That said, no global supply challenge or shortage can overcome your customers’ expectations for on-time deliveries this time of year. Meaning that retail marketers shouldn’t shy away from creative, more personalized ways to grow revenue, encourage audience engagement, and cultivate increased customer loyalty over the course of the holiday season.

So, if you’re looking for a few expert tips to increase your odds of marketing success in another unprecedented holiday season, keep reading!

Communication is key for cultivating customer loyalty

When it comes to solving holiday season supply chain woes and cultivating customer loyalty, a marketers’ best strategy involves constant communication. This time of year, it’s important for retail marketers to remember that there’s no such thing as overcommunication.

For starters, retailers looking for ways to fully open the lines of communication with customers this holiday season should lean on direct marketing channels such as email, SMS, and mobile app push notifications to deliver timely and relevant updates to customers regarding delays or issues with their placed orders.

One example of a brand amping up its omnichannel communication while improving its customer experience is Target. The retail giant’s digital sales have increased over the course of 2021 due in large part to the retailer’s post-purchase messaging.

On every channel, Target’s post-purchase communication goes beyond an order confirmation to include any updates to delivery status or date — making any shopper more inclined to give a good review when Target asks for one in its next post-purchase series interaction.

With so much potential for longer-than-average wait times this holiday season, staying in touch even after orders are delayed is a smart solution for retailers hoping to maintain goodwill even during a supply chain crisis.

Plus, these personalized reminders give your brand the opportunity to push e-gift cards and other holiday gift ideas that can be instantly fulfilled — eliminating the uncertainty of shipping delays entirely. And that’s a huge advantage when it comes to improving the customer experience, encouraging audience engagement, and cultivating customer loyalty going forward.

Returns are critical for customer retention

Another big part of cultivating customer loyalty — even as the global supply chain crisis creates unforeseen challenges — is understanding that simplifying returns can make the wait for merchandise much more palatable to customers who may have been less than satisfied with how quickly their orders arrived.

Here are a few tips our team of retail experts recommends for ensuring that your post-return experience is just as engaging as path-to-purchase messaging:

• Segmentation matters: Segmenting audiences is important for personalizing every stage of the buyers’ journey, and that goes double for your returns. Use first-party data to segment transactional return request confirmations to tailor messaging for first-time purchasers, but also remember to segment your repeat customers in a way that acknowledges their loyalty status or the money they’ve saved over the years.  
• Consider your CTA: It’s generally good practice to send a follow-up email to customers asking for a product review. But if a customer has already initiated a return request, taking a user out of product review flows is a smart way to ensure that you’re both building loyalty and focusing on the post-return experience without inviting negative feedback. 
• Keep customers in the loop: While global supply chain issues have made delivery times a bit unpredictable, you can take the guesswork out of any return process with a triggered email, SMS message, or app notification letting customers know that their return has been received and their return is being processed. 
• Don’t forget win-back messaging: One important, and often overlooked, way to improve the customer experience and build loyalty during the post-return experience is to use first-party data around customers’ reason for return to drive future personalization.

Don’t expect supply chain delays to stop after the holidays

As supply chain issues persist beyond the peaks of your holiday season, retailers will likely enter other key holiday shopping moments such as Valentine’s Day or Mother’s Day needing creative solutions to overcome these challenges and cultivate customer loyalty.

And whatever your brand decides is the best course of action, marketers should consider metrics such as average order value (AOV) this holiday season to determine the success of any promotion. Bonus loyalty points and rewards, free gifts, and e-gift card offers are all easy and effective ways to grow revenue and customer loyalty in Q4 and beyond.

Back-in-stock notifications are another way to keep your lines of communication open — and your customers far away from shipping delays — this holiday season. In fact, children’s puzzle retailer Melissa & Doug has been one brand successfully keeping in contact with its audience even when supplies are low.

By delivering back-in-stock confirmation emails, in addition to confirming opt-ins for those back-in-stock notifications with personalized recommendations for similar items that are currently in stock, Melissa & Doug is able to keep items in stock to stay moving at the speed of its customers. And this seemingly simple tactic is already helping the brand cultivate customer loyalty like never before!

With more and more news stories pointing to delays and delivery headaches worse than any holiday season ever, it’s a smart move to ensure consumer savings and capture revenue by sending your holiday sales promotions now.

