#24. How To Get Through Post-Holidays Sales Slump | Podcast

Vira  0:00 

How can you like continue to drive sales when everyone has finished their holiday shopping and when everyone received their credit card bills? How to prepare for the post holiday, January, February, slump. That’s actually what we will be talking about in today’s episode.

Alissa  0:40 

Hey everyone, and welcome to another episode of email Einstein, Vira and Alissa here, we are two email marketers at an email marketing agency called Flowium. We are super passionate about email marketing, and because we love what we do, we want to share our insights with you. Flowium is one of the fastest growing email marketing agencies in the world, we specialize in providing a premium, full service e commerce, email marketing experience for all of our clients. Our service is tailored specifically for your business and is designed to help increase your online retail revenue by 20 to 55, 0% we deliver the right message to the right person at the right moment, and that’s what we’re all about here at Flowium, today’s episode is going to be pretty fun, because we’re just we’re going all out with the holiday theme.

Alissa  1:46 

So Vira, take us away.

Vira  1:49 

Oh, yeah, and it’s interesting, because we are pre-recording this podcast. So it’s almost Christmas for you guys, but we still have a few more weeks, weeks till Christmas. That’s exciting. Yeah, actually almost made it, you guys. We are almost entering 2021, and finally saying goodbye to this turbulent year. And I don’t know about you guys, but emotionally speaking, it feels like 2020 has lasted approximately 1000 years.

Alissa  2:20 

Yeah.

Vira  2:21 

Honestly, so much happened in 2020 we’ve experienced an actual pandemic election, the rise and fall of Tiktok this year brought the love is blind TV show in my life, by the way. Have you watched it Alissa?

Alissa  2:36 

Yes, yes. We watched the whole thing as soon as it came out on Netflix.

Vira  2:44 

Loved it, and you got married, so it was a big year for you, Alissa, and you’re expecting a baby.

Alissa  2:51 

Yep.

Vira  2:52 

So, like a lot of good stuff actually happened in 2020 as well. And of course, we witnessed the biggest Black Friday Cyber Monday in the history of E commerce. So this was a very eventful year to say the least, especially for us in E commerce. The numbers are in, and we can safely say that, yes, it was the biggest Black Friday sale in the history of E commerce and but, but what to do when it’s over. How can you like, continue to drive sales when everyone has finished their holiday shopping and when everyone received their credit card bills? How to prepare for the past holiday, January, February, slump. So that’s actually what we will be talking about in today’s episode. And here are some quick and easy marketing ideas that you can tackle in the months of January and February, just to help you get over that sales slum. But before we go there, instead of pro tip, we have something fun this week. In the spirit of the holidays. Alissa, tell us about this idea of yours.

Alissa  3:58 

One thing that we can’t forget about 2020 as well is that it gave us Tiger King.

Vira  4:04 

Oh, yeah, I actually haven’t watched it. Everyone watched it. Everyone is referring to it, making jokes about it. I’m like, I yeah, I don’t even understand the jokes.

Alissa  4:18 

It was like, it was one of those things, like, it’s like a car it’s like a big, big car crash where, like, you know, it’s really bad, and you feel really bad for the fact that it’s so bad, but you just can’t help stop and look at it. That was Tiger King, kind of in a nutshell. It was a very messy, very weird, very bizarre. But it got through. It got most of us through. Like, I think March was it? That’s when, like, everything started locking down, yeah, getting kind of weird covid, weird. So that’s it. Got us all through the first month, and then the rest of the year. I don’t know how we made it through, but here we are. We all made it so, as Vira said, instead of our Pro Tip of the Week, in the spirit of the holidays, Vira and I are each going to share our favorite holiday tradition. So kind of the rules around what our holiday, holiday tradition will look like is either something that we used to do when we were when we were younger, growing up with our families, or something that we’ve now done with our own families. Vira, I don’t know if you want to start. If not, I’m more than happy to start off.

Vira  5:18 

I’ll go first.

