Email List Building
Some say email marketing is dead, but, its really not and it requires a savvy marketer to drive revenue from this valuable online marketing channel. Building your list now is important because you’ll need it for your big holiday sales. Here are some ideas to build your email list:

* Subscribe Now and Save on First Purchase: convince your customers to subscribe now by giving them an incentive to save on their first purchase with you. Try offering a 10% discount or free/discounted shipping.
* Weekly drawings: hold a weekly drawing in which the winner receives a gift. Its best if you can offer a product of high perceived value, but, one that costs very little to you.

Boosting AOV and UPT
You can take some steps to boost your average order value (AOV) and units per transaction(UPT) through promotions, but, don’t overdo it (read above). Take a look at October and November’s AOV and UPT metrics and compare it to October 2009 actuals and November’s forecast. Estimate a feasible percentage increase for both metrics and put some promotions out there to achieve those goals. We’ve seen 40 – 50% increases when implementing promotions designed to increase these metrics. This also sets a good base for when you decide on what promotions to run during peak.

* Free Shipping: let’s say your AOV is $50 and you want to bump that up 25%. That brings you to $62.50, but, round it out to $65. Simply create a promotion where customers can qualify for free shipping on orders of $65 or more. Be sure you make restrictions clear such as free ground shipping only and the qualifying dollar amount is based on product sub-total (that is, order total before taxes). Don’t be surprised if your AOV on this promotion is 40 – 50% higher than your normal AOV. People love free shipping. Use a unique promotion code to help with tracking.
* Buy X units, Get Y Free: let’s say you’re sitting on a ton of inventory of a specific product that is costing you money in inventory expenses and your boss is constantly bugging you to move the product. Let’s say your average UPT (use same date points as above) is 2.5 and you want a 25% increase. That brings you to 3.1 UPT, but, round it to 3. Now, create a promotion whereby if a customer buys 3 units of a certain selection of products, they get Y free. ‘Y’ is that product sitting in inventory that your boss is bugging you about. Assume those 3 products retail at $50 a piece…you just sold $150 and you are moving ‘Y.’ at the same time. That effectively boosts your AOV as well. Again, people like free stuff.

Other Promotion Ideas

* Create some timed specials and advertise it through email, PPC, social, etc. For example, run a Free Shipping Wednesday promotion each Wednesday of the month. Some online stores see a decrease in order/shipping volume in the middle of the week and this is a nice way to boost orders and keep your fulfillment team busy. Another example is running a special from 8am to 3pm (think of your West Coast customers…this becomes a 5am to noon special). Be sure to alert your loyal followers of this at least the day before.
* Create your own event to spur demand. Make one day Official Widget Day and create a story around it to get people’s interest. Broadcast this across email, PPC, social, landing pages, in-store signage, etc. Strategically merchandise a selection of products to make it a no-brainer for people to buy.

Then there’s Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday to get you rolling strong into the holiday season. We love brainstorming sessions so drop us a line with some of your ideas/challenges and let’s see what we can come up with. Drop us a line!

On retailer sites like Amazon, Wal-Mart, Target, look for information like:

* ISBN-10
* ISBN-13
* ASIN
* Item Model Number
* Item #

Don’t forget to add the product’s name and manufacturer ID in your list of keywords/phrases. Let’s use the Garmin nuvi 780 as an example:

* On Garmin’s site, you’ll see Part Number: 010-00657-05
* On Amazon’s site, you’ll see ASIN: B0011UEUNG and Item model number: Nuvi 780. If you’re savvy enough, you’ll also pick out the unique identifiers in the URL.
* On Crutchfield’s site you’ll find Item #150NUVI780.

For one product on three sites, there are at least three unique identifiers (I’m not including the Item model number from Amazon). While these may generate small amounts of traffic (and typically a very low CPC) in your campaign they may convert more often. The Internet is ultimately a research tool and many people will research a product before buying. The buying decision may be based on several factors including price, taxes, shipping costs, etc. The more often you appear in the search funnel the more likely you are to convert a visitor into a customer.

Home Page & Category Plans
Plan your home page and category page refreshes in advance. By ‘refresh’ I mean update imagery and products. Pull together data from last year to see what products did well and what page locations generated the most clicks and dollars. Also pull together the same data for this year. Take a look at your forecasts, market trends and plan your refreshes accordingly. Get your creative assets lined up and present mockups to stakeholders for final blessings.

