Ramping up for the Holiday Retail Season

by Stuart Lisonbee - Education Specialist, Doba

For retail merchants, "'Tis the season to be jolly" translates into "'Tis the season to ramp up my marketing efforts." If you put it off till the end of October, you've already missed out on some prime holiday marketing opportunities.

While traditional retailers are busy stocking their shelves to meet increasing demands, take the opportunity to ramp up your marketing efforts. Because Doba and its cadre of drop ship suppliers take the worries of inventory off your plate, you can focus your full attention on your holiday season marketing campaigns.

In this timely article, we reveal tips and strategies to make the most of the holiday retail season.

Focus on your core offering

Even Santa has to make his rounds to find out what the kiddies want for Christmas. Find out what your customers want, push the items in your product line that are likely to sell most briskly, and by New Year's Day, you'll find yourself jollier than old Saint Nick.

But if you're thinking about unloading some of your slow-selling items over the holidays or packing your virtual shelves with products outside your current product line, think again. Most experts concur that any sudden, uncharacteristic changes in your product line drive away more customers than they attract.

If your core offering is camping gear, for instance, don't suddenly start peddling iPods or other popular electronics gadgets. Doing so confuses your customers. Imagine stepping into what you think is a camping store to purchase items for a quiet weekend in the woods and having your eardrums blasted out by a top of the line audio system with massive speakers and a subwoofer. You'd probably step out of the store faster than you stepped in.

Freshen up your webstore content and design

The holidays present much more opportunity for sales than the anticipated bump in the number of shoppers. They also give you an excuse to freshen up your webstore's content and design. During the holidays, you have Christmas, Hanukah, Kwanzaa... Halloween in October, and Thanksgiving in November.

Create holiday specific themes for each of these occasions. Don't forget about other holidays throughout the rest of the year either. These are opportunities to unveil something new to your customers and give them a fresh shopping experience.

Vague up your search engine marketing keywords

When people are shopping for gifts, they generally aren't looking for something specific. All they know is that their nephew likes baseball, so that's what they search for hoping to stumble across something that looks interesting.

Consider adjusting your paid advertising to more aggressively pursue general search terms such as "pajamas," "golf," "camping," or whatever you perceive will most effectively drive gift shoppers to your products.

Cue in shoppers with a list of top-selling items

Holiday shoppers often think that when an item is a top-seller, it's a top-seller because everyone wants it. Whether or not the sales of an item accurately indicates how many people really want it doesn't matter. Top selling items, in the minds of consumers, means that something is popular and more likely to be well-received.

More to come

There's more to holiday merchandising (a LOT more) than the few tips we've suggested here. Keep an eye out in the coming weeks and months for more articles and training on holiday merchandising.Stuart Lisonbee is an eBay PowerSeller, eBay Certified Consultant, and former eBay employee. He currently works for Doba, a drop ship service provider, at www.doba.com