Festivals are an integral part of our lifestyle and we all want to make each festive moment memorable by doing many things like parties, trips, shopping and all that.
In this article we are going to learn about shopping behavior of consumers and how online merchants can grow their revenue during festive season.
With an advancement of technologies and increasing mobile users, online shopping and ecommerce have now become a gigantic business as it is predicted to grow to $370 billion in 2017.
People tend to shop online more on festivals for different things like Digital Content & Subscriptions, Consumer Electronics, Flowers, Greetings & Gifts, Computer Hardware and Apparel & Accessories.
Today’s techno-savvy people are smarter because 94% of online shoppers do their research before purchasing anything online and 61% of online shoppers use search engines to collect information about product or service they are looking for.
Here are the different platforms which people are using to conduct their research before buying anything online;
According to survey, number of mobile phone users in 2017 is expected to reach 4.77 billion worldwide and keep increasing in coming years. It shows that smart phone users are increasing day by day and almost half of them are purchasing their needs online using their smart cell phones.
Now we have a question raised in our mind that what makes them to go online for shopping?
What Makes People to go online for Shopping?
During November 16, 63% of smartphone users (aged 18 to 29 years) in United States stated that holiday shopping using our smart phones saved lots of time which is the most convenience.
Here are some more important smartphone holiday shopping aspects according to smartphone shoppers in the United States;
In one study, 65% of online shoppers admit that social media marketing and e-mail advertisings with lucrative discounts and sales offers inspire them for digital shopping during festivals.
Historic Example of Online Shopping
In 2015, total holiday season retail e-commerce expenditure in the USA estimated to 56.43 billion US dollars with the most money being spent on Cyber Monday and became the biggest US online shopping day with close to 2.3 billion US dollars.
Changing Pattern of Online Shopping & Shoppers
In 2011, approximate number of digital buyers reached to 792.6 million and a year after in 2012 numbers increased to 903.6 million worldwide.
In 2016, numbers of digital buyers have reached to mounting figures of 1.32 billion which is expected to grow to 1.70 billion in 2017.
Check this graph to understand the changing online shopping pattern of consumers;
Now, we have a clear idea that numbers of online holiday shoppers are ever increasing and it would be a great opportunity to make some extra bucks.
Here are different ways you can use to boost your online business during festivals;
10 Ways to Boost Your Online Business
1) Schedule Advertising Campaigns Earlier
Promotional campaigns especially designed for festivals are short term in nature and take time for final implementation.
It requires many things to take into consideration like design, concept, sales offers, email database, targeting audience, etc.
Thus, for best results it would be much better to schedule such festive advertising campaigns in advance.
2) Gifts are Great!!
In the marketing industry we need to make consumers feel comfortable and special. Offering gifts or discounts on purchase of products will make customers happy.
And customer’s satisfaction is the utmost goal of all marketers.
3) Free and Fast Shipping
Customers sometimes avoid to order online due to costly shipping charges. Thus, free and fast shipping offers on festivals would be the best option to attract such customers.
Even one research shows that 70% of people are tend to add more products in cart just because of free shipping option.
4) Countdown Banners
Sometimes customer’s emotion can be your marketing factor that helps you to get more business. Setting up countdown banners on the home page of your website target the curiosity of consumers and make them wait for that offers eagerly.
Try it, it works!
5) Homepage Re-Design
Making your website’s home page holiday focused by adding festive banners, sales offers, gift packages and specific holiday relevant graphics will turn your users into customers.
It works well for many ecommerce sites and help them to drive more sales.
6) Show Customer Reviews
As we mentioned above that online shoppers are getting smarter and do their best research for buying anything online.
As per the general customer shopping behavior, after checking product specifications and details they are tend to read customer reviews about that particular product.
More positive reviews will help you to get more sales. Thus, it would be much better to make them easily visible on your website for users.
7) Safety and Security
Novice shoppers are seem little apprehensive when it comes to disclosing their payment information.
Thus, make sure that you own SSL certificate which ensure the safety and security of your customer’s private information.
8) Curate Shopping Lists
Every online business has specific range of products for people of different age. Sometimes, massy product display would result in poor user experience which can be hazardous for your sales.
Thus, creating shopping lists targeting different age of people will improve the user experience and increase the chances of more sales as well.
9) Responsive Website
Make sure you have optimized your website for mobile users too. As we have mentioned above that how rapidly the numbers of mobile users are increasing and how frequently they are shopping online using their mobiles.
Even Google give more prominence to mobile friendly websites.
Thus, we should not miss the opportunity by targeting such a huge market place.
10) Return Policy and Payment Options
Sometimes strict return policies and limited payment options might be a reason for poor sales on festivals.
Be more liberal by easing your product return policies and provide more payment options to your customers so that they can make purchase with almost anything either it is Visa, MasterCard, PayPal or Bitcoin.
So are you ready to thrive your online business on these coming festivals? Know your customer’s requirements first and then implement above mention 10 tactics effectively for better sales.
I hope you have enjoyed article. Feel free contact us for any query or better suggestion.
Author Bio
By Vishal Patel
Vishal Patel is the Chief Technology Officer at Loyal Web Solutions, where he has been a key leader since 2011. With a deep understanding of web technologies and a passion for innovation, Vishal has guided the company to consistently deliver top-tier digital solutions. His expertise in the industry ensures that every project is executed with precision and excellence.