Alissa  5:18 

Okay, perfect.

Vira  5:19 

Our holidays start sooner than your holidays in Northern America because I’m from Ukraine originally, and we celebrate St Nicholas Day. For us, it’s December 19, and that’s actually when we get the gifts. And that’s like my one of my favorite holiday traditions is when you’re getting the gift, you are actually getting it under the pillow, so you’re sleeping, and St Nicholas and his angel helpers come and they leave you the gifts under the pillow, and they also put like a little like candy and stuff in your shoes as well. So every year on St Nicholas Eve, you had to clean your shoes really nicely and put them by the door, so St Nicholas can leave you both gifts in your shoes and under the tailor. So I was so excited every year about this holiday. And honestly, I’m like, I’m 29 right now, and I’ve never catched the St Nicholas. I’ve never. I slept through the night all the time, and I’ve never had an experience of meeting St Nicholas. So that was my definitely favorite holiday of the year. And we don’t get Christmas gifts, we get them for st Nick so that’s so cool. What was your favorite holiday tradition?

Alissa  6:46 

So one of the things that we actually used to do growing up was on Christmas Eve while leading up to Christmas Eve. So we used to get like, an allowance growing up for my parents, whether it was for like, doing something good at school, or like doing chores around the house, or whatever it is. So we would get a weekly allowance, and then we were always encouraged to save that allowance. And the reason why we would save it is because when it came around to, like, Christmas time, we would go out shopping, and we would go to like a toy store, or like a typically, a toy store, because we were younger. And what we would do with our allowance is we would have to buy gifts for someone who was like our age. So like, if I was 12 years old at the time, I would buy gifts for a 12 year old girl my sister, if she was six, she would buy gifts for a six year old girl. My brother, if he was seven, he would buy gifts for a seven year old boy. And what we would do is we would buy pretty much as many gifts as like, what we wanted. So if there were five gifts on our Christmas list, we would buy five gifts for that other child who was our age, and then on Christmas Eve, what we would do is we would wrap all the gifts all together, and then we would take them over to an orphanage, like a local orphanage, and drop off the gifts at the orphanage. So that was always really, I think growing up, I didn’t really like understand the impact of what my parents were trying to do. But now it’s really changed, like, how I view Christmas, and for me, it’s there’s so much more joy and like giving and like being with people and celebrating, versus, like, this is what I want for Christmas, you know, that kind of thing. So yeah, that was one that was a really cool tradition that we always had. And like, even if we traveled, so we lived in the northeast of the US and New Hampshire. And there were a couple of years that we came down Florida, now, where we live, for Christmas, and we would still do the same thing, like we’d always come a few days before Christmas, go like, toy shopping for the kids, wrap up the gifts, and then find a local orphanage in the area where we were staying, like, close to our hotel, and drop off the gifts and stuff. So it was always, always a fun way of, like us spending time together as a family. And like, also, like looking through the toy store and like window shopping and stuff for ourselves, but also avidly buying these gifts for these kids, and then being able to drop it off and stuff. And we never actually met any of the the kids that we dropped off the gifts to. We would always try to do it anonymously as a family, like, just drop them off and and go. But, like, it was always kind of like a pat on the back feeling of like, hey, you know, it’s really cool to know that, like, there’s a kid who maybe doesn’t necessarily have a family, but they’re gonna wake up and they’re gonna have something to look forward to on Christmas morning. So yeah, that was a that was a.

Vira  9:15 

Such a beautiful tradition. Do you think you will continue doing it with your kids?

