The holidays are the hustle and bustle season for e-commerce, with sales often skyrocketing at this point of the year. It’s also a great moment for store owners like you to convert new clients into loyal ones. However, the catch is that getting ready for fantastic WooCommerce holiday sales will be difficult.
It’s important to understand that, like you, thousands of other store owners are trying to optimize their businesses, and so the competition for sales is pretty tight. Fortunately, by combining smart marketing concepts with dependable WooCommerce tools or plugins, you may win your consumers’ hearts without breaking a sweat!
In this article, we compiled a list of nine techniques and solutions that have been proven to drive holiday sales. We will also discuss how to put these concepts into action in your store. Let’s get into it!
Why Do I Need To Prepare For WooCommerce Holiday Sales?
According to the Adobe Digital Economy Index, this holiday season, online spending will reach $910 billion, or 11% more than last year. This represents a new milestone for e-commerce, as consumers feel a whole lot more confident about their holiday spending this year.
From an owner’s standpoint, this opportunity is something you simply can’t pass up! It guarantees not only improved revenue for your store but also a higher likelihood of developing a strong base of repeat customers. Take the Thanksgiving holiday, for example.
As per the National Retail Federation survey, two-thirds of US consumers planned to shop during the Thanksgiving weekend – that’s about 158.3 million people in just five days!
Breaking the weekend down day by day, the survey found:
- 30.6 million Americans plan to shop either in-store or online on Thanksgiving Day;
- 108 million on Black Friday;
- 58.1 million on Small Business Saturday;
- 31.2 million on Sunday; and
- 62.8 million on Cyber Monday.
As a store owner, holiday sales can definitely make or break your year. If you’ve had a sales slump in recent months, these hot dates are the ideal time to revitalize—to make up for the losses and improve your market position.
9 Ways To Boost WooCommerce Holiday Sales in 2023
There are a million and one strategies to increase your holiday sales campaign. However, not knowing when, where, or how to begin can be intimidating.
Marketing is complicated and resource-intensive. In fact, around 78% of small businesses fail due to a lack of a well-thought-out business and marketing strategy. Unfortunately, not every company can afford to launch a high-performing campaign because of time and cost constraints.
As a result, owners frequently choose a single marketing approach based on “gut instinct” or a tactic that worked for a colleague in a different field. Unsurprisingly, the end result is frequently disappointment: a new website that doesn’t help as much as your intuition “thought,” a direct mail campaign that doesn’t generate as many leads as your colleague’s, and so on.
But don’t worry; we can help you plan and prepare. Here are some of the most successful and proven strategies for boosting your holiday sales marketing:
- Draw out a content calendar
- Use coupons to discount effectively
- Increase your sales with affiliate marketing
- Host appealing giveaways and contests
- Launch a multi-channel win-back campaign
- Use conversion-optimized checkout pages
- Offer Buy One, Get One (BOGO) deals
- Use catchy exit intent pop-ups
- Have a customer loyalty program
1. Draw out a content calendar
First thing first: know which dates you want to prepare for. Planning your targeted holidays and seasons is one of the classiest ways to help you prepare for the next few months.
Determine which holidays correspond to your branding and promotional needs in order to get ahead start on seasonal marketing.
If you’re looking for a quick summary of the critical e-commerce sale dates and holidays, you may use Wholesale Suite’s Promotional Calendar as a reference:
You must, however, plan carefully for the days you have highlighted on your calendar for you to create successful content material. Here are some of the content planning tips & tricks that worked for us:
- Identifying and clearly defining your sales objectives
- Creating a content calendar template that best reflects your KPIs
- Equip yourself with the best and up-to-date tools on WooCommerce
- Keep it unique, original, and relatable!
- Recycle and refresh prior content
- Decide on the frequency and set time limitations
- Constantly revisit your data after every publication
2. Use coupons to discount effectively during WooCommerce holiday sales
Throughout the year, over 93 percent of shoppers use a coupon or discount code. This means that the vast majority of shoppers are looking for a discounted deal.
