REthink: The Holiday Season
Posted by Jennifer Warrington on September 11th, 2007Maximizing OND
You may be knee deep in grapes with the harvest season in full swing, but the busiest season for ecommerce is rapidly approaching: October, November, and December (OND). Traditionally this is the time of year when the ecommerce channel develops a spike in sales for the last quarter of the year. We all understand there is money to be made, but here are a few suggestions to capitalize on OND and exceed your goals.
Holiday Decor
Have you noticed while surfing the net many businesses spruce up their website for the holiday/OND season? It’s no different than the brick and mortar stores putting up seasonal displays – it puts people in the mood to spend. Changing the look and feel of your website and communications is cost effective. More importantly, you can gain a significant return on your investment without much effort. Additionally, streamlining your purchase paths and highlighting specials and holiday offerings will also increase sales. Make sure to place your gift offering in a highly visible area.
Gift Packages
The holiday season is the gift-giving season, so make it easy for your customers to purchase gift packs and gift baskets. Build around compelling price points (psychological price barriers like $99). Many companies are willing to partner up, so use your connections and make the most of your gift packs. Try basket companies that offer wine as part of the package, or wine and chocolate, wine and cheese…the list goes on. If you can, offer consumers the option of purchasing greeting cards to accompany the gift. If nothing else, create wine bundles on your website which will not only increase the average dollar per order but also make gift-giving easier. You may want to offer discounted shipping for early ordering, and be sure to indicate drop ship dates to ensure delivery time before the holiday.
Wine Club Gifting
Wine club shipments make excellent gifts. You can post a club shipment (as a gift set) on your website and offer 3 months, 6 months, or 12 months for customers to order. You might want to provide a discounted price proportional to the length of the gift membership. For example, a three-month membership for a $40 shipment would be $120. You may want to offer it for $109 (psychological price barrier) or offer and additional 5% off. When sending out the gift memberships, be sure to include additional promo materials about your product or brand. These are future customers that you are trying to gain. You can specify a different “in-box program” for these gift memberships with your fulfillment partner – make the box fun to open by having value-adds with your shipments like a corkscrew, vineyard dirt, etc.
Corporate Gifting
Another way to maximize the potential of OND with increased sales and brand awareness is corporate gifting. Many corporations like to give the gift of wine to their employees. This is an ideal way to reach a wide range of new customers in one purchase. You and your staff should compile a list of friends and various businesses and create a sales strategy.
Prepare your strategies for OND now so you that OND won’t leave you in the dust!
Remember, DIRECT is the best way to Communicate with, Acquire, and Retain your customers.
