The holiday season is here and for any brand relying on eCommerce for their holiday sales, it’s about time to get the holiday campaign underway. For some retailers and big players, the holiday promotions are already getting started.

In-store shoppers will probably see some holiday decorations in their favorite stores. While leading eCommerce retailers and big brands are already giving several sneak peeks of their holiday deals.

The eCommerce landscape is more competitive than ever since the market is expected to be bigger than ever.

The forecast from Adobe’s Digital Economy Index showed that this year’s holiday shopping season is set to break records in online spending to USD 207 billion.

With the rapidly changing environment, the YoY (year-on-year) growth for the 2021 holidays can be somewhere between 5% ($198B) and 15% ($216B), depending on COVID cases shutdowns and other macroeconomic factors.

In addition, the report predicted that the estimated global spending for the holidays would likely be close to around $910B, with an estimated growth of 11% YOY. As a result, this year’s holiday spending would push 2021 over the $4T mark for the first time.

Cutting through the barrage of holiday noise will take a well-planned strategy. This article will help brands maximize every holiday moment by helping holiday shoppers discover products online.

Steps to Prep the eCommerce Store for the 2021 Holiday Season

Brands and retailers are now on their second year of holiday celebrations amidst a pandemic. Last year’s at-home consumers resulted in unprecedented growth for eCommerce. The share for the eCommerce market remains promising this year as holiday shoppers are starting to look forward to a semblance of normalcy while still living amidst the pandemic.

Brands need to make their shopping experience easier and more flexible to become the top of mind for holiday shoppers. These include providing options that will suit their needs. So leave no stone unturned for the holidays and follow these steps.

STEP 1: Prepare for incoming traffic. 

It’s no surprise that holiday shoppers tend to increase traffic of eCommerce stores, especially during peak shopping days such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday. There’s nothing worse than having a glitchy website during these crucial dates.

Check the inventory and keep it updated.

Increased traffic means there’s also an increase in inventory requirements. Brands need to avoid long order fulfillments and frustrated customers whose packages didn’t arrive on time — check in with suppliers early to ensure that you have stocked up on must-have items for holiday shoppers.

Work on website reliability by relying on speed and security.

Your eCommerce storefront needs to have the scalability and reliability required to meet the increased demand of online shoppers. Despite the high levels of traffic, the website needs to work seamlessly, especially during checkouts. Check with your eCommerce provider to help reinforce your website speed and security.

STEP 2: Create a hassle-free customer experience.

Holiday shoppers today value a seamless and frictionless shopping experience more than ever. They want to buy what they need as efficiently as possible. This means that your website needs options that provide a seamless checkout experience that helps companies deliver the holiday magic that holiday shoppers want.

Work on an omnichannel experience.

Brands need to take their eCommerce storefront up a notch by providing an omnichannel experience. Update the website and use tools such as social commerce capabilities and video ads to provide a thematic holiday aesthetic that will make the brand more memorable.

Enable abandoned cart notifications

“Add to Cart” has been almost an instinctual habit for holiday shoppers looking for gift ideas. There are several reasons why shoppers leave an eCommerce storefront with a shopping cart full of items. Sending them push notifications and abandoned cart emails of the items they left behind will serve as an excellent reminder to make the purchase.

Personalize the eCommerce experience.

Personalization is a great strategy to increase revenue during the holidays. Brands need to give their online shoppers a holiday experience that is unique to them. One great way of doing that is through video ads.

Shakr can help brands create a personalized experience for the holiday season with locally relevant video campaigns at scale. Shakr will help create a unique and customized creative video that can be deployed to multiple locations during this year’s holidays.

STEP 3: Surprise and delight with reliable shipping and fulfillment options.

Execute a great customer experience strategy by offering a variety of reliable shipping and fulfillment options. Make sure that their checkout selection provides excellent incentives that make their purchase decisions much more manageable.

Add BOPIS.

Leverage the brand’s brick-and-mortar store by offering the option to buy online and pick up in-store (BOPIS). BOPIS provides an excellent purchase selection for holiday shoppers who prefer to browse products online but also want to have the items in their possession on the same day. This is a great opportunity to have shoppers buy products comfortably at home and collect them at their earliest convenience.

