Optimize your e-commerce for the 2022 summer sales

[Update August 2021: this year, the summer sales will take place from June 22 to July 19. These tips still apply]

The countdown to the start of the sales is on. The summer markdowns will take place in e-commerce and physical stores. It’s time to start preparing for this special time of year, which will last for five weeks, from June 22 to July 19, 2022.

At the end of the 2021 winter sales, the FEVAD (Federation of e-commerce and distance selling) announced a 15% increase in online traffic compared to the previous year, proving that e-commerce is becoming more and more important in the purchasing habits of the French.
Furthermore, although Internet users are reducing their orders for items by about 5%, the average basket is up a net 15% in 2021. As a result, sales for e-commerce sites are up 34%, with 23% more orders, compared to winter 2020.

No more excuses not to take advantage of 5 tips to optimize your e-commerce in the run-up to and during the sales.

Anticipate

• The products to be sold: in order to determine which products will be put forward on your e-commerce, it is necessary to analyze their success. The evaluation of your product catalogue, the available stocks and sizes, your bestsellers and your “flops”, the click rates on each product or the abandoned shopping carts are all criteria to consider in order to prepare your selection and the type of discount to be made on a case by case basis.

• The traffic load: Internet has the advantage of coupling simplicity and speed to make purchases by avoiding crowds and queues: customers who take advantage of sales on the web are looking to go fast. The loading of the pages of your website should not be slowed down in front of a traffic that can be up to 10 times higher during the sales. Perform upstream tests to check the load time and confirm that your website will withstand an overdose of demand on the day.

Teaser

Two weeks and then a few days before the launch of the sales, send teasings of the planned promotions to your customers and those who follow you on social networks.

There is no need to risk being labelled as spam by multiplying the reminders, the objective is to get people in the mood without saying too much. Offer an overview of upcoming discounts and inform about the dates of the different markdowns.

• The tools: e-mail campaign, newsletter or posts on your various social networks: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc.

• Content: Build suspense with engaging content. In your newsletters and e-mails, send a description of the season’s collections and trends; on social networks, give a foretaste of the event by revealing one of the products on sale each day to keep people waiting while enticing them. On your e-commerce, you can set up a countdown before the beginning of the sales, which will then count down the number of days before the end of the discounts. Google Adwords also allows you to highlight an upcoming event by including a countdown in your AdWords ads.

In 2013, Carambar had buzzed by setting up a countdown on its website

Designer

In order to create a sense of excitement at each special event and to allow visitors to quickly find the products that are marked down, the appearance of an e-commerce site must be different during the sales period than during the normal period.

• Colors: don’t underestimate flashy colors like red which creates a sense of urgency and desire.

Rueducommerce bets on red

Mim covers its homepage in pink to attract attention

• The home page: the ideal is to create a section reserved for the products on sale, accessible via a menu tab. The implementation of a banner, a pop-up window or pop-in dedicated to draw attention to your promotions when the visitor arrives on your e-commerce is also a good omen. As for your slider, reserve it for highlighting certain products on sale, and rather those that sell well.

• Product sheets: clearly indicate the discount, the old crossed-out price and the new price after markdown. Also add a search filter by discount percentage. Another trick to encourage purchases is to indicate the remaining quantity of a reference when the stock is about to be sold out.

On sarenza, the user can filter his search for an article according to the discount rate applied

Sephora indicates the discount rate, the old price and the new price

Play the game

Who hasn’t seen a news report on the first day of the sales, showing customers waiting at dawn in front of a shop and then rushing under the iron curtain to be the first to enter. Yes, thehe sales are like a race against time, during which customers try to get the best deal at the best price, before it is too late.

• Discounts: the first day of the sales represents a peak of affluence. The excitement of the launch means that Internet users are immediately on the lookout for bargains. From the outset, it is therefore important to set up consistent markdowns.

• The products on sale: find the right balance between the variety of references on sale, products that you are struggling to sell and your best sales: the sales must concern these two types of goods in order not to disappoint customers.

• The tools: free returns to stop any reluctance to make a purchase, free delivery, setting up an alert system allowing the customer to be warned of the restocking of a product.

Optimized SEO

SEO is a year-round job, both in terms of semantic density and specific keywords on each of your product sheets. But referencing is also optimized during sales periods.

• Creation of a single page dedicated to sales, which can be used for both winter and summer sales. Outside of these periods, it can be transformed into a page for current promotions.

The promotions tab is present all year round on the Marionnaud e-commerce site

• Creation of a sale page for each product range or for your most important product categories: t-shirt sale, trouser sale, dress sale, etc. However, be careful not to copy/paste the editorial content of classic category pages, as search engines do not favour duplication for their indexation.

Sources:

• • darwin-agency.com :
    • “Winter sales 2021: we expected worse!
  • ille-et-vilaine.cci.fr :
    • ASSESSMENT OF THE 2021 WINTER SALES: FIGURES AND FINDINGS
  • capital.fr :
    • Clothing retailers disappointed by the first results of the summer sales
  • forbes.co.uk:
    • First very mixed results for the 2021 winter sales
  • fevad.com:
    • E-commerce report for the first quarter of 2021: Internet sales up by 15%.
    • Quarterly e-business barometer in France Q1 2021

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