How to make the most of key retail sales periods

JANUARY

New Year gift returns

Not everyone is a gift-buying god. Sometimes people need to return gifts and that can cause retail customer service teams a whole host of problems as they try to marry up products with orders not placed by the person returning the item. Returns are a logistical nightmare at the best of times and take up valuable customer service time at a net cost to your business. To do that, you need to ensure your data is comprehensive and, most importantly, well organized. Organizing your data in a single platform provides easy access for your whole business and makes targeting and retargeting customers simple. Automating the returns process can also play huge dividends in time and cost savings, ensuring your team can focus on revenue-generating activities. 

FEBRUARY

Valentine’s Day

Finding the perfect gift for your other half is difficult enough, but doing it in the pressure cooker environment of Valentine’s Day is another altogether. But Valentine’s is big business and any brand that can tap into the collective panic-buying that occurs in the run-up to every February 14th can reap the rewards. Being able to quickly recommend products and convert on one platform is the holy grail of digital marketing, so you’ll need a tool that allows you to create bespoke product pages on a familiar messaging platform, such as SMS, that integrates with an eCommerce offering. Giving your customers the ability to buy on a platform they’re familiar with makes moving them down the funnel quickly much easier.

MARCH

Mother’s Day & International Women Day

Women wouldn't allow your gift to turn up three days late so when it comes to sourcing the perfect gift for your special ones, there’s extra pressure to get it right. Once your customers have found the perfect gift, ensuring it arrives on time is the final piece of the puzzle. Helping your customers avoid a special occasion failure by checking in real-time where their orders are provided peace of mind and are guaranteed to generate a positive customer experience. 

APRIL

Ramadan

People get busy preparing for Ramadan by stocking food and beverages, clothing/fashion, and household products. Reduce your service response time and gain control over service and sales channels during Ramadan. With the right eCommerce Customer Service Software, your service agents can resolve queries from all channels using one agent inbox, route queries to the right agent using skill-based routing & collaborate with internal & external stakeholders to provide the best resolution to a customer query.

May

Eid Al-Fitr

With presents to buy and celebrations to organize, customers are trying to tick things off their to-do lists at breakneck speed. Thanks to the always-on nature of online shopping your customers can squeeze in gift purchases whenever they have a spare second, but when you’re buying for multiple people, a bit of retail advice is always helpful. Make it easy for customers to get in touch with burning questions at the moment they’re ready to convert and alleviate the pain of recovering abandoned carts. 

JUNE

Father's Day

Allow your customers to spend more time with their Fathers on these special days by keeping them informed on their order, or food delivery status using SMS. Make sure your customers can keep tabs on where their order is with timely updates to ensure there are no red faces around the table on the big day.

JULY

Eid Al-Adha

Pre-Eid shopping is usually a major season in the Middle East. Delivering truly 24/7 automated customer service means you can be there to answer questions even when your team isn't, pushing those crucial extra sales. Improve your customer satisfaction and enable customers to self-serve and find information outside of customer service hours via a chatbot over their favorite communication channels, including WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Viber, Telegram, SMS, Google Business Messaging, and Web Chat.

AUGUST

Back to school

The end of the summer holidays come around quickly, and the list of things to prepare ahead of the new school year is lengthy. Items such as school shoes, bags, lunch boxes, and uniforms all need to be procured ahead of the new school year. Help stressed-out parents navigate their back-to-school shopping list with timely reminders and ensure you’re at the front of the queue for their custom. 

OCTOBER

Halloween

Pulling off a spooktacular Halloween takes some planning and the competition for scariest house decorations or most terrifying fancy dress is fierce. Ensuring the various elements of your celebration come together is crucial, but mistakes do happen. Allowing your customers to quickly amend any incorrect order information via live chat with an agent could be the difference between a disastrous Halloween display and a truly wicked one. 

NOVEMBER

White Friday

White Friday gets bigger every year and the overwhelming number of deals means it’s easy for customers to miss the things they’re interested in – and some they hadn’t even realized they needed. Being able to segment your customers means you’re able to target them with knock-out White Friday deals and reach directly into their inboxes instead of relying on them to spot your deals amidst the White Friday noise. Not only does this mean a more effective sales funnel for you, but it also puts you in the box seats for any additional purchases they happen to make…

Cyber Monday

It’s become one of the busiest times of the year for retailers.3 days of super sales follows hot on the heels of White Friday and demand for products is particularly high. Ensuring you’ve got a handle on your stock is key so quick efficient communication between different parts of your business, and your retail partners, will allow you to take full advantage of this potential sales bonanza. Efficient inter-team communication is child’s play if you have the right messaging platform.

DECEMBER

Festive Season

With presents to buy and celebrations to organize, customers are trying to tick things off their to-do lists at breakneck speed. Create a special Christmas landing page and share inspiration for the perfect gift for your family and friends. Motivate your customers by creating a special mobile-friendly landing page with the most wanted essentials in your shops and merchandise.

During the busiest times of the retail calendar make sure you take full advantage of the opportunities to increase your revenue with customer service, marketing, and AI-driven technology. Download our ecommerce infographic to find out how.