The holiday season is upon us and this year is set to be much busier than years past. Buyers are eager to shop for loved ones and host holiday parties. Gatherings, gifts, and general good cheer are all on the menu this year. Make sure you’re ready to wow your customers this holiday season so they’ll return for years to come.
Black Friday and Cyber Monday are some of the busiest shopping days of the year in the United States and Europe. In fact, in the U.S., Black Friday tops the Forbes list of the 10 busiest shopping days of the entire year. The following 9 most popular days of the year for shopping all fall in the month of December, too. If you want to keep sales coming in throughout the year, pleasing your customers during the holiday season is of utmost importance.
Why focus on customer retention
Google announced in early 2020 that it would follow Mozilla Firefox and Apple’s Safari browsers in phasing out third party cookies. Currently, Google Chrome accounts for over 65% of the worldwide online traffic market. So, what does it mean for marketers that the world’s most utilized browser is “going dark”?
Currently, the web uses third party cookies to track users' internet activity. Third-party cookies allow the browser to store a file with an individual user’s internet activity and IP address. This information is then shared with third-party websites and applications such as Google and Facebook. Advertisers and marketers use this third-party information to target the user based on their interests. However, without these cookies, advertisers will need to find new ways to target potential customers.
Nearly half of marketers polled by Hubspot expect to spend 5 to 25% more on ad spend as a result of the third-party cookie depreciation. This means retaining customers is more important than ever. If your business doesn’t have a customer retention strategy, read on for ways to implement one and turn holiday customers into repeat buyers.
Tools for turning holiday customers into repeat buyers
Retarget shoppers who have browsed or purchased
The numbers show that around 97% of visitors to your site don't purchase anything on the first visit. Marketers have long begged the question, is it better to cut your losses and try to find new customers or attempt to retarget the large pool of people who have already visited your site? Since 3% have already purchased, there’s a good chance they will again. The 97% of people who did not purchase still have some familiarity with the brand and, perhaps, just need a nudge to purchase those winter boots they’ve been eyeing. What can marketers do today to retarget customers without the use of third-party cookies?
The depreciation of third party cookies will spell the end of traditional retargeting. Without data regarding shoppers’ browsing habits and purchase history through third-party cookies, traditional retargeting is tough. While your marketing plan may include traditional retargeting now, you should look to other retargeting strategies such as collecting zero party data, creating client profiles using first-party cookies, and utilizing behavioral analysis in the future.
1. Collect zero party data
Zero party data is data that users share voluntarily with brands, organizations, or membership clubs. One way to continue to collect information on your customer is by collecting zero party data by offering quizzes, asking questions, or inviting the user to offer up their information voluntarily in exchange for coupon codes, freebies, or rewards. This data can then be used by the brand to target the customer with ads in the future.
2. Build client profiles using first-party data
While third-party cookies will be banned, first-party cookies will not. First-party cookies also store information about a user or customer, but are not to be shared with other applications or websites (i.e. third-party organizations). First-party cookies are unique to your site and a user's activity across your site which can make their use in creating client profiles even more beneficial to you as a marketer.
3. Utilize behavioral analysis
Behavioral analysis allows scientists to study how groups of people will respond to certain stimuli or events. It can also be used by marketers to determine how people use and interact with the web. By using behavioral analysis, marketers can determine how most of their customers will interact with their website, ads, and promotions.
Communicate effectively
Communication is key when it comes to holiday season shopping. Today’s shoppers expect a base level of communication regarding price, quality, customer reviews, and accurate sizing and shipping information. Your website is your most effective communication tool so make sure all website copy is up-to-date ahead of the holidays, consider hiring holiday staff to keep up with added demand, and ramp up response times across all channels.
Did you know that Zimply allows online shops and small businesses to collate customer communication into one easy-to-use location? Spend less time sifting through Facebook Messenger, Instagram DM’s, and customer emails this holiday season and spend more time perfecting your customer retention strategy by utilizing Zimply. Get all of your customer communication in one easy-to-use place!
Consider offering a subscription
A subscription service is a great holiday gift. Not only that, it’s the gift that keeps on giving for marketers and advertisers. If your brand or online store has a subscription-based model, use it to your advantage throughout the year. If not, perhaps consider adding a subscription service ahead of the holidays.
Utilize happy customers as your spokespeople through gift-giving this holiday season. Word of mouth is still one of the most effective marketing strategies and a happy gift recipient is more likely to convert to a customer, especially if they’ve enjoyed the product for an extended period of time through a subscription service. Near the end of the subscription, kindly remind both the gift-giver and the recipient that they need to repurchase. Watch gift recipients become customers before your eyes with subscriptions.
Offer free shipping (and always ship on time!)
Did you know that 66% of consumers expect free shipping on all online orders and nearly 80% expect free shipping on orders over a certain amount? In fact, the rate of cart abandonment hovers just under 70% with shipping fees being one of the biggest reasons users abandon their cart. If you want to retain customers, especially those who have gone through the trouble of reaching the checkout page, consider offering free shipping.
Understandably, not everyone has the business model and profit margins to offer free shipping, but if you do, you should. If not, there are some clever ways to offer free or reduced shipping that won’t obliterate your bottom line. You might even gain some loyal email subscribers in the process.
- Offer free shipping on first-time orders.
- Offer free shipping when shoppers sign up for your email list.
- Offer free shipping on orders over a certain threshold.
- Offer free shipping for peak shopping periods such as Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and other important holidays for your brand or business.
- Offer free shipping on select items throughout the year.
Nowadays, consumers expect fast shipping. If a buyer has to wait more than three days for an item their likelihood of purchasing that item declines significantly. As a baseline, you’ll want to communicate shipping times effectively and ensure that shipping to available locations is quick–within 2 to three days. Even if you can’t offer free shipping, you’ll want to ensure your customer gets their order in a timely manner.
Offer discounts for future holidays
Holiday buying slows down significantly in January and February. During these months returns and refunds are also at an all-time high. Assuming your return policy gives customers 30 to 40 days to return an item, most returns should be sorted by mid-January. So, why not offer customers an incentive to return to your shop during Valentine’s Day when they make a holiday purchase? Offering buyers a discount on other items throughout the year is a good way to get customers thinking of the future.
At checkout, ask customers who purchase if they’d like a 20% discount on a Valentine’s Day order. If they mark yes, remind them of this discount when you do your Valentine’s Day marketing in late January, and again in February. Just don’t over do it! Offering a personalized discount is a great way to make your customers feel valued. Valued customers are more likely to make another purchase.
Turning holiday shoppers into year-round customers is no easy feat. Retargeting using traditional third-party cookies is no longer the most effective strategy so look to new ways to target existing customers. Offering subscription services, future holiday discounts, and free shipping are a few ways to gain repeat customers. Finally, the most important customer retention piece is customer communication. When most of the shopping for the entire year is done in the span of a month, it’s important to hone your customer retention strategy so you can keep those holiday customers coming back for more throughout the year.
The team at Zimply are happy to help turn holiday shoppers into lifetime customers. Zimply helps businesses view customer queries from various channels in one place. Streamline the entire customer communication process by reaching out to the team at Zimply today.