Festive Sales Tips For Growing E-Commerce Businesses

In 2014, 40% of British consumers carried out their Christmas shopping online. In fact, in the eight weeks leading up to Christmas these British consumers spent over £12.6 billion on e-commerce websites. These astronomical sales figures demonstrate how both start-up and established e-commerce companies can stand to dramatically increase their profit margins over the festive season. To help you do so, our Post & Packing team has created the following guide which is full of festive sales tips for expanding e-commerce businesses.

Offer multiple payment options

During the festive season your e-commerce site will be in direct competition with a vast network of online retailers. In order to expand your business and stand out from these industry rivals, you will need to offer both new and existing customers certain services that your competitors do not – such as multiple payment options.

As matters stand, 83% of global online consumers consider having a range of payment options to be an important factor in committing to an e-commerce purchase. Consequently, your e-commerce site should endeavour to provide your consumers with a choice of reputable payment options within your online checkout process. Given that many consumers are reluctant to pay for online purchases via credit card, by offering multiple payment options such as PayPal, Google Checkout and Euro Debit you can encourage both new and existing consumers to trust your website’s secure payment processes and to continue purchasing from your company over the festive season.

Provide a wide range of delivery options

As well as looking for multiple payment options, a large proportion of consumers regard rapid and affordable shipping options to be driving factors when purchasing from e-commerce sites; with 56% of consumers admitting that they return to specific e-commerce websites because of their fast delivery services and 61% returning due to their cheap delivery services.

Subsequently, during the festive season your e-commerce site should strive to offer as many rapid shipping options as possible. By investing in a targeted order fulfilment service from a respectable courier company, you can provide your customers with all manner of next day, first class and international shipping options with parcel tracking features.

Moreover, by affiliating yourself with a courier company you can benefit from bulk order discounts. Not only will these discounts reduce your overall business expenditures but they will also enable you to offer luxury shipping options to your customers for affordable rates. By establishing your online brand reputation as an e-commerce site who deliver high quality products quickly and affordably, you can dramatically increase your profit margins over the festive season!

Streamline your site’s checkout process

Did you know that the average abandonment rate for online shopping baskets is 69%? These staggering statistics highlight just how important it can be to simplify your e-commerce website’s checkout processes. By implementing efficient measures within your e-commerce website’s existing checkout practices, you can substantially reduce the likelihood of consumers abandoning their purchases due to lengthy or complicated checkout processes.

For instance, why not create a ‘Guest Checkout’ for first-time users who want to purchase products without setting up an account? Or how about only asking your customers to input the most essential personal information needed to complete a purchase? These simple yet highly effective measures can streamline your existing checkout processes and secure vital sales during the festive season.

Offer free returns shipping

In recent years, ‘Boomerang Thursday’ has become infamous amongst e-commerce sites as the first Thursday after Christmas when consumers return unwanted presents. According to an article in the Financial Times, on Boomerang Thursday 2014:

“Across ecommerce, returns average 15-20 per cent, although fashion e-retailers see much higher rates of up to 50 per cent.”

Now, although no e-commerce site will be fond of these sales figures, if you can make your product returns process as pain-free as possible for your customers then you will be far more likely to earn their loyalty and repeat custom in the future. For example, one of the returns policies which has proven most successful for e-commerce sites in recent years has been to offers free returns shipping. This is due to the fact that, as an Xemiom e-commerce survey revealed:

“2 out of 3 shoppers questioned would buy more products online if businesses offered free return shipping.”

As such, it can actually prove more profitable in the long term for your site to offer free returns shipping. By investing in a bulk orders contract with your chosen courier service, you can reduce your company’s shipping costs which will in turn reduce the cost of offering free returns shipping to all your customers. Moreover, by advertising your ‘Free Returns Shipping’ policy across all of your e-commerce orders, you will encourage both new and existing customers to trust your brand and commit to more sales.

Review your company data from previous festive seasons

Hindsight is a wonderful thing. Even if your e-commerce site has only been active for a couple of years, it can prove incredibly useful to review your sales figures and shipping practices from previous festive seasons. By doing so, you can review whether your existing checkout processes, shipping practices and returns policies were cost-effective, whether they earned you positive or negative reviews from your customers, and whether they can be improved in any way. By taking the time to review this vital company data, you can efficiently allocate sufficient funds across all aspects of your business; from ordering more stock in order to cope with an increased consumer demand, to investing in order fulfilment services with courier companies in order to reduce your website’s business expenditures.

Plan for the January sales

Many expanding e-commerce businesses will focus solely upon their Christmas sales season without sparing a thought for the weeks that follow when many consumers will be at home for the holidays. Whether they have received some Christmas money from relatives, whether they did not receive a particular gift that they wanted, or even if they simply have some time to kill whilst the high street shops are closed, many of these consumers will flock to e-commerce sites in search of post-Christmas sales.

For example, on Boxing Day 2014 a Daily Mail article reported that online shoppers sent an average of £519,000 every single minute and that an incredible £748 million was spent across Britain throughout the course of the day.

Moreover, on Christmas Day 2014 approximately £636 million was spent online; marking a 33.63% increase from Christmas Day 2013. As such, your e-commerce site should seize this pivotal opportunity in order to secure some additional festive sales. By ensuring you have purchased additional stock, and that you arrange for your courier services to swiftly commence dispatching shipping orders from Boxing Day onwards, you can cope with any increased consumer demand whether it occurs before, during, or after Christmas Day.