10 Strategies to Boost Your eCommerce Sales this Summer
We’re in the swing of summer which means there is a unique opportunity to boost your eCommerce sales this seasonal period. Whether that’s with PPC or SEO strategies, social or email marketing, we have all the tips for you.
As our days start to get longer and the weather gets warmer, consumer behaviour tends to shift, creating new opportunities for online businesses. Whether you’re looking to attract new customers or increase the spending of existing ones, here are Diginius’ ten strategies that will help make the most of your summer season.
Why are there summer sales?
Summer sales act as a strategic tool for brands and services to capitalise on seasonal consumer behaviour. This is influenced by various changes during the summer months, such as people having more time due to the summer and school holidays, leading to more free time to browse the web.
There are several reasons to implement a summer sale:
- Increased demand for seasonal specific products.
- The opportunity to clear out your spring stock, making room for autumn collections while boosting mid-year revenue.
- Creating a sense of urgency and excitement, encouraging a quick purchase decision.
Ultimately, running a summer sale can attract new customers, retain existing ones, and help eCommerce businesses to maximise their sales potential during the summer season.
Top strategies that will boost your sales this summer
If you’re looking to boost your eCommerce sales this summer but are fed up by the endless resources you find when crawling the web, here are Diginius’ top 10 strategies to maximise your sales this season.
Plan a summer discount campaign
Tailoring discounts to your summer campaigns can increase new customers. You could consider limited-time promotions, bundle deals or free shipping, incentivising customers to purchase. It’s important to highlight these on your website and across your marketing channels to increase visibility and drive conversions.
This could be an effective way to attract new customers too, for example “new customers get 10% during the summer period.”
Reconnect with past clients
The summer is a perfect time to reconnect with your past customers. Use this opportunity to send your current customer base unique deals and offerings. A common mistake we see brands make is focusing solely on acquiring new customers, neglecting existing ones. An effective sales strategy should balance the attention between current and new customers, unless your goals state otherwise.
Adjust your content based on organic keywords
Utilising organic keywords is essential for optimising your online presence and enhancing your site’s visibility.
Organic keywords reflect the search terms your actual customers use to find products or services relative to your business. Aligning your content with these keywords, you can ensure that your website appears in the relevant search results, driving more targeted traffic to your site. Using this strategy with organic keywords not only increases the likelihood of attracting and retaining customers but also helps improve your search engine rankings over time.
Keeping up to date with your organic keywords allows you to stay in the loop with your audience’s needs and preferences, enabling you to curate content that resonates more deeply with your potential customers, fostering greater engagement.
Optimize product descriptions making sure they’re up to date
Make sure to revamp your product descriptions and imagery to evoke a summer aesthetic, appealing to your target audience’s aspirations. Use high-quality visuals, lifestyle images and videos to highlight products in the context of summer, this could be shots on the beach, by the pool or just generally a bright colour palette. Using a compelling and descriptive product description can be useful here, creating a sense of atmosphere, helping the customers to visualise themselves using your product during the summer season.
Offer summer-only limited-time products
Another way you can boost your summer sales us by offering seasonal products. As summer approaches, promote items such as outdoor furniture, swimwear, sunglasses and BBQ equipment. This approach allows you to create targeted marketing campaigns across your channels, tailored to specific segments based on demographic data, user history, preferences and so on.
These limited-time products can be particularly relevant during the summer, and creating a sense of urgency can encourage hesitant shoppers to make a purchase. Consider adding features like countdown timers or limited stock notifications to enhance your limited offers.
Organize a summer giveaway
Not only is organising a summer competition a good way to increase engagement and conversions, they’re also a good opportunity to generate excitement about your product, and a straightforward way to increase your mailing list.
A simple competition can support email capture, giving you a lot of new leads to market during the busier months.
Improve your user journey
Ensuring your audience has a positive experience on your website is crucial; a poor user journey can make the difference between securing a sale or loosing a customer.
Start by analysing your website’s user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) to identify any potential pain points and friction. Ensure that your website is easy to navigate, with intuitive menus and a clear, logical layout. As an ecommerce brand, make sure to streamline the checkout process, minimising any steps required to complete the purchase, reducing cart abandonment rates.
Additionally, make sure your website is mobile-friendly, as a significant portion of online shopping is conducted on a mobile device.
Improving your user journey can enhance customer satisfaction, encourage repeat visits and drive more sales.
Also, it’s good to note here that you may need to improve customer support and engagement during this period. During the summer season, customers may have specific enquiries or requirements related to their purchases. Enhance your customer support channels, including live chat, social media support and email response times, to provide quick and helpful assistance. Actively engage with customers on social media, respond to reviews, and encourage user-generated content to foster a sense of community around your brand.
Invest in PPC campaigns
If you’re looking to experiment with other online search engines, investing in PPC (Pay-Per-Click) campaigns is a good place to start. PPC campaigns offer immediate visibility on search engines and social media platforms, driving targeted traffic to your website.
A PPC campaign can significantly enhance your brand visibility and unlike organic search which can take a while to see the results, PPC ads provide instant exposure to potential customers actively searching for the products and services you offer.
With advanced targeting options, you can get more granular on specific demographics, locations, and user behaviours, this ensures your ads are seen by the right audience.
PPC campaigns are measurable too, letting you be data-driven, track performance metrics in real-time, and adjust your strategy for prime results.
In this blog we are covering the summer sales period, with that in mind, a PPC campaign can complement your overall marketing strategy by supporting seasonal promotions, new launches, and time-sensitive offers, so, PPC Strategies that boost your summer sales are always a clever idea.
If you are new to PPC, it could be the perfect time to work with a PPC agency to support you, especially if you’re looking to move some budget over to Microsoft, working with a Bing PPC agency could be the next best step.
Analyse and optimise your performance
Generally, it’s important all year round to analyse your eCommerce metrics to gain insight into the effectiveness of your strategies. Track key performance indicators (KPIs) such as conversion rates, average order value, and customer retention rates.
You could also invest in an all-in-one marketing platform to support all marketing efforts but specifically analysing different data sets.
Prepare for the busy season
Finally, it might sound self-explanatory but make sure to properly prepare for the busy season. Planning for a product release, arranging new promotions and optimising your ad strategies are always great ideas. Use this time to strategize.
Summer is typically a slower ride, but this doesn’t mean your business has to fizzle out.
With these above tips you’ll be more than prepared this summer season to keep your sales up and the momentum going.
If you’re a marketing agency, head to our website to explore our Diginius Agency Partner Program. Meanwhile, if you are a business managing your paid advertising in-house and you would like our support, discover how our Diginius Insight Platform boosts your ROI.
