How to Win the Frugal Holiday Shopper’s Online Dollar

Anne Garcia - November 29, 2010

How to Win the Frugal Holiday Shopper’s Online Dollar

The 2010 holiday shopping season is just around the corner and shoppers are cutting expenses and are savvier than ever with coupon code websites, Groupon specials and social media deal sharing. Here are a few ways to win the frugal holiday shopper’s online dollar.

Since online shoppers are hunting for deals, it is important to have strong and compelling promotions that stand out against your competition. According to Google, these are the most effective promotions that are most likely to drive a sale:

• Price discounts or sales
• Free shipping
• Coupons
• Customer loyalty programs
• Flexible payment plans

And don’t forget that a good promotion is nothing without effective marketing. Make sure to include your competitive promotions in your marketing messages.  Update your banner and text ads to include a touch of the holidays. Also, it is important to mention the last day shipping and overnight shipping is available in order for deliveries to be guaranteed on time for Christmas.

Allocate extra advertising dollars to your CPC campaigns in order to accommodate for the surplus of online shoppers. If your daily budget is limited, your ads may stop showing early in the day and you may lose out on valuable traffic to your website.

Create campaigns that target holiday keywords in addition to your brand and product-related keywords.  Some examples are, “Black Friday”, “Cyber Monday”, “holiday deals”, “Hanukkah” or “Christmas”.

When visitors get to your site, make sure your holiday promotions are clear and your site is easy to navigate. You don’t want to lose the visitor if he/she has already come this far.

These are a few of the most simple, yet critical ways to increase your sales during the holiday shopping season. Good luck and happy holidays!