According to the National Retail Federation, holiday sales in the United States for e-commerce were $208 billion in 2020. And, it is expected to grow further this year.
Last year, it was Black Friday that clocked maximum online sales. This holiday season, however, Cyber Monday sales surpassed Black Friday shopping although the overall sales on both days were marginally lesser year over year. Either way, it’s a dream run for many online businesses every year-end.
While the holidays provide an excellent opportunity to generate great ecommerce sales, sustaining this momentum even as we enter into 2022 is challenging for many online stores.
One way to retain that momentum and have customers buy again is to connect with them in a way that compels them to return to your website. That’s exactly what we will be discussing in this article.
We will learn eight ways you can reconnect with your buyers after the holiday sale rush.
To begin with…
1. Thank Them for their Business
First of all, when a customer purchases from your store, it means he/she trusts your brand, and likes your product. And, he/she deserves your appreciation for that. It is the first step to have them return to your site, especially after the holiday season.
A simple way to say thank you is through a handwritten note or email or even a tweet. You could also give them a small discount on their next purchase as a token of appreciation, in the same note.
ZULZ Bag Co, for example, did a great job with this tweet.
L’Occitane en Provence also did a great job thanking customers in a special way ensuring that they never forget them. They provided discounts, free shipping and made it simple for people to redeem their discount.
All in all, a perfect thank you email.
If you are an ecommerce store looking to get the best out of email marketing, then you need to choose a reliable email service to send automated emails like the above.
With these small and memorable gestures, you make it easy for the customers to remember you and engage with your ecommerce store post-holiday season too.
2. Reward Customer Loyalty with Customer Appreciation Days
Customer appreciation days are another perfect way to show your buyers that you value and appreciate their business. It shows that you care for your buyers and keep them connected with your ecommerce brand.
These days could be a one-time event or a promotion that runs for a few days depending on your budget, marketing capital and audience. A good example of customer appreciation is Amazon Prime Day, which is an annual event where Amazon provides massive discounts and deals to its Prime members.
For example, you can track your consumers’ purchasing histories and note the date of their first purchase and commemorate it.
That’s what Alex & Ani does. The brand greets the customer in the message below with a “Happy Charm-iversary” to commemorate the anniversary of their first purchase at Alex & Ani. A unique discount code is included with the greeting.
This simple effort to remember their first purchase date and offering them a discount on a new product makes it really special. It shows your appreciation and that you value their business. Next time when they decide to buy, they’ll most likely buy from you.
3. Promote New Products or Services to Re-engage with Customers
Offering a sneak preview of your new products keeps your customers updated with your new products and generates excitement/curiosity. And, makes them want to learn more. That’s why this strategy is adopted by many e-commerce businesses.
A great example of this is eBay, which constantly promotes new items on its website.
Another example are online stores like Mejuri that always promote new products on their website. In fact, they go a step further and introduce them in special ways to keep their customers coming back.
For instance, they launch a new product on a particular design theme every Monday. You can do something similar.
Apart from that, you can even promote products that are not related to the holiday shopping season but may still be of interest to them.
The core idea is to make them purchase again from your site and this strategy lets you do that quite effectively.
4. Offer Memorable Holiday Season Customer Discounts
Give them huge discounts. And, make it memorable for them. You can offer discounts not only on one or two products but on all of them.
There are plenty of ways to go about it. After deciding on the deals, send them an email to announce it. Customers who are contacted via email are more likely to buy when discounts are offered directly on the website.
And, when you do it via emails––just make sure to have it personalized before you push it. Because personalized emails work really well. According to Campaign Monitor, a personalized subject line of an email is 26% more likely to be read.
Now to make it memorable, you need to do something to go beyond the conventional discount offers. And do it something like Kohl’s. They nail this perfectly with multiple offers.
Kohl’s offers so many discount deals for the holiday season that customers will not only never forget but will also spread the word about their deals.
Here’s a few of the deals it offer:
And, it does not end there… there’s more holiday discounts from Kohl’s..
Along with those amazing deals, you can offer a free shipping discount if it’s affordable.
When you provide deep discounts on so many products and do not charge for shipping, you automatically acquire the customer’s mindspace so they buy from you post-holiday rush too.
