Calling All Merchants: How to Prepare for the Holidays
Finally, high-value customers should be thanked with rewards and special offers during the holiday season. For example, offering a gift with purchase or another small promotion such as free shipping further engages these customers.
Understanding Analytics Equals Happy Holidays
The variety of analytical tools readily available to online merchants makes it easy to aggregate data on website traffic. It's important for retailers to understand how this data can be used to their advantage. By reviewing last year’s holiday season metrics, marketers can obtain key insights such as which referrers drove high volumes of traffic or what were the top incoming search terms.
While it may be hard for certain organizations to commit to testing during the holiday season, it's important to review past metrics to optimize for popular on-site search terms, top exit pages and top-performing website promotions that will help them understand opportunities to improve conversion among specific website traffic segments.
As the days on the calendar move closer to the end of the year, make the most of this important shopping season by delivering personalized website experiences to distinct segments of your audience.
David Brussin is founder and CEO of Monetate, a provider of testing, targeting and personalization solutions for websites. David can be reached at davidbrussin@monetate.com.
