Everyone knows that the holidays are a crazy time. Between finding last-minute gifts, travel plans, cooking, and navigating family dynamics, most people find the season more stressful than enjoyable.

For businesses, it can be even more stressful. Either you are entirely overworked trying to keep up with last-minute orders, or your business hibernates due to a lack of seasonal sales.

No matter what kind of company you run, a little strategy and forward planning can help to make the holiday season a lot smoother and more successful.

Christmas By The Numbers

In 2018, Holiday retail sales surpassed $1 trillion. Currently, ecommerce accounts for around $135 Billion in holiday sales from Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and into the holiday season.

Amazingly, only 28% of U.S. shoppers being their Christmas shopping early in November. More than 62% of Americans buy their gifts in the week before Christmas. This trend shows that for savvy businesses, there is a lot of opportunities to increase sales in the final weeks before Santa arrives.

Here are five tips that can help your business to plan, prepare, and prosper during the Holiday Season.

1. Know Your Market

Every business is different, and some are more suited to holiday sales than others. 

A study by Deloitte showed that the average American household spends $1536 during the Chrismas period. However, only $525 is spent on gifts. The remaining $1,011 is spent on clothing, entertainment, travel, food, decorations, and experiences. 

This statistic shows that there is a lot of opportunity for businesses that don’t sell gift items to still capitalize on the Holiday season.

If you own a business that offers services, they might not be as in demand during the weeks of Christmas and New Year. But you can package your services effectively to be sold as gift vouchers to be used after the holidays.

2. Create a Unique Holiday Offer 

Having a successful Holiday marketing campaign depends upon you standing out from the competition. You must find ways to make your business top of mind during the lead-up period and then after the holiday season.

Most businesses have a core price list and specific packages they offer. The holiday season is an excellent opportunity to test out some new offers. You can try offering larger quantities, or extended terms, or bonus items as a way to entice interested customers.

For those customers who have an interest in your product, a new offer or promotion can be enough to entice them to finally make a purchase.

3. Use Your Most Successful Channels

Each business will likely have several advertising and marketing channels that get them attention. However, it’s likely that one or two are the most effective for you. 

The holiday season is all about using what works for you. Review your advertising campaigns and social media statistics over the last year, and see what is working. 

Some companies think that testing new platforms during the holiday season is a good tactic. And sometimes it can be, but if you have had success in the past with a particular platform, now is the time to double down.

4. Prepare Your Team 

There is nothing more frustrating to customers who want to purchase something than not being able to get it. If you are going to run promotions, make sure you can fulfill the orders. 

If your marketing team offers a new promotion, but the fulfillment team doesn’t know about it, there will be confusion and problems. If your team is underprepared or doesn’t know that you have a special offer available, it can damage the reputation of your company.

Take time to train your team on how to manage the new offers, and what might be unique about the holiday offers.

5. Stay In Touch

If you have an influx of sales or new customers during the holiday season, it’s important to keep the connection to them. 

Many businesses get so overwhelmed with the sales that they forget to remarket to customers afterward. Because of this oversight, they lose the relationship that had just started, and as a result, miss out on future sales.

It’s been proven that acquiring new customers is five times more expensive than keeping existing customers. 

For any customers that purchase during the holiday season, make sure you collect their contact information and have a plan to contact them again in the new year. 

A simple thank you message early in the new year can be a great way to build relationships with new customers. A loyalty offer during the first few months of the new year can entice them to buy again from you, and strengthen their loyalty.

Yes, the holidays can be stressful. But a lot of the stress is caused by a lack of preparation. Start earlier in the year to think through how you can capitalize on the holiday spending habits of your customers, and watch your business flourish during the crazy season!

Want to improve your sales and revenue? Brandastic is a digital marketing agency that specializes in ecommerce web development and marketing. We help businesses in Orange County, Los Angeles, and Austin to expand their reach and increase online sales. Contact us today to see how we can help you grow.