by Tom Shackleton
If you want to make the best of the benefits Halloween brings for online shopping, you’ll need to get ahead of the game. Planning seems to start earlier and earlier every year, but now’s the time to start thinking about how you’re going to add a touch of the supernatural to your eCommerce experience this time round.
If you want to make the best of the benefits Halloween brings for online shopping, you’ll need to get ahead of the game. Planning seems to start earlier and earlier every year, but now’s the time to start thinking about how you’re going to add a touch of the supernatural to your eCommerce experience this time round.
Here are 6 tips for getting ahead of the rest this Halloween:
Spook Up Your Store Design
It should be immediately apparent to any visitor that you’re in the Halloween spirit. Try tweaking the design of your shop, including your logo, to give it a halloween twist. If visitors are looking for Halloween related items in particular, updating your branding can signal to them that they’re in the right place.
Make sure that your Halloween branding runs through to your social media accounts too. Updating profile pictures and banner images should let your followers know what’s happening and keep your brand unified.
However, you don’t have to sell costumes or decorations to get in on the action. Halloween is a great marketing opportunity for any eCommerce store, so you can still give your store a halloween feel to really give your sales a boost.
Be Sure To Stock Up
Almost a third of shoppers start buying for Halloween before October. So, if you’re selling Halloween related goods, be sure to stock up early and start your Halloween efforts in good time. You don’t want to miss out on a huge segment of your potential market, so planning ahead and starting any promotions well in advance is a must.
You’ll want to use your planning to predict any increase in sales as a result of Halloween marketing efforts and offers, and make sure that you have the capacity to meet demand.
Complement Your Product with Content
A great way to add value to your customers’ shopping experience at Halloween is to offer them additional content such as blog posts, contests and quizzes. Potential customers for your eCommerce store may be drawn in by the relevant content and decide to make a purchase.
Writing a blog post related to your product or industry and then giving it a Halloween slant is relevant to people’s interests at this time of year and can draw in both search traffic and social media attention from people looking for Halloween related content. Halloween, as a holiday, is a little tongue-in-cheek so write any blog posts in the same tone. Be engaging, human and humorous, if you can.
You could provide customers with a Halloween related quiz, competition or even create a video like this one from Ikea from a few years ago. It’s something that’s beyond most people’s budget and capability, but does illustrate well the tone to take and the fun you can have with creating Halloween content for your eCommerce store.
Promote It with Digital Marketing
The Halloween celebrations shouldn’t stop at your eCommerce site itself. Promoting your store on social media with Halloween related posts is fantastic for engaging with your customers and gaining the attention of users you wouldn’t usually reach.
The social media buzz around Halloween is always big. So take advantage of it by using hashtags on Twitter to join in the conversation and direct some of that traffic your way. Don’t forget to continue the same tone from your content production through to your posting style and show your products in a Halloween setting whether they’re directly related to the holiday or not.
You could even use Halloween as an opportunity to try new platforms or techniques. The very first Snapchat ad was a Halloween ad for the horror movie “Ouija”.
Offer Something Extra
Halloween is a good opportunity to increase sales on your eCommerce site, but it’s also a good opportunity for your competitors, so you’ll need to do something to stand out and offering something extra to your customers is a useful tool for doing that.
If you sell Halloween related products, try offering them in bundles. After all, customers are likely to want a whole costume or enough decorations for their house. Make it attractive for them to use you as a one stop shop.
Offering a discount code is also a good idea both for attracting customers and for promoting on social media. Create a discount code with a Halloween theme like “SPOOKY123” and post it on social media and and encourage your fans and followers to share it. Including it on the banner of your website should also help retain customers who visit your eCommerce site, no matter the landing page.
Prepare for Christmas
Probably not the heading you wanted to see at this time of year but as all retailers know, Christmas preparations start a long time in advance and you shouldn’t miss out on a chance to include your Halloween activity in that as well. Subtly telling all of that extra traffic that you’ll be offering great deals come the Christmas holidays as well, could bring some of them back.
It may be the time to add a Christmas sub-section to your store or begin promoting it to your email lists, just so that new customers are aware that you’re a great place for Christmas shopping when the time comes.
In Summary…
With Halloween comes big opportunities for reaching new audiences, deepening interaction with your customers and boosting your sales. If you plan early, there’s so much you can do even if you don’t sell costumes and decorations.
How are your Halloween preparations going? Get in touch with us on Facebook or Twitter and let us know.
