12 Posts of Christmas: Tips 4 and 5–Gift Wrap and Gift Cards

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by Paul Boisvert

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Thursday, December 7th, 2006

Editor’s Note: Since many merchants are getting busier with holiday orders, I’m going to keep the next posts much shorter and provide some tactical tips you can do to ramp up holiday sales.

Part of the whole benefit of online shopping versus battling the crowds is convenience. Make it convenient for shoppers to buy from you, and your virtual cash register will start ringing non-stop during the holidays. One way to offer more convenience for holiday shoppers is to offer gift wrapping. I’d imagine the gift wrap option easily appeals to more ribbon-curling challenged men than women so if your buyers are typically men you would do well to consider this option.

Both the version 2 checkout (Order Forms) and version 3 checkout (Checkout Manager) offer the following gift options:

• Gift wrap: Allow buyers to select to have packages gift wrapped. Since this service requires extra time and cost, you have the ability to charge buyers per order or per item when selecting gift wrapping. Maybe you want to offer free gift wrapping on orders over a certain dollar amount, or maybe you want to wrap all orders where this is requested for free as a value-added service. Only offer though if you can spare the time it takes to wrap orders. You don’t want to fall behind and delay sending a package due to a backlog in wrapping some packages.
• Gift message: Allow buyers to send a gift message with an order. This message will be printed on the Packing slip that you can print and insert with the order. You may also consider dressing up gift messages with a special holiday gift label that you customize, print, and include with orders. Microsoft® Office Online offers templates for Microsoft Word™ such as this holiday label template. Not only will the buyer appreciate this extra touch, but you can also use this as a branding opportunity for a potential customer. Include your store address and your own holiday wishes. You can even include a coupon code for first-time buyers but remember to keep this more about the special gift message and less about advertising–no one outside of Hawaii likes spam for Christmas.

By offering a service or special touches you help to set your store off from competitors or mega-merchants that can’t or don’t offer these services. Doing so can win loyal customers that will shop year-round from you.

Paul Boisvert
Yahoo! Small Business

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