Every year, millions of people shop online for gifts and presents. If you’re a business owner or manager, this is great news! However, the festive season can also bring challenges with it – like managing customer expectations across different channels and keeping track of your sales data. In this post, we’ll take a look at how you should prepare your eCommerce site in for seasonal commerce and make sure that your customers get the most out of their shopping experience.
1. Don’t Let Bad Data Spoil Your Holidays
In the lead-up to any festive season, we’re all gearing up for a busy time. For most of us, this means working long hours and taking on extra shifts. But it also means that our attention is divided, which can cause us to make mistakes when it comes to customer data.
So how do you ensure that your customer data remains high quality during this busy period?
It starts with understanding that data quality isn’t just about technology; it is also about being organized, disciplined and proactive in your approach. At Pretectum we say: “Data quality isn’t something that can be achieved overnight; it needs to be built into an organization’s DNA.” We think we have a solution for that!
2. Is your master data ready for the festive season?
- The first step to making your customer data ready for the festive season is to ensure that your customer master data is up-to-date. This means making sure that you know where each of your customers can be found, who they are, and what their preferences are.
- To get your master data ready for the festive season, start by making sure all of the information about each customer is consistent across channels and campaigns. You should also make sure it’s available at all times (particularly if you’re planning on running a campaign).
- If you’re not quite there with your current state of affairs, don’t worry! There are plenty of ways to get yourself sorted: updating old information; reviewing historical records; using third-party tools; sending surveys; engaging with influencers in the market – whatever works best for you!
4. Offer an enjoyable buying experience to your customers
- Ensure that your customer experience is as good as it can be. Make it easy for customers to contact you and offer a personalized experience.
- Use technology to make the buying process simpler and more engaging, such as offering free next-day delivery or providing information on the product they are interested in purchasing.
- If a customer has purchased something from you before but forgotten their password when ordering again, make sure that they can get their account details quickly by simply clicking ‘forgotten password’ on the login screen.
5. Is there a risk of confusing customers with promotions?
The festive season can be a confusing time for customers. With so much going on, it’s easy to forget that even the most straightforward of promotions can be difficult for someone who hasn’t been keeping up with your brand.
To avoid overwhelming customers, make sure you’re clear about what each promotion is and why it’s happening.
You should also ensure that the promotion is relevant to your customer base – if you’re offering free shipping when they live far from their nearest delivery location, let them know! And if there are multiple promotions running at once (such as our ‘buy three get one free’ campaign), try not to make them too complicated – this will only serve to confuse customers further.
Finally, don’t make your promotions too long; while we want everyone celebrating with us all month long, constant reminders of offers may turn off more conservative spenders who do their holiday shopping later in the season.
6. Do you have the right infrastructure in place?
- Do you have the right infrastructure in place?
- Are your data centers equipped with the latest technology?
- Is your website able to handle increased traffic and data processing requirements?
7. Is your team cross-functional?
The value of cross-functional teams is that they can handle more complex tasks and have a wider range of skills. Being able to use your team’s collective knowledge and expertise will lead to better insights, which in turn will provide the basis for effective decisions and strategies.
Having a larger pool of resources also means you can bring in people from different fields who might have special expertise or knowledge about something not covered by your usual team members. This could be useful if it’s getting close to Christmas, for example; perhaps someone on your team hasn’t bought any gifts yet so could use their input as well as give them an opportunity to participate actively in the decision-making process rather than simply being consulted when needed.
Your employees may not need to be involved with every discussion regarding customer data over the festive period but having them available at times when there’s increased demand allows new ideas or approaches that wouldn’t otherwise surface until next year’s holiday season starts up again!
8. Are you tracking customer preference data?
- If you haven’t done so already, now is the time to start tracking customer preference data.
- One way of doing this is by using a CMDM (Customer Master Data Management) system that keeps track of contact and sale history with your customers.
- You can also use online surveys and polls to find out what drives your customers’ purchase decisions.
For example:
- What do they like about your brand?
- How would they describe their relationship with it?
- And how can you make it even better?
We hope you’ve enjoyed our roundup of customer data tips and best practices for the festive season, if you’re not ready today, remember that this is something you could start on, anytime and there is no better time than today! As always, we encourage you to share any other tips or insights that you have in the comments below!