3 Last-Minute Ways to Boost your Holiday Sales

Yes, holidays are just around the corner. You’ve been so caught up on your daily Power Seller activities and the BFCM madness that you haven’t even checked on the calendar! 

Don’t worry, we’ve all been there. And so, our team has gathered a list of five infallible last-minute ecommerce selling tips to prep your Fuel store and boost your revenue during the holiday season. Let’s dive in 😎

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1. Create a shoppable ambiance

Before making any moves, you have to evaluate the effectiveness of your shop. Type your store’s URL and explore your website as if you were a first-time visitor. Use a pair of customer lenses to check on:

• The website’s loading speed – Nowadays, online shoppers don’t have the patience to wait for a page to load. You want to make sure yours shows fast.
• The checkout process – Recreate the steps and evaluate how much time and effort it takes to place an order from your site.  
• The template’s structure – The easier it is to navigate your store, the better. It has to state what you’re selling and strategically highlight your offers on the page. 
  

After you’ve played around, clicking here and there, it’s time to make the corresponding adjustments.

Run a speed test

Use the Test My Site tool to analyze your store’s time to load up. According to Think with Google, a website shouldn’t take more than 3 seconds to show fully. Otherwise, the bouncing rate will keep increasing as seconds go by. ‍

If the results aren’t what you were expecting, consider applying some of these tips to lighten your site:

• Disconnect apps you don’t need anymore and keep only what’s essential
• Resize or compress your images and keep them under 200KB.
• Remove unnecessary or redundant data on your site.

Accelerate the checkout process

Speaking of fastness, the shopping fever is higher than ever during the holidays, and there’s no time to lose when it comes to making a sale. 

Did you know that 70% of shopping carts get abandoned? Yes, you’ve read that right! 7 out of 10 customers leave the site without making a purchase. Whatever the cause is, there are a few tricks you can do right now to avoid this:

• Consider a guest checkout – Creating an account is one of the main reasons customers decide to leave. You can add a guest option to facilitate the process.
• Try to reduce the steps – Keep your checkout process simple. The less energy invested in the checkout, the more likely it is to complete the purchase. ​​
• Add a progress bar – Let your buyers know how long the checkout process takes as you build up the hype of placing an order. You can find different upsell options on the Shopify app store.
  

💡Fuel Tip: If you want to keep improving your cart abandonment rate, we recommend checking our blog on retrieving abandoned carts.

Display your holiday best-sellers

Trendy products are popular for a reason! Consider re-arranging your store’s design to highlight your customers’ favorites. The first thing they’ll see when landing on your shop is going to be what they’re looking for, making it easier to add to their carts.

However, if you recently started to run your print-on-demand business and have no history of what are the seasons faves, here are some winning suggestions:

• Apparel –The holiday mood calls out for cozy clothing. Beanies, hoodies, and crewneck sweatshirts are a must this time of the year.
• Drinkware – Mugs, mugs, and more mugs. It is the perfect Christmas gift for oneself or a loved one. Plus, one of Fuel’s fastest turnaround products.
• Home decor – Your customers might be starting to get their festive decorations out. Posters are a great compliment to give a warm atmosphere to their homes. 
  

💡Fuel Tip: Read more on how to select trending products all year round on our blog. 

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2. Tick-tock does the promo clock 

Customers are looking for the best deals and will definitely turn their heads over to the retailer that offers more. This year, you can try some of these ideas:

• Free shipping – Whether it is on your entire store, product categories, or a minimum purchase amount, this is the most desired promo among online buyers. If your profits allow, we strongly suggest you offer it.
• Discounts – Your customers appreciate seeing lower prices on your catalog. Make it a % or a $ off for selected products, you decide!
• Coupon codes – Another simple way to offer discounts is by using a code. Create your own, something along the lines of “HOLIDAYSALE,” then share it with your buyers to apply it. 
• Buy one, get one free – Oh, the good, old-fashioned 2x1. The word “free” never fails to incite purchases, try it and see how it works for your business.
• Bulk discounts – This upsell helps you increase your AOV (Average Order Volume) as it encourages your customers to buy more and pay less according to what they purchase.

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3. Attract and attack

Take advantage of all your communication channels to tell your customers you have hot deals for the Christmas shopping season. Depending on your budget, you can decide on reaching out organically with sponsored content. 

Go hard with the ads

Ad campaigns are your best ally during the holiday season. Don’t be afraid to run several ad sets to target different audiences or pursue separate objectives. Here are some tips for social media ads: 

1. Aim for reach and traffic objectives – These will help you approach a broad audience at a lower cost.
2. Create eye-catchy ads – Simple images with a strong copy will guarantee more clicks!
3. Optimize your ad sets – After you’ve launched your ad campaigns, don’t just forget about them. Analyze, make changes and see what performs better for your target. 

An email reminder never hurt nobody

You have one of the most important assets in digital marketing: your customer’s email address. Emailing continues to perform as the most effective way to reach out to your audience, with a 122% average ROI (Return On Investment)!

Consider sending out a newsletter to share your promotions and special offers for the occasion! Keep it simple, visually appealing, and straightforward. Include a strong CTA (Call To Action) and link directly to your products.‍

💡Fuel Tip: Target your abandoned cart owners too. Shopify offers a wide variety of mailing apps you can integrate with your store to send notifications when a customer has left an incomplete checkout. 

Host a social media giveaway

Contests are a great way to connect with your current audience, reach out to potential buyers, and boost sales. 

Create a special holiday kit or a selection with limited-time products and give it as a prize. Ask people to follow you, tag their friends in the comments and share your post to participate. Finally, select a random contestant and contact them to send their products. Easy, dynamic, and effective 🔥

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Merry everything

Time to put these tips to work! Consider which of these ideas work better for your business and start planning your last-minute strategy for the holidays. 

Remember to stop by our Must-have Ecommerce Marketing Calendar to include all the remaining festivities to keep fueling your profits: Free Shipping Day, Christmas, Hanukkah, and New Year.