Christmas Sales: After Black Friday, the Christmas season kicks into high gear with a stream of sales, promotions and discounts. While some shoppers love this time of year for the bargains, others find it overwhelming.
If you’re in the business of selling Christmas-themed products or services, then you need to take advantage of what is essentially free advertising and increase your Christmas sales this year.
If you want to give yourself the best chance of beating last year’s figures, consider implementing one or more of these 20 tips to increase your Christmas sales this year:
1. Run a Christmas ad campaign
Coming up with a Christmas ad campaign is a great way to kick off your holiday sales. Put some energy into creating an ad that is seasonal and relevant to your specific product or service.
By creating a seasonal ad, you can increase your brand’s exposure, drive traffic to your website, and increase the odds of receiving sales.
The best Christmas ad campaigns are short and to the point. Keep in mind that many consumers make their purchasing decisions in the weeks leading up to Christmas, so you don’t have a lot of time to get your message across.
2. Plan your marketing early
If you start planning your marketing early, you’ll have plenty of time to tweak your strategy and make adjustments, based on what’s working and what isn’t. This is especially important if you plan to host a Christmas sale.
Customers expect to find bargains and special offers around the holidays, so you can’t just throw up a “sale” sign in your storefront or put “50% off everything” in your online store and expect a stampede of customers. You’ll need to carefully plan your special offers to maximize their impact.
You might want to consider a tiered sale, where you offer different discounts to different types of customers. You can also give your best customers a heads up about your sale, so they have time to plan their purchases.
3. Create seasonal product lines
Creating seasonal product lines is a good way to tie your products in to the Christmas shopping season. You can create themed products that focus on Christmas, such as Christmas decorations, Christmas tree ornaments, Christmas cards, Christmas tree lights, Christmas cookie cutters, Christmas-themed cookbooks, Christmas socks, Christmas-themed T-shirts, Christmas-themed mugs, Christmas-themed puzzles, Christmas-themed games, Christmas-themed puzzles, Christmas-themed books and many more.
You’ll want to make sure that your products are relevant and useful to your customers, but if you create something that has Christmas written all over it, you’ll make your customers feel like they have to buy it as a Christmas gift.
You can also create a calendar of Christmas-themed content, such as recipes, crafts, songs, poems and tips. You can put this on your website or create an online calendar and share it with your customers and prospective customers.
4. Host free events for customers and potential customers
Hosting free events is a good way to build connections with your customers and build your brand at the same time. If you’re a retailer, you can host an event where you invite people to shop in your store, either in-person or virtually, and offer them special discounts. Hosting a Christmas-focused event at your workplace is also a great idea.
You can invite customers to come in and sample your products, enjoy refreshments, meet your employees and find out about your business firsthand. If you’re not in retail, you can still host events. You can offer free seminars or webinars, host free lectures or invite people to attend a free workshop or tasting.
5. Send email newsletters to current and prospective customers
Another good way to connect with your customers is by sending email newsletters to your current and prospective customers. You can send seasonal newsletters that offer tips and advice, information about upcoming events and special offers.
You can also send newsletters to customers who make purchases from your online store. This is an excellent way to thank customers for their purchases and let them know how you can help them use your products.
You can also offer special discounts and coupons in your newsletters. You can create a seasonal newsletter and send them out at regular intervals leading up to Christmas, or you can send a general newsletter to your customers on a regular basis.
6. Run a Black Friday ad campaign
If you’re in the business of selling products, you can take advantage of the Black Friday shopping frenzy by launching an ad campaign that promotes special Black Friday deals. You can start your Black Friday campaign as early as September, but if you have the resources, it might be a good idea to start promoting your Black Friday specials in October.
You can publish your Black Friday ads on your website, social media pages, in print publications and on billboards. You can also reach out to local news outlets and radio shows and offer them free advertising in exchange for coverage.
If you are a retailer, you can launch a special sale on Black Friday, giving customers special discounts on items in your store. If you’re an online retailer, you can offer special discounts to entice customers to place their orders online.
