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The holiday sales don’t end with Christmas. Even though there are only six more days left in the year, there are plenty of sales that you can continue running. Buyers are still in the mood to buy, you may just need to get creative with the sales. These sales can include creative discounts, contests, boxing day specials, and New Year’s deals. Ensuring that you’re taking advantage of these opportunities can increase your revenue.
After Christmas Sales Ideas:
- Boxing Day
- Kwanzaa Sales
- After Christmas Sales
- “Buy One, Give One” Offers
- Take $50 Off
- Buy Now, Pay Later Special
- Free Item with Purchase
- New Year’s Day
- Tips for Making the Most of After Christmas Sales
Boxing Day
The day after Christmas is known as “Boxing Day” in the United Kingdom. Boxing day traditionally was a day when the employers distributed food, clothing, money and other goods to their employees.
The term, “Christmas Box” in Britain referred to a Christmas present. Boxing day was a day off for servants. They would receive a “Christmas Box” from their master. The servants would also give boxes to their families.
- December’s highest traffic day (for mobile)—is the day after Christmas
Boxing Day is a fun time. Online businesses can take advantage of the social media excitement that comes from sharing the Christmas gifts received. They can create photo competitions and have customers share photos of their gift-recipients using their goods. Offer a % off on Boxing day to anyone who shares a Christmas photo.
Another great marketing strategy is to further the discounts during the sale to anyone who took part in the campaign. It gets the word of mouth marketing going!
Kwanzaa Sales
Kwanzaa is a secular festival observed by many African Americans from December 26 to January 1 as a celebration of their cultural heritage and traditional values. Kwanzaa culminates in a feast and gift-giving. Kwanzaa derives its name from the Swahili word for “first fruits.” It is based on the harvest festivals. Each day a candle is lit and gifts are exchanged.
Online stores can tailor their sales to include Kwanzaa themed products. These can be brightly colored shirts, mugs, and candles. Woolworth’s kicked off last year’s Kwanzaa celebration by offering African themed books, cards, and art.
Stamping Up also took advantage of the Kwanzaa holiday and created Kwanzaa cards as well.
After Christmas Sales
In the United States, many stores simply refer to the post-Christmas sales as “After Christmas Sales.” They often offer huge discounts in order to move the products and get in the new products for the new year.
These discounts can be a percentage off, Buy One Get One deals or you can even get free items during these after Christmas sales. There are a wide variety of promotions that are effective.
“Buy One, Give One” Offers
Shoppers will still be enticed to buy one and get another item for a good cause even though the season of giving is winding down. Offering a “buy one, give one” special that delivers an article of clothing or household item to a known charity can inspire shoppers to be generous and spend more.
Toms.com is a great example of this “buy one, give one.” They allow you to provide a pair of shoes for a needy child all year. After-Christmas shoppers tend to be in a very giving spirit. They want to help national charities like the Salvation Army, and the United Way.
The sale is an opportunity to reduce inventory and gain tax benefits. It is possible to co-market with a well-known not-for-profit organization that has a large email list.
Take $50 Off
During Black Friday and Cyber Monday, shoppers were enticed with deep discounts and large percentages off their purchases. It is very refreshing when a store offers a simple discount, such as $25 off a $50 purchase or $50 off a $100 purchase. People tend to like whole numbers when it comes to getting a discount. They also don’t want to pull out their calculator to figure out the cost.
Williams-Sonoma offered $50 off their all-clad slow cookers in 2017. That is a pretty big portion of the cost. The All-Clad Slow cookers are items that are also very popular and get a lot of use around the holidays. Therefore, the sale drew in a lot of people.
Buy Now, Pay Later Special
Shoppers tend to be very depleted once the New Year rolls around. Offering a payment plan of “buy now, pay later,” can stimulate some shoppers to make a purchase. They won’t have to pay immediately, but the store will realize the full profit.
It is better to have payment plans than slow-moving inventory. You should check out PayPal’s Bill Me Later or a similar service for this type of offer to work.
Overstock makes use of this technique. Since furniture purchases can be overwhelming for many consumers, it can be easier to break up the price into monthly payments. With the Bill Me Later feature, customers can avoid paying interest if they pay in full within the first six months.
Free Item with Purchase
People are suckers when it comes to getting items free. Consider giving away a free product with their next purchase. This could be a t-shirt, hat, mug, gift card or something similar. Better yet, make it a product that has your logo on it so you can get additional advertising when they wear it.
You can give away an overstocked product or custom item that you ordered back at the beginning of December. The idea is to reward the customer for their loyalty and give them something extra.
The excellence of a gift lies in its appropriateness rather than in its value. – Charles Dudley Warner
New Year’s Day
New Year’s Day is a great opportunity to promote your store and brand new products that will kick off the New Year. The products that do really well around New Year’s are ones that focus on accomplishing goals. Weight loss products, self-help books, personal development, and improvement programs are the biggest sellers.
For New Year’s Amazon features products that promote better health, fitness, organization, and money management. These are areas in which many people tend to want to turn over a new leaf in the new year.
Tips for Making the Most of After Christmas Sales
- Plan early for your sales. Most marketers start planning for holiday sales in September.
- Email your list. Start sending out emails to your list announcing your sale. Email converts best for holiday shopping. It converts at a rate of 4.29% and generates 27% of the holiday sales.
- Estimate what will be left after the Christmas sales. Integrate the data that you gained from Christmas shopping as you plan specials. Make backup marketing images featuring other items if you run out of the ones you want to feature.
- Use unique and aggressive marketing techniques. Consumers have been bombarded with ads. Ensure that your after Christmas ads are unique and attention-getting promotions. Keep the ads running until the end of the year. People are still in buying mode, so stay aggressive with your marketing.
- Big discounts are always eye-catching. People always take notice when things are more than seventy percent off.
- Advertise on social media. People use social media during the holidays for a variety of reasons. Many are on vacation and have time to spend on social media. The Christmas season is one of the few times of the year that everyone is on social media at the same time. It is an excellent time to market on social media. Use Facebook ads, promoted posts, and ads on Instagram.
- Include a discount coupon or gift card for a January purchase when selling items in December. This ensures that the sales continue on into the new year. Offer a discount that will activate 2-4 weeks after the first transaction. This is a great way to get people back into the store.
- Run a fun post-holiday contest. Online contests generate massive word of mouth referrals and spark tons of interest. Encourage your customers to post pics of the best or worst holiday gifts they received. Offer the people who enter the contest a five percent discount. Give the winner of the contest one of your most popular items.
Looking for more ways to enhance your sales all year? Try adding a referral program to your eCommerce store and take a look at some of the best referral program examples for inspiration.
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Melinda is a blogger at ReferralCandy. She loves learning about internet marketing and maintaining her own fitness blog. She enjoys running, swimming, dancing and Pilates.
