According to a survey by eMarketer, US holiday retail e-commerce sales will reach a record $271.58 billion in 2024, a 9.5% increase from 2023. This means the e-commerce industry will be a lucrative market for businesses in the last 3 months of this year. So, how can we capitalize on this incredible opportunity?
In this special article, we’re unveiling cutting-edge strategies and expert insights to help you maximize your success this holiday shopping season.
Holiday marketing starts with understanding key shopping occasions. Don’t forget newer events like Cyber Monday and Super Saturday. Tailor your strategy to the holidays that resonate most with your brand.
The holiday season, while filled with joy, often leads to overspending and financial strain. Shopping trends have changed significantly, specifically as follows:
Plan to purchase earlier
Hesitating and delaying are no longer factors in holiday shopping, with 42% of Americans planning to start gift buying earlier this year. In fact, they had already begun making holiday purchases by August, motivated by a desire to spread out spending and avoid inflated holiday prices.
For Magento 2 businesses, this presents a prime opportunity to launch holiday-themed marketing as early as October. Smart brands are leveraging gift guides, countdown deals, and themed content to spark early interest and drive conversions.
The chart reveals that holiday shopping in the U.S. often begins well ahead of time, with some people starting over three months before the holidays.
Concerned about the escalating cost
Recognizing this as their peak spending season, 84% of customers will have significant concerns about prices increasing rapidly.
In the past six months, 67% of shoppers have noticed rising prices at online stores, prompting changes in their behavior:
These trends suggest holiday marketing should focus on competitive pricing and savings. Promotions like percentage-off deals, dollar-amount discounts, and free shipping will be highly effective in driving purchases.
Personalized recommendations are the most popular online shopping feature used by 37% of consumers.
These numbers highlight the importance of brands adapting to changing shopper expectations, especially by providing more personalized and efficient online experiences.
In the digital age, with countless choices and information just a click away, customers have become increasingly demanding and expect highly personalized shopping experiences.
Customers want to feel unique, not just a number in the system. Personalized shopping experiences make them feel special due to their significant contributions to the store, thereby stimulating sales growth. Additionally, personalization eliminates irrelevant products and information, allowing customers to focus on what they truly care about.
Sensitive to the shipping charges
According to a Deloitte survey, 85% of shoppers said orders with free shipping is now their top priority.
Our chart below shows that in 2024, high shipping costs will cause a staggering 97% of consumers to abandon their carts - 14% more than the second most common reason, which is the delivery costs being communicated too late in the shopping experience. Slow delivery will also cause 66% of consumers to navigate away.
Retailers should make delivery costs and speed key elements of their long-term customer acquisition and retention strategies, as shown by consistent trends over the past four years.
Prefer mobile for browsing and desktop for purchase
In 2023, mobile devices accounted for the largest share of traffic during two major sales events: Black Friday and Christmas. However, despite mobile driving the most traffic, its conversion rate is lower than desktop. According to Content Square’s survey, during Black Friday weekend in 2023, the average mobile conversion rate was 3.1%, compared to 5.5% on desktop—nearly a 60% difference in conversion rates within a single week.
To address this gap between mobile traffic and conversions, retailers should prioritize optimizing the mobile checkout process and offer quick payment options like Apple Pay and Google Pay, especially in preparation for Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
Tips for the best holiday marketing
Successful holiday marketing strategies share key elements: careful planning, thorough research, and a well-balanced marketing approach. These holiday marketing tips will help you boost your profits this season.
1. Conduct gift and discount campaigns
As mentioned earlier, customers often worry about price hikes during the holiday season due to high demand. Use this to your advantage by offering attractive deals like gifts or discount codes to boost sales. Focus on fast-selling holiday items or new products that need a sales push when applying discounts.
Customers tend to look for promotions to make early purchases. Therefore, inform them as soon as possible about the duration of your promotions and the end date. You can remind them through email marketing or SMS notifications. To maximize the perceived value of your products, it’s essential to create a sense of urgency with limited-time offers. Excessive discounting can diminish the perceived value of your brand.
For Magento 2 stores, we recommend the following two strategies to optimize the benefits and effectiveness of discount codes:
Tactic 1: You can create free gifts and discount codes for store products and allow customers to use them directly. However, default Magento 2 doesn’t offer significant support for creating discount codes, so savvy store owners often turn to third-party extensions. A great option is the Free Gift extension for Magento 2—an effective tool for offering free gifts or promotional items with a variety of customizable options.
