Get Ready: The New Year's Resolution Shopping Boom is Coming

The Christmas rush is over. Online retailers can now sit back, recover from whatever disasters the holiday shopping season brought, and relax…until the New Year’s resolution shopping rush hits.

Many of the most common New Year’s resolutions involve physical health, fitness, and self-improvement. After weeks of holiday feasting and cold weather-induced laziness, many of us resolve to lose weight, get in shape, and pick up new skills.

These resolutions offer merchants in the health, fitness, and hobby industries plenty of opportunities to seize some post-holiday sales with resolution-centric offers. Here are a few things you can do to attract resolution-makers, give them what they need to succeed, and keep them coming back for more:

Look Beyond Your Base

While your loyal customers may be your bread and butter, resolution season gives you a unique opportunity to appeal to those outside your typical buyer base. Resolution-makers are actively investigating their chosen goal, shopping around, and seeking advice. You can use this to your advantage by providing the expertise and clarity they’re looking for. Publish helpful articles, create how-to guides for newcomers, and cater your marketing materials to those looking for basic information and products.

If you sell exercise equipment, for example, you may need to branch out a bit from your usual marketing content. Someone looking to slim down in the new year will probably be looking for information and content not strictly related to your products, like low-calorie meal plans and stretching routines. Publishing helpful content like this will lead these searchers to your site and offer a relevant, organic introduction to your products.

Build Momentum with Product Bundles

Whether it’s getting fit, learning a new skill, or shedding some extra pounds, resolution-makers are often starting something completely new to them. If your typical customer is pretty savvy and familiar with your products, this means you might have to take a different approach to appeal to resolution-makers. Consider creating starter kits, bundles, or product categories for beginners. With these, you can direct new customers to the exact products they need to get started.

Support Your Customers With Subscriptions

While the New Year’s rush can be lucrative, it’s unlikely to yield much recurring revenue without some effort on the merchant’s part. With about 80% of resolutions set to fail within the first six weeks of the new year, the new business that you earn during this rush may disappear by mid-February.

Keep the resolution crowd coming back for more by encouraging them to become subscribers with automatic reordering. These are great for securing the loyalty of customers who could lose their resolution momentum and fail to return to your store. Customers can subscribe to automatic reorders of their chosen products with a click, receiving regular deliveries that help them stay resolute while creating a steady, low-maintenance stream of recurring revenue for your business.

Have you resolved to find a better ecommerce platform?