September is here! The leaves are starting to turn, school is back in session, and football season is taking off. While it may seem like you just started taking down your summer inventory, there are some key steps you can take now to set yourself up for a successful and lucrative holiday season.
Think of this month as the “get your house in order” month. While your plate is full with Fall seasonal promotions, there are a few key steps you can take this month to make your holiday campaigns a breeze.
Review last year
Leverage your data from last year’s sales and promotions to inform how to move forward this year. Here’s a couple of key insights to identify:
Build key lists and segments, the most valuable of which are:
- Top products purchased as gifts
- Gift purchasers
- Last year’s holiday shoppers
Assess last year’s products: best sellers, hot combos, poor performers, etc.
Set up “shop”
Optimize your website to avoid any technical snafus and leverage tools to capture customer information and behavior
- Set up a cart recovery solution (if you haven’t already)
- Set up a lightbox to collect email addresses from your website. We recommend Padiact as a great free solution.
- Optimize your website (evaluate load speed, check out and user experience, etc.)
Determine your products
- Research holiday trends to determine what customers will be looking for
- Seasonal purge – what are the items that you’re trying to get rid of before the year-end?
- Re-stock on your best sellers from last year. Pay special attention to which products have the biggest margins.
Plan your messaging
Using the insights gained from last year’s data and the products you’ll promote, put together a plan of what promotions you are going to send this year.
- Brainstorm your promotions. For example, at Windsor Circle we’ve branded our holiday promotions as “Holiday Cheer for the Entire Year”. Think through ways to catch your customers’ attention for those holiday products you’ve identified.
- Refine your promotions by preparing split tests for your messages and offerings
- Review your competition
Resources
- Lightbox solution: Padiact
- Cart Recovery Solution
- Windsor Circle Holiday Resources (ebooks, webinars, etc.)
- Our team of data scientists and client success managers can help you check off everything on this list. Reach out to us for more information.
