3 Tips to Boost Your Post-Holiday Strategy

The holidays are a magical time...especially for ecommerce businesses. 

Sales are pouring in like crazy and products are flying off the shelves as customers scramble to buy last-minute presents amid drool-worthy discounts. 

But what happens when the dust settles? Is there a way to keep your sales from hitting that seemingly inevitable drop right after the holiday season ends? 

Absolutely! 

In this post, we’ll show you three ways to boost your post-holiday strategy, keep your sales up and prevent any dips in your ecommerce profits. 

Let’s dive right in! 

1. Start a new sale to blow out leftover products

Right after your holiday sales campaign ends, it’s time to start a new sales campaign. 

This might sound counterintuitive, but here’s the deal: 

You’re not going to put your new products on sale. Instead, use this particular sale to sell off any leftover holiday stock before replacing it with your glittering new arrivals! 

Not only is this a smart strategy to empty your inventory and maximize your profit, but it’s also a great way to keep your customers excited and engaged with your brand. 

Here are a few actionable tips for launching a successful post-holiday sale: 

• Analyze and adapt. Take a good look at the items in your inventory that didn’t do so well during the holiday season, and create the best deals possible for these products to ensure they’re sold off. In other words, adapt your pricing strategy according to each product’s demand and relevance after the holidays.

• Segment and personalize. If you’re using a tool like Sendlane, you can segment your contacts based on their behavior during the holidays, such as the number of purchases they made or the specific products they bought. Then, send targeted emails to these contacts to ensure maximum results. 

  For example, you can recommend similar sweaters in your store to customers who bought sweaters during the holiday sale. It’s still winter season, and they might want to take advantage of the discounted price!

• Tease the sale. Before your post-holiday sale begins, make sure that you tease the sale well in advance on your website, social media, and even through email. Not only will this generate awareness and ensure more shoppers drop by, but it will also create excitement and hype around your brand and give customers something to look forward to. 

• Run the sale through the new year. Your post-holiday sale should run from the end of Christmas till the first upcoming Monday (December 26th to January 3rd). Why? So you can cash in on the existing holiday excitement and ensure there’s no gap or possibility for a dip in your brand’s relevance or profits.
• Use cross-channel promotion. Don’t just launch the sale on your website. Make sure you promote it on all your marketing channels, including social media and email, to reach a large audience and get more eyeballs on your campaign. Plus, you never know which type of audience is more attracted to your post-holiday sale, so make sure you reach your audience on all kinds of channels.

• Make it the best sale of the year. Holiday sales are usually the best sales of the year, but you can pleasantly surprise your customers by launching an even better sale after the festive season. Offer crazy discounts and free global shipping. Throw in free gifts and offer bulk discounts to increase the average order value. Better yet, offer loyalty rewards to your VIP customers to keep them happily married to your brand. 

2. Stay loud and in front of your customers

Most of your competitors will probably go quiet after the holiday season, even if just for a few days or weeks. We’ll tell you this: Do exactly the opposite! 

As your competitors settle down, take this opportunity to get loud and be prominent in front of your customers.

Here are a few things you can do:

• Don’t stop posting on social media. Even after the holiday season ends, keep sharing posts about your products, upcoming sales, and even memes if that goes with your brand voice. You can also start reposting user-generated content showing how customers are rocking or using your products to their max potential.
• Keep engaging with your customers. Don’t stop replying to comments, thanking customers, sending emails about recommendations and sales, and everything else that you were doing during or before the holiday season. 
• Provide customer service like there’s no tomorrow. Process those returns and refunds at lightning speed, solve problems like a pro and do whatever you can to keep your customers satisfied with your brand.

The key is to stay top of mind with your customers; don’t let them forget about your existence for even a second!

3. Use your holiday sales data to upsell and cross-sell products

Last but not least, never underestimate the power of analytics and measuring results!

Track the performance of your holiday sales campaigns as well as data on your customers. This includes information on their behavior, demographics, psychographics, and more.

Why? Because you can use this data as fuel for your post-holiday sales!

You can find out which customers bought certain products from your store, segment them, and then use cross-selling and upselling techniques to get them to purchase from you again.

For example, let’s say you run an online cosmetics store. You could create a segment for customers who bought eyeshadow palettes from your store during the holidays. Then you can feature eye makeup brushes, eyeliners, and other similar products in your marketing emails to catch their attention.

Boost your post-holiday strategy and maximize your sales

The best thing you can do for your business after the holidays is to stay loud and keep the excitement going for as long as possible.

Not only will this allow you to cash in on leftover stock and prevent any dips in profit, but it will also help you stay ahead of the competition and on top of your customers’ minds at all times.

If you’re ready to take your post-holiday marketing strategy to the next level, sign up for Sendlane’s 14-day free trial and take it for a test drive.

Contributed by the Editorial Team of Miva Partner Sendlane