2020 has been the year for eCommerce—there’s been a 37% increase in eCommerce sales since 2019. The pandemic has forced everyone in their homes, and online shopping became the way of life in 2020, and this year’s sales are proof enough.

On Cyber Monday of this year, the U.S. saw its biggest eCommerce day ever, with online sales having reached around ten billion dollars. And that’s great news for online businesses and retailers who are now anticipating even large sales brought along by this holiday season.

Businesses have been upping their marketing game, and everyone is keen on keeping their campaigns alive and running until the very last second.

Cater to your last-minute shoppers and customers with these five tips to keep your business relevant in this very saturated market.

Create exciting email newsletters

With the holiday season still ongoing, our inboxes are being filled to the brim with all kinds of emails promoting discounts, gift cards, and offers, reminding us of just how much we all love holiday shopping.

Generally speaking, email marketing is the weapon of choice for almost 59% of B2C marketers and 81% of B2B marketers. Some of them even claim that it’s their biggest source of ROI. With that said, it’s worth considering giving more time and effort into perfecting your email marketing strategy for these upcoming weeks.

Start by creating a sense of urgency—for example, including words like “free shipping,” “limited time only,” “20% off,” “buy now.” Your customers are already aware of the time constraints, so keep reminding them of that.

Also, when constructing these emails or newsletters, keep this golden rule in mind: keep it personal, sweet, and simple. Use a simple (and festive) design, keep your text short, and make sure you personalize your emails through customized content, tailored discounts, abandoned cart emails, and other tactics.

Ureed.com has over 400 freelancers who specialize in digital and email marketing. Want our personal recommendation? Try Duaa Sidi Gaber, a professional freelance digital marketing strategist and expert content writer who can handle your email marketing campaign from start to finish.

Enhance your customers’ mobile experience

As of 2020, smartphones account for about 52% of website traffic worldwide. Pandemic aside, that number has been steadily increasing over the past few years, indicating that people are finding it safer and more efficient to do their shopping online.

And since we mentioned email marketing, it’s worth noting that about 85% of online users access their emails on their phones. This is why it’s important for you to consider not only the user’s online experience on desktop, but also on mobile.

Last-minute shoppers are impatient and impulsive, so it’s important that you offer them a smooth, hassle-free shopping experience on their phones. Their thumbs are going to be in a frenzy tapping on the screens, so consider incorporating large-sized CTA buttons and making the mobile version of your website easy to navigate. Having an app is a big bonus that will surely attract more online shoppers.

Need an expert mobile app developer? Look no further than Ureed.com freelancer Tejas Shah, a professional with over 15 years of experience creating and developing apps for B2B businesses.

Engage your community on social media (bonus: using videos!)

Around three billion users are on social media, and there’s a good chance those people will be browsing their stories and posts for last-minute sales.

Start targeting consumers on the most popular social media networks: Facebook, Youtube, Whatsapp, and Instagram. You can use Instagram stories, for example, to humanize your brand and strengthen your relationship with your customers. Try creating animated videos to keep your online followers engaged instead of using static photos for your posts.

Ureed.com has hundreds of social media experts. Here’s one of our personal favorites: Hadil Ghanem, a social media consultant, caption writer and editor, who can execute your entire social media campaign flawlessly.

Give your eCommerce website a little makeover, both in terms of design and specs

Don’t let your customers walk into a plainly designed website with little to no festive cheer—or worse, one that is slow and sluggish. There’s nothing more unappealing to an online shopper or customer—especially one who’s in a hurry to make a purchase—than staring at a loading screen or adding to an online shopping cart that glitches.

You’ll want your team to check your website for bugs, unnecessary website features, or anything else that could contribute to high load; aim for a spotless website and comfortable shopping experience. Also, monitor site traffic so as to stop your website from potentially running too slow.

And don’t forget to design your website so that it’s more inviting—it’s the holiday season, so use your website to put your users in a more “festive” and cheerful mood. You’re more likely to keep your customers on your website if you give them a fresh, beautiful design to marvel at while they do their last-minute shopping.

You can hire a Ureed.com freelance UI/UX designer in minutes to give your website the fresh makeover it deserves. If you want our personal recommendation, try Momina Rehman. Not only is she experienced with hundreds of design tools and trends, her UI portfolio speaks for itself.

Go hard on SEO

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a great way to invite organic, unpaid traffic to your website. Every business, whether B2B or B2C,  hoping to gain more online traffic should have an SEM strategy in place. And right now, renewing that strategy to cater to the new traffic brought by the holiday season is integral for a successful holiday marketing campaign.

Use keywords that your customers might be using during this time of year and use them for your website’s content or blog. Keywords will help drive the right kind of traffic to your website and put you ahead of your competitors.

On such short notice, it’s impossible to train and upskill your team on SEO, or to hire a full-timer. Thankfully, Ureed.com has hundreds of SEO specialists who can take care of your SEO needs in mere hours. How about Ramazan Asci, an SEO expert with a wealth of experience in digital marketing for B2B and B2C businesses?

The bottom line

We’ve said it once, and we’ll say it again; these three words will help you better navigate the high-traffic holiday season: keep it personal, sweet, and simple. There’s something very personal, warm, and intimate about the holidays that you can use to your advantage by instilling that same feeling of warmth in your customers. With the right team in place, you’ll be able to survive the end-of-year sales with little trouble and breeze through the next few weeks.