After all, brands like Levi’s, Banana Republic, Kiehl’s, Chico’s, and Gilt are already experiencing tremendous success and engagement growth by delivering early Black Friday experiences. So, take advantage of a few of these tactics to make your own messages stand out — in Q4 and beyond!

Start your sales early like Levi’s

The biggest Black Friday draw for most shoppers is the year’s best deals. But with more uncertainty than ever in regards to on-time holiday deliveries, early Black Friday sales delivered via email experiences let you capitalize on this event’s excitement while giving every customer peace of mind that their presents will be under the tree in time for festivities.

With early Black Friday gift-giving emails like this one, Levi’s is making the most of its seamless online shopping experience to help prepared buyers eliminate stress weeks before holiday shopping hassles start. And by including a variety of personalized holiday gift guides, these messages give engaged email recipients even more ideas than discounts if they’re not ready to make a purchase yet!

Preview your hottest holiday products like Banana Republic

During the holiday season, you’re going to see more new shoppers than any other time. In fact, after surveying Sailthru and Liveclicker’s retail customers, you can expect roughly one-third of your holiday sales to come from first-time buyers. Chances are, they’re coming to you because they’ve seen and heard good things about your hottest sellers — so show them off in your emails to connect with every shopper and give them exactly what they want.

Instead of overwhelming online shoppers with thousands of products and a variety of exclusive offers and discounts, Banana Republic uses personalization to curate hand-picked hot sellers that pique individual purchaser interests. And it’s proven to be a much more meaningful, relevant, and — ultimately — revenue-friendly approach than most early Black Friday promotions the brand’s competitors are sending.

Give free gifts in early Black Friday emails like Kiehl’s

Everyone loves a good surprise. Especially during the holidays, where a free gift can go a long way toward inspiring long-term customer loyalty. After all, your customers likely have more people on their online shopping list than ever this year. So why not reward them for all that hard work searching for your hottest sellers?

By giving its big early Black Friday spenders a free three-piece gift bag, Kiehl’s has seen holiday email sales and engagement rates skyrocket. Not to mention give the brand a savvy way to test the popularity of new products and gather feedback from its most loyal customers.

Inspire customer love and loyalty like Gilt

Your best customers are always your most loyal ones — and that goes double during the holiday season. And while early Black Friday promotions definitely help you drive new holiday sales, subscriptions, and website traffic, tapping into your true business potential via email means doing everything you can to keep long-term customers from feeling left out in the cold by making them feel like VIPs.

After all, you already know the best way reach them and motivate them to buy. So what better way is there to build brand loyalty and affinity before Black Friday than by focusing your efforts on your best buyers?

This year, Gilt’s early Black Friday emails featured something extra special for the brand’s top customers: a 20% off discount on their purchase. And while this seems like a simple marketing tactic, Gilt executed this offer with a sophisticated approach that makes every early Black Friday top buyer feel appreciated.

Make every day an early Black Friday experience like Chico’s

We’re entering the year’s most festive season. So, incorporate this celebratory mood into your early Black Friday experiences by making every day of the holiday shopping season a promotion-worthy event! Considering millions of your customers are still stuck at home for the holidays, giving them a virtual event, discount, or exclusive offer to engage with can do your brand wonders in terms of clicks, conversions, and revenue generated in November.

With hundreds of deals and even more products to provide to its shoppers this year, Chico’s decided not to limit its Black Friday discounts to one-day-only offers. And by turning these early Black Friday experiences into daily mystery discounts, it creates an interaction that customers can’t wait to open their inboxes for every day.

Next year, you’ll be engaging your smartest, most informed audience ever. So take advantage of these three predictions now to drive deeper, more personal connections with your savvy retail consumers in 2022 (and beyond)!

Brand loyalty will become fragile

Availability challenges caused by product shortages, shipping delays, and never-before-seen supply chain issues will drive more consumers than ever to look elsewhere for the products they love next year. And for any brand not ready to deliver an easy-to-follow, reliable shopping experience, that means a large portion of customers who are at risk of leaving you for a new platform — or, even worse — a competitor that makes their delivery dates and in-store pickup windows clear.

In 2022, the companies that satisfy savvy retail consumers with a product search that is as quick, convenient, and painless as possible will be the ones to experience the most growth. If you’re not already offering more customer-friendly fulfillment alternatives like curbside pickup or buy online, pickup in-store (BOPIS), now’s the perfect time to start planning these initiatives. After all, more than half of all shoppers who made a purchase this way during the pandemic will do so again in the future.

