Are you ready for the peak season?

Tips for getting your e-commerce ready 

1.- Analyse your e-commerce's performance and where you want to be 

Since the big e-commerce dates coincide with the end of the year, it's an excellent time to analyse your total sales and revenue. You can assess whether your development matches what you expected using the objectives set at the beginning of the year. If not, you can review your business strategy to get to where you want to be, with the expected increase in sales during the autumn and winter months. 

On the other hand, the celebration of Singles' Day, Black Friday and Cyber Monday allows companies to sell surplus stock or out-of-season products at a lower price. 

2.- Design original marketing campaigns with personalised offers 

Despite their benefits, these year-end events are highly competitive occasions which no business wants to miss out on. That is why it is vital to design original, even daring, marketing campaigns to attract users' attention. Of course, these should always go hand in hand with attractive pricing. You can use interactive marketing to gain greater user involvement and combine different channels in an omnichannel campaign. 

At the same time, sending personalised messages and offers is key to increasing the conversion rate. Spend your time before these events analysing your customers' interests and behaviours. Then you will be able to provide them with products that they are interested in and increase the effectiveness of your campaigns. 

3.- Enhance customer service 

During peak sales events, it is also essential to improve customer service. A higher percentage of users may have issues with their orders or questions about the features of an item. E-commerce sites should answer users’ questions and problems in the shortest possible time, without creating hurdles. This encourages both a reduction in the web dropout rate and increased customer loyalty. One of the best resources that will help you achieve this is the implementation of a chatbot in the online store.

The importance of a good pricing strategy 

Of course, pricing is a key part of preparing for last quarter sales dates. It's not enough to apply discounts to a certain number of items. Design your offers for each of the events to be as competitive as possible. Think about the kind of audience your offers target and what messages you are using, such as “offer of the day”, “flash offer”, or Amazon’s go-to, “exclusive offer”, etc.… Combining attractive pricing with a direct call to action will generate increased traffic to your e-commerce site. In addition, throughout these months of continuous offers and changes in the online market, you can always count on dynamic pricing to continually adapt your prices to changes in supply and demand. 

Depending on your costs, you can also implement a whole host of other promotions included in your pricing strategy. You may be able to offer free shipping, improved returns facilities, or reduced delivery times to simplify the receipt of different products, especially Christmas gifts. 

Throughout this process of preparing your e-commerce business for the last quarter of the year, don’t forget to check your competition's prices periodically. Competitor price monitoring tools allow businesses to anticipate market changes and optimise decision-making to achieve a more competitive position without reducing their profit margin.