With the students barely back in school and warm weather lingering, it may seem silly to be talking about the holiday shopping season already. But if you run a print on demand (or really any kind of eCommerce) business, you really can’t afford to delay. After all, the stretch between Thanksgiving and Christmas typically remains one of the most lucrative seasons for e-commerce merchants. To truly capitalize on holiday shopping trends, it’s vital to start making adequate preparations now.
So what steps should your print on demand store take in order to ensure holiday 2022 success? Here are a few pointers from Gooten.
Get Ready For Holiday 2022: Gooten's Tips
1) Formulate a plan.
To begin with, draft a basic plan of action. What are your goals for holiday 2022? What types of product promos, discounts, and specials will you need in order to reach those goals? If you’re going to offer significant savings, or roll out seasonal products, the time to prepare is now!
Also be sure you put together some sales estimates for the holiday season, and share that information with your Gooten account executive. This allows us to make the adequate preparations on our end, so that we’re ready to fully support your print on demand business through a busy time of year.
2) Hire seasonal employees.
During the holiday rush, you’ll need all hands on deck. In some cases, you may even need to hire seasonal or temp employees to properly position your print on demand business to execute its goals.
For example, you may want to enlist a couple of extra customer service representatives to help process orders from holiday shoppers. Or, you may want to reach out to some freelance designers to help you assemble seasonal products or promotional graphics.
3) Develop holiday-themed graphics.
Once we get a little closer to the holidays themselves, you’ll probably want to decorate your ecommerce store and your social media accounts with festive imagery. Seasonal graphics can help spread holiday cheer, potentially prompting customers to spend a little more freely.
It’s a little too early to post those graphics, but it’s not too early to develop them! Remember that designing marketing collateral takes some time, especially if you’re outsourcing to a third-party designer. Don’t put it off until the last minute.
4) Choose items to highlight.
As you think through sales and promos for the holiday season, you’ll want to highlight the items most likely to be big sellers.
There are a couple of ways to go about doing this. One is to simply review previous sales data, specifically metrics from last year’s holiday shopping season, to figure out which items are most likely to hit with Christmas shoppers. Alternatively, you can plan on highlighting new or seasonally specific items, including products with festive decorations or messaging.
Either way, come up with a list of a few products to showcase in your upcoming marketing efforts.
5) Plan for gift cards and holiday bundles.
Consider some of the products that are most likely to appeal to gift-seekers. An obvious choice here is the gift card; if you don’t already offer gift cards to your print on demand store, now’s the time to add them to your inventory.
You might also consider bundling like products into “gift sets,” with some modest savings for the customer who buys a full set rather than just picking individual products.
6) Develop a robust holiday marketing strategy.
You can’t just assume that holiday shoppers will flock to your print on demand store, nor that your business will outshine the competition during holiday 2022. Instead, you need to boost brand awareness and draw in qualified leads, both of which you can do with a sound marketing plan.
Some particular elements to include:
- Email marketing messages that “prime the pump,” announcing holiday specials well in advance.
- Remarketing efforts, allowing you to track customers who visit your print on demand store but don’t immediately make a purchase.
- PPC ads, to establish a brand presence throughout all stages of the customer journey.
Again, to get this right, it’s going to take some time. Don’t wait until Thanksgiving is here. Start planning your marketing strategy now!
7) Create gift guides.
Gift guides are resources that you provide to your customers, making it easy for them to find the items they need for their friends, family members, or co-workers. A gift guide may be a blog post or infographic, but the important thing is to highlight a group of products that are similar in terms of style, function, or price point.
Basically, you want to make it easy for customers to view your products in terms of broader categories, increasing the odds that if they don’t like the first thing they see, they’ll keep browsing for similar options.
8) Test your print on demand website.
The last thing you need is a website that can’t handle holiday 2022 traffic.
Take some time to verify that you have clear calls to action in place, that your website loads quickly, that all of the links work, and that the site looks good across all browser and device types.
Get Ready For Holiday 2022: Gooten's Tips
The holiday shopping season will be here before you know it. Are you ready for robust print on demand sales? If you’re ready to make the necessary preparations, we’re ready to help.
Liked this guide? Download it below to reference as you get your store ready for peak season!