The savvy retail consumer will shopping smart with online carts

To say today’s online shoppers are engaged is an understatement. Retailers are growing online engagement rates by giving customers more digital channels than ever to browse products, compare prices, and take advantage of personalized deals. And perhaps no better example of this evolution has been the behaviors associated with the online shopping cart.

Years ago, someone found the product they were looking for on your site and made a purchase. But now? Retailers like Amazon have rewarded shopping for adding items to their online cart before they’re actually ready to buy by offering exclusive discounts, coupons, and sale pricing to push them over the finish line. And other brands are following suit — causing major shifts in how savvy retail consumers will use your online shopping cart experience going forward.

So, if you can’t beat them in 2022 with a better alternative — join them. Give your loyal online shoppers the ability to create and constantly add to a personal product wishlist to not only deliver highly relevant offers that boost conversions, engagement rate, and sales, but to allow your team to learn more about what each individual buyer is most interested in when it comes to your brand. Beyond more engaging messaging and online interactions, this insight will give you the ability to personalize future product recommendations and promotions — making them much more likely to lead to positive results.

Savvy retail consumers will have more control of their interactions (and data) than ever

Savvy retail consumers are dictating how, when, and where retail brands choose to engage. And over the last few years, many are making the choice to adopt new shopping platforms — like mobile, social commerce, and C2C — into their routine to browse feedback from like-minded buyers (in addition to your marketing messages).

Beyond this shift, however, changing data privacy regulations and consumer-minded changes like Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection update are changing the way retail can collect, use, and store customers’ personally identifiable information. And while there are a thousand different directions this conversation could go, the important takeaway here is that savvy retail consumers have more control over their data and personalized brand interactions than ever.

To keep your loyal customers engaged with your marketing efforts moving forward, make sure your number one priority is to provide a clear value exchange to customers in every message they see. That way, your audience knows and understands precisely how submitting their info will benefit them in future engagements — making them much more likely to give you what you’re asking for: the first-party data to fuel your personalization strategy.

At the same time, people are consuming more digital content too. It’s clear that today, digital  and ecommerce experiences play an integral role in your customers’ wireless path to purchase. So, how can you embrace this ongoing digital transformation to deliver a successful (and highly profitable) wireless buyer’s journey going forward?

Show up across every step of the wireless consumer journey

According to Deloitte, customers who receive touchpoints across wireless channels are 10 and a half times more likely to shop a brand than customers who receive only traditional interactions. Planning comprehensively across traditional and digital channels will be critical as product launch season approaches and brand loyalty is tested.

Interest across all mobile devices is currently on the rise, creating a halo effect that puts more online engagement than ever up for grabs. Meaning that your marketing team should leverage a comprehensive approach across search, video, and display formats with proven tactics as soon as possible. 

Use the power of digital transformation to your advantage

Shoppers have embraced digital on the path to purchase. In fact, 73% of post-paid subscribers interact with online touchpoints on their path to purchase according to a recent Google/BCG study.

Digital transformation is particularly important for new customer acquisition, which is pivotal for all successful product launches and holiday-themed campaigns. According to the same study, 80% of new customers engaging with a digital touchpoint showed three times higher than existing customers who only interact via legacy channels.

The takeaway: use tools and platforms to create a comprehensive video plan to reach potential new consumers, increase brand consideration, and conversions to drive impact at each stage of the wireless path to purchase for new customers.

Offer seamless, flexible transactions to satisfy new consumer expectations

On average, one-third of consumers are shopping online for categories they have never purchased online before. Your business can inspire even more sales in Q4 and beyond by leveraging shopping ads to share product images and details for seamless online purchase and delivery to customer’s homes.

Enabling local inventory ads and contactless pickup options will also aid your wireless path to purchase and offer further business benefits. Considering more than 1 in 3 consumers expect to visit stores less often after the pandemic, offering BOPIS and curbside pickup fulfillment alternatives for contactless transactions can help close any sale that involves a concerned shopper.

Address consumers’ needs in real-time

According to the Google/BCG study we referenced earlier, 80% of new subscribers believe it is very important for companies to personalize messaging by knowing their priorities. Furthermore, brands can leverage tools that help to optimize store visits, remaining agile and adaptable to consumer needs should they want to go to a store to see a product firsthand or speak with a sales associate about services before completing their purchase.

