Here are four strategies borrowed from Amazon that can help any retailers improve its holiday sales.

Alex Jasin, CEO of MetaPress and X3 Digital

Alex Jasin, CEO of Metapress and X3 Digital

It’s almost that magical time of year again.

As an online retailer, you probably dread the holiday season just as much as you look forward to it. You’re delighted by the influx of customers you expect, but dread the upcoming burnout and customer complaints upon delayed shipping.

Year after year, you try dreaming up different ways to meet your customers’ needs at this time of the year and exceed the previous year’s sales.

When you look at the e-commerce market, there’s a leader that seems to achieve this effortlessly. There’s one company that dominates the holiday season and is usually at the top of the chart. And when it comes to sales, it always surpasses the previous year’s mark. That’s right: Amazon.

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The e-commerce giant tops the list of online retailers every year. In 2016 alone, Amazon accounted for 40% of all online retail sales in the US, averaging about 43% during the holiday season.

While you can’t match up to Amazon, you can borrow lessons from its strategies. The e-commerce leader doesn’t just win. It incorporates various trends, tweaks, and promotes innovation. And that’s what makes it Amazon.

With every holiday season, Amazon increases the number of emails it sends to consumers.

So, what can you borrow from Amazon’s way of life? Here are a few ideas:

1. Leverage new technologies and trends

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Mobile devices are taking over the online shopping scene. Amazon reports that more than 73% of its customers made purchases over mobile in the year 2016. This trend is expected to gain momentum this year and in the future, with more people using mobile devices to research and buy products.

Amazon is widely known for tapping into the latest technologies, to make ordering easier for its customers. Think Amazon Dash—the service allowing customers to order an item by pressing a button—and Amazon Alexa that allows for voice shopping.

By leveraging the latest trends to improve the buying experience of a user, you’re able to garner the appreciation of loyal customers.

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Consumers love responsive mobile apps, a quick and easy checkout process, and fast website and in-app navigation. If your checkout process is slow and complicated or you don’t have mobile apps in place to cater for mobile buyers, you’re going to lose sales—just as you will if your website isn’t mobile-friendly.

To prepare for this year’s holiday season, analyze your customer’s mobile and web experience. Is it user-friendly enough? Are there hitches that you need to fix? What can you add to make the ordering process easier and quick? Then go ahead and make these changes.

2. Promote your holiday deals early

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Instead of waiting until the rush of Black Friday or Cyber Monday to launch your campaigns, start as early as now. According to a research on 2016 holiday shopping trends, shoppers started their search for holiday deals and gifts as early as September.

While shoppers didn’t seem to make purchases as early as they searched, doing so helped in the decision-making process.

By knowing the deal exists, familiarizing themselves with the price and how long it takes for delivery, shoppers can plan to make an actual purchase. This is what Amazon has done for the last two years. In both 2015 and 2016, Amazon announced its Black Friday deals one week before the actual holiday.

The early deals were communicated through Amazon’s mobile app and to Prime customers only, a strategy aimed at controlling the number of orders and making more sales.

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You too can borrow this strategy to increase holiday sales, without being too exhausted from the mayhem. Start by promoting the deals you’ll be releasing during the holidays as a teaser. This can be promoted on your company blog (hopefully you already have one), through email, social media or on mobile apps.

When you promote a product for a longer time and consistently you’re able to give consumers something to look forward to. And at the same time, convince anyone who might still be in doubt.

3. Master the art of email marketing

If you’re in online retail and haven’t gotten a grip on email marketing, you’re missing out on huge sales. The good news, though, is you can start today and still notice an increase in your holiday sales this year.

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U.S. online retailers prefer email as the mode of communicating with customers during the holidays. And email isn’t just a communication tool. When used well, email is a great distribution strategy for any business, be it online or otherwise.

In fact, a report analyzing 10 years of data shows that email marketing provides the greatest marketing return on investment (ROI), outperforming SEO, content marketing, and PPC. Amazon is aware of this, as it continues to successfully use email campaigns to move products much faster.

If you pay attention to Amazon’s emails to its customers, you’ll notice at least 4 conversion techniques. You’ll discover they use personalization, consistent images, graphics and templates, limited-offer deals and several calls to action (CTAs).

With every holiday season, Amazon increases the number of emails it sends to consumers. Last year, the retail giant sent 56% more emails than it did the previous year. This goes to show the importance of email marketing for online retail business. So as you prepare for the holiday season, ensure to build an email list and schedule converting emails.

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4. Recommend products to your customers

More than half of shoppers in 2016 purchased an item that was recommended to them by the retailer. And 9 out of 10 made a decision to purchase an item based on something they read that convinced them.

When you’ve attained a loyal following or in the process of doing so, recommendation will go a long way in increasing sales.

Amazon uses recommendation in its email campaigns and on the website to leverage the buyer’s psychology. If a user is browsing for products on Amazon’s website or app, the company always provides other alternatives or additional products. This technique allows a user to spot a product they might need, leading to impulse buying and more sales for the retailer.

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People are always planning and scouting for gifts to give during the holidays. Using recommendation can increase visibility of your products and prompt consumers to make a purchase.

In Conclusion

Amazon is an unrivalled e-commerce leader.

Its online market share grows year on year, even leading to accusations of causing more job cuts in the retail industry than it creates. However, as an online retailer, you can choose to focus on the positive, by borrowing lessons from Amazon to incorporate into your business.

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These four strategies should be a great start toward increasing your web store’s traffic, and ultimately sales, for the upcoming holiday season.

Alex Jasin is CEO of millennial-focused online publication Metapress and digital marketing agency X3 Digital.

 

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