Create memorable holiday packaging and unboxing experience.

The holiday season is more than just promoting the brand’s products and services. It should also connect with consumers in a meaningful way with festive touches in the unboxing experience. Make this year a real gift-giving season by making the unboxing experience extra special with personalized cards and festive packaging.

Ramp up customer service and support.

A dedicated support team is crucial for the holiday season. Brands need after-sales support that takes care of their customers. Be prepared to handle questions and concerns and make information readily available,

STEP 4: Create strategic holiday marketing and promotions for your brand.

Get ready for the holidays in full force. Whether it be for your brand’s brick-and-mortar store or your eCommerce site, the brand needs to be able to rise to the challenge and adapt to the changes and uncertain environment to sell products as efficiently as possible.

Integrate holiday marketing efforts.

Keep the content robust and hardworking for the holiday season. Integrate social commerce options with shoppable posts and video ads on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok that can help the brand reach new shoppers to get the most out of all your holiday marketing efforts.

Update merchandising strategy with DPAs.

Showcase your holiday products in a whole new and meaningful way using dynamic product ads. Consider the seasonal items on your inventory and create a holiday-specific category that can be deployed via video ads on all your social media channels.

Shakr’s DPA can take your brand’s holiday video ads on a massive scale. It doesn’t matter whether you have your own internal creatives capabilities or you need help crafting a video ads campaign for a specific social media platform.

Don’t forget the holiday email marketing.

Sending promotional email campaigns is an essential part of the holiday marketing strategy. However, it’s better not to wait until the last minute to get those email campaigns out for specific holiday sales, promotions, and special offers.

Ideas to Boost eCommerce Storefront with Product Discovery through Video Ads

IDEA 1: Make holiday shoppers feel connected by engaging around their interests and geographic location with personalization strategies.

Holiday shoppers crave connection with the local community, and this is why brands must create personalized customer-centric experiences during this time of the year. Use personalized video ads to make people feel connected and engaged. Lay the foundation for a personalized shopping experience with their passion points and interests.

Personalization and marketing localization are a brand’s best weapon for cutting through the clutter of the barrage of online holiday campaigns this year. Fortunately, marketing localization can easily be deployed in Shakr’s video ad campaigns. So your holiday video creatives will surely reach the right audience at the right time during the holiday season.

IDEA 2: Drive awareness to attract the attention of holiday shoppers by treating social channels like a flagship store online.

There’s a clamor from holiday shoppers to make their online shopping experience as immersive and as entertaining as it almost rivals the experience of shopping in stores. Attract online shoppers’ attention by creating an immersive experience with holiday video ads. Create holiday content that is inspiring and shoppable by treating your social media channels as your pseudo flagship store online.

IDEA 3: Provide a frictionless online shopping omnichannel experience.

There’s a consensus among holiday shoppers that they choose to shop online to make their holiday shopping easier. This year, they are expecting more from brands, and they want to opt into technology that will enable a seamless shopping experience. As a result, brands need to identify pain points across the customer journey and provide tools to make them more convenient.

IDEA 4: Product discovery can happen at any moment; choose a creative partner like Shakr to produce high-quality creatives at scale.

The digital transformation over the past year has fundamentally changed the way holiday shopping happens. Consumers have gone from going shopping to “always shopping” for the holidays. Product discovery can happen at any moment, and Shakr can drive powerful personalization with high-quality video ads.

Shakr enables brands to create dynamic video ads campaigns with product catalogs for social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. With the help of Shakr’s video creation tool, brands can create hundreds of videos at scale, each unique to their individual product catalog.

Shakr’s Video Ads Best Practices

BEST PRACTICE 1:  Be Activewear

Boosting sales with Facebook and Instagram carousel video ads

Australian gym and swimwear brand Be Activewear sought to increase brand awareness and engage new customers with eye-catching video content. Be Activewear is an online apparel store that sells a variety of leading gym and swimwear brands in Australia.