In order for businesses to own the wireless path to purchase, it’s crucial to embrace new strategies such as leaning into the power of digital, offering flexible transaction and pickup options for new consumer expectations, and addressing consumer needs in real-time. Businesses that are able to pivot and implement these strategies, embracing the digital transformation, will be more connected to their consumers than ever before.

Considering your brand has the option of in-store shopping experiences for the first time in what feels like forever, the biggest gains for the least amount of extra work look to be driving traffic back through your doors in Q4. After all, what better way is there to give your loyal buyers the full brand experience?

The world is growing more digital by the day—making in-person interactions and in-store shopping experiences even more potentially impressionable than they were pre-COVID. Especially if you do these five things to boost customer engagement across every channel:

Feature favorite stores and location-specific info

This year, COVID-19 is still a serious consideration for your shoppers. So, make your holiday marketing approach flexible—that way, you’re able to adjust messaging at a moment’s notice to prevent leaving any potential buyers feeling left out in the cold. Tear down traditional boundaries by integrating your ecommerce and in-store environments into a seamless brick-and-click experience that delivers driving maps, directions, location-specific imagery, operating hours, and more for everyone’s favorite store location directly from your emails.

If you have the first-party data available, you can take personalization to another level and add even more value to your in-store shopping experiences by creating unique promotions, hosting exclusive in-store shopping experiences, and offering special services like Buy Online, Pickup In-Store (BOPIS), curbside pickup, and free gift wrapping to enhance every shopper’s season.

Creative VIP in-store shopping experiences for every loyal customer

Your best customers are obviously your most loyal ones—and that goes double during the holiday season. So, what better (or easier) way is there to build loyalty, brand affinity, and bigger in-store crowds this year than by treating these customers like VIPs?

Invite your VIP customers to enjoy seasonal events, exclusive shopping hours, or in-store only deals. Email invites to these in-store shopping experiences can even include “Add to Calendar” buttons and customized maps to make sure every recipient engages with your message and attends your extra special holiday promotions. Especially if you give gifts for select customers or sales over a specific dollar amount.

Add mystery (and more fun) to your holiday promotions 

Now more than ever, retail consumers trust brands that align with their personal values, behaviors, and lifestyles. So, rather than pushing holiday-themed product recommendations or generic sales email campaigns, this year it’s time to take a different—and likely more profitable—approach.

The only thing your customers love more than a good deal is a surprise. But it’s the season of giving, so give your email subscribers exactly what they want by delivering a mystery or click-to-reveal offer that inspires excitement and drives more in-store traffic through the digital equivalent of a gift unwrapping experience. Coupons can be electronically delivered—allowing these special discounts to follow online shoppers around until they’re redeemed at the counter.

Save your new products for in-store reveals

For most retailers, the holidays are your peak promotional period every year. Especially for the brands who have the courage to do something new in Q4 by launching new products and revealing them in-store.

Embedded email videos highlighting new arrivals, complementary product recommendations, unboxing moments, and full-blown product demos all give customers an enticing tease of what’s to come. Making an invite to test or try your latest launch out during the in-store shopping experience irresistible for every recipient.

Encourage customer check-ins and social posts with in-store shopping experiences

Have a loyalty program or special social media campaign to promote this holiday season? Encourage your customers to check in on their mobile app when entering your store or ask an employee at checkout—and reward this engaged behavior with extra loyalty points or gifts.

By doing so, you not only increase your chances of driving more shoppers through your in-store experience; you also have the ability to segment highly engaged buyers, track purchases, and even present points accumulated or dollars spent until earning their next reward to make future promotions that much more effective.

And considering roughly one-in-four consumers plan to spend even more on holiday gifts this year than they did in 2020, this means a huge boost in the bottom line for any brand who kicks off holiday campaigns and promotions before Halloween. Especially if your audience is likely to be influenced by social media and how you address social issues and values.

So, where will your shoppers look first for products? And how might this year’s extra early start to holiday shopping impact your ecommerce efforts?

