4 E-Commerce Tricks to Generate Extra Holiday Sales

For just about any retail business, the holiday shopping season is unbelievably important because it’s the time when you’re likely to generate a large portion of your business’s revenue for the entire year. Anything that you can possibly do to generate extra sales during the holidays is even better because people are already prepared to spend money during the holiday season and because that extra revenue can set your business up for stability during the rest of the year when sales numbers might not always be so robust.

One of the greatest things about running an e-commerce business like V2 Cigs UK is that you have a very high level of flexibility when it comes to adding new products or promotions on a short-term basis when you need to generate some extra sales. 

A potential trap during the holiday season, though, is that you might be tempted to issue a large coupon code – or lower your prices across the board – to drum up some extra sales when people are shopping for their holiday goodies. The reason why lowering your prices for the holidays can be problematic, though, is that all of the extra purchases could end up increasing your order fulfillment costs so much that the net impact on your profitability becomes negative.

Cutting your site’s prices isn’t the only way to generate extra sales during the holiday season. Reading this article, you’re going to learn some tricks that can increase your e-commerce site’s sales volume during the holidays without having such a great impact on your profitability. Let’s dive in!

Hold a Random Drawing at the End of the Holiday Shopping Season

When you do your yearly holiday shopping, having a chance to win a special bonus is always fun – but do you know what’s even better? It’s an absolutely amazing holiday gift to discover that all of the terrific goodies on which you’ve spent so much money are going to end up costing you nothing. 

If you want to get your customers really excited about buying from your e-commerce business this holiday season, announce that you’ll be holding a random drawing after the new year and that whoever is selected will be refunded for the full cost of his or her order. To limit the potential cost of this promotion, you can cap the maximum refund at a certain amount. 

Alternatively, you can hold a drawing in which all customers who spent a certain minimum amount during the holiday shopping season are randomly selected to receive gift cards or free products after the new year. 

Sell a Loss Leader That Encourages Customers to Buy Other Products

Have you noticed how popular loss leaders are at brick-and-mortar retailers on major holiday shopping days like Black Friday? A retailer will often offer a limited number of products at cost – or even slightly below cost – to get people to queue up there at the beginning of the day instead of going to a competitor’s store. Have you ever considered that a loss leader can perform the same function for your e-commerce business?

The potential problem with selling a loss leader on an e-commerce site is that there’s always a chance of people buying only that product – in which case, you’ll end up losing money instead of making it. The way to make the promotion successful is by unlocking the ability to purchase the loss leader only after the other products in the order exceed a certain minimum. With that strategy, you’re certain to come out ahead.

Hold a Special Promotion for Members of Your Loyalty Club

Having a good customer loyalty program in place is one of the best things that you can do to generate repeat business in the e-commerce industry. If your loyalty program is fun and engaging, people will enjoy watching their loyalty points tick up as they work to earn special discounts or free products. If you have a loyalty program that really works, you’ll know it because you’ll see the extra engagement it generates – and if that’s the case, offering a special bonus for loyalty club members is one of the best ways to generate extra excitement during the holiday shopping season.

For your existing loyalty club members, consider offering a reward such as doubling all loyalty points earned when customers shop during a certain range of dates. For first-time buyers, you could even sweeten the deal a little more by offering a special one-time point bonus to anyone whose first purchase exceeds a certain amount. When a new customer buys from your site for the first time and sees a large number of points in his or her loyalty account, that’s going to offer extra encouragement for that person to return to your site later and buy something else. 

Create Holiday-Themed Versions of Your Most Popular Products

One of the really fun things about shopping for gifts during the holiday season is that many retailers offer limited-edition versions of their most popular products. Your favorite coffee shop probably has a few holiday-themed beverages available. Sellers of cosmetics release sparkly makeup and holiday-scented perfumes during the holidays. Restaurants offer special desserts. The list is almost endless.

If your e-commerce site operates in an industry that experiences increased sales during the holiday season, it’s almost certain that you can come up with limited-edition versions of your most popular products to encourage customers to spend a little extra on their holiday shopping. 

When offering limited-edition products during the holiday season, it’s important to use your past sales numbers as a guide in determining how many of those products you should produce. You want to produce enough of those products so that the customers who want them will have an opportunity to buy them. At the same time, though, you don’t want to end up with excess inventory that no one wants when the holiday season is over. There’s a very limited time in which a product like a candy cane-scented lotion is going to be in high demand – and after the holidays, you’ll have to sell the leftover stock at a discount. Your goal is to produce just enough to meet demand before the season is over.