7. Offer free shipping and/or no-minimum orders for the holidays
If you want to maximize your holiday sales, you should consider offering free shipping on all orders and/or no-minimum orders. Not only will this be a nice gesture to your customers, but it will also help you stand out from your competitors.
You don’t have to offer both, but if you can afford to do both, you should. You can start offering these benefits at the beginning of October, but if you wait until Black Friday or Cyber Monday to announce your special offers, you’ll get even more attention and generate even more sales.
You can also create a “holiday gift guide” of products that you recommend as gifts and include links to your special offers in your newsletter.
8. Surprise and delight your customers with unexpected generosity
If you want to go above and beyond for your customers, you can try to surprise and delight them with unexpected generosity. You can offer free gifts, extended warranties, discounts on future products, complementary services, gift cards, product replacements or refunds for unsatisfied customers.
You can also try to provide free gifts and/or discounts to customers who are unlikely to be able to afford your products, such as seniors, members of the military, and those who are living in poverty.
Another idea is to offer free gifts to customers who refer their friends to your business. You can offer a free gift (or a percentage off their purchase) to the referrer and a free gift to the person who receives the referral.
9. Create a buying incentive for your customers
Another idea is to create a special incentive that helps your customers get the most out of their purchases. You can offer free shipping, discounts, extended warranties, added products, product guarantees, gift cards and more.
You can also try to encourage customers to spend more on their orders by offering discounts for those who spend a certain amount or offering “buy one get one free” specials.
10. Run promotions and giveaways
Another way to boost your holiday sales is to run promotions and giveaways. You can offer discounts on your products, give away coupons, hold online contests and more. You can also try to get your products in front of celebrities, influencers and other well-known people.
If you can get these people to promote your products, you can attract a lot of new customers.
11. Advertise your Christmas offers on social media
If you’re an online retailer, you know the importance of getting your products in front of potential customers. But how? A great place to start is on social media, where you can reach an audience that is typically not shopping during business hours.
There are countless ways to promote your Christmas sales on social media. You could create Christmas-themed branded content, create Christmas-themed ads, or leverage social media trends like the 12 Days of Christmas or 12 Days of Deals.
You could also host a Christmas-themed live stream to interact with your audience, or host a Facebook or Instagram-focused contest to drive engagement. The key is to put your best foot forward and make your Christmas offers impossible to miss.
12. Host an online Christmas sale
Another great way to promote your Christmas sales is to host an online sale. With an online sale, you can be as creative as you want with the types of products you include, the discounts offered and even the duration of the sale.
While it’s true that Christmas sales come regularly throughout November, December and into January, it’s also true that you can’t control when your competitors will slash prices. A great way to steal the spotlight from your competition is to create a sale of your own.
You can even host a daily deal or a flash sale to shorten the sale period and get customers to act quickly. If you don’t have the resources to create a full-blown sale of your own, consider piggybacking on an existing sale.
For example, sign up for the Shopify Affiliate Program to create links for an existing sale like Cyber Weekend or Black Friday.
13. Develop a customer loyalty program
A customer loyalty program (LTP) is a great way to encourage shoppers to return to your store more frequently. If you don’t already have a loyalty program, you need to get one started ASAP.
During the Christmas season, you want to do everything you can to encourage repeat customers. You want to give people a reason to come back to your store. A loyalty program is one of the best ways to do this by rewarding frequent buyers with discounts and other perks such as free shipping, free gift wrapping or early access to sales.
There are many ways to design a loyalty program, but the key is to make it simple and easy to use. You also want to make sure it’s beneficial to both you and your customers.
Some retailers have gone as far as to create a VIP loyalty program, which offers customers special access to sales and other behind-the-scenes information.
14. Incorporate a sense of urgency in your marketing campaigns
Another great (and ethically sound) way to generate more sales is to create a sense of urgency in your marketing campaigns. You can do this by limiting the quantity of your products, offering a limited-time coupon, or setting a short expiration date for a special campaign.
