Top 3 tips to improve retailers' holiday season

This holiday season has the potential to be great - but also challenging - for marketers and merchants around the globe. Continued dealing with the global pandemic, more people than ever shopping digitally, shipping delays, but constant access to the newest and best products. We asked a digital expert for his top 3 tips to improve merchants holiday season bottom line.

by Kristina Knight

First, corral those window shoppers before they leave the site

"[Merchants should] use exit-intent pop-ups to convert abandoning traffic and grow your email list," said Adam Robinson, CEO & Founder, GetEmails. "One way to get people to stay on your site and convert is to offer a discount code or a special offer, such as free shipping, just as they're about to leave. There are a number of great tools that allow businesses to do that, for example, Privy and Optinmonster. These pop-ups can also be used to grow your email list by asking users to subscribe, then you can retarget them via email."

Second, find those abandoners once they're off-site and entice their return

"[Marketers should] send cart abandonment emails," said Robinson. "Around 70% of e-commerce shopping carts are abandoned before making a purchase, and 10% of them can still be converted if something is done to take them back to the website. These are shoppers who were just one step away from converting, and reaching out with the right messaging at the right time can make all the difference. If you use a platform like Shopify or Magento for your store or use an email marketing application, you can easily send automated cart abandonment emails to users who are logged in or are on your list. If they're not, you can use AddShoppers or GetEmails, for example, to identify anonymous buyers and send them follow-up emails. These emails can be so targeted and timely that in the future people will actually start expecting them, even if they aren't on people's lists already."

Third, improve customer support with live chat

"Holidays are the busiest time of year for retailers, and this means you'll also be getting a ton of queries. To ensure customers have the best possible experience, set up a live chat service with 24/7 support. The faster visitors get their questions answered, the more likely they are to convert. Reve Chat and Live Chat are two great options," said Robinson.

Tags: ecommerce, ecommerce marketing, email marketing, email tips, GetEmails