Promotional periods such as Christmas, Boxing Day or Valentine’s Day are among the most important times of the year for online retailers. However, to get the most out of them, online sellers need to be sure that their check-out process is as effective as possible.
In a recent 2Checkout webinar, I had the opportunity to share some of my top tips for increasing both revenue per visitor (RPV) and average order value (AOV) through checkout optimization tactics while sharing insights on how to upsell and cross-sell effectively.
Read on for an overview of the key points from our session.
How to increase average order value with Christmas offers
The holiday season is a time when customers often spend more than usual. It is therefore an opportunity to increase your average order value.
Attract customers with engaging emails
Since customers are already in shopping mode during these times, chances are they will be receptive to email with special offers.
Ideally, these emails should be particularly well presented with seasonal themes. Besides, they definitely should contain a call to action. This should contain a link that takes the buyer directly to the relevant page, which is usually the checkout page.
In general, the best strategy is to promote your offer in a series of three emails. Each of these emails is an opportunity to prompt the reader to take action.
email 1 – Announce the offer (dispatch 2 weeks before the offer date).
email 2 – Remind customers about the offer (will be sent 1 week before the offer date).
email 3 – Highlight that the offer will end soon (1 or 2 days before the offer closes).
Customize your regular buyer personas
During the holiday season, you may find new customer segments hitting your checkout when you’re shopping for gifts. If you have historical data, you can analyze it Identify trends specifically at holiday time.
Alternatively, you can ask shoppers to take surveys about their habits and preferences. However, you may need to do this provide an incentive for buyers to fill out the survey.
Use the results of your analysis to develop seasonal buyer profiles. Then consider what type of promotional offers would be best for your vacation customers.
Pay particular attention to customers who have an above-average order value. Find out more about these customers and create promotionsespecially for her.
Personalize your checkout experience
the more you can Personalize your checkout experience, the more appealing you make it. The more appealing you make it, the greater the chance that the buyer will complete the purchase.
In particular, aim to provide buyers with personalized information about shipping and delivery (both costs and times). That’s always useful. It can be crucial during holiday periods.
Also, be sure to base cross-sell offers on those of the customer actual purchase history. If the customer is brand new to you, show them items that customers in the same segment often buy together with that product/service. Don’t just show the customer items that are similar to the one they just bought.
Invest in a customer loyalty program
It costs 5x more to acquire a new customer than it does to acquire a new customer keep existing ones one. Additionally, the average conversion rate for new customers is 5-20%, while the average conversion rate for existing customers is 60-70%. It therefore makes sense to retain customers with a loyalty program that includes:
- special sale
- initial offers
- Cash Back Incentives
- discounts
- gift cards
Try to A/B testing Your loyalty offers as much as possible. This will identify which offers are most effective so you can focus more on them.
How to increase revenue per visitor with advertising tools
Before making any sales, you must Bring customers to your website. This is especially important during the promotional season. You should therefore be prepared to invest as much as possible in maximizing the volume of quality traffic your website receives. Some ways you can do this are:
- Paid Ads
- Social Media Posts
- Email Newsletter
You can unlock potential attention of customers by including holiday gifts, discounts and other special promotions. This is a particularly good time of year to offer free shipping. Other options are:
- Sharing seasonal news
- Ongoing competitions
- Call people who tag you and encourage other people to yell at you
- Using seasonal hashtags.
Once visitors land on your website, you want to keep them there. Ideally, give your website a refresh vacation. This can be as simple as an updated landing page.
At least make sure your web design is user friendly. In particular, you need to ensure that the customer has an easy path from the landing/product/service pages to checkout.
Use social proof to power your checkout process
According to psychological theory, people base their own purchasing decisions on what they have seen others do. Offering some form of social proof at checkout can help the customer over the last barrier to make a purchase. It can therefore do a lot to increase conversion and reduce cart abandonment.
Studies conducted here at 2Checkout show that offering social proof at checkout can reduce cart abandonment by up to 11%. It can also increase revenue per visitor by up to 21%.
The social proof has to be highly visible (e.g. near the call to action). At the same time, these trust elements need to be built into the cart page in a way that doesn’t detract from the overall usability of the checkout page by visually confusing the user. This means that the best forms of social proof are short and simple, such as:
- Product Performance Statistics
- Awards, partners, editorial logos
- Trust seals, certifications, memberships
- star ratings
Generally you would like avoid Placing user ratings and social media comments on the checkout page. These can be too distracting for customers. Instead, place them on the product/service pages.
Try to save sales with exit offers
If your website detects that your customer is on their way (via their mouse movements), you can still try to save the sale with a Exit Intent Popup. These are dynamic and can be used for different purposes; The most important include:
- Suggest a special offer
- Encourage the customer to leave their email address
- Ask a question
Exit-intent pop-ups can be combined with fear-of-missing-out (FOMO) offers for an additional fee power of persuasion. FOMO offers are compelling offers that the customer will miss out on if they don’t act quickly. You can enhance the limited-time aspect of FOMO offers with graphics and animations, such as: a countdown timer.
Still try to A/B test your social proof, exit-intent popups, and FOMO offers. Pay particular attention to revenue per visitor (RPV).
This is important when you are bidding discounts. You need to quickly determine if the increase in conversion rate is enough to offset the drop in sales. If this is not the case, you must end the action immediately.
Upselling and cross-selling during the checkout process
Upselling is selling the customer an upgrade to the product/service they were planning to buy. In cross-selling, a complementary product/service is sold to the customer.
How to create effective cross-selling offers
You can sell individual items. Alternatively, you can create product bundles (also called packages). These come in three main forms.
1. Pure bundles – these contain items that are sold exclusively in this bundle.
2. Mixed bundles – This includes a mix of exclusive and non-exclusive items.
3. Prize Packages – these contain items that are discounted when bought together (e.g. if you buy one, get one free)
How to present upsell and cross-sell offers
The traditional approach of using a overlay or lightbox Offer on checkout page tends to increase cart abandonment. It therefore reduces revenue per visitor.
Instead, allow the customer to do so complete purchase. Then present the offer on the thank you page or an intermediate page. When cross-selling, you can also send the offer with the order confirmation email.
How to protect your Exchange rate and therefore your RPV, while still retaining the option to upsell.
Again, ideally you will AB test different approaches to see what works best for your target customers.
To see my full recommendations from the webinar, as well as the case studies I presented, watch the entire session here.
