5 ways businesses can increase sales during the holidays

The holiday season is upon us, and there is no better time than now to meet the year’s goals. The average spending per online consumer in Southeast Asia is up 60% compared to the end of last year, a giant leap and a great opportunity to take advantage of customers’ last-minute, end-of-the-year buying impulse.

 

Whether you’ve done all the prep work or simply looking at novel holiday sale ideas to take your holiday sales up a notch, follow these five easy and proven ways to boost your online holiday sales.

 

Live selling gets customers quicker

If you haven’t considered it already, maximize your holiday sales by live streaming. Facebook is an excellent platform to start, and many sellers have already experienced success with this. With just the click of a button, you can begin live selling on Facebook. A massive perk about live selling is that it simulates a physical shopping experience without needing a physical store.

 

With live selling, you create an instant connection with your buyers without being physically present. Instead of just product descriptions and pictures, you can describe the physical attributes of the items and showcase a wide variety of products to your customers.

 

You also can engage and convince your customers better. Customers are more hard-pressed to purchase on the spot instead of simply adding the item to the cart.

 

If you want to create a sense of greater urgency and excitement, you can level it up by hosting live auctions on Facebook. With a Facebook live auction, you can engage your customers further as there is a sense of exclusivity around a product when very few people are bidding for the same product.

 

Creative giveaways build customer engagement

Customers love giveaways. In the spirit of the festive season, you can have your own spin and make your giveaways even more meaningful. You can offer to donate a percentage from each sale to a local charity, promote giveaway shares through referrals with an extra donation or even select ‘special’ items where the item’s sales will be donated.

 

You can also incorporate giveaways into your Facebook live selling session. Customers can stand a chance to win a prize as long as they purchase within the live stream or even react with a simple emoji (like, love, etc.) within the live stream to qualify. Whatever giveaway mechanic you choose, be creative!

 

Unique and personalized promotions hook different customers

Customers are always on the hunt for a good bargain. Exclusive promotions and discounts continue to influence holiday purchases, and given that the pandemic has tightened some pursestrings, many customers want more value for money. Why not treat them to a holiday gift, from you to them? Offering them promotions they cannot refuse is a great way to usher in the festive spirit. With the right deals and discounts, you can ease any initial reservations customers may have, target their purchase motivations, and even combat cart abandonment.

 

You can send discounts for recently browsed or placed products in the cart and personalize discounts based on the number of products they have purchased in the past. Offer tiered discounts based on the number of products they intend to purchase, and even throw in attractive freebies for those who meet a spending cap.

 

Memberships build customer loyalty

We would be remiss if we didn’t highlight the importance of loyalty. In Southeast Asia, loyal customers are 45% more likely to make recommendations to friends and 20% more likely to have higher spending across categories than non-loyal customers.

 

Spoil your customers with even more attractive membership rewards during this holiday season. You can encourage repeat business, move customers up the purchasing ladder, and build deeper emotional connections with attractive incentives. You can give first-time buyers a bigger reason to return and build more brand-loyal customers.

 

You can provide discounts to those who subscribe to you and offer fast discounts for a second purchase. You can also choose to tier membership rewards. Customers can earn points and be eligible for different incentives (discounts on more unique products, bundled promotions, etc.) based on their cumulative spending. Choose to send gifts to your most valuable members. People love praise, and even a quick shoutout thanking your customers for their support can go a long way.

 

Get your foundations right

With the holiday season, you can expect a lot of online shopping, and your website must be up to par so that you can deliver the best holiday shopping experience to every customer.

 

This means optimizing your page from copy, call-to-actions, and pop-ups to general customer browsing, payment options, and delivery. It’s the small details that make the difference. Things can get hectic with the holiday season, so identify and prioritize solving the most significant gaps you have in your business.

 

If you are selling live on Facebook to promote your products further this holiday season, ensure you have a proper Facebook live system so that you can capture your orders correctly as they trickle in live. These orders can get lost in the comments, and having a system ensures you don’t lose any sales. You can also choose to share a customizable web catalog ahead of the live selling session. Through this, you can get your customers excited about your products and share a tangible catalog for them to refer to after the live session.

 

Wrapping up the holiday season sales

If you haven’t started planning, don’t fret. Take one of these holiday sale ideas and get started now! Remember to start small. If this is your first time starting a business and you are looking to take advantage of the holiday season, what we can say is that there is no better time than this period as customers are hungrier to spend.

 

If you are still unsure about where and how to start, one of the best ways to start selling is to create a Facebook live selling session and ensure that you get some automated assistance to make your holiday sales a breeze.

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