Alissa  9:19 

Yeah, I really want to. It’s something that I’ve definitely spoken to my husband about quite a bit. And whether we do that exact thing or we do something similar along the lines to that, I’m not sure. I know, like a lot of elementary schools, a lot of schools, generally, across the US, they’ll have like a Chris a giving tree that’s set up in their in like the lobby of the school, or whatever it is. And so it’s a Christmas tree, and on the Christmas tree are all these little paper ornaments. And the ornaments will have like, gender of the child, the age of the child, and like, what like one gift or one thing that they want. And so everyone could take the ornaments home if they wanted to, and then you would just have to bring back the gifts to the school and put them under the tree with the tag. On it by a certain time period. So that’s something that’s pretty cool. We’re very into like, how can we help the local community? My husband and I, so I think we’ll probably do kind of like a mix of all of those things around the holiday season. And long story short, we, my family and I recently found out that we’re Jewish, so now we celebrate Hanukkah. We don’t necessarily do Christmas, so now it’s like, okay, how do we mix the combo of, like, that holiday tradition that was more Christmas oriented, and plug it into Hanukkah, which is what we do now. So, yeah, we’re, we’re gonna have to get creative. I think over the course of time.

Vira  10:36 

Interesting, you will invent your own holiday, I guess.

Alissa  10:39 

Yeah, right. I don’t know if you ever watched.

Vira  10:41 

Yeah, your kid will be like that kid from friends, right? Ross’s son, they had the Christmas armadillo.

Alissa  10:52 

I never saw that episode, but what I’m thinking of is, I don’t know if you ever watched the OC where, so they celebrated,

Vira  11:03 

Yeah, Adam Brody, yeah.

Alissa  11:05 

Oh my gosh, yeah, I know, right, but they used to celebrate Christmukkah where it was a comic and Hanukkah, because Adam Brody’s dad in the in the series was Jewish, but his mom wasn’t, so they used to do Christmas and Hanukkah. So maybe we’ll end up celebrating Christmukkah. Who knows?

Vira  11:21 

Christmukkah. Oh, that’s fun. That’s fun, by the way. Do you know I read this stats lately? Do you know how much American on average spent around Christmas time on gifts, holiday items and other expenses?

Alissa  11:38 

Oh, my gosh.

Vira  11:39 

Wild guess.

Alissa  11:42 

Like, I would guess, like, like $3,000 or something like that. I don’t know. I feel like Americans really go all out with that kind of stuff, especially if they have a lot of kids, especially if they have a lot of kids.

Vira  11:53 

Well, actually, it’s not, it’s not that high. But still, like $998 so almost $1,000 yeah, so, and that’s like an average American, which means that some are probably spending way more than that, spending less, but it’s still a lot money, like that, much around Christmas, like in Europe. I think it’s a very like American, American tradition. And hey, it’s good for us, people in E commerce, right?

Alissa  12:21 

Yeah.

Vira  12:21 

But January and February are often seen in e Commerce Industry as, like, the deadliest month of the year, as a time of sales slump, right? And that’s like natural because after spending like, so much money in the months of November and December, some shoppers have the blues after receiving their credit card bills and yeah. So January, February will be some of the lowest spending months of the years for the average US consumers. So guys, you’ve got to prepare people in E commerce. You’ve got to prepare for for this time. And the question, the big question, is, how can you actually stay in touch with your audience and keep like motivating them to come back and spend some money again. So here are our favorite easy strategies that you can utilize in the offseason to keep your sales up after the holidays. And the first one is a big one. We call it the new year, new you campaigns. Oh my god, yeah, I know it’s like many people, and I’m certainly one of them, like to start the new year with a clean slate mentality. Yeah, for sure, every year I’m doing this, like, new year resolution, I’m, like, preparing myself for the new year, new me status in Facebook and stuff like that. And lots of your friends will probably make a pledge to get healthier, to focus on their career, to lose some weight or start spending less on Uber Eats. I might be talking about myself. So by the way, here’s another fun stat. Alissa, guess what are the most popular New Year resolutions? I literally have, like, the list of the most popular New Year resolutions for people, like, what would you guess?