Your customers don’t wait to wait for this year’s deals

If you’re a little uncomfortable by the idea of kicking off your holiday campaigns before leaves even hit the ground, you’re not the only one. In fact, many researchers point to “Christmas Creep” as a negative. That said, this year’s retail consumers aren’t waiting for Black Friday or Cyber Monday to score deals on the products they’re looking for.

So, give them a sneak peek of your hottest holiday sellers now. Specially segmented lists and promotions, as well as personalized gift guides, are a helpful tool millions of shoppers use to plan their purchases over the next few months. And a valuable gift you can give today that they’ll be sure to return the favor for — even if it’s weeks down the line.

Build your email experience around social media, mobile-first experiences, and user-generated content to make the most of this year’s early start to holiday shopping

As you can imagine, consumers who’ve already started their holiday shopping are primarily browsing products, deals, and discounts online. And outside of major purchases like fitness equipment, cars, and high-end electronics, you can expect several gift-related categories to sell out without anyone setting foot in-store.

But this shop-from-anywhere trend isn’t something that will only last for the first few weeks. In fact, roughly twice as many shoppers will complete their transactions online versus in-store in 2021. And they’ll lean on their favorite social media influencers, friends, and other like-minded shoppers for every bit of advice before opening their digital wallet.

Unlike traditional ecommerce sites like Amazon and Walmart.com, social media platforms and mobile-first shopping platforms allow shoppers to easily search through brands, audience engagement posts, real-time product reviews, and even immersive content like live product demos and short video displays.

Given that 60% of pre-Halloween holiday shoppers consider purchasing items recommended to them while shopping online, much of this year’s success could be influenced by whether or not you decide to extend your campaign to additional channels like YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok.

Brand activism is a big deal this year

For an increasing number of early holiday shoppers, the quality of your products, personalization, or messaging ultimately doesn’t matter—and therefore won’t convince them to make a purchase. But the values and causes your brand stands for do.

According to our Retail Personalization Index Consumer Survey research, more than 60% of retail consumers will only shop with brands that share their personal values going forward. Furthermore:

• 30% of early holiday shoppers say brand activism has impacted their impression of a brand already
• 19% say brand activism has also impacted their buying behavior

So, whether you choose more eco-friendly shipping and manufacturing practices, local sourcing, or fair treatment of employees, make sure you stand for something this holiday season. After all, the data says this will make a significant portion of your audience even more inclined to buy. With today’s atmosphere, consumers are more likely than ever to throw their financial support behind retail brands who champion important causes. So give them every reason to support you!

How the early start to holiday shopping impacts ecommerce everywhere

Plentiful stock, minimal crowds, and peace of mind are just a few of the reasons your shoppers are starting their holiday search earlier than ever this year. Unfortunately for unprepared retailers, this peak shopping period is likely to exacerbate existing inventory shortages that these companies have been grappling with for months.

Early start to holiday shopping may still mean shipping delays

It’s no secret that global supply chains are struggling to keep up with the massive demand online shopping creates. And with more promises for fast and free shipping than any other season, early holiday shoppers expect convenient, reliable, and on-time product deliveries—even if that’s not exactly realistic this year.

While starting their gift shopping early may very well help some of your customers avoid the last-minute shipping stress, the reality is these issues are unavoidable and likely to only get worse as the year goes on. So, make sure you have a plan (and some templated messaging) ready to send whenever you have to break the bad news to one of your subscribers.

Prepare your promotions for long-term results

The holiday season seems to happen earlier and earlier every year. So, retailers are following suit by starting their promotions sooner—and preparing them to run for months, not weeks. For brands depending on Black Friday or Cyber Monday for that massive post-Thanksgiving revenue boost, this could mean some potentially bad news as shoppers rely less and less on these deals.

More shoppers will stay local

Considering the overwhelming support and interest holiday shoppers have in supporting small businesses, don’t be surprised if more of your shoppers complete their purchases locally at their favorite stores this year. Especially if you offer convenient fulfillment options like curbside pickup and Buy Online, Pickup In-Store (BOPIS) to bridge the gap between online and in-store experiences.

Your early holiday shoppers have considerable obstacles to navigate this year thanks to continued social distancing efforts, product shortages, and delivery delays. But by encouraging smaller purchase peaks (as well as initial buys before Halloween and the traditional holiday season starts), you can help them find the products and deals they desire to inspire long-term loyalty.

