The 12 ways of Christmas: how to stand out as an e-commerce business

It’s the most wonderful time of the year, but why not add some tinsel to it with tidy profits? In 2020, the impact of the pandemic meant that Christmas retail sales dropped from £83.13 million to £79.9 billion. However, 2021 sales are expected to be back up to £84.7 billion. But with some consumers still unsure about venturing out to the highstreet, your e-commerce game has got to stand out from the crowd.  

Offering free delivery, updating your customers via email and creating the perfect Christmas bundles will all help to boost your e-commerce performance. In this blog, we’ll go through all of these and more to help your e-commerce site stand out from the Christmas crowd. 

12 ways to get noticed as an e-commerce business this Christmas 

Free delivery 

There’s nothing more annoying than getting to the checkout of your e-commerce store and the extortionate delivery charge is added. This is going to be a barrier to some potential customers, with 47% of shoppers saying they would abandon a purchase if they got to the check-out and found out free delivery wasn’t included. 

Spread some Christmas cheer with your customers and offer free delivery. For those with slightly tighter budgets, you don’t have to offer it throughout December, you could do a free delivery day or week. It’s up to you. Here are some more inventive ways to offer free delivery to your customers. Alternatively, you could absorb  the price of delivery into your products and not be stuck with a hefty bill on Boxing Day. 

Promoting this through your social media channels both organically and using paid social ads is sure to get those thumbs clicking. 

Speedy service 

Christmas is a busy period for everyone involved. Whether you’re frantically shopping, selling or putting your beard back on before the next batch of kids tell you what they’d like. 

Speed is another barrier to the busy Christmas shopper. Schedules are tight and the thought of not receiving a gift on time isn’t an option. However, offering an express delivery service at a higher price is going to keep those customers happy and boost your profits.  

People are willing to pay that bit extra for peace of mind, and by simply offering that to them, they feel heard and it actually benefits your business. 

Keep your customers in the loop 

This one is so simple it sounds silly. Keep your customers in the loop with your goings on.  

As we’ve mentioned, Christmas is busy and with both COVID and Brexit causing disruption to supply chains, there are bound to be some problems somewhere along the way. Honesty and transparency in these situations helps customers to gain trust in your brand.  

On the other hand, keep your customers in the loop with the positive stuff, too. 

Email marketing is irrefutably important and can be a high-converting traffic channel for your business, especially during the holiday season.

Beatriz Estay, Content Marketing Manager at BigCommerce

Your new products, offers, discounts, vouchers, whatever it is – let your customers know about it and let them see behind the scenes. People love watching people.  

Simple returns 

If you buy a product and there is something wrong with it, what’s the one thing you want? 

A simple return process is key to attracting – and keeping – your customers. 

Creating a confusing and complex returns process with a lengthy wait for a refund is not going to help your business build long-lasting customer relationships. It’s also a hefty barrier that will stop most hesitant shoppers from purchasing.  

Put a bow on It 

Gift-wrapping your products is going to make your customer e-commerce experience all the more memorable. Sending gifts directly to the recipient is now more common than ever before, and gift wrapping makes the gift giver’s life a breeze. 

Show your audience on social media just how much effort you are going through to make their Christmas shopping experience perfect. Here are a few examples of how you can make your packaging that little something extra at this time of year. Plus, if your gift wrapping can be personalised as well then, that content is going to be very shareable. 

Analyse Christmas past 

Take a look at your previous Christmas advertising performance. Analyse your results, see how you could have improved with targeting, visuals or copy, and make your 2021 campaign inescapably clickable.  

Make it personal 

Receiving generic gifts at Christmas is no fun for anyone. Anyway you can pep up your products with some personalisation is going to set you apart. Plus, 53% of people say online stores with product customisation offer better services. 

Creating videos and capturing product photography to show your personalisation options are fantastic ways to get people clicking through to your e-commerce store and buying your products. 

Bundle it up 

We’ve all had one, so why haven’t you made any? Christmas bundles are a great way to sell more of your products in one fell swoop. Whether you bundle two products or an entire collection, bundles are a sure-fire way to make money at Christmas.  

Simplicity reigns supreme again. Instead of making your customer build the bundle, do it for them and let them relax. Plus, if the price of the bundle is less than buying everything separately, your customers also benefit by saving some cash. 

As well as physical bundles, curate collections on your website. – gifts for him, gifts for her, the best of 2021 and so on. These themes make browsing your products simple for your customers. You could even limit the number of certain collections, introducing scarcity to make your products feel more exclusive.  

A gift on a card 

A gift, on a card? A hearty Christmas gift-giver may like all your products but not really know the recipient that well. 

Make sure you don’t lose those customers by offering them a gift card so they can come back and buy at a later date. There are also loads more creative ways that you can incorporate gift cards into your Christmas e-commerce as well.  

Sliding into the DMs 

Social media is a great way to get your message across and keep your customers in the loop.  

CMO council found that the most important factor of a good customer experience, according to the customers, is a fast response time. Social media is the perfect way to do that. 

As well as emailing your customers with updates and offers, you can utilise the many features available on social media such as direct messaging, Instagram Reels, Stories and TikToks to spread your Christmas message far and wide.  

To get a sale, you need to be trusted, and what better way to gain trust than to be responsive when a customer is trying to contact you. Social media is an excellent way to engage with your customers in real –time, but this can be time-consuming. Chatbots are a great way to keep people waiting before you can get to them and help with their every need. 

Tag it, they’ll bag it 

You can now integrate your Shopify store in more ways than ever. Facebook Shop enables you to sell through Facebook and Instagram, tagging your products in your posts for ease of purchase. Take a look at this example from TROVE to see how it’s done.  

Plus, you can also link your Shopify store with TikTok to sell those directly through the platform. 

Always, always advertise 

Organic social content is a great way to get the message out to those who are already aware of you, your followers, but reaching anyone further afield than that is going to cost you money. You don’t make money without spending it (unfortunately). 

Almost 70% of people shop online at Christmas from the comfort of their sofa and onesie, so getting in front of these cosy shoppers is going to be vital.  

Bonus Tip: Retarget your Christmas ads to the same people in January. They may not have bought, but they may have acquired some financial gifts over the last few weeks. 

Conclusion 

So, there you have it, 12 ways to make your e-commerce store stand out from the Christmas crowd. Keeping it simple for your customers is key. Whether it’s quick delivery that arrives on time, real-time social media responses or open, honest and transparent email communications, trust is vital in any relationship.  

Customers don’t want the fuss or the hassle during the merriest time of the year. Finding the balance between communication heaven and communication overload is critical to the success of your 2021 e-commerce Christmas sales. However, we know that, as a business owner, you’re busy as Santa’s elves.  

Here at Likemind Media, we have experts across a huge range of marketing disciplines. We can take a step back and consult with you to nail your Christmas e-commerce strategy and let you do the rest. 

Alternatively, we can take more of a hands-on approach and make use of our content creation geniuses and writing services, including social media copy, website copy and blogs. We can help with your video content and graphics, and get your products integrated and selling through social. 

To find out more about how we could help you nail your e-commerce Christmas, please get in touch.  

You can do that however you like, on the form below, on social media message, by email or even a phone call. We like to make it easy for our customers, you see 😉  

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