Tactic 2: Another smart tip is selling gift cards that customers can buy to give to their loved ones for discounted purchases. This strategy will help attract more new customers during the holiday season. The Gift Card extension makes it a breeze to launch your gift card campaign. Your customers can unleash their creativity by designing personalized prepaid cards and sending them digitally or through traditional mail.
2. Enable customers to preorder
Allowing customers to pre-order is an effective sales strategy that many Magento 2 stores are adopting, especially during the holiday season.
Pre-ordering gives customers peace of mind, knowing they’ll secure the items they desire, especially during busy holiday shopping periods when stock can run out quickly. Plus, early birds often get to enjoy special discounted prices or free delivery.
For sellers, customer pre-orders reduce the risk of order cancellations and provide better cash flow, especially during the product preparation phase. Based on the number of pre-orders, sellers can accurately predict market demand and adjust production or imports accordingly, avoiding overstocking or understocking.
In Magento 2 by default, setting up pre-orders to promote new items or manage out-of-stock products is difficult and requires time-consuming code modifications. The Pre-order extension quickly solves this problem with features like ‘Pre-order based on specific conditions’ and ‘Pre-order notifications’, without requiring any coding knowledge.
3. Simplify checkout process
A lengthy, complicated, and time-consuming checkout process is one of the main reasons why online customers decide to abandon their carts. Therefore, you should only request the most necessary information to complete the order. The checkout interface should be designed to be simple, intuitive, and easy to use. In addition, it is essential to provide a variety of shipping options as well as payment methods.
A great way for Magento stores to improve the customer experience during checkout is by implementing the One-Step Checkout module. This essential tool consolidates all the necessary steps onto a single page and removes unnecessary fields, making the checkout process faster and more efficient.
When customers feel valued and discover products that meet their requirement, they are more likely to make a purchase. Personalized shopping experiences drive sales and build stronger relationships between businesses and customers, boosting customer loyalty.
Below are some suggestions for personalizing your customers’ shopping experience during the holiday season, along with some tools we highly recommend, especially for Magento 2 stores.
Gather more customer data: Collecting more customer data helps us understand their needs and preferences so as to personalize their shopping experience with targeted promotions and product recommendations. The Magento 2 Customer Attributes extension makes it easy for businesses to add custom fields to registration and account pages to gather this valuable information.
Show relevant products to the right audience: Instead of showing all products to everyone, you can group customers by loyalty, newness, location, or what they buy. This lets you show them only the products they’re most likely to want, making it easier for them to choose. Magento 2 Catalog Permissions enables you to execute these tasks efficiently.
5. Offer free shipping
Free shipping is not merely a service; it’s a powerful marketing tool. Consumers often opt for slightly higher-priced products that offer free shipping. Moreover, the clear indication of “free shipping” allows customers to easily predict the total cost, preventing unexpected additional charges.
That’s why many businesses offer free shipping to attract customers and increase sales. They can make up for the shipping costs by charging slightly more for products or selling related items.
Immediately integrate the Free Shipping Bar Extension into your Magento 2 store to create reminders of the free shipping or additional benefits buyers receive when they spend more on your store!
6. Build a loyalty program
As mentioned in the holiday shopping trends analysis, 37% of online customers indicated a desire for personalized shopping experiences. One effective tactic to achieve this is to create loyalty programs with the support of the Loyalty Program extension for Magento 2.
Here are some specific suggestions for your Magento 2 store:
- Reward customers based on their shopping contributions to the store, such as the number of orders, average order amount, or total order amount
- Organize online shopping events exclusively for loyal customers
- Offer free gifts like sample products, beautifully wrapped packages, or holiday-related items to long-time customers
Here’s an example of an effective and noteworthy Loyalty Program:
According to Statista, there are 5.17 billion social media users worldwide, with around 68% of people in the United States—approximately 308 million—actively using social media. In 2023, sales through social networks made up about 18.5% of total online sales, a figure expected to rise in the coming years. This highlights the substantial influence of social media on the online shopping market. Ignoring this platform when planning your holiday sales would be a major oversight.
