Original URL: http://www.marketingexperiments.com/blog/research-topics/ecommerce-holiday-countdown.html
Original date: November 30, 2009
Why is the holiday shopping season so great? Your customer has an immutable purchasing deadline. … are you flexible enough to take advantage of this natural urgency factor to get the greatest ROI out of your traffic?
In the September 22 Web clinic, our special guest Linda Bustos mentioned the idea of how online retailers may want to shift their focus from regular shipping of physical products to more holiday-conscious messaging, eventually moving toward downloadable products when the time runs short. I thought that this point deserved a deeper look.
Natural Urgency: An Opportunity for Increased Relevance
The holidays are a goldmine because you have extra insight into what your customers want, and when they want it. I will use the example of Christmas in the rest of this post (because it’s the single most commercially impactful holiday in the world), but the same principles apply to other holidays or even to specialty products and services that exist in relation to a specific “deadline” that the customer has to meet, like a wedding, a housewarming party, or one of your aunt’s cats’ birthday. …more >>
December 1: Make your site holiday conscious
Just twenty-five shopping days until Christmas. …more >>
December 15: Reflect urgency using clear delivery options
As you get closer to shipping deadlines, you may want to amplify the message that shipping costs will soon increase, and that the customer will save money by purchasing today. …more >>
December 19: Increase emphasis on alternative shopping options
You will reach a point where guaranteed delivery by Christmas is still possible, yet increasingly or even prohibitively expensive. …more >>
December 24: Prominently feature electronic-delivery items
By now, the children are all nestled snug in their beds, and all the gifts are tucked under the tree… Or are they? …more >>
Beyond December 25
Obviously, the above recommendations are ideas on how you can make best use of timing to play up a sense of urgency for a universal deadline. Except, it’s not universal. …more >>
Sometime in January
Now that you’ve had time to recover and learned what a Bakugan is, take a look at your metrics. …more >>
Daniel Burstein contributed to this blog post