thanksgiving
Photo Credit: krisdecurtis

Over here in Singapore, we don’t celebrate thanksgiving very much. In fact, for me, life goes on as per normal if not for what I read from my blog RSS subscriptions.

In the US, thanksgiving marks the start of the holiday season, and is celebrated on the 4th Thursday of November. So starting this Thursday, the adult population of America’s 303 million people will be heading on the streets shopping for their holiday gifts.

History has shown that many employees take this Friday off just to head shopping, so much so that the Friday after Thanksgiving is called Black Friday – marking the busiest retail shopping day of the year.

So this weekend will be packed for you if you are a retailer in the US.

But that’s in the US. What affects us here directly in Singapore, or rather, online retailers all around the world, is Cyber Monday! That’s the Monday after the frenzy weekend of shopping!

Cyber Monday is reportedly the kickoff of the online shopping season! You see, after the weekend of brick and mortar shopping, when the people head back to their offices and in front of their computers, they continue to shop… online!

So are you prepared for next Monday?

What about the gloomy economy?

One major concern you might have is “With all the news on the economy going on, will people still shop?”

Yes. The economy may affect the total expenditure, but it does not affect trends as much. People will still shop more during this period.

According to the Yahoo Search Marketing blog post on Cyber Monday:

… the average consumer plans to spend $832.36 this holiday season and 44.2% of those consumers plan to buy items online

That’s a whole lot of money.

In fact, with the economic crisis going on, I feel that online shopping this year will take a larger pie than before.

Shopping in retail malls are most of the time deliberate. With news of the gloomy economy all around, many conscious consumers will note to themselves to “not make the trip to the mall” to stop spending, and stay at home.

… and when they do stay at home, that is where they use their home computers and surf the net!

So have you optimized your site for this festive season? If not, here are a few strategies you might want to quickly roll out!

#1 Get your site to look like you know its the festive season!

Throw out a new theme for your site. Let people know feel the holiday season when they visit your site. I know there is an economic crisis, but you don’t have to keep reminding your customers that!

By the way, if you are wondering… a theme with green, red and gold is good for this season!

#2 Know what is in trend

Do a quick analysis on Google Trends to find out if a particular product will be hot during this period. For example, if you look at this trend, its obvious that PSPs hit a high during this festive period and flowers do not.

Thanksgiving Trends

So if you are selling flowers, maybe its time you look for joint venture partners to put your flowers as an upsell, or package it together with something that is going to be in demand!

#3 Highlight your offers

Do you have special deals for this season? You should, and you need to highlight these offers. Consumers always respond to discounts and bargains. Even if you originally something for $50, you can put it at $49 and then get the right to say that you are running a discount!

Write out all you are providing – including free wrapping, free delivery, etc. List them all down on you sales copy. State the benefits of every offer. Are your services helping your customers to save their valuable time? Be direct and tell them that! Let them know you want the best for them.

#4 Use dynamic pricing

One great way to do this for this festive season is to have an “early holiday shopper” promotion. You can let your consumers know that they can save more money by buying now – you can sell a widget for $20 the last week of November, $25 in first 2 weeks of November, and $30 as the Christmas arrives.

After Christmas, hold a “Post Christmas Sale” to clear out your inventory and then work on the “New Year Sale” immediately. Many will be tempted to continue shopping when they see their peers get the wonderful Christmas gift that they wished so much for!

#5 Offer the right package at the right time

Know what is on your customer’s mind. Before Christmas, focus on “getting this for Christmas”, after Christmas focus on “great investment for the upcoming year” and package your offer to fit this message.

For example, if you are in the computer gaming industry, before Christmas offer the customer to “get a Playstation Portable for your Christmas gift“, and after Christmas, offer a 12 month package with new game titles every month so they will “be up to date with all the hottest games for the whole of 2009”

#6 Stock enough

Nothing can be more frustrating than to have some wanting to buy your product only to find that you don’t have it in stock. If your Google trends analysis shows that a surge is coming, be ready for the surge. Stock up!

Get ready your site for the holiday season. It will be well worth it. Many online shops make their year’s profits entirely from the peak seasons!