How your small biz can give the Amazon experience these holidays

By Sophia Skinbjerg | sophia.skinbjerg@ungapped.com

In an infographic recently published on Marketingprofs, Signal unwraps the 2016 holiday shopper. We decided to take a closer look at the data, using it to highlight how your small biz can give the Amazon experience this holiday season.

Marketers know that the holiday season is an obvious peak in consumer spending compared to other periods during the year. However, in order to truly capitalize on the increased spending, Signal shows that you’ve got to be able to provide a customer experience that exceeds expectations of the shopper. Here are our five key takeaways from the infographic.

The infographic is at the bottom of this post

Offer a way to purchase online

It’s expected that holiday season sales will increase 3.3% overall while ecommerce sales will increase 17% alone. If that’s not a sign that you need some kind of online shopping solution in place, then I don’t know what is.

via GIPHY

If you’re a retailer you likely already have some kind e-commerce solution in place. Perhaps a webshop or similar. This can be a little more tricky for those who are solely serviced-based, like a B2B agency or consultancy. So what can you do? Well, what this growth in ecommerce sales is more than likely pointing to is the convenience that online shopping offers compared to that offered by brick and mortar stores. If you’re tied to the desk a little more over the holiday season, then purchasing the kid’s gifts with 10 minutes is a hell of a time-saver versus hitting up your nearest department store.

So really the key takeaway for companies that don’t have an ecomm solution in place is to take the opportunity to make your sales funnel a process that is as convenient as possible for your buyer. That could be introducing some holiday season landing pages for your website. Or it could be staying in touch with your contacts a little more regularly with emails, offering them deals and offers that make their day just a little easier.

Make sure your experience is seamless on desktop and mobile

Thirty-six percent of shoppers use desktop as their first choice for browsing with around one in five using mobile for the same purpose. At a guess I would say that you’re already familiar with the importance of mobile but just in case it need reinforcing; the Amazon experience starts with providing a flawless cross-channel experience.

How your small biz can give the Amazon experience these holidays

Source: Signal. See infographic below.

Of course that starts with your website but your emails also play a huge part in that. Provided you’re using the right provider, your emails should already be responsive when you’re building them in the editor. If they aren’t and you are needing to play Tetris with a bunch of tools in order to have a responsive mailing then maybe it’s time to start looking elsewhere.

Be smart in your promotion

Not every channel will work for your business promotion and that’s because not everyone who is relevant to you is using every single channel. There’s always data showing which channel is preferred by generational cohorts but really, when it comes to your brand and your own communication, you won’t know which is the most effective channel until you test and measure it.

However, that being said, Signal found that holiday shoppers in particular were more likely to take advantage of tailored offers through three specific channels. And guess what? Email was number one.

Note the emphasis on tailored offers here. In order for your small biz to provide the Amazon experience, you need to be able to offer something to shoppers that is relevant to them. You can’t just send out a blast that hasn’t considered the needs of the shopper.

Build trust with reviews and a loyalty program

The Amazon experience is what it is because of three things according to Signal.

it’s easy to use
there’s a loyalty program
there are product reviews

Two of those elements are closely related and are relatively easily implemented into your own business. Reviews can be something as simple as testimonials from previous and current customers. The added bonus is that testimonials don’t only work great on your website but also across social media.

A loyalty program can sometimes be a bit more time consuming to implement but the benefits are well worth it. As I’ve mentioned earlier in this post, you don’t need to design something incredibly complex. Start with something small and trial the performance over the holiday season.

A good example that I’ve seen lately was at a small department store here in Stockholm. For every $10 I spend, I get a stamp on a small card. After 10 stamps I get $10 off the next purchase. Even though it’s small, it works. I’ve continuously gone back there for all my gift wrapping needs simply because of the card. Take a moment to think, can you implement something similar in your business?

Time your promotions right next year

Yes, I already want you to start thinking about next year. That’s because timing is everything when you want to provide the Amazon experience.

While some of us leave Christmas shopping to the very last minute, recent data shows that some 32 million Americans started checking their Christmas shopping lists as early as September. “So what?” you say. Perhaps some people are always early no matter the prevalence of promotions. Data says otherwise. Around 20% of top-performing retailers actually started their promotions back in September and that number increased to 35% by October.

What these numbers tell us that is that if you want to provide an experience akin to Amazon, then you need to be ahead of the pack. You need to start thinking about what kind of promotions you could roll out in September or October.