With the Christmas holiday following closely behind Black Friday and Cyber Monday, the last six weeks of the year in the United States often need strategic planning to lead to serious profitability for e-commerce businesses. However, this could also be true towards the end of Q1 as Easter (March/April) and Mother’s Day (May) hit within a similar six-week span. As many consumers metaphorically (or physically) brush off the snow from the long winter, how can you make the most of the first holiday push of 2024? We have a few tips.
Know Your Audience
If your customer base includes any women – especially women who may have children or grandchildren – the spring is a perfect time to promote your products to them (and those who celebrate them) as a lead-up to Mother’s Day which is celebrated the second Sunday in May in the U.S. But don’t stop there. Consider the multiple ways women nurture and “mother” in their lives. People may look to aunts, mentors, neighbors, and close friends as motherly figures whom they want to celebrate. Remember that Mother’s Day doesn’t necessarily need to be a black-and-white relationship between a child and their biological mother. When you consider the other motherly figures that are in people’s lives, this can create other client possibilities.
Adjust Your Marketing
Easter, although a religious holiday, is still an unofficial welcoming of spring and brings together families for outdoor events and brunches whether they celebrate or recognize the holiday at all. This is a good time to push more of your spring seasonal colors: think light blues, pinks, greens and yellows. Also, consider what people are doing this time of year: cleaning the house (maybe they need to replace old products that are worn out?), planning for Spring Break vacations, or even just tending to their backyards and gardens. Consider which of your products would help or make life better for everyone coming out of winter hibernation.
Prepare for Potential Delays
Even if your products don’t fit into the springtime/Mother’s Day season, you should expect that plenty of other businesses are significantly busier this time of year. This can cause an influx of shipping volumes including potential delivery delays. Now is a good time to onboard a partner who can help with order accuracy before mistakes happen. Furthermore, it’s important to ensure you are communicating ahead of time with customers on the influx this time of year and what they can expect from your shipments. If you are closed on Good Friday (the Friday before Easter) or you have a smaller staff due to spring breaks in April, communicate with clients. Informing them ahead of time that there may be delays in response time is always better than after a complaint occurs.
Don’t Ignore Other Springtime Events
Let’s say that you don’t market to any women, your products would not be used by women, and the pastel springtime color palette also doesn’t apply to you. There are other ways you can take advantage of the changing seasons by considering the changing human behavior on this side of the planet. This could include: being outside for sports or exercise, planting a garden or doing yard work and grilling/cooking outside with friends. While we’re not quite into the hot summer months, you can bet that most of your customers are looking for any excuse to be outside when the weather turns even slightly milder.
Discover Partnership Opportunities
If this is a historically slower time of year for your business, it’s a good opportunity to work on the administrative side to strategically build partnerships that can cut costs and save time for the months ahead. Consider your logistics process from “order created” to “order delivered” and each step in between. Where is your process hitting snags? Where have you developed band-air solutions that you planned to “get to later?” Make “later” now and run through a checklist of items that you need to improve. Better yet, take our Outsourced Fulfillment Questionnaire to get started.
The truth is, in today’s 365-day sales cycle, it’s likely never a “down” time in your business. Even if you are not selling directly to clients, you should be thinking of how to improve the business to fulfill more orders for the future. This month, adapt that old “spring cleaning” mentality and sweep out what’s not working for you so your business can start fresh.
