If you’re an eCommerce brand, there’s no time more important than the holiday shopping season. And the time to start planning is right now.
We recently held a LinkedIn live event with three amazing women in eCommerce: Jade Cameron, Head of Customer Support at LSKD, Bronte Hogarth, Launch Solutions Engineer at Shopify, and Sarah Timmerman, Founder at Beginning Boutique. They shared their advice for brands who want to succeed during this year’s holiday season.
Try new channels
It may be tempting to stick to what you know works, but now is a great time to explore new channels and see if you can get traction there. If your brand isn’t on TikTok, for example, give it a try and see if your target customers respond. Or, try different channels for customer service, like chatbots or SMS.
“That’s a big thing, a big trend I’m seeing with the merchants I’m working with — seeing which other new channels they can try, especially going into peak season,” says Bronte.
Reward loyal customers
Beginning Boutique launched their loyalty program at the end of 2021, and Sarah sees it as a way to give something back to the brand’s most loyal customers. It’s a way of letting your customers feel seen, heard, and valued.
“I think that’s the key thing in terms of where we wanna go as a business,” says Sarah. “We want to make sure that we’re making people feel loved, cared for, and supported by shopping with us.”
Engage with your customers
Keeping customers engaged is one of the most important ways to drive retention, whether it’s through your loyalty program, SMS, or email. LSKD has a unique way of engaging their customers through reviews.
“We actually reply to everything that’s rated three stars and below, and what we try to do is basically turn that customer into an advocate depending on the conversation,” says Jade. “It’s super important for that customer and that customer loyalty.”
Be strategic with your SMS marketing
SMS marketing is an effective tool for driving sales and retention, but you have to be strategic about how you do it. Too many texts, or texts that aren’t relevant to the recipient, could alienate them.
“I think when brands do it too often, it becomes, you know, an annoyance to a consumer,” says Jade. “What we’ve done in the past is held SMS for those bursts around specific campaigns to really maximize and complement our other marketing strategies.”
And I think just making sure it adds value,” adds Sarah. “It’s like, that’s how to not be annoying, make sure that every text add adds value.”
Focus on providing amazing customer experiences
Retention is important for every eCommerce brand right now, but it needs to be part of an overall strategy — one that focuses on the customer. Brands that deliver frictionless customer experiences across all of their channels will be better positioned to keep shoppers coming back for more.
“Having that amazing customer experience is really key because if they don’t have a good time through that peak period, they’re probably not gonna come back regardless of what your retention strategy is,” says Jade.
Register now for our next LinkedIn live event with Amazing Women in eCommerce: Turn first-time shoppers into customers for life this BFCM on August 30th. You won’t want to miss it! And if you haven’t already, join more than 1,500 other women in our industry in the AWIE Slack Community.