Cross sells & Up sells
Cross-sells/Up-sells: This is an oft-overlooked merchandising area either because retailers don’t have the capability in their ecommerce platform or simply don’t know how to do this. Pull reports to determine most profitable product correlations. Basically, when product X is bought how often is product A, B, C, etc bought? This data will help you determine how to merchandise your cross-sells and up-sells. Of course, there are other factors you may consider for this: new products, forecasts, recent trends, etc.

Buyers guide
This is an excellent way to guide people’s buying decisions and get SEO benefit. Keep it simple by targeting price points, demographics and themes.

Category updates
Update your navigation to include categories like Gifts for Him, Gifts for Her Gifts Under $50, etc. Your specific business might require different categories, but, the goal here is to help people make purchases as efficiently as possible.

Next up…Shipping!

Staff
Your shipping team is an important part of the ecommerce department because they’re the ones sending products to the customer. Understand your staffing needs and make sure you have a core group of individuals who understand the products, standards you set in shipping, processes and have experienced the holiday rush in your business. These individuals will be key in making sure shipping goes smoothly and the new guys understand what is required of them

Supplies
One of the most overlooked elements of shipping is supplies. Don’t assume your vendor(s) will have the stock when you need it because they likely have other customers who want supplies when you do. Forecast your supply needs and negotiate cost with your vendor. Because you’re buying in advance, they should be willing to cut you some deals which ultimately helps to lower your per order fulfillment cost. If you’re tight on space ask them if they will store and deliver as needed – but they have to be close enough to your fulfillment center to make this an effective solution.

Shipping Rates
Here’s where you can save extra money. First, pull your shipping invoices from the previous two years and record the dollar amount per shipping method (ground, 2 day, etc.). Second, figure out how many orders you expect to ship this year and break it down by ground, 2 day, etc. Third, determine the zones to which you ship most often. Lastly, call your rep at UPS and FedEx. Tell them you want to negotiate shipping rates for the holiday and be prepared to show them your analysis. Play your UPS and FedEx reps against each other to get the best possible rates and get it in writing.

Shipping Calendar
Ask your shipping rep to give you a calendar of shipping dates for the holiday season. You need to understand your shipping window so you get orders in customers hands in a timely fashion. There’s no better way to lose customers than to deliver gifts on the 26th. Run Guaranteed to Get There promotions based on the shipping windows listed in the calendar.

Processes
Get your shipping team, customer service team and order processing team (or whatever teams you have in the order fulfillment chain) in one room and iron out any hiccups there are in the fulfillment process. Communication is key and designate point people along each step who will be responsible for communicating with others and raising the red flag when necessary.

Next up…Promotions!

Free shipping has become ubiquitous online…surely you’ve been to a site that offered free shipping and it helped close the sale. You should do the same. Research has shown that at least 45% of consumers will abandon a shopping cart because of shipping costs. If you offered free shipping you can incresae your sales tremendously. The smart way to do this is to calculate your site’s Average Order Value (AOV = Total Sales/Total Orders), Units per Transaction (UPT = Total Units Sold/Total Orders) and determine thresholds that will help you achieve your financial goals. For example, if your sites AOV is $75, then you may want to consider offering Free Ground Shipping in the Continental U.S. for orders of $85 (15% higher than AOV) or more. You’ll be surprised at how many customers will buy another product just to get free shipping. Be sure to advertise this promotion in your email campaigns, paid search spots and anywhere else you promote your site.

Gift With Purchase. Another great tool to increase your sales by offering value to your customers. This can be a great tool to liquidate old inventory. Be careful though…don’t give away anything of perceived low value because that can be detrimental. Use the same concept as above…create a threshold for qualification and promote it in emails, home page and paid search placements.

Percentage Discounts. This one is very simple, but, I’ve seen retailers lose money because they didn’t execute properly. Again set a threshold for qualification and give a nice % off. For example, get 10% off your purchase of $85 or more. And again…be careful! Be sure you exclude gift cards and exclude baskets that have minimum shipping/handling fees because they’re awkward to ship. There are other things to be weary of and be sure you understand how you implement this promotion.