Implementing advertising on social networks during holidays is an effective way to reach potential customers. For a successful campaign, not only do you need to create attractive and relevant content, but also set a reasonable budget. In addition, choosing the right time to turn the campaign on/off is also very important.
To boost customer purchasing, you can offer promotions like discounts, giveaways through mini-games, or free shipping. Each social media platform has its own unique user base, so selecting the right one is crucial for reaching your target market. For instance, the Facebook shop is ideal for household items, while Instagram works better for designer fashion. The key is understanding which platforms your target customers prefer.
How can an online store on the Magento platform fully leverage social media for sales? Start by ensuring your products show up in social media search results and ads to drive more traffic to your store. To do this, use a tool like the Product Feed extension, which automatically generates product feeds to Facebook shop from your Magento 2 store. This feed will include all essential product details, such as name, description, images, price, and more.
8. Utilize holiday-themed content
By tapping into creative trends and aligning your content with consumer mindset and behavior, you can develop a more intimate connection with your target audience. You should what your customers are searching for during the holidays, such as gift ideas, decorating inspiration, or festive recipes.
Create content that addresses these needs while seamlessly incorporating your products. For example, a blog post like “5 Christmas Decorations to Make with Children” could showcase your craft supplies or decor items, while “Top 10 Recipes for a Cozy Christmas Dinner” might feature kitchen gadgets you sell.
When your website and social media channels reflect the festive spirit, customers will feel happy and excited, making them more likely to shop. Moreover, storytelling content like images, videos, and posts related to the holiday will encourage customer engagement, such as sharing and commenting.
9. Regularly remind customers about abandoned carts
With so many options during holidays, customers often fill their carts with items but do not decide to complete to check out. They might even forget about the products they’ve added. Reminding them about these items can reignite their shopping enthusiasm, show that you value their interest, and nudge them toward making a purchase.
But what kind of ‘reminder’ content in your abandoned cart email can immediately close the deal? We suggest you try sending them coupon codes, exclusive discounts, and personalized offers. Additionally, you can send them related products, as they might hesitate about the abandoned products, but the related ones may meet their missing requirements.
Here’s an example of an abandoned cart email generated by the Magento 2 Abandoned Cart Email extension:
10. Gamify the user experience
Gamification incorporates game-like elements into non-game contexts, such as marketing and education. It’s designed to increase user engagement, motivation, and loyalty. In marketing, gamification can make the shopping experience more fun and memorable. Customers are more likely to spend more time on your website and feel valued.
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Lucky spin: This is a classic game where customers spin a wheel to get prize. The prizes can be customized to fit your business and can include discounts, free shipping, or even physical products. This game is a great way to create excitement and encourage repeat purchases.
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Tiered rewards game: This game is based on a loyalty program. Customers earn points for each purchase, and after they reach a certain number of points, they level up. Each level comes with new rewards, such as exclusive discounts, first access to new products, or personalized offers. This game is a great way to reward loyal customers and motivate them to increase their purchases.
When applying gamification, remember that rewards must be valuable and relevant enough to attract customer participation and ensure the gameplay process is smooth and free of any difficulties.
11. Optimize your store on all device
Customers often use their phones to search for their favorite products but choose desktops to make purchases on holidays. Therefore, optimizing your store’s display on mobile devices is extremely important.
To ensure your Magento store runs smoothly and provides the best experience for customers on all devices, you should consider the following steps:
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Choose a responsive theme: Ensure the theme you are using is designed to automatically adjust the interface to fit the screen size of different devices. The default Magento module may not support interface optimization. However, you can solve this problem by integrating your Magento 2 store with modules supported by Hyva Theme.
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Optimize images: Images take up a large portion of a website’s bandwidth, so compress them to reduce size without compromising quality. One of the most effective modules to help you do this is Image Optimizer for Magento 2.
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Minify HTML, CSS, and JavaScript: Remove unnecessary white spaces and comments to reduce file size
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Speed up the site load with Lazy Loading: Delay the loading of certain elements on a webpage until they are needed to improve the initial page load time
Common Holiday Marketing Mistakes to Avoid
In the previous section, we demonstrated that you don’t need a large budget to compete with major companies during the holiday season. All you need is a carefully planned marketing strategy that avoids these common holiday marketing mistakes for small businesses.