Holidays are e-commerce’s busiest days, with big sales and conversions. Instead of playing it by ear, target your visitors based on their web activities. Customers can be categorized by their location, demographics, holiday shopping preferences, and purchasing habits.
Send your customers customized offers by segmenting them depending on their characteristics. You can do this manually or try adding the voucher to their carts automatically.
Lucky for you, there are a lot of plugins that let you do so—the best being Advanced Coupons.
One of its key features allows you to give coupons that automatically add products to the cart either for free or at a reduced price.
3. Increase your sales with affiliate marketing
Affiliate marketing is a method of promoting other brands’ items in exchange for a commission on sales. When a buyer purchases a product through the affiliate’s link, the brand pays the affiliate a fair percentage, called a commission. For example:
Affiliate marketing is quickly expanding year after year, and marketers and innovators alike are eager to participate. Hence, it is especially crucial to take advantage of this scheme during the holiday sales season.
For instance, by sharing holiday-themed content on affiliate profiles, you can raise brand awareness and create more income.
You can also use them to promote your products or large bargains during the ecstatic holiday season. To increase traffic to your online store, you might offer consumers promo codes or gift cards.
4. Host appealing WooCommerce holiday sales, giveaways, or contests
Who doesn’t love FREE gifts, right?
As in any business, of course, you can’t give absolutely free gifts – but you may offer clever incentives where your customers can help you promote your business in return for an awesome giveaway, reward, or gift card.
You might also host a raffle draw in which anybody who makes a purchase would be eligible to enter and win something special. Make customers feel as if they are purchasing your merchandise in exchange for a chance to win something extra.
Giveaways and offering gift cards are excellent ways of keeping your customers engaged in your brand. If you’re worried about the hassle of setting up your own program, we highly recommend trying out Advanced Gift Cards.
This premium plugin unlocks the power of gift-giving in your WooCommerce store by providing a stable, easy-to-use gift card solution that your customers can keep or share with a friend. This feature is definitely perfect for holiday vibes!
Alternatively, if you like raffles and giveaways, you can host the contest directly on your website using a giveaway provider like RafflePress. You can then promote your game across all of your social media platforms for maximum exposure.
5. Launch a multi-channel win-back campaign
A win-back email is a type of automated message flow that you can put up in your email marketing platform to contact dormant subscribers or clients. These are people that have previously interacted with your business but have ceased doing so for a period of time, for whatever reason.
Win-back campaigns are essential for a company seeking to scale its promotional strategies because you’re targeting interested prospects. The main advantage of this is that it urges consumers to make repeat purchases.
Then again, if they stopped purchasing from you, there must be a reason, right? So, why should you spend time and effort trying to recoup past customers? Here are some of the reasons:
- The average open rate for win-back automation is over 29%
- Getting a new customer is five times more expensive than keeping an old one
- 45% of subscribers who receive a win-back email will open subsequent emails from your business
During the holidays, sending win-back emails come in extra helpful in ensuring that high-intent potential customers are notified about your time-limited offers. Check out some of the best email marketing tools that can make running this kind of campaign a breeze.
6. Use conversion-optimized checkout pages
Did you know that cart and checkout abandonment account for up to 70% of all sales losses?
Experts predict that using the correct checkout optimization tactics can increase conversions by 35.62%! This means that if you want to expand your business, one of your major priorities should be streamlining your checkout page.
Fortunately, there are a lot of ways to improve your customers’ checkout experiences. This covers areas like auto-fill fields, security seals, and trusted badges, among other factors. Including a guest user, the checkout option can also help you increase conversions.
So, if you’re still utilizing a traditional and outdated order form for your checkout process, consider this section a hint that it’s time to retire your paper templates or manual spreadsheets in favor of a more advanced and convenient method – or should we say, plugins!
Automated wholesale order forms/checkout plugins will not only help you save time and energy, but it is also the best way to prevent cart abandonment and help you grow your business to a whole new level. Take, for example, Wholesale Suite’s Order Form plugin.
This tool is the most efficient one-page WooCommerce order form plugin that gives your customers a lean and efficient ordering and check-out experience.
