6 Ways to Boost Online Sales Off Season
Online sales, like everything else, fluctuates, and after each high season comes a low season that business owners must confront. Whether it’s the post-holiday slump or summer lull, the decline in sales is something no one wants to experience.
Fortunately, there are things you can do to boost online sales off season and help you get your ducks in line for the upcoming high’s and low’s.
Focus on Past Customers
It may seem like your customers forgot about you, but fortunately you can bring your business back into their mind by creating targeted campaigns designed to re-engage your database.
Use your CRM data to segment your customers and create hyper-targeted campaigns based on their previous interaction with your brand. Create separate campaigns for customers who have made a purchase on your site and others who simply signed up but never completed a purchase. Be sure to examine the purchase history and basket size of past customers when creating special offers for them.
By sending the right message to the right person at the right time, you will increase your chance of converting users, and the off-season won’t seem as bad.
Spend Time Gaining New Ones
The off-season is a great time to build your database for the upcoming high-season which is always just around the corner. Use the off-season to tweak your message and rethink your campaigns to pin point the audience, message and key terms that lead to highest conversion. You may find that building your database during the off-season is more cost effective since you are not competing for holiday attention.
Update Your Website
Website trends are constantly changing and technology is rapidly advancing. What this means is that your website might not be optimally designed for your consumers.
Take this time to update your website, make sure it is responsive and looks and acts the way you want it to on all screens. Consider updating images and content in order to make it more relevant and reflect the latest inventory.
Stay Strong on Social
Just because your customers aren’t coming to your website, it doesn’t mean they aren’t going anywhere else. Use this time to boost your social media presence and connect with your consumers where they want to spend time.
Be sure to post updates about upcoming inventory, seasonal items, sales and special offers. You can also use social media to run giveaway contests in order to boost engagement and drive more traffic to your site.
Boost Email Marketing Funnels
Email is a great way to connect to past and potential customers, and with the increased competition for inbox space, it is important to create funnels that are focused on converting.
Use the off-season slump to split-test campaigns, try out new email designs and copy and test out subject lines to see which ones have the highest chance of driving conversions. Not only will this boost your revenue generation now, but it will also help you improve campaigns when the high season comes again.
Launch Mid-Season Sales
It may be the oldest trick in the sales book, but it works! Launch a mid-season sale to get your consumers back to your eCommerce site and give your bottom line the boost it needs.
If you have left over inventory you want to get rid of, use the sale to push those items heavily. Offer free shipping and promotions on larger purchases to increase chances of higher sale values.
At the end of the day online sales slumps can be overcome by being proactive. Do not accept the slump as a given and the next time the low season rolls around you will find yourself coming out on top.