10 Tips for Preparing for the 2016 Holiday Season

A Retailer’s Guide:

1. Set Your Budget Early

Know Biggest Days for Sales

You should have your budget set by the end of September, so you can accurately allocate budget during the next few months.

Keep in mind when important shopping dates are like:• Black Friday• Cyber Monday• Bounceback Tuesday• Last day for free shipping

Note: Use last year’s sales to help determine what days had the biggest sales and plan accordingly.

2. Don’t Forget About In-store Experience

87% of shoppers are still very likely to purchase in-store this year.

It’s easy to get caught up in your eCommerce strategy for this holiday season, but stats are telling us otherwise. Don’t forget about how important the in-store experience still is!

You want to make your in-store experience just as easy and memorable as the online experience.

Equip in-store staff to be able to serve customers as they expect. This could mean easy access to customer data and the ability to purchase online inventory for out-of-stock items in-store.

Source: Epsilon Holiday Shopper Survey Results, June 2016

3. Set SEO Strategy Now

Search engine optimization (SEO) is key to your customers finding your products.

As more customers start their research online, you want your products and store information to be at the top. Your SEO game has to be on point.

Google Adwords has made some recent updates to their platform like Expanded Text Ads (ETAs). Make sure your team is familiar with these changes and ready to use them come November.

Know what your budget is for Adwords and stay on top of performance throughout the holiday months.

81% of shoppers conduct online research before buying.

Source: 81% of Shoppers Conduct Research Before Buying. Adweek, 2014

4. Update Product Listings

Detailed product information differentiates you from your

competitors.30% of US online adults site that they would consider buying from an online retailer they had never previously purchased from, if the retailer offered detailed product information.

Update your product listings before the holiday season begins. It sets you a part from your competitors by providing your customers a better shopping experience.

High-quality, consistent product listings ensure your products are searchable, easy to find, and give customers confidence that they’re buying the exact item they want.

Here are 9 ways to write product descriptions that sell.

5. Update Mobile App

Mobile app usage for shopping and lifestyle has grown 81% year over

year.Mobile app usage continues to grow. Customers now prefer mobile over desktop.

Mobile digital media time in the US is now significantly higher at 51% compared to desktop (42%).

If you haven’t been putting much thought into your mobile app, you’ll want to now. Apps represent an opportunity to provide promotions, in-store assistance, and product search for customers during the holiday shopping season.

Your mobile strategy shouldn’t just focus on your app. Any site designs should also be responsive to account for searches and purchases made on mobile devices.

Source: Mobile Marketing Statistics Compilation. Smart Insights.

6. Focus on Customer Experience

89% of businesses soon expect to compete mainly on customer

experience.Customer experience should be at the heart of your holiday strategy this year. As brands compete, customer experience is becoming the sole differentiator for merchants.

It no long matters if you have the lowest price or best product. It’s all bout the total experience that you provide the customer.

54% of respondents in a recent 2016 Alliance Data Loyalty study said they were loyal to brands that provide a great shopping/purchasing experience, 45% said they were more convenient to shop/use than their competitors.

Holiday shoppers who have a favorable customer experience with you will most likely come back to purchase after the holiday season, too.

Source: The Forrester Wave: Product Information Management (PIM), Q2 2014.

7. Improve Inventory Visibility

Take Control of Your Inventory This Year

Holiday selling can make it especially hard to control your inventory levels. Small mistakes can be costly.

This year make it a point to improve your inventory management. Overcome common mistakes like ordering too little inventory, not getting enough inventory, and even overselling.

Nothing is worse than telling a customer that you can’t ship an item to them that they thought they bought.

The best way to avoid these types of problems is to use the right technology. You need a way to view all of your inventory in one place for all of your sales channels. Inventory levels should be update in real-time as transactions occur.

Check out how a platform like nChannel’s can help sync your inventory levels.

8. Improve Logistics

86% of holiday shoppers ranked free shipping as either important or very

important.Shipping price and speed can be a deal breaker for most of your holiday shoppers. If you want to be competitive this year, you must be able to offer free, standard shipping for your online orders, just like your competitors.

92% of merchants offer some form of free standard shipping during the holiday season.

Also, make sure you can get the package there when promised. If you don’t, you can bet to get a bad review from an upset customer.

Note: Be sure to determine what your cut off date is for guaranteed delivery before Christmas day.

Source: Shop.org’s 2014 e-Holiday Survey

9. Plan Email Marketing Campaigns

Email marketing drove 27% of eCommerce sales on Black Friday.

Email marketing is a great way to reach new and existing customers and helps combat shopping cart abandonment.

This year, try to be more creative with your email marketing. Use it to showcase new products, highlight special holiday promotions, and engage with customers you haven’t heard from in a while.

Be sure to make personalized and relevant offers. You can bet you’re not the only retailer sending out emails. Yours will have to stand out among others in a busy customer’s inbox.

Check out these 30 Creative Email Ideas for Your Holiday Email Marketing.

Source: The Ultimate List of eCommerce Stats for Holiday 2015. Adept, 2015.

10. Integrate Your Systems

38% of all purchases coming from cross-channel shoppers, and those who shop in multiple

channels have a 30% higher lifetime value to the brand.

Cross-channel shoppers are loyal to multichannel retailers who provide the best customer experience.

To do that, multichannel retailers should integrate their systems, which include their ERP, POS, eCommerce, marketplaces, and logistics. Integration centralizes your inventory, order, and product management.

Multichannel integration allows you to update inventory levels in real-time, fulfill orders quickly, integrate suppliers, and produce high-quality product listings across all your sales channels.

All things you need to be successful this holiday season.

See what a multichannel integration platform like nChannel’s can do for you!

Source:2015 Customer Experience Risk Study conducted by LoyaltyOne, Verde and the Wharton School and 2016 UPS Pulse of the Online Shopper Study conducted by comScore, Inc.

nChannel, creator of this eBook, provides a cloud-based multichannel management platform that provides sellers with the tools to manage multichannel operations with unprecedented ease and flexibility.

The nChannel platform connects your existing eCommerce, POS, financial/ERP, and logistics systems, while orchestrating sales processes such as product information management, inventory synchronization, and order management. Our centralized, web-based model can be leveraged by both B2B and B2C sellers.

Visit www.nchannel.com/solutions for a complete list of how nChannel helps merchants grow.