Still riding high on the wave of orders that came your way over the festive period? Or feeling down in the new year dumps?
Either way, we’ve got good news. There are some simple steps you can take now that will help keep the momentum of the holiday season going all year-long.
Sounds good? Let’s dive in…
1. Increase your reviews
Did you know 90% of consumers make the effort to read reviews of products before deciding whether or not to part with their cash? In the Hyper-Scalable Era, when the wants and needs of customers are ever-evolving, reviews are more important than ever.
As humans, we like social proof. We’re more likely to buy something if someone else — even a stranger — agrees that it’s a good idea. A steady stream of good reviews also helps build trust and credibility for your brand, and has a direct impact on sales.
So how can you get more reviews? Our friends at Trustpilot have some great suggestions, including automatically asking customers to leave their feedback and including a postcard with orders asking for testimonials.
2. Promote your popular products
Do you know what your top five or 10 products are? A great way to increase your AOV (average order value) is to cross-sell complementary, lower value items with your best-sellers. You could also give your customers the option to upgrade their basket to higher value items.
If your promotions during peak season 2021 proved popular, you could also consider extending or repeating your promotions during the year. A Product Information Management system, like Pimberly, can help you collect, enrich and store your product data so that cross-selling and promotions are easier than ever.
3. Automate and analyze
How did your supply chain and staffing levels hold up to the challenges of the last holiday period? Wish you could have got orders out faster? Were there times when you failed to accurately predict demand?
Automating your workflows should be a big priority for 2022 — it’s a powerful way to improve efficiency during peak periods (and all year round). In fact, businesses that utilize the Automation Engine that’s part of Brightpearl’s built-for-retail operating system save on average two months every year. They also cut labor costs in half and eliminate errors by 65%.
Automation is the key to getting more orders out faster and delighting your customers. Wondering how it works? See the Automation Engine in action here.
It’s also important to analyze your data carefully in order to predict demand, so you always have the right items in stock at the right time — even when demand peaks.
4. Retarget your top customers
Your repeat customers, and your biggest spenders, are the people most likely to keep shopping with you going forwards. It’s worth investing time and marketing budget on nurturing your relationship with your best customers. You should also consider retargeting them through the year with dedicated deals and personalized promotions.
Unsure who your VIP customers are? You need Brightpearl’s advanced analytics in your life. Brightpearl’s intuitive dashboards provide meaningful metrics on your customers, including revenue, margin, average order value, number of purchases, customer lifetime value and abandoned cart amount. It makes it easy to identify your VIPs before you segment them, and offer a tailored shopping or promotional experience.
5. Make returns stress free
Returns are inevitable and making the process hassle-free is vital if you want to provide great service that keeps customers coming back.
There are several things you can do to improve your returns process and keep customers happy, such as:
- Integrate all your sales channels, accounting tools and data into one central source of truth
- Use SKUs and barcode scanners to ensure the correct items are picked in the first place, and to speed up returns when they happen
- Keep customers informed with automated emails post-purchase, including on returns – the conversation shouldn’t end once a customer has entered their credit card details
- Automatically process returns and speedily provide replacements or refunds
- Analyze your data to stay on top of the most common reasons for returns and use this info to make improvements
If the above sounds daunting, don’t worry. Brightpearl is designed to help with the whole process as your purpose-built operating system.
