Last year I wrote about how Post-Holiday Sales (PHS) can contribute significantly to a store’s bottom line. Read the article here.
Here’s a recap of the stats:
- 6% of Americans will shop for gifts after the holidays
- 60% of Americans will shop for themselves
- post-holiday bargain hunting could add up to 15% to a store’s sales figure for the year
Those are pretty impressive numbers.
This year, I’m going to touch on PHS strategy. All it takes is to get a few elements right and the chances of you having a successful PHS will be higher.
Timing
Now it’s important not to promote your PHS too early. If you do, you might miss out on maximizing your holiday sales revenue. However, if you promote it too late, you’ll have to make do with the tail end of post-holiday shopping. Last year, a number of merchants began their PHS in mid January, just as the last of the bargain hunters had finished their shopping.
Gimmicks
Most merchants will start their Post-Holiday Shopping promotion the day after Christmas. You can use all sorts of marketing gimmicks:
- Boxing Day Sale – Save 50% On Selected Items
- New Year’s Eve Sale/Goodbye 2011 Sale – Save 70%
- New Year’s Day Sale/Ushering In The New Year Sale
Shoppers have a love-hate relationship with gimmicks. They hate them because they all sound the same. But, at the same time, they love those tacky phrases because they give them an excuse to shop.
Respect Bargain Hunters
Post-holiday bargain hunters are a special breed of shopper, trained in the ancient art of bargain hunting. They would have probably memorized your prices and those of your competitors well beforehand. So, do not try to bump up the price and then place a massive discount on it. If you do, you might find your site mentioned – in a negative way – on some of those consumer or shopping forums.
Even though you would be preaching to the choir, so to speak, do place Call-To-Action (CTA) images or text with price comparisons or savings notices on selected store target pages, your store’s Facebook updates, Twitter posts and so on. Some shoppers need a little nudge before they click the Purchase button.
Also, try creating a sense of urgency by displaying time or unit limits on your CTA material.
Don’t Go Overboard
For Pete’s sake, please don’t put your entire store on PHS. You need to focus the attention of shoppers on selected products or a selected group of products. If you put every single product on sale, your shoppers’ attention will be spread across many products. This will slow down the decision making process. You need to do everything in your power to encourage impulse buys. The longer it takes to make a decision, the lesser the chances of a sale.
Happy Holidays Everyone!
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