From Holiday Buzz to Year-Round Loyalty: Tips to Maintain Momentum and Retain Customers After the Season
The holiday season brings with it a surge of online shoppers hunting for discounts whether for themselves or loved ones (or both).
This is a pivotal time for ecommerce businesses as they carefully plan and strategise to make big wins with the holiday season representing a lucrative period in terms of revenue and sales. This means they often overlook the period just after the holidays with all resources and time focused on offering the best holiday deals.
Just because it seems customers are winding down after the holidays, it doesn’t mean that you should too.
This is a time when it’s crucial to maintain momentum and ensure your website still shines bright even after the Christmas decorations are packed away.
In this article, we will explore some strategies that are sure to keep customers coming back to your website well beyond the holiday season.
Preparing for the January blues
After the holidays, many customers struggle as they fight post-holiday blues and spending fatigue as purchases significantly slow down.
This is why January typically sees a decline in sales compared to the peaks of the previous holiday months. As a result, businesses usually shift their focus to strategising for the upcoming year.
However, this period represents the perfect opportunity to leverage a more quiet period and capitalise on seasonal campaigns and to counteract the slower sales period.
Here are a few ways to re-engage customers and get them out of the post-holidays slump:
Carry the holiday magic into the new year with special promotions
While the holidays may be over, you can still keep the festive spirit alive by offering promotions and deals that leverage the current period, particularly the New Year, New Me mentality that customers adopt just after the New Year celebrations.
Therefore, this period is ideal to capture the attention of customers who are still in shopping mode and looking to take advantage of post-holiday offers.
January is a time when many people are dedicated to sticking to their New Year resolutions and so brands can now re-engage customers by offering deals and promotions to help them fulfill their new year goals.
Running special campaigns using messaging that capitalise on these trends will entice customers to come to your website and make additional purchases.
Set up cart abandonment emails
So you received a peak in traffic on your website during the holidays and a boost to your conversion rate. But what about those customers who added items to their cart but didn’t complete that final step? With a host of deals and offers at a customer’s disposal, cart abandonment rates also tend to shoot up during the holiday sales.
If you’re not already sending cart abandonment emails to your customers, this is the time to get those campaigns running to retarget and re-engage abandoners.
Creating a sense of urgency doesn’t have to be a strategy reserved for those Black Friday sales. Recapture shoppers and get them back to your website by sending personalised emails with limited time offers such as an extra discount code or free shipping.
Run upselling/cross-selling campaigns
You gained a number of new customers during the holiday shopping surge and now it’s time to retain these customers and win their loyalty by following up with personalised recommendations.
One effective way to do that is through cross-selling and upselling. In brief, a cross-sell is when you offer additional product recommendations that complement the original purchase while an upsell is when you offer the same type of product at an increased price in the form of a higher range product than the one the customer was initially intending to purchase. Your strategy will largely depend on your target customers. Repeat customers will usually be more receptive to cross-sells that align with previous purchases.
The end-goal is to add value to the purchase a customer is making by putting their needs first, encouraging repeat purchases and lifetime value.
Utilise the gold mine of customer data gathered over the holiday sales period to create post-holiday campaigns with personalised and relevant product recommendations by collecting information about their purchase history and interests based on their website behaviour.
Personalised cross-selling and upselling improve the customer experience, boost lifetime value, and strengthen brand loyalty as well as increasing AOV. Cross-sell and upsell strategies also have the added advantage of introducing your customers to a broader range of products.
Implement loyalty programs
Implementing loyalty programs are another fantastic way to encourage repeat purchases and boost customer retention. The post-holiday season is a good time to put the spotlight on your loyalty program with the new customers you’ve captured over the holidays and give them a good reason to stay loyal to your brand.
Show your repeat customers that you appreciate their loyalty with personalised emails offering exclusive discounts or early access to new products you’re releasing in the coming year that match their interests or to your January sales. You can also implement a point reward system to encourage frequent purchases. The goal is to give your customers enough incentive to return well after the holiday sales for their purchase needs.
Extend your sales period
Who says the sales should only be for the holiday season? Think big and beyond just Black Friday and Cyber Monday. January presents a plethora of marketing opportunities to set the stage for a successful year and to help customers who enjoy shopping after Christmas to beat the post-holiday blues.
New Year deals offer a unique opportunity to clear out inventory, retain new and existing customers and lay the groundwork for a fool-proof sales strategy to see you through for the rest of the year.
We’ve all heard of the expression out with the old, in with the new. Besides crafting resolution-based messaging and offering products that support customers’ new year resolutions as discussed above, kick off the new year by clearing out last year’s stock with a January clearance sale. It’s a win-win strategy: you can market your existing products and make room for new inventory while customers can get your products at attractive prices.
Leverage social proof
Your social media channels are the best tools you have at your disposal to keep customers engaged with your brand year-round.
Use your success over the holiday season to build credibility and trust by encouraging customers to share their purchases on social media with dedicated hashtags so they can be featured on your pages.
Use your social media to offer additional discounts, showcase your products and to, above all, actually engage with your customers, which helps build trust and excitement around your brand.
Keep customers up-to-date with exclusive content
Another key tactic to keep customers engaged with your brand is by delivering engaging content that keeps your products in the minds of your customers.
Go beyond simply telling your customers to buy your product and offer them valuable content that positions your brand as an expert in the industry. This could include email communications about your brand, industry or providing helpful information about your products. For example, a skincare brand could offer self-care tips on how to maintain glowing skin during the upcoming winter months.
Offer an exceptional customer service experience beyond the holidays
Providing a fantastic customer experience is key to customer retention. The post-holiday period, in particular, is a vital time to ensure you offer optimal customer support as many customers may be looking to return or exchange their items or may have other inquiries regarding their latest purchases.
This is your chance to show your customers that you’re committed to making sure they’re satisfied with their purchase. Therefore, make sure you’re ready to answer any questions or concerns promptly and efficiently.
Having excellent customer service means that customers will be more likely to make repeat purchases and eventually win over their loyalty.
Send a thank you email
Finally, it may seem like a simple strategy but sending a heartfelt thank you email post-purchase can leave a lasting impression on your customers.
Make sure you personalise the email by including your customer’s details and keep them engaged with your brand by giving them a sneak peek at upcoming promotions and products.
Transform the post-holiday slump into golden opportunities
The post-holiday period is a prime opportunity to keep that holiday momentum going and build on the success of holiday sales. With well-defined strategies in place, you can capitalise on this time and set yourself up for success throughout the year.
Also, don’t forget to think beyond the immediate post-holiday period and January. Make sure you plan carefully and capitalise on other season trends throughout the year.
From Valentine’s Day to Mother’s Day and Easter break, these early-year holidays present key moments to keep your customers engaged with your brand all year long. They provide the perfect chance to convert one-time shoppers into loyal brand advocates, ensuring that by the time the holiday season arrives, your brand is top of mind.