Emails. however, can be an absolute difference maker when it comes to turning spooking supply chain issues into Halloween engagement success. Especially when combined with creative, customer-friendly content like the user-generated content mentioned above. They’re much more likely to be seen in a purchase-oriented setting — making your audience think twice before walking (or rather scrolling) away.

For retail brands like Michael’s, Torrid, World Market, Clinique, and Vineyard Vines, an abundance of internal first-party customer data is helping them create more interactive browsing and buying experiences — whether they happen in-store, online, or some unique combination of both. And here’s how these personalized email campaigns are already delivering better responses and conversion rates this Halloween.

Make Halloween a DIY Holiday Like Michael’s

As the go-to crafts supply store for millions of US shoppers, Michael’s knows that the best holiday experiences are the ones people build together. And this email’s unique content and messaging approach pushes that theme at every opportunity. From user-generated social media posts, live customer product reviews, and a variety of free, social distancing-friendly trick or treat projects for families to do together, this email experience gives Michael’s customers a one-stop shop to build a better Halloween holiday for everyone.

Deliver Treats, Not Tricks Like Torrid

Given all the recent news about supply chain delays and shortages, it will be harder than ever for online shoppers to guarantee they can celebrate Halloween — or any other holiday — on-time this year. Which is why short, sweet, and to-the-point email promotions like this one from Torrid are such a big deal for boosting engagement and sales. By giving email shoppers a deadline to make their online orders and standard shipping requests, this brand makes it easy to buy with confidence before October 31, delivering peace of mind with every costume and article of fall-themed clothing.

Make Hybrid Fulfillment Experiences Eerie-sistible Like World Market

Over the last 18+ months, new fulfillment options like curbside pickup and Buy Online, Pickup In-Store (BOPIS) have been a breath of fresh scare for online shoppers looking to safely return to their favorite store locations. And for retail brands like World Market, using exclusive Halloween deals like member-exclusive hybrid fulfillment discounts via coupon codes that follow members through multiple email interactions have boosted online revenue and engagement.

Add Scary Value to Your Emails Like Clinique

Spooky season-themed messages and imagery is great, but retail brands like Clinique know a little treat can go a long way toward increasing email engagement this time of year. After all, anyone can deliver a personalized email — so Clinique took its Halloween campaign to the next level by offering free consultations with beauty experts, free samples, and seasonal gifts in addition to its latest deals. By doing so, this brand ensures that every recipient finds something of value in each send.

Creep It Real Like Vineyard Vines

Halloween is a favorite holiday for many reasons. But beyond all of the fun, retail brands like Vineyard Vines are finding tremendous success by connecting their email experience with a good cause. By promoting limited-edition products and teaming up with Bright Pink for Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Vineyard Vines is empowering women, saving lives, and delivering the fall apparel its customers know and love in the same interaction. Considering over 60% of retail consumers like to shop with brands that share their personal values, emails like this one are sure to become a holiday trend across the industry this year.

That said, you learned many valuable lessons about how to promote your products and interact with multichannel consumers last year. Lessons that retail’s top performers are planning to take advantage of in 2021 — and that you should be too (if your goal is to experience even better results this year).

3 Tips to boost your holiday sales and engagement

Much like last year, there’s no magical 2021 playbook that leads to surefire success. Between Apple iOS 15 privacy updates, ongoing pandemic safety precautions, and retail’s mass migration to ecommerce and online shopping, you’ll need to be as agile as ever when it comes to planning, implementing, and executing your Q4 marketing strategies if you hope to deliver on this year’s customer-centric growth drivers:

• Speed of the customer. Retail’s most successful brands are moving away from predefined customer journeys to meet customers where they are, gain a greater understanding of new behaviors, and identify what individual buyers need at any given moment.
• X-commerce. The world is increasingly mobile — which is why retail leaders everywhere are putting ‘commerce anywhere’ strategies into play this holiday season. Right message, right channel, right time every time.
• Personalization beyond recommendations. Sophisticated holiday engagements create satisfied customers. Today, retail’s top performers are thinking way outside the box to back every tailored interaction with business intelligence.

3 Keys to boost your brand (and your holiday sales) in Q4 and beyond

The holiday season is your brand’s yearly peak in terms of website traffic, engagement rate, and overall visibility. For many retailers, ‘tis the season for higher AOV, increased clicks, and more conversions too.