Alissa  14:04 

So for sure lose weight. Like, 100% lose weight. And I think so. This is me kind of tagging on to like, what people were like all about last year. But last year there was, like, this craze of, like, drink, drink, a glass of celery juice every morning. So, like, usually something along that where it’s like, I’m gonna lose 500 pounds and have six pack abs in time for March, so that I can go on spring vacation, or whatever it is. But then it’s also like, I’m also gonna eat 500 pounds of vegetables every day, and that’s it. That’s usually, like, usually somewhere in there.

Vira  14:36 

Usually you’re done with your new year, new year’s resolutions by January the third. Yeah, yeah, that’s how it works. Well, actually the most popular one is save more and spend less.

Alissa  14:48 

Oh, interesting.

Vira  14:49 

Yeah, that’s really interesting. Yeah, I thought that losing weight will be among the top two. But actually the second one is pay down debts, and the third one is. Leave a hell, leave a health, healthier lifestyle, or lose weight. That’s, yeah, I was, actually, I was, I was surprised too. I thought that losing weight would be like the number one, because it’s been number one for me for as long as I can remember myself, and it’s just stupid. I don’t do this anymore. Yeah, so.

Alissa  15:19 

It’s the same for me, where it’s like, I’m gonna wake up at 6am I’m gonna work out for three hours, and then I’m gonna go to work, and then I’m gonna eat celery, and it’s that’s like, always how it is. And then by like, January 2, I’m like, I’m gonna wake up at nine o’clock and roll into work and maybe have a Snickers bar at lunch.

Vira  15:37 

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So. And actually, I mean, those new year new me resolutions, they might be funny, but hey, you can use this trend in your email marketing, and you should definitely use it creating a new year new me kind of shoppers are definitely helping those people is definitely important. You don’t want to be ignoring this past holiday season, this group of people, and in fact, there are a bunch of industries that see a surge in sales thanks to new year’s resolution. So athletic and apparel and accessorize accessories. So this is, like the big one health and wellness products. So if you are in the supplement industry, or you’re selling, I don’t know, like the programs for workout or workout equipment, you will probably see a surge in sales thanks to new year’s resolutions, reading, learning, self improvement, getting organized. So if you’re selling something for like house organization or some sort of planners, be prepared that January and February might not actually be your slowest month, and this is an opportunity for you to talk about the benefits of what you have in the store, of benefits of those products, and how you can make 2021 simpler for them, easier for them, and Oral better if you pair this new year new me with like discount, believe me, you will hit the sweet spot for your shoppers and people who have this new year new me mentality, they are definitely ready to spend if you provide them the offer that will help them to get better in 2021, and also another thing, anything new actually sells in January. If you are selling some, I don’t know, like a new variation of a supplement, new product, or whatever, believe me, it will sell good in January. So January is the month of new beginnings. So don’t ignore it. Definitely capitalize on that idea.

Alissa  17:44 

Yeah, yeah, I love it. And it’s true. If you’re like, in the fitness kind of healthy health industry, like health food or whatever, this does not apply to you, because it’s like, you’re going to be booming in January, for sure, January, February timeframe.

Vira  18:00 

Yeah, but just don’t, don’t be quiet on the months of January. I think that some sellers and some e commerce business owners, they feel guilty after January, after December and November, for like, emailing people so much. But hey, don’t be quiet in the months of January. Don’t leave your customers hanging. They want to hear from you. That’s why they subscribe to receive your emails. Just give them that, like extra support. Help them start this new year from like a with a clean slate sort of mentality. So don’t, don’t be quiet. Keep emailing them. Maybe change that tone of your emails a bit.

