12 Posts of Christmas: Post Two—Customize your header for the Holidays

If I didn’t have a calendar I would know it was the holidays when my uncle swaps his regular welcome mat for his festive one that says “Ho! Ho! Ho!”. So how do you put out the welcome mat for holiday shoppers?

You can pretty easily customize a few elements on your site to get it ready for the holidays. In my last post I wrote that you may not wish to put up your “holiday decoration” early but you may need time to produce “holiday graphics” for your site.

So how do you deck the halls in your site?

• For Store Editor 2.0, replace the name-image (located in Variables) your site may normally have with one that incorporates holiday graphics.
• For Store Editor 3.0, you can do one (or both) of the following:
  • Upload an image to the header-background-image variable. Note you will need to edit your CSS to upload a taller header background image than the default height setting.
  • Upload a special holiday banner image to the Intro-text field on the Home page to have an image appear at the top of all pages of your site.
  • Upload your image to the files area and reference the image using HTML in the tagline variable. Note: You will need to make edits to your CSS if the graphic is larger than the default size (225px). You can add new rules for the #brandmark and #slogan ids to the css-edits file to adjust the default padding and width.

Example store shown with image uploaded to tagline variable.

With using either the Intro-text field or the Tagline variable the HTML you use to reference the image can also include links. You may wish to create a special holiday category (section) with sub-categories of products sorted by price or who the gifts are for (gifts for him, her, kids, etc). You can then have the entire image be a link to your holiday section.

For more examples of incorporating the holidays in your store branding, check out 37 Signals Holiday Ecommerce Ideas.

Up next—spreading the word.

Paul Boisvert
Yahoo! Small Business

Yahoo! Small Business Holiday Shopping Survey Release

Just a quick note to point out a survey that we released yesterday in cooperation with Harris Interactive. The survey polled a group of shoppers on questions related to their holiday buying. Some interesting findings include:

• Almost two-thirds of shoppers said niche or boutique stores were the best place to find unique gifts.
• Three-fourths of those surveyed said they are likely to purchase gifts from an online small business.

Other interesting survey results:

• A trusted secure online payment system led in terms of providing a positive shopping experience followed by a site that is easy to navigate and a simple checkout process.
• Free shipping followed by online discounts and hassle-free return policy were the greatest incentives to make a purchase.
• Recommendations from family and friends slightly beat out search engines in terms of influencing where shoppers buy products.

For more info read our press release.

Paul Boisvert
Yahoo! Small Business

The 12 Posts of Christmas (or more broadly, the Holiday Shopping Season): Post One—Get your shopping season started early

In this series of posts, we will provide some short tips and thoughts for pumping up your holiday sales. You can also refer to our general overview of the holidays in the Here Comes Cyber Monday post.

Why would anyone want to start their holiday shopping early? If you can answer that question correctly, you can effectively target the type of shoppers that shop online and start early. So what is the answer? I can think of a few (you may add others):

• Convenience—Shopping online does not involve hauling yourself down to the mall, battling thousands of other shoppers for a parking spot, and navigating crowded aisles only to find the last Tickle Me Elmo® is gone. Instead, shoppers can browse and comparison shop in the comfort of their pajamas at a time that is right for them.
• Peace of mind—The holidays are busy enough. If you can help a buyer cross off some or all of their shopping list in one stop, you have done them a major service.
• Price—After finding a spot in the mall, who wants to drive to the next mall to see if you can save a few dollars? It’s not worth it but with so many gifts to buy, even the most “spendy” shoppers want to make sure they are getting a good deal.

So how do you speak to these points? Again, I have some ideas, but you can likely think of others:

• Emphasize convenience: Add content to your home page, header, or other global regions of your store design that speak to the convenience of buying online such as “Start crossing items off your holiday list today”, or “Deck the halls, and avoid the malls”.
• Emphasize hassle-free shopping: Add content on your product pages that emphasize low-cost shipping available when they order early. Include links to your shipping policies and return policies so shoppers know that ordering from your store is trustworthy. Show availability of items so buyers know an item is in stock before ordering. If an item is likely to run out before the holidays, you can include a message emphasizing the urgency of ordering early.
• Emphasize price: This is one area where you may not wish to compete depending on your products. If you offer value added services such as faster shipping or lower cost shipping, or easy returns, you may be able to emphasize those and not have to compete on price alone. However, if you can source products at a lower price than other merchants and you wish to pass along the savings, then emphasize this message to buyers. Do you offer to match prices? Do you offer a low-price guarantee? If so, make sure your buyers know. Ideally you want a comparison shopper to stop comparing sites, and choose to buy from you.

If you are leery of changing the look of your store too early (like a neighbor that put out their plastic lawn reindeer before Thanksgiving) start with just changing text. You can then make more gradual changes to the visual design of your store closer to the holidays.