So, how do you take advantage of this time to learn more about your customers, deliver the relevant, engaging content they demand, and inspire a new level of holiday marketing success? Focus your Q4 efforts on three key takeaways:

Lighten your load (capacity)

This year, most retailers are facing never-before-seen supply chain challenges and shipping delays. As a result, it’s likely to assume that your holiday sales and promotions cycles will be longer (and start sooner) than they were last year. For marketers trying to do everything themselves, that means a lot of extra effort in Q4. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

You’re probably using external IT and fulfillment partners already, so ask them now about their load capacity to find out how outside vendors can make your life easier and less filled with work. It’s possible that your martech partners may not even be aware of your need for increased load capacity in Q4 otherwise — meaning that a conversation today could be the difference between holiday success and going back to the drawing board for 2022.

After all, there’s no such thing as overcommunication when it comes to holiday planning!

Drive your holiday experience with data

Direct marketing channels like email, in-app notifications, and SMS messages will undoubtedly be important elements of your holiday marketing strategy. But if you’re only using these communication paths to push out one-size-fits-all sales and generic promotions in Q4, you’re failing to tap into direct marketing’s true potential.

Because this year, your holiday campaigns should also give you the gift of first-party data feedback you can use to make future initiatives even more jolly and engaging. If you’re not already doing so, use data to drive your holiday experience. While you’ll no doubt schedule most of your campaigns by date, it’s important to remember that even the best holiday marketing needs to align with your shoppers’ individual timelines to be successful. After all, your content can’t make an impact unless it’s delivered to the right place as soon as someone’s ready to buy.

So, use everything you know about what someone likes and how they engage with your brand to give the gift of better interactions and customer experiences this holiday season.

If you’re like most retailers, for example, the data tells you that your most loyal customers will make their holiday purchases right away and that your first-time shoppers won’t complete their transaction until last-minute. Take advantage of this insight by structuring your holiday messaging and campaign schedule accordingly — and find out what other lessons your data’s capable of delivering to deepen personalization going forward.

Identify the behaviors that make your customers buy

Q4 has long been a make-or-break period for retail brands, and this year the stakes are higher than usual. Consumer behavior is fundamentally transforming, and customers will need special encouragement to return to spending in a shaky economy. Especially once the allure of the holiday season subsides and consumption trends return to normal.

Conduct correlation analysis this holiday season to discover which behaviors are leading indicators of revenue growth and engagement for your brand going forward. For some companies, it may be a click in an email. For others, it could be an engaged session duration once someone lands on the website.

Dig into your real-time audience feedback to learn how buyers behave when they’re close to making a purchase — and then implement tactics to increase the frequency of these actions across the rest of your audience.

And it’s highly likely that those numbers aren’t going down anytime soon, even as your doors reopen and shoppers are ready to venture into your stores again. After a year of experiencing the simplicity and convenience of consumer-friendly options like curbside pickup and BOPIS, it’s no surprise that experts expect 2020’s revenue figure to grow nearly 10% — to over $83 billion — by the end of this year.

So, what should every business know about click and collect fulfillment?

Well, first of all, not all BOPIS shoppers are the same — they range from beginners to experts on the customer experience scale. Marketers hoping to use click and collect as a feature that adds value to their brand should understand exactly where and how to reach each type of BOPIS shopper throughout their journey to ensure that the process is seamless

To do so, simply follow these three tips to fulfill your goals — and deliver your loyal buyers the hybrid fulfillment experience they deserve. 

Tip #1: Understanding click and collect fulfillment and your BOPIS customers

While more consumers are trying BOPIS and click and collect than ever before, not all of your customers have the same levels of experience with the online ordering to in-store pickup process. The most effective marketing strategies offer plenty of ways for shoppers to learn more about these new fulfillment methods by targeting different types of customers at different points in their journey. After all, it’s important to make sure both new customers and loyalists alike know exactly which options are available.

The New Shopper: This customer is likely interacting with your brand for the very first time, so it’s important you don’t overwhelm them or scare them away by sharing too much info right away. Distinguish all of your fulfillment options and display them clearly; your first impressions shouldn’t share every last detail.

The BIPOS Beginner: This customer might be familiar with your brand, but is likely unfamiliar with the BOPIS options you offer. Ensure these shoppers are just as acquainted with your brand’s pickup solutions as they are with your brand’s products by offering BOPIS, click and collect, or curbside pickup options as they browse products, add items to their cart, and make purchases. 