Give checkout “bad surprise”
As a customer, how many times have you decided not to buy a product simply because the cost was too high or you encountered a problem with the payment method, even though you really liked the product?
The main “bad surprise” causing customers to abandon their carts include:
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Unexpected fees: Excessively high shipping costs, expired coupons, taxes not included in the initial price, handling fees, etc.
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Payment issues: Declined cards, payment system errors, limited payment options, etc.
Unexpected fees can arise due to peak shopping seasons like holidays, where a surge in orders leads to increased shipping and order insurance costs. You can mitigate these costs by creating coupon codes and allowing customers to use them. To simplify the creation and management of these codes, we recommend integrating a Coupon Codes extension into your Magento store.
To address the issues with your payment methods, we recommend offering a variety of payment options, including credit cards and various currencies, and ensuring strong financial transaction security.
Neglect local audience
Many Magento 2 stores get distracted by global customers and overlook their local audience, missing out on potential loyal customers.
During the holiday season, customers love in-person shopping, especially for gifts and clothes, so stores often become popular hangouts. You should ensure your Magento 2 store appears in local search results, showing nearby shoppers the closest location to boost your “Buy Online, Pick Up In-Store” strategy. A Store Locator module with Google Maps integration helps customers easily find your physical store after browsing products online.
Lose touch in January
After the busy holiday season, it’s common for small business owners to take time off after New Year’s, sometimes for a few days or even a whole month. But don’t make this mistake!
Building strong customer relationships requires regular purchases and engagement. If you had a lot of first-time customers in December, don’t wait until the next holiday season to reconnect. Encourage them to return in January and turn them into repeat customers.
Provide poor online customer service
As a small business owner, you juggle many roles—boss, accountant, HR, and customer service—which usually works, but during the busy holiday time, it can become overwhelming, and online customer service may slip. However, this is the perfect time to strengthen customer relationships and boost retention, as even just a 5% increase in customer retention can result in a substantial profit increase of between 25% and 95%.
You should respond to customer inquiries and requests promptly and professionally, with additional resources allocated during peak times. Also, utilize live chat, email, or phone support to assist customers.
Related posts:
Fail to leverage Magento 2’s features
Magento 2 can be integrated with a multitude of powerful tools to support marketing campaigns, but without proper utilization, they become useless. Simply using Magento 2’s default features makes it difficult to manage discounts, orders, and emails or optimize the mobile interface. This can cause your store to lag behind competitors.
Learn to leverage third-party modules. Don’t worry if your budget is tight, as many Magento 2 plugins are offered for free by various providers such as Multiple Shipping Flat Rates, Blog, or Social Login.
Marketing holiday checklist examples
Now that you have a solid foundation in holiday marketing strategies, we present a checklist for Q4 to you as a reference. Please follow it diligently to maximize your revenue and avoid last-minute scrambling.
September
- Determine your merchandising strategies
- Finalize your offers and promotions
- Develop a gift guide
- Design your landing page
- Plan your promotional distribution strategy, including email schedule, social calendar, web banner, ads, videos, paid media
- Create content to support your distribution plan
- Set up coupon codes and schedule them
- Audit your website’s technical health and make necessary adjustments
October
- Update your email capture to emphasize holiday deals
- Create assets as specified in the distribution plan
- Develop an influencer and/or referral strategy
- Release your gift guide and minigame rules
- Implement the distribution plan
- Prepare customer service for success
November
- Install a “Back-in-Stock” notification app for your store
- Monitor social media daily and engage with your audience
- Promote product-focused posts on social media
- Update your abandoned cart and product abandonment email sequences
- Create custom post-purchase flows for holiday buyers
December
- Promote slow-moving products by offering deeper discounts or bundling them together.
- Send notifications stating, like “Order by [date] to receive your items by Christmas”.
- Create custom post-purchase emails for holiday buyers.
Conclusion
By following the strategies outlined in this guide, businesses can efficiently navigate the digital landscape and achieve exceptional outcomes. Thus, equip yourself, plan ahead, and maximize your holiday season with a meticulously crafted marketing strategy. Mageplaza offers efficient and affordable solutions for Magento stores, and our technical support and customer service team are always ready to assist you!
