3 Mistakes That Kill Post Holiday Sales

Right now, all across the internet, e-tailers as well as brick and mortar stores with a strong web presence are gearing up for their big holiday pushes. You might be too if you sell your products and services online.

Smart marketing strategies now include planning for what is typically a long dry spell - that shopping season that starts just as the holidays are winding down.

Historically, online sales begin to slow with shipping cut off dates. Web stores tend to see decreases in overall traffic, increases in abandoned shopping carts and reduced sales. This trending typically carries through well into February depending on your market.

By avoiding these 3 commonly found mistakes, you can carry sales through 2011.

• Fail to Offer Downloadable or Printable Gift Cards

  Gift card sales are expected to reach almost $25 billion dollars this holiday season according to research by the National Retail Federation. According to Shop.org's annual e-Holiday survey, consumers voted gift cards as the #1 gift they would prefer to receive themselves. Givers benefit by avoiding long lines, crowded parking lots and enjoy the convenience of shopping online. Print-at-home or downloadable gift cards are a must - they will pull sales through from both convenience shoppers as well as the procrastinators who waited until after shipping cut off dates. Another plus is that consumers tend to buy bigger and better with gift card purchases averaging 40% more than the total worth of the gift card. Smart e-commerce groups reel in gift card holders by speaking directly to them in post-holiday sales messages. Make your online promotions are highly visible and create sections of your website devoted to recommendations for gift card holders.

• Wait Until After the New Year to Advertise

  a large segment of your customers love post-holiday sales and will be ready to take advantage of excess inventory and those irresistible clearance sales. Smart companies won't make them wait. If you don't get a jump start on your competition and run post-holiday promotions as early as possible, you might regret it. Use email and social media to drip promotions and specific "hot" items out for bargain hunters. Enable every available touch point for current customers - include post holiday sales promotions with shipped packages and on your email confirmations. These promotions will receive high visibility - people always open their boxes and their confirmation emails.

• Ignore Your Holiday Metrics

  This holiday season will give you a wealth of analytics data, but if you are too busy to break it down then you will lose out. With the right information you can send targeted follow up emails to customers who abandoned shopping carts and offer them free shipping to continue their purchase after the holidays. If you can track people that were interested in hot, out-of-stock items before the holidays you can revisit them once you have replenished inventory and key in on their demand. Remember, post-holiday product shopping can look much different than pre-holiday shopping. I personally spent a lot of time last January shopping for bargains on accessories for big ticket items that I had received during the holidays. I wouldn't have been interested in promotions on big ticket items any longer. Buyers often will be focused more on finding complimentary items and hunting down the bargain inventory so craft your advertising and marketing messages appropriately.

Start now - it's not to late - and avoid these 3 mistakes and you too can capitalize on strong post holiday shopping demand that will ensure a Happy New Year!

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