Is Your Business Ready For Christmas?

Well, it’s that time of year again! Christmas will be with us very soon, are you prepared to make the most of the extra business? Can you take more than your share of the lingerie sales opportunities?

The run-up to Christmas can be one of the most exciting, busy, and happy times of the year. It’s also a time for ‘The Christmas Sales Rush.’  Many of our retailer customers will expect to see a spike in their sales before Christmas, with their customers trying to get everything done before the big day. We know that this is going to be a very difficult year, with people having to put their energy costs first, and also this year, the fact that almost everything has become more expensive.  With this in mind, there is a massive opportunity for you to sell lingerie as presents, after all, why spend hundreds of pounds on expensive presents and trinkets she doesn’t know she needs, when you can buy her something of real quality, pretty, and romantic for far less outlay?

So here we go, here are some of the things you should check, or do to make sure your website is Christmas ready. If you have a boutique or shop we cannot physically get shoppers through your door, but we do have lots of ideas that may help you, just call Alterego’s customer services on Tel +44 (0)1482 623934  , and we will see what we can do to help you. Or drop us an email on customerservices@alterego-lingerie.com

• Start A Sale! Most customers start their Christmas shopping in October and November, yes, even men! So, there is no better time to begin and promote a sale, and at Alterego, we always have great offers for you in our Clearance section, that you can highlight in your sale. Make good use of our images, some of them are fantastic, decorate them with holly, and hey-presto, they’re Christmas images!  You can offer your own discounts, and don’t forget to ensure you advertise your sale on your site’s landing page, so it’s seen straight away. To specifically advertise this way can help to make sure people know where to find your bargains. Will you take part in Black Friday or Cyber Monday? Will you offer e-gift cards to shoppers who miss the last delivery dates? How about running a lingerie advent calendar on your site, using different Alterego brands super images on different days?

• Check Your Data from last year. Look at your Google Analytics, what pages were most visited, what were your top-selling products? How active were your users over the Christmas period? What devices did they use most – desktop, tablets, or phones? This data can really help you to focus on your marketing and/or social media strategy. You might be able to spot trends. Call Alterego Customer Services, we can tell you our current best sellers, what went well last year, and what offers are available to you now. If you know a product sold out last year, make sure your customers know it’s back in stock this year by featuring it, then, advertise products similar that they might like this year. Very importantly, don’t forget to cross-sell. Offering hosiery or accessories that can be worn with our lingerie increases the value of your sales, and also makes for a better gift to give. Also, add links at your checkout such as ‘other customers also bought’ or ‘you may also want to buy‘

• Social Media is of massive value now and can be a great help during the Christmas lead-up. Try making your feeds festive, it will make your hashtags more relevant, and you’ll get more likes, follows and retweets etc. Again, use some of the stunning images available from Alterego to encourage customers to visit your site – especially on Instagram. We also have some amazing videos that you can use for your You Tube channel. By making sure you’re posting relevant content about your products and your business, you’re creating potential for your customers to find out more about both – which is more likely to lead to sales. And, don’t forget your out-of-hours social media campaign, when people are off work, they are more likely to be using their social media. Not keeping your social media up to date, you might be showing that you aren’t too bothered or organised, and this could reflect other parts of your business, like customer support, and how you handle sales, so get busy and make it pretty!

• Ensure that what you are offering on your site is actually for sale! As you are no doubt aware, websites need to be maintained, and kept up to date with the latest products available to you. This could cause you major sales issues over the Christmas business period. It’s pointless putting all your energy into getting your beautiful lingerie found and then customers not being able to buy it. They will just go elsewhere and you will miss out. By far the easiest way of doing this, is to add products to your online store by importing them using a file. The great news is that at Alterego, we have these already prepared these for you in different formats. As a registered Alterego customer you have access to the downloads section on our site, which can be found under ‘my account’ in the top right-hand corner. Here you can freely download a full CSV or XML file of product data with all the descriptions, SKU’s, prices and more. You can also download all our product images and latest stock figures which are updated hourly. It’s also a good time to check that your site looks good on all devices – you don’t want a site that people can’t view on mobile these days!

Do you need help getting your site ready for the Christmas business rush? Or need some assistance getting those updates done? Do you want to find out about our new products, such as the new Shirley of Hollywood Christmas collection? Do you need help with pin-pointing those best sellers, or what to offer as add-in sales? Then get in touch with us on Tel: +44 (0)1482 623934 or contact us on customerservices@alterego-lingerie.com