As the holiday shopping season approaches, you’ll want to start planning your holiday ecommerce strategy so you can be ready for one of the busiest times of the year. FurnitureToday reports that, “19% of consumers named furniture as a holiday home must-have.” With the right preparation, your furniture store can be ready to turn holiday furniture shoppers into joyful buyers.
Here at Blueport Commerce, we are making a list (and checking it twice) to help online furniture retailers prepare for this upcoming season. Below are the top tips for improving the customer experience and maximizing sales during the busiest — and most competitive — quarter of the year.
Due to inflation and the lingering aftermath of COVID-19, all generations are reportedly less enthusiastic about shopping this holiday season. However, Over 60% anticipate spending the same or more on themselves which creates an opportunity for businesses to engage potential customers, rekindle their holiday spirit, and even reduce holiday stress by generating awareness early, so that shoppers can plan ahead and budget accordingly.
Although you may think it is the younger generations who most often shop online, Gen Xers will spend the most proportionately. Nearly half of this power generation uses internet search for product discovery. When you combine their interest in using social media, you can see that this is a generation to consider. A streamlined omnichannel buyer’s journey can encourage this generation (and all generations) to flock to your business for holiday ecommerce shopping.
Syncing your online and in-store experiences seems like a large task, but it is becoming exceedingly important with holiday product discovery happening both in stores and online. A successful retail merchandising strategy allows you to offer products online in an engaging way with carousels, banners, and custom pages to inspire shoppers for the season.
While your brick-and-mortar stores can’t stay open all the time, your online store is open 24/7! Take advantage of these hours and boost sales with special online promotions in off-hours. Begin early, or extend special, time-sensitive deals to capture late-night shoppers or those customers who want to shop during the holidays when stores are closed. For a stress-free shopping experience, your promotions, sales, marketing materials, products, and overall experience should be the same from your site to your store and vice versa.
It’s no surprise that mobile has erupted as a major shopping channel and continues to outpace desktop in YoY revenue and traffic growth. In fact, every age group has seen an increase in researching and making a purchase with a mobile device while shopping in-store. Retailers across the Blueport Platform have seen impressive mobile results during the peak holiday period, and this is expected to hold true for holiday shopping 2022.
It’s crucial that your retail store has an optimized mobile site that allows customers to research products, utilize a store locator, or complete a seamless checkout process from their mobile device. As consumers are accustomed to getting what they want, when they want it, ecommerce site optimization for all devices is key to driving mobile site engagement and capturing increased revenues.
Besides using your holiday ecommerce merchandising strategy to streamline the online shopping experience, you can take it a step further with personalization and holiday messaging.
Personalization is a crucial part of ecommerce and is sure to be one of the top holiday shopping trends this year. Shoppers are more likely to shop with brands that go above and beyond to help them find gift ideas and make it easy to find the products they are looking for. Win over your shoppers by utilizing your online data to implement personalized recommendations to shoppers through display ads, emails, social media, and more.
Product reviews are also key to winning over shoppers during their research phase starting in October. Shoppers consider product reviews to be a critical part of their holiday shopping journey. To maintain the trust of your shoppers, display up-to-date, transparent product reviews earlier than October. Furthermore, displaying the reviews directly on your product detail pages will keep shoppers on your site rather than checking other sources for reviews of your products.
Gift buying and special deals are top of mind for your customers come holiday season. Take advantage of this opportunity and tailor your site content to capture these customers. For example, update your email sign-up messaging so that it’s relevant to the holidays — like, “Be the first to know about holiday deals.” Keep close tabs on product availability and prominently call out which items can be ordered now for delivery before the holidays.
And remember that the occasional brand message (without any offers or discounts) will help you stand out from the noisy competition, reminding your most loyal customers why they love you so much.
Another major barrier of high-ticket items for holiday ecommerce comes down to consumer spending. Many shoppers have tight holiday budgets that do not lend themselves to big ticket items, like furniture. Providing finance and installment plans will allow budget-conscious customers the financial means to convert on a higher priced item while not cutting into their entire budget.
It’s no coincidence that fraud attempt rates skyrocket during the holidays. As the holiday season drives strong growth in revenue and traffic for ecommerce retailers, it also attracts cyber criminals. Look-alike websites, fake shipping notifications, and other scams during the holiday season present a major challenge to the furniture ecommerce industry. Segments that could be targeted the most for fraud include:
Make sure your fraud systems and resources are in place and prepared to approve good orders, reduce customer friction, and minimize risk when fraudulent activity spikes this holiday season. If your ecommerce platform provider monitors suspicious activity on your site, this can be a huge relief for both your business and your holiday shoppers this year.
Make your holidays merrier this year by staying ahead of the latest trends. Planning ahead and putting these tips into motion now will set your furniture business up for a rewarding and successful holiday season.
The right integrated omnichannel platform will allow you to efficiently and effectively execute on your holiday ecommerce strategy. Blueport’s platform makes this possible by offering superior features, customer support, and integrations designed to deliver the ideal omnichannel furniture shopping experience.
To discover which ecommerce software can elevate the holiday shopping experience for your customers, explore our Buyer’s Guide.