Many retailers offer discounts for Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Christmas, but you can stand out from the crowd by capping or limiting the number of discounts available. Alternatively, you could offer a limited-time coupon that is valid for one week or one month of free shipping, free gift wrapping, etc.
You can also set a short expiration date for a special campaign like a buy-one-get-one-free sale. This creates a sense of urgency that can drive more sales, provided you don’t make false promises.
15. Add value for consumers and vendors by running a B2B campaign
Another great way to increase your Christmas sales is to start a B2B campaign. B2B campaigns are great for businesses that sell multiple products or services, or that sell to other businesses.
B2B campaigns are a fantastic way to promote your Christmas sales, especially if you sell non-perishable goods. In fact, you can create a B2B campaign that goes on throughout the year and is geared toward businesses that only purchase gifts around the holidays.
To start a B2B campaign, identify the products you want to sell and create an easy-to-use landing page or a promotional website.
You can then use social media, email marketing, or a paid ads campaign to drive traffic to your site. You can also consider cold-calling businesses in your area and asking them to purchase your products as gifts for their employees.
16. Offer free shipping and/or gift wrapping
Retailers have known for years that offering free shipping can increase their sales, particularly around the holidays when shipping costs can be a major roadblock to more purchases.
You can increase your sales this year by offering free shipping on all orders, regardless of size. Alternatively, you could offer free shipping on certain items. You can also consider offering free gift wrapping in exchange for a nominal fee.
Offering free shipping and/or gift wrapping is another great way to differentiate yourself from the competition. You can make these offerings part of your regular store policies, or you can make them available only during a special promotion.
17. Jump on the summer sales bandwagon
One of the best times of year to increase your sales is the summer. If you’re selling summer items, you can use this to your advantage by selling Christmas items at the same time.
When Christmas items go on sale in June or July, you can dramatically increase your sales. This is especially true if you’re selling products that are popular with children, like toys, dolls, or video games.
While you can’t create Christmas-themed graphics for your product images, you can still take advantage of the summer sales trend by featuring Christmas items in your product descriptions. You can also create a holiday-themed landing page to drive traffic to your site.
18. Add a countdown timer to your ad copy
Another way to increase your sales during the Christmas season is to add a countdown timer to your ad copy. This tactic is most effective when combined with one of the other tips listed in this article.
For example, you could offer a discount that expires at the end of December, or you could offer special gift-wrapping services that expire at the end of December. You can create a countdown timer in any number of ways, but the most common is by using a free online tool.
You can also create a countdown timer using a WordPress plugin, or by adding an image with a timer on it to the footer of your website.
19. Roll out new product lines and catalog items
If you’re in a seasonal business, such as selling Christmas decorations or holiday-themed apparel, then you probably already know that sales are at their lowest during the summer. In order to compensate for lower sales during the summer, you can create new product lines and/or add new items to your existing catalog.
Once the summer has come to a close, you will have new products to sell, which will help increase your Christmas sales later on in the year. While you’re waiting for the sales to roll in, you can also take advantage of the summer sales trend by advertising your new products with a “Summer sales end soon!” message.
20. Leverage influencers in your niche
Last but not least, you should consider leveraging influencers in your niche to increase your sales. You could approach an influencer to promote your products or services in exchange for free products or payment, or you could invite them to host a Christmas-themed giveaway that you host and promote.
Some businesses even create special, limited-edition products just for influencers. Creating a special product line just for influencers is a great way to increase your sales because you know the influencers will promote the products and they’ll likely be featured in their social media feeds.
For example, you could create a Christmas-themed pin that you give to influencers to wear on their clothing.
Conclusion
In the end, the best way to increase your Christmas sales is to focus on your customers. If you are able to meet their needs and provide them with what they want, they’ll buy from you.
You can’t expect to sell products if you aren’t paying attention to what your customers need. You can’t also expect to sell products if you aren’t paying attention to what your customers want.
If you can meet your customers’ needs and give them what they want, you’ll increase your Christmas sales without even trying.
