If you have an online store, you know users eagerly await the promotions, deals and price cuts offered online during the Summer Sales. The Online Marketing department at TLG Commerce would like to share some recommendations to make sure your online store is ready for the occasion from 1 July.
Summer Sales, Winter Sales, the Christmas season and Black Friday have become the most important periods for all kinds of online stores across sectors.
Strategy and planning
To ensure the success of this kind of campaign, it’s essential to know in advance which actions, deals and promotions you’ll run, and to define your strategy for acquiring new users through online advertising campaigns.
Below we outline the types of actions to consider when planning your Sales:
- Pricing strategy: before a significant price cut, consider the metrics that directly affect your online business, such as profit margins, without overlooking users’ potential interest in your product. All this so you can offer discounts without jeopardizing profits.
- Free shipping: offering users something for free, such as shipping during the Sales, can be a good incentive to complete the purchase. The same goes for offering completely free product returns.
- Stock levels: make sure you have stock of the products you’ll promote most by forecasting sales and covering potential demand. Heavily promoting products with low stock would damage your brand image, leaving users frustrated and annoyed with the brand.
- Promotion activities: planning the visibility and impact of your actions is one of the most important parts of preparing for a period as significant as the Summer Sales. Knowing and planning in detail which channels you’ll use to promote your discounts, whether social media, online advertising or Email Marketing campaigns, will be key to measuring your return on investment (ROI) afterwards.
- Loyalty: showing exclusive discounts to your online store’s most loyal customers will go a long way toward strengthening ties with your buyers. Discount coupons or early access to the Sales a day before everyone else are always appreciated.
Good planning is essential during these periods and is closely tied to the two points we’ll cover next: store design and campaign promotion.
Online store design: showcasing discounts and promotions
Conveying that your online store is in full Sales mode is essential to create a sense of opportunity users can’t miss. Customizing the online store during specific sales periods such as Christmas, Sales or Black Friday can make users want to visit to discover the discounts on offer.
Below are some recommendations on how to display discounts and deals in your online store:
- Countdown: you can build anticipation by gradually letting customers know, in the days before the official start of the Sales, when they’ll begin. This keeps customers’ attention in the run-up.
- Main banner: to avoid distracting users, the main homepage banner should feature a single image that stands out, grabs attention and briefly summarizes the deals and discounts available in the eCommerce store.
- Main menu: having a dedicated, eye-catching “Sales” section in the main menu gives users direct access to it from any page of the store.
- Discounts: showing both the discount percentage and the original price next to the current sale price gives users a sense of a “bargain” or opportunity, which is essential in sales periods so focused on discounts and deals.
- Dedicated sales landing page: this encourages impulse buying, but it needs a careful, well-measured design. Special banners or showing the section’s discounts can help spark users’ interest in the landing page.
If you have a fashion eCommerce store, a recommended practice is to convey a summery vibe through your social media posts, main store banners or blog. That way your eCommerce will keep delivering a shopping experience in tune with the summer season.
Campaign promotion
Knowing which campaigns you’ll run to promote your online store’s Sales is the step before promoting and spreading them. You need a clear, concise strategy that details which channels you’ll use to let new and loyal customers know about your online store’s Sales.
- Social media: social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube are essential during a period as special as the Sales. That’s why you need a carefully planned online communication strategy that also includes direct communication with users, not forgetting paid campaigns on platforms such as Facebook and Instagram.
- Influencers: influencers have become another promotional channel that many fashion brands have used and will use during the Sales. Their large following and strong reputation in the sector make them a promotional channel worth considering.
- Adwords Remarketing: running various online advertising campaigns can help attract quality traffic and sales. A visual, attractive Google Adwords campaign well suited to the Sales period that we recommend is a Remarketing campaign.
- Email Marketing: as mentioned earlier, you can create a countdown to the start of the Sales and send it through a planned Email Marketing campaign. It’s also important to run an attractive mailing campaign summarizing the discounts and deals available in the online store. The Summer Sales period lasts 2 months (from 1 July to 31 August), so you can send several newsletters over these 2 months with changing promotions or discounts.
- SEO: although you should never forget SEO, for campaigns like these, focused on reaching users quickly, it makes sense to prioritize other resources such as newsletters, Google Adwords campaigns or social media promotion. That said, you can prepare for the Sales months in advance through SEO optimization, with patience and dedication.
Last but not least, remember that constant monitoring of results is essential. Throughout the Sales period, various actions are carried out that must be tracked thoroughly by monitoring Social Media channels. Answering any questions that arise is important for your brand image.
Don’t leave planning this summer’s Sales campaign to the last minute: build a strategy that makes the most of this special season of discounts and promotions that every user is waiting for.
Get in touch with TLG Commerce now and our online Marketing department will help you manage all your promotion and outreach channels so you get a return on your investment.
