After the highs of peak season, cross-border ecommerce brands will want to continue to capitalize on the pandemic-driven shift to ecommerce.
While it may seem that people did all their spending pre-Christmas, savvy cross-border ecommerce brands can take advantage of a long winter and market-specific lockdowns to encourage further shopping.
For cross-border ecommerce brands looking to encourage post-holiday customer conversions, here are 4 ways to optimize the experience for shoppers and get them clicking ‘add to cart’.
4 Ways DTC Brands Can Increase Post-Holiday Conversions:
- Run a sale
- Provide flexible returns periods
- Localize offers, language, content and communications
- Increase post-purchase retention
1. Run a sale
Believe it or not, shoppers never get tired of discounts, and are eager for sales in the New Year, even after the Black Friday/peak season period. Whether older stock is reduced to help clear it out and reduce warehouse storage costs, a discount is applied across the whole site, or a flash sale on new stock is implemented, running a sale – even close to peak season – will help with shopper conversion for Q1.
2. Provide flexible returns periods
One of the biggest changes for shoppers due to the pandemic was the increased likelihood of buying gifts online over the holidays and shipping directly to the recipient. This led to a new problem for the recipient and/or shopper – returns, and whether returns periods would accommodate them. According to MetaPack, 46% of shoppers won’t buy if there’s an inconvenient returns policy, showing brands the impact of returns on conversions.
If for any reason a gift needs to be returned, it’s important for brands to accommodate longer returns periods – especially over the holiday season or if there was a lockdown in the market limiting people’s abilities to carry out normal tasks. Communicating this at various touchpoints throughout the shopper journey – whether as a banner on the website, in email communications, or at the checkout – shows brands understand the shoppers’ less than usual situation and reassures them that in the event the purchase isn’t right for the recipient, they won’t have any problem making a return.
3. Localize offers, language, content and communications
Localization is a key aspect of a superior experience for the cross-border shopper and localizing the cross-border website has shown to increase conversions. While some countries (such as Scandinavian ones) are happy to shop on websites that don’t use their own language, most prefer it and certain countries (Russia) all but demand it.
Localization extends past language translation. It covers multiple aspects of the shopper journey from promotions, currency, payment methods, and address fields. Optimizing across all these areas for all markets, will ensure shoppers feel valued no matter what market they are in, which will lead to increased confidence in the brand and increased conversions as a result.
4. Increase Post-purchase retention measures
Post-purchase retention is an overlooked part of the shopper journey and one retailers can optimize to encourage repeat purchases. There are many ways that a brand can show a customer how valuable they are, whether it’s providing loyalty club points for purchases, reaching out after purchase with tailored offers or discounts, or creating VIP clubs for particularly loyal shoppers.
Investing in post-purchase retention measures will increase conversions if the customer was already happy with the experience they had going through the shopper journey from first steps to delivery and (potential) returns.
Conclusion
Increasing conversions post-holidays is possible, even during possibly slower times such as January or February. Tailoring communications and showing customers how valuable they are to a brand with authentic messaging and loyalty discounts, providing flash sales or discounts to encourage shopping, accommodating extended and flexible returns, and localising the experience will all work together to create a seamless experience for the shopper, which will lead to increased brand loyalty and conversions.
