers while they are still making purchase decisions. Customers convert at a much higher rate when they see 2–3-day shipping as well as positive reviews on the product return policy, as they view purchases with these conditions to be less high-risk.
Walmart Fulfillment Services (WFS)
Walmart’s Fulfillment Services provides an end-to-end fulfillment solution for its marketplace sellers. WFS picks, packs, stores, and ships items and improves product visibility in the market by 50%! Walmart provides fast shipping with no additional costs as well as regional flexibility, allowing businesses to select precise areas close to fulfillment centers. In addition to shipping, Walmart offers timely and accurate returns information with reconciliation reports to businesses.
Make Your Holiday Season One Without Stress!
Whether you manage a large or small business, the holiday season is a blessing with increased traffic and sales. Planning advertising and marketing campaigns for the holiday season requires a deep understanding of your target consumer and your company objectives. Need assistance with prepping for the holiday season? Reach out to Premiere Creative today to help you manage your campaigns and convert those casual shoppers into customers! Call us today at (973) 346-8100 to let us help build your brand and promote your business!
