Father’s Day is approaching and with it an avalanche of shopping that takes place in just 7 days. March 19th was not going to be an exception and, as usual on this kind of dates, we left our shopping to the last minute. We are talking about a 75% increase in searches for “online gifts” from the 15th of March, which gives us an idea of what is coming up for ecommerce.
In order for your ecommerce to be able to optimally cope with this strong demand, which is only a few days away, you need to prepare adequately in terms of both marketing and logistics. A good planning of the steps to be taken in order acquisition, management and shipping of orders will avoid unpleasant events that can damage our image and tarnish the good work of a child.
Since we don’t want to see any father without his gift or your ecommerce with a lot of problems, we are going to give you a few tips to successfully deal with Father’s Day. Take note!
First and foremost, be proactive
Due to the short shopping period, it is necessary to plan the timing of the purchase process in advance: most people make purchases at the last minute, so you should extend your marketing actions to the very end and offer express delivery options for latecomers.
On the other hand, you need to make sure that your warehouse and your team is able to absorb the peak orders that will occur at this time of year. Establish clear routines to optimise the picking process, try to keep costs down on campaign days and ensure that the packaging and shipping processes are not affected by the rush.
Adapt your website
A one-off but very representative event such as Father’s Day requires slight modifications to the structure of your website to be able to absorb the increased demand in the days leading up to it.
Obviously, you have to make it clear on the website itself that visitors can find gifts for Father’s Day through banners or blog posts. In addition, it is highly recommended to create a category or space of your own in which to collect the products that are most likely to be chosen as gifts for this day.
Another good idea is to give as much visibility as possible to the date throughout your website. If the potential customer sees that there are only a few days left to make the purchases, they may be in a hurry and this may lead to impulse purchases at the same time.
Determine clearly who your target audience is
Just as on Valentine’s Day statistics show that men spend almost twice as much as women on their partners, on Father’s Day the opposite is true: it is women who are the main buyers.
You may make the mistake of believing that the right thing to do is to address fathers thinking that they are the ones who “choose” the gift when in reality it is they who decide what they are going to give.
Therefore, it is highly advisable to properly segment the campaigns you carry out and adapt your message to the audience you are going to communicate it to.
Don’t forget social networks
As this is a fundamental sales channel for ecommerce, our advice is to design creatives related to Father’s Day showing a product or offering a discount only valid for the previous days.
Obviously, it is also more than advisable to take advantage of the occasion to run an advertising campaign for specific products or to hold a raffle in order to increase the number of visits to your online shop. With this last option you will not only increase traffic to your ecommerce, but you will also increase brand engagement on these networks.
A basic: newsletters
This is the best possible tool for communicating to your customer database that you have the ideal products for them to give on Father’s Day. Customers always appreciate it when you make things easy for them and if, in addition, as is the case, they already know your brand and are happy with your products, there is a very high probability that they will complete the purchase.
Our advice is to do these campaigns a few days before the rest of the actions for the general public, because if your customers finally buy, you will be lightening your workload: all the purchases, orders and shipments that you close on those days will be subtracted from the bottleneck that usually occurs on the days prior to the date indicated.
Facilitates last-minute sales
As we said before, we tend to leave things to the last minute. Whether due to lack of time, laziness or because they think they will find better discounts, many customers delay their purchases until the last minute.
So make sure you offer guaranteed 24-hour delivery or even weekend delivery in case the date falls on a Saturday or Sunday.
Another good option to attract latecomers is to offer a last minute discount. For example, a discount code or free shipping during the last 24 hours.
Optimise the delivery, returns and incident management service.
As we have said several times in other articles, the logistics process and in particular the last mile are key to customer satisfaction. The success of your ecommerce for this day lies in the fact that, despite the higher volume of shipments, the customer receives the product at home without complications.
Even so, it is impossible to avoid problems 100%, so it is best to anticipate the percentage of returns and incidents that may occur and prepare to deal with them as effectively as possible. If you have any item in Dropshipping, it will be the supplier himself who is responsible for managing the shipment, so you must ensure the quality of their service so that orders are delivered optimally.
Smartphone shopping continues to increase
The majority of internet searches are carried out on mobile devices and with them, a large part of purchases. It is therefore vital that your website is at least responsive and if possible designed in AMP.
Ignoring this will mean fewer sales for your shop, because as soon as potential customers enter your shop and it is impossible for them to navigate comfortably, they will simply leave. Slow loading times, excessive data consumption or typing difficulties are also issues to check.
Update your catalogue
A special day requires tailored products: this is the ideal time to create packs or offer specific products.
Ideally, create groups of 2 or 3 products at a special price that together provide more value than they do individually.
For example, you can choose products that combine with each other: if you sell clothes, it is a good idea to create a look and sell it as a set of products, or propose the purchase of several accessories that complement each other (belt, wallet and shoes). With a little imagination, the combinations that can arise are infinite no matter what the product is.
Moreover, this way you will save on a part that is one of the biggest costs for an ecommerce: shipping costs.
Check your competitor’s prices
After all the work you have done so far with the tips we have given you, it would be a pity if you were to lose sales because your competitors offer a better product at a better price than you.
Considering that the price factor is considered the most important decision variable by 80% of consumers, it wouldn’t hurt to keep an eye on your competitors.
Using a management software like Boardfy will make it easier for you to see how much a product is selling for and if you can adjust your price according to your profit margin to get more sales.
Sometimes 10 cents less means 10% more sales.
And so much for our tips for your ecommerce to succeed on Father’s Day, we hope they have been useful to you and improve your sales for this date!