Alissa  18:40 

Yeah, for sure, I’m on board with that. So for number two, I feel like a lot of you who are listening are going to be like, What are you talking about? Our second suggestion is to actually start another sale as an as an E commerce business owner, you’re probably like, another sale are you getting? But, and even when I was, when I’ve been working with my clients recently and providing this suggestion, as we get closer to the month of January, they look at me like, I have three heads. Like, what are you talking about? We just had Black Friday, Cyber Monday. I just provided the biggest sale ever. I’m doing all these sales in December. Like, what do you mean? So the thing is, is January is a month that is full of opportunities, if you understand and know how to capitalize on these hidden opportunities. So here are some ideas around what we mean by starting another sale that we truly believe won’t break the bank or crush your business in a typically slower e commerce season. So the first is a winter clearance sale. So let’s face it, once the holidays are over, everyone is already looking forward to the spring, working on their beach bodies, ready for the newness of the year. People are already looking ahead to all the things that are coming in the year, and not really focusing on what’s going on in January, January, which is winter blues, pretty poor weather, that kind of thing. And it’s likely that your business is also feeling the same way. January is a really solid time to kind of regroup and think about the goal. That you want to achieve as a business for the for the course of the year. So your winter clearance sale will actually give your brand an opportunity to get rid of your winter inventory and label it as a clearance sale. And I know, as a consumer, personally, I love a good clearance sale. Anything that’s clearance. I’m like, yep, let me scoop that right up, because I know I’m getting a really good deal on it. And the best part is, you’re also able to tag a final sale label on these clearance items, so it protects your business from processing and issuing multiple refunds in the future and also taking back that inventory. So when you do do these winter clearance sales, just make sure that you let your customers know. Hey, listen, this is a final sale item. Once you purchase it, that’s it. You can’t place a refund. You can’t send it back. You can’t exchange it like it is, what it is, and that’s what kind of.

Vira  20:44 

This is a good one, that’s actually a good one, because January is known for having one of the highest refunds. Yes, people are returning. They are like gifts and everything. So having something like this can help you a lot.

Alissa  20:58 

For sure. And I mean, I mean, I would imagine it’s because people get those credit card bills and they’re like, yeah, no, this is not happening. So just make sure that you protect your business by also doing that kind of final sale idea when it comes to your winter clearance, if you have winter inventory, if that kind of thing applies, another idea is free gift with your purchase. So honestly, I don’t know anyone who does not love free stuff, and if you don’t know it yet, now you know freebies are always, always, always winners. And again, this is also another great way to get rid of minor inventory items that you know won’t necessarily be able to sell easily. So for example, like if you have like these, like branded hair scrunchies, or like something small, like that, or whatever it is, or like these tote bags or anything, you can tag that into a purchase. Hey, when you make a purchase, you get a free X or whatever it is. And even though it’s not necessarily like, wow, I get a free diamond ring. You know, it’s still, it’s still a freebie. And that incentivizes people to make the purchase.

Vira  21:55 

I think one of our clients, but it was more for holidays, but they did the free wrapping paper every with every purchase, yeah? So you can actually, like, wrap your gift nicely in the branded paper. And the paper was super pretty, by the way, it was, I think it was RSVLTS, yeah, and we had the podcast with those guys, yeah, before so go back and listen. The podcast is really good, and that’s an excellent idea.

Alissa  22:22 

Yeah, no, I love it, yeah. And that’s the other thing is, like, the freebie doesn’t have to be a specific, like, holding tangible item. Like, here you’re going to get a pen with your purchase. It could be some like, kind of added value, no, like, hey, when you make this purchase, you’ll get $50 off your next purchase that you make, or whatever it is, something along those lines, where you’re still providing a freebie, some kind of incentive with that purchase. So yeah, I love that, the wrapping paper idea. I saw that when they sent out their campaign, and I was like, wow, that is genius. Because people don’t like wrapping.

Vira  22:55 

And one of my clients is doing the free access to his course. So he’s doing both, like, exactly the physical process product, and he’s doing the online course. So it doesn’t even have to be anything physical, just like you, you’ve mentioned all this. It can be like, access to the course, or some free PDF about the 10 Ways to clean your cat. I don’t know. I obviously I don’t have a pad. I obviously don’t have the pad. So maybe that wasn’t the best example. But you know what I’m saying? It doesn’t have to be something like tangible. Yeah, get creative. People love free stuff.