The Pickup Pro: These customers may or may not be familiar with your brand, but they’re no strangers to BOPIS. Make it easy for those already acquainted with the process by facilitating a frictionless customer experience. Personalized post-purchase messaging around items they may need to buy again, such as paper products or pet supplies, is an excellent way to stay top-of-mind for these convenience-focused shoppers. 

The Loyal Customer: These customers are most likely to be interested in hybrid experiences, as they love your brand, but may have just begun to experiment with BOPIS shopping. Since these customers are likely already receiving myriad messages from your brand, make sure your marketing includes not only mention of BOPIS options in emails, but also push notification and on your app — complete with detailed information around which options might be right for them. 

Tip #2: Make your message clear

No matter which type of customer you’re hoping to target, the message that there are multiple ways to collect an order should be crystal clear every step of the way, from discovery to purchase and beyond. Consider including a link to your BOPIS option at every single touchpoint customers have, from welcome emails to wingback messaging, abandoned cart emails, and especially sale promos.

Messaging around click and collect fulfillment and BOPIS options should be front-and-center in your customer experience, within apps, and on your website(s) as well. For example, Target’s mobile app offers options for same or two-day delivery in addition to BOPIS or curbside pickup right in their search results — making these options a selling point to customers who are perhaps just browsing.

And for customers who are interested, Target provides clear, precise instructions for each of their options. Which not only assists any customer who might be unfamiliar with this process, but also acts as a guide for the pickup pros — those customers who already love BOPIS and simply need to know where to park. Laying out these options numerous times throughout your customer experience is the best way to make sure each type of BOPIS customer can easily choose their preferred purchase path.

Tip #3: Anticipate future orders

The COVID-19 pandemic didn’t create click and collect shoppers; it created an audience of click and collect enthusiasts. In fact, 69% of consumers plan to use BOPIS and curbside pickup just as much post-pandemic as they did during quarantine. And as shoppers become increasingly accustomed to the ease and convenience of BOPIS, retailers have an opportunity to test new shopping experiences that complement these behaviors.

So, make sure that follow-up messaging for abandoned carts, loyalty offers, and even purchase history-based recommendations all include explicit click and collect option callouts to remind every shopper that your buying experience has never been easier.  It’s the best way to turn today’s stay-at-home trend into loyal, long-term customers.

Since 2020, retailers everywhere have experienced too many unexpected shifts to count. So, these brands are embracing new opportunities to cater to consumer demands like sustainability that have been gaining serious market momentum since.

Sustainable, purpose-driven brands take center stage in today’s retail industry

There’s no denying it — being green has never been more in fashion. In fact, a Stifel and Morning Consult survey conducted in May found that 71% of US adults care more about product sustainability than they did one year ago.

However, it’s important to keep in mind that this term can mean different things to different people. While recycled textiles, reusable packaging, and more eco-friendly delivery options all are prime examples of sustainability in action, many retail brands are focusing their green initiatives on:

• Reusable and sustainably sourced materials. One of the most widespread initiatives is the drive to use more environmentally responsible materials and manufacturing processes.

• Carbon footprint reduction. Retailers and their partners are working hard to reduce emissions across the value chain — from production, to fulfillment, to store operations.

• Reusable containers. Single-use packaging hurts the environment in two ways: it takes a lot of energy and raw materials to create, and also accounts for a disproportionate amount of landfill waste around the world due to not being biodegradable.

• Recyclable packaging. Manufacturers and retailers are prioritizing materials that can be easily recycled to not only benefit the environment and satisfy customers, but to cut future raw materials costs as well.

• Green business certification. Some brands are finding value in taking their commitment to carbon footprint reduction one step further. By obtaining a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) store certification, you communicate to your employees and customers that building business practices that don’t harm the environment is a priority.

• Donations to environmental causes. Don’t just talk the talk — walk the walk by weaving your brand’s mission into a higher, eco-friendly calling and making donations to charities and non-profit organizations your customers trust.

While consumer attitudes pushing for more sustainable products are stronger among millennials and Gen Z customers, even 52% of baby boomers agree that retailers should be more environmentally responsible in their business practices. Even if this push doesn’t result in revenue growth and desirable consumer behaviors right away, it’s clear that sustainability will remain a key focus area for your customers going forward.