5. Send Retargeting Emails That Promote Related Products That They Purchased
However, these emails do not have to be intrusive.
You can create a simple, automated email workflow that retargets old buyers effectively without being intrusive. This is what an email workflow could look like.
Source: Automizy
It works really well when you target the customers strategically. To do that, you need to:
- Target customers who have recently purchased during the holiday season from your store.
- Segment customers who have made a purchase, and display different ads to them based on their purchase.
- Add a coupon in your email to give customers a discount if they return and make a purchase.
- Add a sense of urgency in your message to encourage more sales.
6. Send them a Holiday Greeting
Another way to reconnect with your customers is to send them great holiday greetings in advance. You can try and make it so amazing that they won’t forget you even after the holidays.
Here are a few interesting ideas to try at your online store that would make your website worth-returning-to:
Holiday Greeting Ideas:
- Send a personalized ecard that includes the customer’s name
- Send a handwritten letter on high-quality paper
- Create a holiday video message for your customers
- Write a blog post or social media post thanking your customers for their business during the holiday
- Promise to deliver items to them for free, overnight.
PUMA actually tried the last idea with their customers and we really loved it. Here’s how the email looked:
Subject line: ⌚ Order before 2pm EST for FREE overnight shipping.
This simple email had all the right boxes checked…
It had the perfect:
- Message – “Free overnight shipping“ targeting late shoppers
- Offer Repeated – The offer is repeated in subject line, and above the fold
- 50% OFF – It also offered Up to 50% Off
The best part is that these strategies don’t cost you much. You can do them effectively without burning a hole in your pocket.
7. Follow Up with Them After Their Purchase
Most ecommerce brands never follow up with their customers after their purchase. That’s like losing a great way to be connected with them. Following up with them allows you to learn about their experience on your website and pick their brains. You can take their feedback and based on that enhance future customer experiences.
You can even ask them to review the product on your website or on any of their social media accounts. It makes the customer feel valued and creates brand loyalty.
But, how do you get customers to write reviews for your products? For that, you need to offer an incentive.
It could be anything that works for you. And, in return, they can give you their feedback as per their convenience and how they like.
There are many ways you can get customers’ feedback on your products. You can:
- Get Social Media Feedback
When customers talk about your brand on their social media accounts, they make all their followers aware of your company. So, you can encourage them to share their views on your product, on their Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or LinkedIn profiles.
- Seek a Video Testimonial
Video testimonials are more effective than text-based testimonials. A survey by Wyzowl summarizes of its benefits that are mentioned below:
You can hence request a video testimonial with authentic product and service reviews for your website.
So, if your goal is to get customers returning to your ecommerce store after holidays, having video testimonials on the website is one great way to go about it.
8. Be a Follower on Their Social Media Accounts
When a brand connects with their audience on social media, there’s nothing like it. It makes them feel that you are supportive and helps them engage with your brand on a personal level.
However, it doesn’t happen just like that. To inspire users on social media to buy more from your ecommerce store, you need to use the right social media engagement strategies.
Educating customers on these engagement platforms is one of the best ways to get customers to take action on your ads, and buy products.
You can educate them on:
1. How your product helps them
Help them with information about many things pertaining to your products or how it solves their problems.
For instance, if you’re a clothing store, post about new styles that are in for the New Year and how they can use them in their next photo shoot.
2. How to do something using your product
Teach them how to use your products to simplify their lives.
A company that sells smartphones with a great camera, for example, can post a video teaching people how to get better selfies using a smartphone. Along with the how-to stuff, you must also keep them entertained. The idea is to keep things interesting while also keeping it educational.
For that, you can try creating creative and funny content such as memes, quotes and images. This will help engage your audience while also providing them with something humorous to enjoy.
Conclusion
So there you have it. If you are looking to reconnect with your new customers after the holiday shopping rush then these seven tips should help get your business started in the right direction.
These tactics will also help you reconnect with your new customers following the holiday rush and stay top-of-mind throughout the rest of the year. What tactics do you use to reconnect with new customers after the holiday rush for an ecommerce website?
Share your thoughts in the comments below.