Up next—customizing your header for the holidays.

Happy Sales,

Paul Boisvert
Yahoo! Small Business

Tickle Me Elmo™ is a trademark of Fischer-Price® Toys.

Here Comes Cyber Monday…

Cyber Monday, the first Monday after Thanksgiving, is just a few short weeks away. This is the day online holiday shopping begins. Are you ready?

For most e-commerce merchants, holiday planning should be in full swing by now. What does this mean? Well, there is plenty to think about. I hope the information below helps you prepare for the holidays and most importantly, for success.

Inventory
Review your best sellers over the past year and make a plan to drive merchandising for those products for the upcoming holiday season. Most importantly, make sure you have enough stock on hand to get you through the holiday season. One of the easiest ways to upset a customer (new or old!) is to take an order for an item that is out of stock during the holidays. Remember, your customers are relying on you to deliver that perfect gift for Grandma… don’t let them down.

Pay-Per-Click Marketing
Do you change your ads for the seasons? The holidays are a great opportunity to adjust your ad headlines to capture the attention of holiday browsers, planting ideas in their mind and making them buyers.

For example, “Wide Selection of Men’s Watches” may work well for you as a general ad. As you enter the holiday season, consider changing this headline to “Watches Make Great Holiday Gifts”. As you approach the days before Christmas for example, change the ad again to play on buyer’s emotions. Use something like “Watches Make Great Last Minute Gifts for Dad” or “Choose Bestseller Watches for Last Minute Gifts for Dad”.

Be sure to include special messaging in your ad headlines. If you are offering special promotions, free shipping, or even in-store pick-up, be sure to mention it. Especially for those last minute shoppers, mentioning “Still Shipping” or “Shipping through Christmas Eve” in the ad will grab attention as well. Online shopping is all about the convenience of avoiding the holiday crowds. Be sure to stress how ordering from your store provides that convenience and avoids all the hassles. Get creative and reap the rewards!

Finally, be sure to review your references (in your Store Manager) and dig in to the referral sources for the most common keywords. Create marketing plans around the most popular keywords that browsers used to find you online. This will create greater opportunity for shoppers to find you when starting their online shopping experience through a search engine.

Holiday Promotions

Now is the time to prepare for holiday promotions. One of the most successful promotions run during the holiday season is the “free shipping” offer. By “free shipping”, I mean free shipping, no restrictions, no conditions.

If this is too risky for you, consider offering “free shipping with conditions” such as “free shipping for all purchases over $50”. Also consider a “free shipping upgrade”. If the buyer pays for Ground, upgrade it to 3-Day at no additional charge. If they pay for 2-Day, upgrade it to Overnight at no additional charge. You get the idea. Again, be creative. All of these options can be implemented in a variety of ways within the Shipping Manager section of your Store Manager.

Another good promotion is the “free gift with purchase”. Pick something small but meaningful out of your inventory. Maybe you are overstocked on an item? Put a bin of that particular item next to the shipping station and have your shippers drop one in every box for the duration of the sale. This is a great opportunity to get personal with your customer by dropping in a card with the gift that says “Happy Holidays… Thanks for Shopping with us!”.

Site Features – Utilize Sections

Turn holiday browsers into buyers. If you advertise using the word “Gift” in your description, then direct that ad to a new section called “Holiday Gifts”. Consider arranging this section by price categories, such as “Under $25”, “$25-$50”, etc. In addition, consider creating new sections such as “Best Sellers” or “Clearance Sale” or “Holiday Sale”. Again, focus your content on the season, not just in your advertising, but on your site as well.

E-Mail Marketing

Plan your strategy now. Look at last minute buyers from last season and target them again for the “Procrastinator’s Promotion”. Even think about direct mail for these people too. Don’t forget about those early shoppers either! There is a lot of opportunity with any buyer from October through mid-December. Maybe they weren’t buying a holiday gift last year, but offer them an “early bird promotion” they cannot refuse. If you have not considered e-mail marketing in the past, now might be a good time to give it a try. It is one of the most successful marketing tactics during the holiday season. Consider Campaigner by Got, integrated with your Yahoo! Merchant Solutions account. You can find the “Email Marketing” link under the Promote section in your Store Manager.

The Big Days

All of your holiday planning and strategy should center around 3 big days. Key holiday season days include Thanksgiving Day, Cyber Monday (the first Monday after Thanksgiving), Christmas Day and New Year’s Day. Each day has it’s own relative peak for online sales.

One more thing… don’t let “crazy” ideas hold you back. If you want to do something on your Yahoo! Store and you don’t know how to do it yourself, we have an incredible network of developers dedicated to helping you succeed through enhancements to your site. From the simply simple to the most complex add-on you think you can imagine, tap into the experience of an expert Yahoo! Store developer today.

Michael Ober
Yahoo! Small Business