THE SOLUTION: Be Activewear ran Carousel conversion ads in the Facebook and Instagram feeds using Shakr video templates as the initial strategy to grab their online consumer’s attention. Shakr’s square video templates that Be Activewear used are specifically designed for direct response and conversion optimization of their online audience. The campaign was split into two ad sets that focused on different target audiences, such as:

·     A lookalike audience of top 5% of customers (excluding purchases in the last 90 days).

·     A broad-based target focused on fitness and health (excluding lookalike and purchases in the last 90 days).

THEIR BEST PRACTICE:  Carousel ads with video proved to be an excellent strategy for Be Activewear’s target audience. The brand had a 200% increase in return on ad spend with carousel ads on Facebook and Instagram. In addition, the two video ad sets also reached a 125% increase in click-through rates.

BEST PRACTICE 2: GlamCorner

Improving video ad performance with placement asset customization

Fashion rental company Glam Corner wanted to attract new consumers who have never placed an order on their website and convert them into first-time buyers. Based in Sydney, Australia,

GlamCorner is the leading online destination for women in Australia who want to rent designer clothing and accessories for special occasions.

THE SOLUTION: GlamCorner targeted active trendsetters and fashionistas in Australia using the correct aspect ratio for each video ad placement in their social media handles. The brand used square video for their Instagram and Facebook feed and a vertical video for their Instagram stories.

With the help of placement asset customization of Shakr’s Runner video template, they utilized a different video for Instagram stories without the need to create a separate ad. They were able to develop trendy vertical and square videos in just a few minutes. They also added their own customized photos and text description that feature their collection of clothes and accessories.

THEIR BEST PRACTICE: GlamCorner achieved a 62% increase in click-through rate with placement asset customization. By using separate aspect ratio variations of videos for each ad, they could post the right video ads to their targeted social media channel.

BEST PRACTICE 3: Twosisters

Reaching and engaging potential customers with online video

Fashion brand Twosisters sought to attract new customers to their online store with engaging video ads on Instagram stories. Based in Adelaide, Australia, Twosister’s The Label started in 2013 with the goal of bringing different fashion styles that represent a wide range of girls all around the world.

THE SOLUTION: In collaboration with their marketing partner Right Hook Digital, Twosisters has decided to use Instagram Stories video ads placement to reach their potential target audience. With a three-video carousel ad featuring their best-selling products, they wanted to attract potential customers to their online store.

THEIR BEST PRACTICE: Instagram stories proved to be an excellent ad placement for Twosisters’ target audience. Twosisters had a 44% increase in return on ad spend with carousel ads on their Instagram stories powered by Shakr’s vertical video ads.

Shakr will help the brand draw attention to your eCommerce store with memorable holiday video ads.

For brands looking to ramp up their holiday video ads strategy, Shakr is the best creative partner! With Shakr, brands can create an effective holiday shopping experience with video ads that will drive your eCommerce sales.

Schedule a discovery call with us to learn more.

References:

Adobe Holiday Shopping Forecast 2021. (2021). Adobe: Creative, marketing, and document management solutions. https://www.adobe.com/marketing/pdf-page.html?pdfTarget=aHR0cHM6Ly9idXNpbmVzcy5hZG9iZS5jb20vY29udGVudC9kYW0vZHgvdXMvZW4vcmVzb3VyY2VzL2RpZ2l0YWwtaW5zaWdodHMvcGRmL2Fkb2JlLWhvbGlkYXktc2hvcHBpbmctcmVwb3J0LTIwMjEucGRm

Meyer, S. (2021). Ecommerce Holiday Guide 2021 (Steps + Tips to Prepare). Retrieved 5 November 2021, from https://www.bigcommerce.com/blog/holiday-readiness/#steps-for-preparing-for-the-2021-holiday-season

Wong, J. (2021). Council Post: How To Make This E-Commerce Holiday Season Your Best Yet. Retrieved 5 November 2021, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescommunicationscouncil/2021/09/28/how-to-make-this-e-commerce-holiday-season-your-best-yet/?sh=1d79161a1fbf