10 ways to optimise your dropshipping marketing for Christmas

Christmas shoppers bring in huge profits over the festive season. Optimise your dropshipping website and marketing efforts to tailor the customer experience at this time of year.

These are the 10 ways to improve your Christmas dropshipping marketing:

1. Gift guides

2. Promotions

3. Aesthetics for your website

4. Timing

5. Stocking fillers at check out

6. Gift cards

7. Christmas ads

8. Email campaign

9. Prepare your website for high traffic

10. Prepare your customer service

Your sales should be sky-high with these techniques.

Creating gift guides for your online customers will not only inspire them with gift ideas but encourage them to purchase from your store.

What is a gift guide?

Gift guides are a compilation of gift ideas based on the type of person receiving the gift. Common gift guides include:

• Gifts for her
• Gifts for him
• Gifts for grandparents
• Gifts for new parents
• Gifts for little ones
• Gifts for tech lovers
• Gifts for fitness lovers
• Gifts for pet owners

These are great for offering a helping hand to visitors on your website. After all, Christmas can be a stressful time of year for everyone with a long list of people to buy for. People often get stuck for gift ideas and appreciate how easy it is to browse products in a gift guide.

Tips for gift guides:

• Use high-quality images of your products
• Only include products that are suitable as gifts
• Add a festive touch to your design

Every Christmas shopper loves a bargain. According to eBay Ads UK's "Christmas Spend Trends 2022," 60% of 2,010 British respondents said that a good deal is a top priority this year when buying gifts.

Similarly, in the US, Deloitte forecasts that American shoppers will also be cutting down on Christmas shopping thanks to inflation in 2022. The accounting firm says retail sales will only increase by 4-6% from last year.

What does this mean?

Well, with consumers tightening their wallets, promotions in the run-up to Christmas are one way to boost sales. Consider offering exclusive and limited-time-only deals that will spark urgency with online buyers to snap up a bargain while they can.

Festive aesthetics to your website will show buyers they are in the right place for Christmas. Remember, your dropshipping website should provide a great customer experience for online shoppers and make them feel excited to browse for products during the Christmas season.

Tips for festive aesthetics:

• Use Christmas colours such as pine green, holly berry red, snow white, silver, and gold
• Give your logo a Christmas makeover by adding a Santa hat or snowflakes
• Create Christmas landing pages that lead customers to festive gifts or promotions
• Add an advent calendar to your website as an incentive
• Make customers feel welcome with a Christmas greeting on your homepage
• Decorate your website with seasonal banners
• Publish Christmas content on your blog page

After Halloween is the general rule. As soon as the first of November strikes, most retailers crack out the Christmas decorations and marketing. Referring again to the eBay Ads UK report, around a third (32%) of Brits said they planned to start Christmas shopping earlier than last year. Just less than 30% said they wanted to begin by the end of August.

Likewise in Australia, a survey of 1007 respondents by CouriersPlease, 2022, found that 32% said they would finish Christmas shopping in October, 66% will be done by November, and only 6% will leave it all for December.

In the US, Walmart published a "2022 Top Toy List" on the last day of August this year as they anticipate earlier shoppers than usual. With inflation causing worries for consumers, experts are predicting that many will be waiting for Black Friday and Cyber Monday to take advantage of the sales.

So when should you start promoting Christmas?

If you haven't already, then now is the time. Ideally, shoppers will expect to see festive promotions online around the beginning of September, in tandem with back-to-school campaigns. As soon as Halloween has finished, the big push for Christmas shopping should be in place.

Checkout is a great place to prompt buyers to add extra items to their baskets. Suggest smaller products as add-ons to their purchase, a marketing technique known as "cross-selling."

For example, if a customer places a bicycle in their basket and goes to checkout, you might suggest that they also buy a helmet or another accessory for the bicycle.

Types of cross-selling:

• Complementary items e.g. a leather belt that matches a smart blazer
• Related products e.g. similar types of wooden toys
• Bundles e.g. selling a group of items that go together for a discount
• Previously viewed products

How can you promote stocking fillers? These might be items that are under €15 that customers can use as extra gifts for family and friends. Adding these to the checkout page as extras to consider will increase their basket value and generate more revenue per customer.

Every website should offer gift cards. They are an easy purchase for online shoppers and most people expect them to be available in all ecommerce stores.

According to a survey by the Retail Gift Card Association in December 2021, 44% of Americans said they would purchase a gift card if they needed a gift last minute. Three-quarters of respondents said they were giving at least one gift card for Christmas.

What's more, most gift-card redeemers spend more than the gift card value. Research from First Data estimated that of 1,000 UK consumers, 74% spent £41 more than the value of their gift card.

Push sales with a Christmas advertising campaign using festive imagery and content. Shoppers will be expecting seasonal ads from companies that will impress them with eye-catching graphics, promotions, and provoking copy.

Tips for Christmas ads:

• Create onsite pop-up adverts with discounts
• Make the most of onsite banner adverts
• Set up social media paid ads to boost traffic
• Set up festive pay-per-click campaigns with Google Ads

Email is the most powerful method of marketing. Across all digital marketing channels (social media, SEO, display advertising), email marketing is the most effective for sales conversions.

Take full advantage of this potent marketing tool by sending newsletters and mail shots to your subscriber list.

Christmas email tips:

• Use attractive festive designs to encourage click-throughs
• Offer special discounts and advertise sales
• Include exclusive discount codes
• Get your customers excited about Christmas with product recommendations

Is your website ready to handle high volumes of visitors this Christmas without crashing? Is it mobile-ready?

It's crucial to check your website speed, mobile responsiveness, and links such as landing pages so you don't miss out on potential sales.

Creating an amazing marketing campaign is only useful if your dropshipping store is prepared for the masses. Test your ecommerce site for broken code, broken links or mishaps with the design and content.

Christmas is a busy time of year for sales and after-sales support. Get on the right side of your customers by preparing a team dedicated to handling prompt enquiries, refunds, and complaints.

If you haven't already, display valid contact details for customers to reach you. This should be at least one phone number, an email address, and a website contact form so that any issues with product orders can be addressed.

Not only is this for customer service best practice but it encourages trust in your brand and increased customer loyalty.