Alissa  23:30 

Yeah. No, for sure. The 10 Ways to clean your cat, well, I have to look that up on Google later and see if that is even a thing. I don’t think so. I don’t have a cat. I personally don’t like cats, but that’s really funny.

Vira  23:45 

Alissa, now just like 50% of our listeners unsubscribe from us.

Alissa  23:48 

I know, right. Sorry, no, just no offense to anyone who doesn’t who does love cats. Nothing against you, no judgment. I’m just not a cat lover myself. So the other option is also to create these bulk buy discounts. So for me personally, this isn’t one I have a huge amount of experience with, but there is a possibility for you to actually win with your bulk purchases. So I’ve actually seen a lot of brands that I’ve personally subscribed to, like other brands that I like to shop with in the E commerce world create, like, a bulk buy package for the holidays, and it’s definitely a very quick and easy way for you to increase your average order value per customer again without breaking the bank, and also providing a smaller level discount, even though the customer is purchasing at a much higher value than what they normally would. So with these bulk buys, you can also tack on the free shipping trick, which also work, which works really well, and consumers love that, but just make sure that when you do that free shipping, it only applies to either the bulk buy item or, like, bulk buy SKU that you have internally, or a certain minimum purchased amount. So if you have a bulk buy package of so, like, one example that I can think of, like right off the top of my head is this brand that sells bras, for example, not a personal client. Just a brand that I like to look at their stuff on, on the E commerce in the E commerce world, and they just created, like this bulk buy discount for anyone who purchases three bras or more. And the discount, seemingly for us as consumers, looks really, really, really good and very incentivizing. So because it’s so inexpensive in comparison to buying three of those bras individually, and also, when you bulk buy those bras, then you also get a discount or a free shipping rather. So like, that’s an that’s a really smart way to get me as the consumer to spend way more money on three bras than I would on just purchasing one. But then I also get the free shipping, and I’m getting the discount. And so it looks like there are way more pros for the consumer than there are for the brand, but in essence, they’re just going to get more money out of me. So that’s another option as well, if you have that capability in the room, in your inventory, essentially. And then the last one, we’ll dive into this a lot deeper later in the episode, and we’ve talked about it previously in Episode 22 but the other option for you in the month of January is to make sure that you’re incentivizing your loyalty program. Again, we’ve talked about this before. We’ll keep talking about it forever. It’s so important to incentivize your new customers and your loyal customers to either become loyal or remain loyal. Perks, perks, perks, perks, perks. That’s what everyone is constantly looking for. And the competition for actual products is fierce within the industry that we work in, and sometimes it’s not enough for you as a brand to just provide the highest quality product on the market. People want to know what else they’re going to get or what else is in store for them by making a purchase with you specifically. So once a customer buys from you, you want to invite them into your loyalty program, especially if they’re first time buyers, because this is a really good way to kind of hook them in, and this is a huge missed opportunity for so many business owners, so please don’t be that guy, and we’ll talk about this a little more later on in the episode.

