The logic of Christmas consumption is quite different from that of Black Friday, although the two dates are considered the most important for retail – every year, they move sales during the entire months of November and December. This year, according to data from Neotrust, Black Friday generated approximately R$16.5 billion in business and the expectation is that Christmas will generate R$65.1 billion, according to CNC. Even if the results are not as good as they were in 2019 and expectations are not of high growth, this is still by far the best time to trade.
Many brands are already very familiar with this dynamic, but small and medium-sized companies (SMEs) do not always master the details and peculiarities that differentiate Christmas from Black Friday. To explain how it works, we invited online sales specialist Fábio Lima, who is director of sales and marketplace at Lenovo, to detail strategies that make a difference in e-commerce and, more specifically, in boosting digital Christmas sales.
- What is the Christmas sales logic?
Although we always want to find the best price, Christmas dynamics are bilateral – I give and receive gifts from others – whereas, on Black Friday, the logic is unilateral, because we shop for ourselves. This is the big difference! Knowing that the central idea is to give someone a gift, we have to think about how to attract people with content to give as a gift.
Realize that it is not always your customer who will buy the product – in fact, he may be the person receiving the gift. So think, if you sell sneakers to children, your customer may no longer be the mother, but an aunt or uncle who will present the nephew for Christmas. If your product is wine, many times it will be bought by a company to give to a client and not by the final consumer.
In this sense, it is necessary to understand the buying scenario and it is necessary to adapt campaigns with a more emotional sense. Be creative and explore this side. I still remember a campaign by the German supermarket Edeka that went viral on Youtube. Think about the affective side when creating your Christmas campaign.
- So, is knowing the profile of the visitor of the moment essential for the success of online sales?
Large companies work with what we call data-driven marketing, that is, campaigns based on customer base data. Some companies, like Amazon, even know what customers want long before they realize it.
However, for an SME, customer data is not always structured and, perhaps, it is best to use even a little common sense and knowledge of the product and target customer. If your biggest sale is children’s clothing, run a care and affection campaign with children, thinking about who buys gifts for them. It could be uncles and aunts or grandparents. Parents will certainly be spending on a toy and won’t make this type of purchase now. If you don’t have data, you need to be more creative to get the right person’s attention.
- What do SMEs need to do to sell more at Christmas?
A strategy that does not fail is investing in marketplaces to increase your online sales. By the way, no one fails, companies like Mercado Livre (MELI), Americanas, Submarino, Magalu, Casas Bahia, Fast Shop and many others. And why did the marketplace gain such a strong space in sales?
There are two main reasons. The first is the “guarantee” of product delivery, problem solving and your money back if the delivery partner does not do the job correctly, in addition to the security of personal and financial data. The second reason is more technical. Building a branding, reputation and marketing to attract customers online, having a brand that conveys the trust of the first reason, a platform with a fast and intuitive shopping experience, which accepts different types of payments and is multichannel.
Well, we know that all of this is very expensive and unfeasible for SMEs, but marketplaces achieve all of this and make room for small ones to focus on quickly delivering the product and customer service. Invest in this channel, it is always excellent for SMEs.
Conclusion
“If you have an SME and want to boost your sales, the path is to create more emotional messages. Brands that consider the affective side will be more successful in Christmas sales”, says Fábio Lima.
For him, the use of the marketplace is another way to boost sales and the small retailer can attract new customers and delight them with a simple action that can be a personalized letter from Santa Claus or a gift from the store for those who are presenting, valuing the action of giving and receiving too.
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About Fábio Lima
With more than 25 years of experience in the technological products and services market, and having worked for large multinationals such as Epson and Samsung, where he was Commercial Director, Fabio Lima has been at Lenovo for over eight years, where he is Sales and Marketplace Director.
With a postgraduate degree in Marketing and a specialist in Retail, Fabio Lima is a leader capable of promoting cultural changes in the company by addressing customer pain points to intelligences with decision-making power. He has the vision and flexibility to lead agile, future-oriented market transformations.
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