7. Offer Buy One, Get One (BOGO) deals
Everyone loves BOGO discounts; they’re a great way to gather hot leads and make a fortune without putting in a lot of effort until it falls under your margin.
A BOGO plan is a tried-and-true marketing strategy that has worked for years.
Stores that provide this type of bargain typically see a rise in traffic and click rates, particularly during the holiday shopping season.
This is because Buy One, Get One deals often push customers to buy more, target the right people, and provide a sense of urgency. In turn, you get to see more sales, larger order volumes, and increased conversion rates.
The only hitch is that, without the right tools, WooCommerce businesses may find it difficult to conduct a successful BOGO sale promotion. That is why plugins with a feature specially designed to cater to complicated BOGO deals or offers, like Advanced Coupons, are highly recommended.
8. Use catchy exit intent pop-ups
A person spends 54 seconds on average on a web page. Although that isn’t much time, an exit-intent prompt may be able to persuade them to stay—ever seen these before you close a tab?
Exit-intent pop-ups are really popular with e-commerce sites today, especially around the holidays, as this is an effective way to reduce the chances of cart abandonment.
They’re effective because the longer your target spends on your site, the more likely they are to convert. An exit popup can capture some of your site visitors if they miss the other calls to action on your site. Then they might continue reading, sign up for your email subscription, or perhaps buy something.
With exit-intent popups on record, OptinMonster‘s customers have witnessed a:
- 98% Increased Sales
- Doubled Leads in 27 Days
- A dramatic increase in email subscribers
We highly recommend OptinMonster if you are interested to add an exit pop-up. It has worked wonders for us through the years.
9. Have a customer loyalty program
Customer retention is one of the most difficult aspects of running a business. With so much competition out there, it might be difficult to persuade a shopper to return to your store.
Here’s where customer loyalty programs can be your secret weapon. These can be useful tactics to encourage customers to make purchases at your store and even spend more than they would otherwise.
For instance, if consumers know they’ll get extra points or prizes if they spend more than $30, they’ll be more likely to complete the order.
Sephora’s Beauty Insider perks for all members is also a great example:
Loyalty rewards for avid members come in especially handy during the holiday season. You can do this in a lot of ways – try rewarding your customers with double points or mystery gifts and vouchers. Or maybe free expedited holiday-special shipping for higher-tiered loyalty members?
Here are some more holiday rewards program ideas you can try:
1. Gamified WooCommerce holiday sales campaign
Gamification is a fun technique to boost consumer engagement. It also opens up new avenues for gathering customer information. Take LuisaViaRoma as an example:
2. Lifestyle incentives
Because the holiday season is also an emotional time for your customers, it’s a perfect time to connect with them and highlight social responsibility. For example, you can try hosting a program that allows your customers to donate their points to a charitable cause.
3. Exclusive early access
Early access is straightforward but effective. Giving your most loyal customers or high-tier members the ability to purchase things before anybody else is free. Nonetheless, especially during the holiday season, it is a genuinely rewarding perk for members.
Again, you have plenty of options, but make sure they are appropriate for the season and your business. You also have to watch out for your resources and preparedness to launch such a program.
Advanced Coupon’s Loyalty Program plugin is one of the greatest tools or extensions in WooCommerce today for setting up a rewards program. Check it out!
Conclusion
As a WooCommerce store owner, you must be concerned with all aspects that can help your company’s growth. Holiday sales are one of the best ways to maximize your business. Hence, you should seize this opportunity to best prepare and plan out your marketing schemes.
In this article, we’ve presented a list of nine approaches and solutions proven to boost holiday sales. We also talked about how you might apply these ideas to your store:
- Draw out a content calendar
- Use coupons to discount effectively
- Increase your sales with affiliate marketing
- Host appealing giveaways and contests
- Launch a multi-channel win-back campaign
- Use conversion-optimized checkout pages
- Offer Buy One, Get One (BOGO) deals
- Use catchy exit intent pop-ups
- Have a customer loyalty program
If you have any questions, comment down below. We’d love to hear from you!