Vira  26:46 

Cool, so that another really good way to move your inventory or inventory as product bundles. And product bundles are, in a way, are similar to bulk buy discounts. But in this case, this is how it works. So what are those bundles? Well, to put it simply, product bundling involves like combining several different products into a package with a reduced price. So in this case, like in the case with a bulk buy discount, it most of the times, is either like the same product or a similar product. Well, in this case, with product bundles, it doesn’t have to be like the same product. You can bundle your bestseller and then in and some products that you need to move around. And the biggest perk of bundles is actually the potential of a great average order value. So in other words, your customers spend more money each time they buy. And that’s that’s a big one. That’s the big goal for all of us in E commerce, your shoppers are encouraged to spend more in order to save more. Now that might mean that your margins will be a bit smaller, yes, but at the same time, the increase in sales should make up for that. And besides, you will be saving yourself a bunch of money on transactional costs, because instead of, like, sending one $30 item and paying for for shipping, you will be sending the package with the average order value, say, like 100 bucks, and you’re paying the same amount for shipping. And bundles are especially great when you’re trying to sell a slow moving stock. So say, if you have some products nearing the end, they are shelf life, or maybe they are just like there and collecting too much dust in your warehouse, you can actually put them together and bundle them with one of your popular item. So who knows, maybe you can generate enough interest in the future to turn that slow mover into like a hot product. That’s actually what we did with one of my clients. They do this thing called Secret bundle. So my customer is selling the compression sauce. By the way, they are super cute. The brand is called primes, so go and check them out, super cute compression socks. And what we did, we actually put some of the best sellers and some inventory that need to be moved around into one package bundle. But the customers actually don’t know what are they getting. So they know that they will get, like, this kind of socks, but they don’t know what color of the socks they will get, so it’s a secret bundle. And at first I was a bit skeptical to be honest about this idea, because you mean, why would you purchase something that you don’t know like about, that you don’t know what you will get? But actually, it turned out so well, this is one of our best sellers right now, and they are combining one of their best selling colors with one that is okay. And the third one is that is a slow mover, so that’s actually a big one. And yeah, and you can actually increase the awareness for the new product as well. So going back to that new. New year, new me or new you. Topic, if you, like, recently launched a new product or introduced a brand into your store, why not combining it with one of your best sellers? You can create a product bundle with a similar or complementary item that’s proven to be popular with your customers base. And I know for sure that Sephora does it. And so like, every time I place an order, they send me, like, a little freebie with their new products. And this way, oh my goodness, they introduced me to so many like products that I returned, and buy those products from them, just because they send me this, like free sample, and it’s not even the sample, they just like sending you the miniature version, so it’s bigger than sample, but smaller than the regular size. So that’s actually an excellent way to increase awareness for a new product, and we’ve done it as well with my other clients, so we’ve combined two of their best sellers with a new product, and we are selling this bundle for less. So basically, people are saving money in the way, but their check is higher, so we only need to pay the shipping costs. Awesome. So that’s, that’s the good, good strategy that you guys can can use in January and February and like generally. That’s an excellent, an excellent strategy.

Alissa  31:20 

Yeah, I love that. I also need to get those compression socks for my increasingly swelling pregnant feet.

Vira  31:29 

My favorite ones are the compression socks with watermelon. I’ll send you the link.

Alissa  31:34 

Oh yeah, send it to me. That is cute. Super cute. Yeah, I need, I need to grab some of those.

Vira  31:40 

They’re actually like, targeting pregnant women, and moms? Yeah, swollen ankles, yeah.

Alissa  31:48 

Yeah. So yeah, here she is, right here, miss, miss, swole.

Vira  31:53 

I can get you a discount.

