No matter what sort of online store you run, you can expect a surge in traffic around certain holidays. The holiday season from November through the end of December is an obvious time when consumers around the world go shopping for deals, but it is not the only time when traffic spikes in conjunction with an upcoming special occasion. Here are some ideas on how you can leverage the changing seasons and special holidays related to your business into more sales.
Create a Seasonal Section
When you go into a brick and mortar store around a holiday, you know that you can find what you need by visiting the seasonal section. This section changes based on the time of year and any approaching major holidays, but it remains a fixture in many traditional storefronts. You can duplicate this with an online store by creating a separate seasonal section. You can use the WooCommerce MultiStore plugin to create a separate seasonal store that runs on the same interface as your normal storefront. From there, using the WooCommerce Private Store plugin gives you the ability to hide that section when the season has passed. This gives you the ability to turn your seasonal section on and off as needed.
Generate Coupons
WooCommerce stores have many different ways in which they can generate coupons redeemable for special discounts and deals. By using the WooCommerce Extended Coupon Features plugin, for example, you can create special discounts that customers can receive and which are usable once in your store. This provides a great incentive for customers while also preventing the chance that somebody could copy the coupon and commit fraud. If you attach coupons to your store’s newsletter or blog, you can generate more customer interest in those avenues of communication. This in turn gives you more ways to connect with your customers and gather useful information on their preferences and buying habits.
Use Customer Information to Provide Discounts
The information you gather from your customers when they sign up for your newsletter or other mailing can provide you with new ways in which to connect with them. While fishing for too much information can be a detriment to everybody, there are certain dates and special occasions that could be useful for you to know about. For example, asking a customer to provide a birth date provides you with the chance to give them a special discount around their birthday. Wedding anniversaries can provide similar benefits. If you provide these discounts around dates which are special to your customers, you not only improve your chances of a sale but make the customer feel special.
Provide Special Holiday Communications
You don’t have to offer huge discounts in order to take advantage of a holiday’s proximity. Select specific holidays that have relevance to your business, from Christmas to lesser known but still viral holidays like National Pie Day (March 14th!). Make sure that each holiday you select has some sort of relevant connection to your business. From there, prepare a short newsletter or other brief communication wishing your customers well on that special occasion. Used in this manner, the holiday communication is not designed to drive sales through a coupon or other discount, but can still boost overall brand awareness. By reaching out to customers in a relatively personalized way, you build a better relationship with them.
Create Seasonal Content
Content creation should be something you focus on throughout the course of the year, but providing something extra around a special event can pay even bigger dividends down the road. Make extra sure to generate blog entries and other content-driven additions to your website around relevant events that occur annually or semi-annually. This creates content that is essentially evergreen – customers looking for holiday-specific deals in the future are more likely to come across your website. You can also link back to content you’ve created in the past that ties in with the current event. This improves your SEO rankings and makes it easier to attract new traffic to your store.
The great thing about seasons, holidays, and other special occasions is that you can select which ones are relevant to your company and go all-out in preparing for them. This gives you time to build up special stores, advertise discounts, and create content specific to the season. If you follow these tips, you will find that your business spikes significantly around these seasons. This will help create not only short-term sales, but also helps you build long-term relationships with your customers.
