It may only be October, but it’s definitely not to early to thing about the world’s most celebrated holiday – Christmas. Over 2 billion people worldwide celebrate Christmas every year; each culture has its own traditions, but one of the most prominent similarity across the board is that most cultures engage in gift-giving.
As an eSeller, you know no doubt that holiday season is the busiest season of the year when it comes to retail. You can drive higher sales and increase your reach by making some good choices when it comes to your products, platforms and targeting.
Geotargeting is an especially advantageous during the holiday shopping season. If you’re a seller of a niche product, you’re going to want to be as specific as possible when it comes to targeting your audience in relation to the product. A certain product might fit several different cultures around the world; translating and localizing your product descriptions can go a long way in speaking to a customer’s heart.
While it’s been said that a picture is worth a thousand words, when it comes to keeping your audience engaged, especially during the holidays, this is an understatement. This is why taking into consideration your target audience’s location(s) is imperative. While Americans may identify with ornaments, Christmas decorations, and eggnog, for example, your audience in the UK might connect better with fruitcake, as they tend to associate Christmas with that particular dessert. Take the time to really personalize each image and design in accordance to the audience that you’ll be targeting.
Choosing which platform to sell on is as much a strategic decision as your geotargeting tactics. It’s not all about Amazon or eBay anymore; focusing your attention on marketplaces that specialize in a specific country or region can earn you huge wins this holiday season. Do some research on the multitude of online marketplaces that exist around the world. For example, if you’re exploring the Latin American market, it’d be worth your while to check out Linio. If you’re already selling on Amazon UK, consider Cdiscount as an opportunity to make it big in the French market.
Buyers do their holiday shopping in advance of Christmas, with the famous big days being Black Friday (November 24) and Cyber Monday (November 27). However, Christmas itself isn’t necessarily celebrated on December 25th.
Timing your promotions and sales can differ from market to market based on the cultural nuances of timing, and you need to prepare yourself for this. Let’s look at the Russian market, for example. Due to cultural reasons, you’d need to time your promotions to just after December 25th, as opposed to, say, when you’d promote in the States. This is because in Russia, the Russian Orthodox, which account for a majority of the population, celebrate Christmas on January 7th.
If timing isn’t taken into account when planning out your holiday campaigns, you could easily miss out on revenue, as well as opportunities to gain clients internationally for the long run, simply because they will miss out on the promotion due to poor timing.
As always, knowing your target audience is key. By just taking the time to better understand their needs, as well as how you can stand out as an eSeller through a period during which purchasing is at its peak, you can resonate better with you international audience, and ultimately, come up with new ways to boost your sales for holiday seasons to come.
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