Alissa  31:55 

Oh, I love it. I love it. Perks of Flowium right. Yeah, yeah, no, I love the bundle idea. I’ve used that a lot with my clients for even this holiday season, where it’s like, hey, let’s create a holiday bundle, where you’re providing way more products within a much, seemingly a much lesser price. And it’s actually been working really, really well. It’s a little more work on the clients part, because they actually have to create the bundle, but and like, put it together and ship it, etc. But it’s been helpful, because a lot of my clients have been moving inventory that’s not really going anywhere. But then also, they’ve been able to promote their newest products with it too. So it’s been, it’s been a twofer that’s that’s been really helpful and successful as well with their customer base. So our last post holiday marketing strategy. And we’re going to go back to a topic that I kind of touched on when, when I was originally speaking about strategy number two, with the starting another sale is rewarding your loyal customers. So again, we spoke about this in Episode 22 when we were talking about reward programs that you can add on to your E commerce experience. And I think the ones that we mentioned were like, smile.io, there’s swell. There are tons out on the market, but those were the two main ones that we kind of spoke about. But because it’s so relevant here, we’re going to just touch on it again. So for 2021 we actually have a little bit of a challenge for all of you listeners out there. We are challenging all of the E commerce brands that do actually listen to our podcast to implement a loyalty program if you haven’t already. We really, really believe in the benefits of these programs. There is so much that can be gained from them. And if you already have a loyalty program in place, we challenge you to up your perk game next month in January and provide something really exciting for your loyal customers that are already part of the program. So whether it’s free shipping for q1 or a bounce back offer that will give these customers a ridiculous promotion on brand new spring inventory, you can also do exclusive access to a brand new product launch before it even makes an appearance on your website. With regards to the perks that you can provide, and upping your perk game, the opportunities are pretty endless, but we definitely recommend upping that game for January, just so you can avoid the slump. So if inputting another sale isn’t really possible, or the New Year, New You doesn’t necessarily match your brand, or it’s difficult for you guys to create a bundle, or whatever it is, go the loyalty program route, because it will be super beneficial. And the thing to really note is the gesture, or any gesture that you make with your customers at the very start of the new year, whether they’re loyal and repeat customers or brand new customers, it will having last, it will have a lasting impression and impact on your customers for the months to come. And the thing is, is like, in essence, and we actually just had a call about this internally, about wrapping up, kind of Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and like, what went well, where we have opportunities for next year. This holiday season is the biggest time for us as E commerce companies, and for us working with E commerce companies, so it’s always important. Even though we’re kind of like, okay, Black Friday is over. Don’t want to think about it anymore. We don’t want to think about next year. Either. It’s so important that every step that you take from January until September, essentially is a step in the right direction towards gearing up and preparing for another successful Black Friday Cyber Monday year. So when you do these really impactful, like engaging, kind of incentivizing actions or gestures towards your customers at the very start of the year. You already start to build that trust. So then that way, when it comes down to October, November, December timeframe, they’re going to be turning towards you first when it comes to all of their big shopping at the end of the year. So just make sure that you have that in mind, and as you start into into next year and think about what you would want as a customer, and go for it, because you want to make your customers happy throughout the course of the year. So then, that way you can, you can trust that they will be there for you when you’re when your sales are depending on it in the holiday season. So that’s what we got for you today.

Vira  35:58 

Well, guys, I hope it was helpful for you on those little strategies. Go back, re listen to some of our podcasts. I’m sure you can find a lot of useful strategies there as well. And hey, don’t forget to subscribe and share this podcast with your friends, because I’m sure there are some e commerce people who can certainly benefit from this podcast as well. And if you have any questions, don’t be shy. Don’t be shy. If you’d like to even maybe one of your questions to be featured in our podcast episodes, send them directly at flowium.com/ask, and we will definitely help you out with your questions. And all of the resources, by the way, that we used for today’s episodes, can be find, can be found in the description summary of this episode, so just scroll and you’ll find them in the description box. And also you can find them on our website.

Alissa  36:52 

Love it. And if you want to get involved in a community of other e commerce brand owners, other email marketers, people that just kind of live in this little sphere of email nerdiness. Make sure that you join us at flowium.com/community, if you are interested in getting some more advice on how to establish a solid email marketing strategy for your e commerce Store, make sure that you visit us at flowium.com/contact, and sign up for a free consultation. You’ll be able to speak to someone like myself or Vira where we’ll be able to kind of do an overview of what you have in place at the moment and make some some kind of light suggestions as to what you can do to take your email marketing to the next level.

Vira  37:32 

And don’t forget to tune in next week, because we will be talking about email marketing lessons, the biggest email marketing lessons of the 2020, the lessons that this unprecedented year has taught us, we do have a lot to share with you, just like a heads up we might or might not talk about the life Love is blind TV show. Again, I don’t know, but this episode will be really, really good and informative. We’ll be talking about something that we learned in 2020 and something that we and how we can use it and the year that is coming. So thanks for listening you guys. Tune in next week, and we really hope to see you here next week.

Alissa  38:16 

Thank you guys. Have a good one.

Vira  38:18  

Have a good one. Bye.