Action Plan for your Winter Sales

Black Friday in November, the holiday season in December and the Winter sales in January. It’s very intense right now for retailers and e-retailers!

This year, the Winter sales should last between four weeks and two months, regarding your country. A compact period during which the competition to attract new customers may be fierce, especially in the first few days. To optimise your sales performance during the Winter sales period, we will help you review and update your action plan.

Reward your loyal customers

It is always cheaper to retain existing customers than to win over new customers. However, this approach is not always implemented in companies. So, why not schedule a special session a few days before the January sales with special services, reserved just for your existing customers? In some countries, the Winter sales have to meet very precise criteria in terms of prices. But there’s nothing stopping you from offering free or reduced shipping costs, special promotions or additional services.

Genuinely rewarding your existing customers helps cultivate brand loyalty and creates a premium approach to cultivating it all year long. So you can connect to your community for exclusive new product reveals, invitations to tests, meetings and visits, and more.

To achieve this, you need the right data so you can identify your customers and determine what you consider to be loyal customers. Are these the customers who bought something in the last 12 months? In the last 6 months? Who generated a certain minimum turnover? Who downloaded your mobile app? It’s up to you to define the criteria and apply the right strategy accordingly.

Run a competition before and during the sales

Everybody likes to gamble. You can take advantage of the sales and use a fun approach to create an event and harvest helpful data. There are many possible approaches such as an instant win, a prize draw, a general culture contest, a contextual competition using the brand’s products, etc.

You can also encourage your winners to pick up their in-store giveaways during sales, and create a little event based around that particular occasion. It’s a great way to gain new customers… and build loyalty.

Fine-tune your email marketing campaigns

Email is the channel of choice for sales, and not just for e-retailers. For your campaigns to perform well, you need to make sure your content is relevant and personalised. On the other hand, you must not neglect your automation strategy (abandoned baskets, product pages viewed, items added to favourites, etc.).

The more your data is enriched with personal information, the more you can communicate with your customers and prospects, based on their needs, and at the right time. We recommend that you customise your communications by segment, customer, gender, demographics or interest. Not only will the opening rate be higher, but the CPA will also be bigger.

You can find the right levers by A/B testing to optimise your email campaigns. This way, you can test the subject, hour and day of sending, as well as the content (the form and substance), in order to find the best combination to optimise the opening rate. Last but not least, don’t forget the user experience. Everything must be fluid, simple and direct. If you click on a CTA, you have to get to the right page, without needing to log in again, for example.

Encourage the use of your app

Mobile apps are great for online mobile shopping, but they can also boost drive-to-store. Here the goal is to use the app to drive the customers to your store, or for them to use it to orient themselves once they’re there.

Chatbots are helpful for handling basic questions about opening hours, deliveries, current promotions, etc. Not only do you save time, but you also find out more about the most frequently asked questions in order to adapt the customer journey. Last but not least, you can also reward customers who come to the store with the app by making their loyalty card digital.

Don’t overlook social media

Social media has an important role to play during sales period. Personalise your banners, visuals and content. Automate and plan your social media posts. Respond quickly to questions and comments. Being active is what matters most. You can share a behind-the-scenes look at your Winter sales, make videos about current offers, or post portraits of your sales staff, influencers, customers, etc.

The Winter sales are a good business opportunity for retailers and e-retailers. Preparing well this season is therefore important. To be well-prepared, you have to rely on technology, tools and data to manage the available human resources and automate your actions whenever possible (online advertising, affiliation, email, social publications, customer reminders, etc.).

Contact our Experts for a personalised Winter sales support and help package proposal – it’s not too late!