The way we shop at Christmas is changing, last year there was a 13% increase in online spending over the Christmas season vs. the previous year. This brings huge opportunity for online retailers – and with 25% of shoppers starting their Christmas shopping before Halloween, now is the time to make sure your campaigns are ready for the festive season. For ecommerce, this means perfecting your shopping campaigns.
Here are a few tips to help you make the most of your Christmas shopping campaigns:
Be mobile ready
Ensure that your ads are running across all devices and that your site functions well on mobile. At a Google event this month, it was said that 40% of ecommerce transactions will be completed on a mobile device by the end of 2015. Of all sales, 16% that start on a mobile device are completed on another - these figures highlight the importance of mobile this Christmas as both the start and end point of sale.
Eliminate feed down time
Be smart with your shopping feed – ensure you’ve got everything running smoothly ahead of the Christmas rush, Make sure that your entire product feed is eligible to show to avoid missing out. Familiarise yourself with the Diagnostics Tab and ensure that you’re receiving the relevant email notifications about your Merchant Centre account when there’s a problem.
Remarket to convert more qualified consumers
Christmas shoppers are likely to be looking around for the best deals and the best products, use remarketing for shopping to tempt users back to your site. Be clever with your remarketing audiences, consider breaking down by cookie length, product type, or checkout stage etc.
Check your budgets
Be conscious of high-spending days such as Cyber Monday & Black Friday – you don’t want to be limited by budget so ensure you have allocated enough for the entire festive season. In more recent years we’ve seen an increase in purchasing on Christmas Day itself, with Christmas Day online transactions up 25% from 2013 to 2014. Visits to retail sites on Boxing Day are also up +20% YoY. Don’t forget about these important retail opportunities.
Shopping campaigns are a very powerful tool for online retailers, if you need any advice or help with yours this Christmas – get in touch and we’ll be happy to help!
