The Christmas in July sales just ended, but the holiday shopping season will be here before you know it. Here’s an early present for b-to-c companies: the winning formula for getting folks to shop with you instead of your competition. There’s still time for your company to consider embracing this strategy before the
ever-elongating holiday shopping season commences. The key to success, according to online shopping experts:
Gift cards + free shipping = more customers
Makes sense: It combines the two features consumers look for in a shopping experience.
Gift cards continue to rise in popularity as the present of choice. A full 62% of people now say they’d prefer a gift card to a pre-selected present, according to a recent survey by Neilsen Online.
No one likes to see any shipping charges in that virtual shopping chart. In fact, people are willing to pass you over, regardless of your product, just to save the $7.95 on shipping. Nearly two-thirds (61%) of consumers say they’re more likely to shop with an online retailer that offers free shipping. That’s straight from Forrester Research.
So the biggest win this holiday season will go to businesses that do both: Offer gift cards with no charge to ship them!
Even if you attach shipping charges to everything else, excluding gift cards will nab you more business. Or at the least, offer periodic promotions for free shipping so customers can jump on that ever-so-attractive offer from time to time.
