In part 1 we covered some of areas where you can enhance your store and make sure that it is as accessible as possible to all people whether at home or out in the shops window shopping for Christmas. In this section I will touch on a couple more topics focusing on increasing the basket value as well as adding incentives to buy sooner.
Bundles and Cross selling
We have all seen this in operation on sites such as Amazon or Play, the “customers who bought this also bought” sections at the bottom of the product description, or the “Buy these 2 items together and save”. This is a great way to both offer attractive deals to your visitors as well we potentially shifting some slower moving stock, but remember to choose the bundles well, offering items that do not complement each other can put customers off.
Gift Wrapping
We have all been there, a few nights before Christmas, the dining room table covered in wrapping paper trying to get all the gifts wrapped ready for the big day. A good service to offer your customers at any time of the year but especially in the draw up to Christmas is a Gift Warping option, this is especially useful if the gift is being sent direct to the recipient. This can be a nice easy option in the basket process, charge a nominal fee for the materials or even offer it for free. If you do decide to do this, make sure that you’re customers know about it, show it on your home page and possibly consider adding it to the product descriptions.
Last Order Countdown
If you do not want to update your shop every day in the lead up to Christmas then there are several websites that will create a countdown application for you to put on your shop. We all know that as Christmas approaches time seems to speed up and you start to forget things with, whether it is sending the Christmas cards or buying presents. Adding a prominent reminder for the last day for shipping (don’t forget is takes long to ship overseas) this will add a sense of urgency for your customers to buy their products before the deadline expires. You may want to show guaranteed delivery for Christmas if your order before a certain date, however you may also want to put in a note about weather conditions if they are adverse.
Post Christmas Vouchers
Sounds simple, but Christmas is an expensive time of year, offering your customers some money off their next order in the new year could well be an incentive to them especially if you have a good base of returning customers, this can be used in conjunction with your January sales to boost what could be a quite time of year.