When to Start Holiday eCommerce Campaigns and Preparation? NOW!

Written by  AJ Leale, Sr. Director eCommerce 
Holidays are a time for everyone to eat, drink, be merry, and relax — everyone except for marketers and eCommerce retailers, that is! 
The rush to keep conversions high in Q4 starts to hit earlier and earlier every year, and it is crucial to have a rock-solid plan that won’t fail you.
Learn how to outrun the competition with the help of timely, comprehensive holiday eCommerce campaigns and preparations.

Key Time Points in Q4 and Q1

In October, November, and December, marketers should pay attention to these holidays:

• Halloween: October 31
• Black Friday, Black Friday Weekend, Cyber Monday: from November 29 to December 2
• Thanksgiving: November 28
• Hanukkah: from December 22 to December 30
• Christmas: December 25
• Boxing Day: December 26
• New Year’s Eve: December 31

It’s a good idea to keep upcoming holidays in January, February, and March in mind too:

• New Year’s Day: January 1
• Martin Luther King Day: January 20
• Valentine’s Day: February 14
• St. Patrick’s Day: March 17

Finalize and Execute Your Ad and Campaign Plans 

Now is the time to finalize and verify your final marketing plans for the rest of the year.
Plan your ad budget strategically to make sure your campaigns don’t run out of money in the weeks that are the most crucial for your eCommerce! Inflate budgets for the most important days — about two weeks before the target holiday. If needs be, you can pause them for a short time right afterward.

Replenish your Planned Stock for the Holiday Season

If everything goes right with your holiday campaigns, you will need to keep your stockroom filled with products. Also, have products ready for shipping as soon as you can — in time for them to be delivered as holiday gifts. 
Focus on the most popular items that were the fastest to sell out over the past few months, seasonal goods, and the stuff you plan to sell for a special holiday price, as a part of a bundle or a deal.

Highlight Holiday Deals

Good prices are what make the customers swarm your shop, so it is only natural to flaunt them wherever you can. To make sure nobody misses out on your holiday deals, announce them with:

• Banners
• Scheduled emails
• Sponsored posts
• Influencer marketing (affiliate and discount codes, sponsored Instagram posts)
• Coupons
• Sales events

Fear of missing out (FOMO) is a powerful stimulant of increased holiday shopping. Induce it with limited-time offers and by putting x items left or almost out of stock signs next to certain items.

Enhance Your Holiday Content to Drive Sales

The main purpose of seasonal content is to increase sales and drive more traffic to the website — so tailor and release it accordingly.
This is the time to get creative with different content forms and holiday-related topics that will be useful and/or entertaining to your customers — they do need a reason to click and stay on your page, after all. Consider using any of the following:

• Blogs
• Quizzes
• Surveys (a natural, fun way of collecting the data on your visitors)
• Games
• Tutorials and pictorials
• Contests
• eBooks

Blogs are especially flexible for this purpose: they might include recipes, decoration ideas, gift guides, party tips, or whatever kind of content you can create to bring customers some value. Don’t lose sight of the conversion rates you want to foster with this kind of content, though — be sure to:

• Strategically place a well-thought-out CTA 
• Create landing pages that make sense for the users and tap into their interests

Plan your holiday content calendar according to the holidays mentioned above, and have content ready for publishing in advance. 

Boost your Checkout Process ASAP

Making sure the checkout goes smoothly will prevent the frustration and curb your cart abandonment rate. This will become more and more important as Christmas approaches — people tend to be under increasing stress, and if you can offer a seamless shopping experience and promise quick delivery, they’ll choose your product.

We have already written an extensive blog about enhancing your checkout experience — read it here!

Optimize Your Website for Desktop and Mobile

Since more and more customers make purchases via mobile phones (and use both mobile and desktop to decide upon the purchase), it is essential to speed things up and optimize user experience for all devices.
Simplify your product pages, compress media size, and clear deadlines out of your website code. This will drastically improve the user experience and thus strengthen your position in the market.

Conclusion

Holiday eCommerce campaigns start sooner and sooner each year. That being said, the most important thing is to highlight your best deals through compelling content and strategic handling of your marketing budget. This tactic will let you keep stocks filled as the conversion rates rise.
We can help you create an outstanding plan in time for Christmas — there is still some time left to implement a good strategy! Let us know about your vision so you don’t miss out on the season’s potential for revenue growth!