How To Improve Your Valentine’s Day Ecommerce Strategy
By Emmanuel Raheb
Founder and CEO, Smart Age Solutions
With love in the air, Valentine’s Day has always proven to be one of the most popular times of year to buy jewelry. It’s a time when we all want to hold that special someone even closer and show them just how much we care.
Chocolate and flowers are always welcome -- of course -- but, with the recent uncertainty of life, consumers are choosing gifts that will last. Jewelry perfectly satisfies this need. It can be worn everyday and even be passed down from one generation to the next.
According to a recent survey conducted in 2020, Valentine’s Day was one of the biggest spending times of the year with an average spend of $196 per person. In 2021, spending for Valentine’s Day decreased about 20% to around $156 per person, totaling around $21.8 billion. Much of the decline can be traced directly back to the pandemic. Remember, during Valentine’s Day in 2020 we weren’t even in full
lock-down mode yet, as we were later during the year and into 2021.
As people get vaccinated and things slowly return to normal, Valentine’s Day spending is expected to rebound back to its previous level and go even higher. The upward trend has always been to spend more.
Younger Millennials (ages 23 to 29) are most likely to be the largest group of spenders during Valentine’s Day, since they make up the majority of singles and are not yet married.
Generation X (ages 30 to 50) are also a formidable group, with many already married and looking for an anniversary gift or a way to show how much they care.
Baby Boomers (ages 65 and up) who have deep pockets, are always a rich source of new sales during Valentine’s Day. Even a new Covid variant can’t stop Cupid’s arrow.
Although many people are not physically going out anywhere, they feel comfortable spending money online. Think of all the disposable income people have accumulated in their bank accounts from canceled vacations and money saved by working from home. Everyone has plenty of money and is eager to spend it.
To succeed on Valentine’s Day, you have think outside of the (chocolate) box. Here are 5 ecommerce strategies to help grow your jewelry store’s sales.
- Create a list of gift ideas.
Sometimes the consumer can be their own worst enemy. Having too many choices creates indecision which stops many people before they even complete their purchase.
To avoid this, segment your inventory into distinct groups by category and style, then curate your best jewelry pieces so the focus remains on them. You’ll want to have multiple tiers to showcase different price-points. Instead of the consumer getting lost in a large, unfriendly catalog, you’ve already done the shopping for them!
Many men who have trouble finding the perfect gift for their loved-one will thank you. 2. Make sure your delivery dates are visible on your site.
Regardless of the time of year, delivery is always a question consumers have when shopping for gifts. This is especially important on Valentine’s Day because if you miss February 14th, you’ve not only lost the sale -- you’ve lost her heart. No woman wants to be left empty-handed or feel unloved.
It’s absolutely crucial that you show the availability of which jewelry styles are in-stock and ready to ship. How far away is your average customer and how long will it take to reach them?
You’ll want to promote the last day customers can order from you and still be in time for Valentine’s Day. Make it prominent on your website, in emails, and all of your other marketing.
Be upfront with your audience and be sure to leave a good window of time to process and ship the item, allowing for any delays which might occur. The post office, UPS and Fedex have been notoriously slow lately. It’s always better to be a week early than a day late.
- Have a special Valentine’s Day promotion targeted to men.
With millions of consumers shopping for Valentine’s Day gifts online, there’s no better time of year to promote a jewelry offer specifically to men. How, when, and where you promote your campaigns and which styles you choose to focus on will have a major impact on your results.
To succeed, target men and use discounts and special offers to entice them. Maybe he’ll get a special pair of cuff links with any order over a certain amount? Or throw in a bonus necklace? Anything that you can use to help push him over the edge to make a buying decision at that moment, will be to your advantage.
Remember, many men will procrastinate and put things off, forgetting to come back to your website later. There are an unlimited number of jewelry stores to shop from, you need to give him a reason to buy from YOU.
- Always use cross-selling and up-selling techniques.
For cross-selling, on every jewelry item page you should always show the matching items for that style. For earrings it could be the matching necklace. For bracelets, a matching ring and so on. If someone is interested in a style, encourage them to complete the “set” by purchasing all related items. Create a special package deal just for them.
For up-selling, you want to showcase additional jewelry styles during the check-out process within your cart. This is the same as what the grocery store does, impulse items are always near the cash register. It doesn’t take much thought for a customer who has already decided to buy from you to be tempted to buy something else.
Be sure to include fun, affordable, popular jewelry styles in your check-out area and make it easy to say “yes” with a big button for people to add the item into their cart. This technique alone can easily bump your ecommerce sales 10% to 20% or more, with almost zero additional expense.
- Recover lost sales due to cart abandonment.
Cart abandonment remains the biggest driver of lost sales. Even at the beginning of January, people were already thinking of Valentine’s Day. They go online, browse jewelry sites, and look for gift ideas. It’s still early, but they’re trying to find the perfect item. Something that will make her go “Wow!”.
What typically occurs is that a consumer adds something to their cart and has every intention of checking-out, but isn’t ready to make the purchase right now or gets distracted. Life happens.
Re-capture lost sales through an abandoned cart drip campaign and follow-up with everyone who started the checkout process, but didn’t finish. Many sites will even start contacting the person within hours after leaving their cart.
With other jewelry stores aggressively marketing to the same audience, time is of the essence. Don’t delay! If the customer doesn’t buy from you now, they’ll certainly buy from someone else later. Remember, there’s no excuse if he shows up empty-handed. It’s Valentine’s Day.
In conclusion, follow these 5 ecommerce tips and increase your Valentine’s sales this year. Even just 1 or 2 of these techniques can greatly increase your income. With the right marketing strategy in place, it doesn’t take much to improve your results.
Use these ideas to create the ultimate love-story for your jewelry business and make your audience fall head over heels for you!
