How to Withstand the Post-holiday Depression

Following the successful holiday season, there comes the “calm after the storm”, when customers go quiet and it seems like the rest of the winter is going to be a dead season for shopping at large. Sure enough, consumers are still there with needs to be covered and desire to be satisfied. And when it comes to food shopping, if one can resist buying a new pair of shoes, a loaf of bread or a supply of fresh water is the basic necessity one can’t do without.

Rise from the Ashes with Flash Sales

When all other retailers are quiet, take the chance to boost your business. Treat your customers with flash sales, coupons, discounts, free gifts, and loyalty programs that additionally ensure a safe ground for the upcoming year.

A flash sale is a cut-price or promotion for a short period of time or a limited quantity, which often means the discounts are higher or more significant, and that entices consumers to buy on the spot. Flash sales can be an extremely effective method for quickly unloading excess inventory left after the holiday season. 

Bagrat Safaryan, CEO and Co-Founder of Local Express, says that indie retailers now need to make their flash sales stand out to compete with big brands. “Studies show that after a while, consumers get tired of seeing the same flash sales over and over again, so we need to evolve the sales to be more personalized,” Bagrat said. “You cannot use the same product and sell like everyone else — you need to be able to use the customer data that is out there. Once you have customer data, you can craft the campaigns to personalize or curate certain items together to make the sale more enticing and valuable to the shoppers.”

New Year, New Strategies! 

The beginning of a new year is probably the best time to plan out the upcoming marketing strategy and incorporate new ideas into it. Analyzing the previous year, note down everything you wanted but couldn’t do before and develop a new marketing strategy clearly defining the points below:

1. Your Buyers’ Personas, Their Wishes, and Goals

Creating a bigger image of who your average customer is will help you understand their main demands and make suitable offers. 

2. Email Strategies and Tools

Decide on whether you’re going to launch email campaigns and pick a platform that covers your needs. You can use emails to invite customers to your online shop, send out coupons, announce sales, and much more!

3. Your Social Media Promotion Plans

Take the time to thoroughly plan out your posts and messages on social media. This will help you promote your brand and build up your customers’ community.

Our team on Local Express provides a month of free marketing assistance to our new partners.

Once your target is set, promotions are planned out and your first ads are implemented, it’s time to retarget! According to recent research done by Statista the average CTR for retargeted ads is ten times that of display ads, so visitors who see retargeted ads are 70% more likely to convert to your site.

Summary

In a nutshell, even though the market seems to shrink after the holidays, food retailers can attract customers with irresistible flash sales and retain them with a tailor-made marketing strategy.