By multi-tasking channel marketing, retailers can increase holiday sales
As the holiday shopping season heats up, a series of relatively small marketing changes on an e-commerce site can yield big multi-channel sales opportunities.
During the holiday season even people shopping online can feel hurried and want to begin and end their shopping trip as quickly and easily as possible.
Just by making a simple marketing change such as better promoting gift certificates that customers can purchase online and then redeem in stores will drive more multi-channel sales, says Andrew Krasner, director of strategic services for Fry Inc. “Retailers can expedite their multi-channel marketing on the web site by making it easy to buy gift certificates,” Krasner says. “Retailers should feature a gift certificate button or link in multiple places on the site or make the link prominent enough on the front page to attract visitors.”
Using the web as a multi-channel marketing tool, retailers can also influence how shoppers select additional merchandise and generate better up-selling and cross-selling opportunities. For instance, pages and portals that feature “Top 5 Gift Suggestions" or “Best Sellers” can result in shoppers making more online and offline impulse buys.
Incentives should also be a part of an effective holiday season multi-channel marketing program, Krasner says. To drive web, store and catalog sales, items featured on the web can be discounted for store and catalog sales only, Fry says. After the checkout process is complete, retailers can also acquire more demographic information on new and existing customers by offering them the chance to sign up for the next edition of a catalog.
Multi-channel marketing should also include web site messages that prominently feature the retailer’s “order on the web, but pick up in the store” program. “If it’s possible to offer in-store pickup, count on last minute shoppers using it if they decide it’s too late for shipping,” Krasner says.
Another obvious multi-channel marketing strategy is making the store locater button stand out and reminding shoppers that even if the shipping date has passed for ordering from the catalog or web they can still browse the web site to see merchandise and purchase the product at a store.
A retailer should also make sure the customer service pages are updated with the merchant’s in-store holiday shopping hours, Krasner says.
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