There’s no shortage of promotions retailers can choose when planning their holiday email marketing strategy. However, the holiday season is long, so retailers need to find ways to not only increase sales but also keep subscribers opening their emails.
Here are three kinds of promotions that I expect will be heavily-used by retailers throughout this upcoming holiday season to accomplish these goals.
1. Category and Daily Deals
Category-specific sales, promotions where one category of products is discounted, have been an increasingly popular holiday promotion over the past several years. With Black Friday sales now lasting the entire week for many retailers, category-specific sales are a way to keep the discounts new and exciting — which keeps consumers checking their emails.
If you do plan to offer daily deals, there’s no need to leave them a mystery. Consider letting people know early on which categories will be on sale and when. This approach allows the consumer to better plan their purchases.
Sure, they may want to wait two days to purchase sweaters at an additional discount, but many will want to consolidate purchases, especially if there’s a free shipping threshold they need to reach. Use a sense of urgency in your marketing by reminding people that items may sell out quickly to encourage order consolidation.
Offering daily category sales can also help you plan additional ad campaigns and year-end promotions later in the holidays. By knowing that one category of products didn’t sell as expected, you can begin to offer deeper discounts on these products throughout the season or feature them in year-end closeout promotions.
2. Free Shipping
Free shipping has quickly become a consumer expectation. According to Deloitte, it was the second-most appealing discounts to shoppers last holiday season, behind only price discounts.
This likely explains why, according to eMarketer, there was a year-over-year increase of holiday orders that were shipped free, starting with Black Friday week and continuing through Christmas Day.
Last season there was a noticeable increase in retailers advertising free shipping as a primary incentive. Consumers will once again be drawn to free shipping, and you’ll want to be ready to take full advantage of it.
As the season begins to wind down and expedited shipping becomes necessary, consider offering free or upgraded shipping as the primary incentive, not as an add-on to another promotion. You may want to lower or remove the spend threshold to qualify for these offers as many retailers did last season.
In a lot of cases, you may find consumers spend above the previous threshold as they round out their gift buying. Just be sure to promote free shipping in both the subject line and email body copy.
3. Buy Online Pick Up In-Store (BOPIS) is for everyone
Whether you’re an omnichannel retailer or not, BOPIS affects you. Forty-one percent of consumers used this service last holidays season, and 50% of consumers decided where to shop based on whether BOPIS was a fulfillment option.
If you are an online-only retailer, you need to account for your competition who offer it — and maybe even alter your free shipping strategy to account for it. If you’re a retailer who offers it, you’ll want to use this to your advantage.
According to the NRF, the No. 1 reason consumers chose BOPIS was to avoid paying for shipping. If you’re an omnichannel retailer, promote BOPIS as a stand-alone incentive, potentially offering a discount, gift card or free gift for BOPIS orders.
As the season winds down, focus on those holiday procrastinators by encouraging a sense of urgency and pitting free in-store pickup against costly next-day shipping offered elsewhere.
Source: National Retail Federation, “2018/2019 Winter Consumer View,” Jan, 2019
But this value-add does not have to be saved until the end of the season. Consider giving the service a little customer-friendly pizzazz, such as by offering free gift-wrapping on these orders or in-store coupons at time of pick-up to encourage unplanned purchases — or even by providing complimentary hot chocolate, coffee, tea and holiday cookies.
If you offer BOPIS, be sure to promote it wherever you can:
In a dedicated section of your emails
Embedded into your primary email creative
Even in lifecycle messages, such as in a welcome series.
And, of course, clearly provide a link to a store locator in your emails, such as in the header or navigation bar.
Wrapping It Up
The holiday season is long, but by planning promotions that can last the whole season and provide competitive differentiation, you can keep subscribers opening your emails and be ready to earn as much of the shoppers’ wallet as possible.