Getting business for your brand during the holiday season often boils down to a matter of crafting discounts that are the most appealing. It can be a guessing game when trying to decide which deals will bring the most business, but SteelHouse recently surveyed holiday shoppers and found out what deals they want the most.
Free Shipping
This is kind of a no-brainer, especially when you consider shoppers who are looking to purchase big, bulky or heavy items for friends and family. Many large brands have already realized the benefits of offering free shipping, from Amazon to Toys R Us, but smaller brands may still be reluctant to offer it. If that’s the case for your brand, give yourself the buffer of a price point (perhaps $25 or $50), as the minimum purchase a customer has to make in order to receive free shipping. Once you’ve hammered out the details, be sure to promote it on your site and social pages so that all of your customers are aware of it from the start.
Percentage Off
Once again, this is a no-brainer. Discounts are huge for holiday shoppers, and there is no question that they will visit a site like eBay or Amazon to find the best deals possible. Use this as a chance to get your discounts out there from the start and take them in a new direction. A tiered discount is an excellent way to give buyers the incentive to buy more — the more they spend, the greater the percentage off. ModCloth recently offered another fun and creative way to offer discounts. The brand offered a $5 off coupon code to customers, but challenged them to a virtual game of hide and seek with their pug mascot Winston in order to find it. Not only did it give potential buyers the incentive to make a purchase, it also caused them to browse ModCloth’s gift guide in order to find it — potentially showing them dozens of items they hadn’t previously noticed.
Buy One, Get One Free
Buy one, get one promotions offer the best of both worlds for consumers and brands alike. The consumer views the promotion as essentially a half-price sale, giving him/her the incentive to make the purchase. The marketer and brand, however, actually reap greater benefits from it than they would from a half-price sale. In recent years, Payless Shoesource has embraced the ‘BOGO’ model so much that it has almost become inextricable from the brand itself. Clearly, something is working.
Hassle-Free Returns & Exchanges
Last year, Walmart angered some shoppers when they realized that the exchange/return period for some of their Black Friday electronics was only 15 days — 1/6th the length of its normal return period. How can your brand avoid this snafu? Give customers peace of mind by offering incentives like free returns and exchanges with a return timeframe that will allow for in-store returns as well as returns through USPS or other carrier services. To make the process even easier, provide customers with the ability to print postage at home. The easier it is, the happier your customers will be.
Overnight Shipping
Even with sales beginning as early as November, there will never be an end to last-minute shopping. Reel in those last-minute shoppers with the assurance that their gifts will reach them or their loved ones in time. Offer overnight shipping, order confirmation numbers and tracking numbers to make it easy for buyers to monitor the shipping process. Zappos actually offers free overnight shipping year-round and has scene great success from it. Added last-minute extras like gift wrapping services and the option of including a card will also help close the deal for worried last-minute buyers.
Still looking to give your brand the exposure it needs for the holiday season? We’ve got five easy ways to refresh and revamp your brand’s Facebook profile for the holidays.
