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Here are 4 quick Valentine’s Day ecommerce tips to keep in mind when dressing your site for the holiday – plus how some of the top brands show their love on this date.
Valentine’s Day is a day of dread for some—overpriced dinners for two, a last-minute dash for a gift, and impractical underwear. But as a brand, Valentine’s Day is an opportunity to reach out to your customers in the hope they will come to you when shopping for their loved ones.
Are you stuck on ideas? Here are a few Valentine’s Day ecommerce tips for retailers in every industry—plus, how some of the top brands show their love on this key shopping date.
Tip #1: Display homepage banners promoting Valentine-approved products
As consumers begin browsing the web in search of ideas for Valentine’s Day gifts and experiences, online stores must prepare ahead of February 14. Try to grab attention at key touchpoints like your website homepage. For example, you could instate Valentine’s-themed banners that offer a bit of inspiration as soon as they enter your site.
Food & Drink retailer Donald Russell understood during the pandemic that consumers wouldn’t be flocking to physical restaurants as much, so they decided to offer site visitors some meal inspiration to encourage them to shop:
V-day isn’t all flowers and chocolates; it’s an excellent opportunity to promote products that aren’t the typical ‘norm’ on this holiday but that are still relevant for your customers. For example, Skinnydip London cleverly displays a homepage banner promoting the new ‘Disney in Love’ collection:
Curious to learn the secrets behind Skinnydip’s success? Read our case study to discover the automated strategy that drives 16% higher AVV and an 8x ROI for the brand.
Tip #2: Create helpful gift guides
Valentine’s Day can be especially stressful for some. Of course, people want to make a big gesture for their special someone, but buying the right gift can be difficult. Whereas in past years, you could reserve a table at the fancy restaurant downtown or pop into a store for a last-minute gift idea. Nowadays, prepping for a holiday means finding the perfect gift online and making sure the order gets placed in time to surprise that special someone on the 14th.
Make the buying decisions easier for your customers by providing them with a helpful gift guide. You could leverage the products in this guide further by offering additional product recommendations that pair well with the product the customer is viewing (such as a bag to pair with an outfit or a high-quality wine paired to pair with a main course).
For example, after clicking on Donald Russell’s homepage banner from tip #1, the user is led to various Valentine’s Day meal options. In the Product Detail Page (PDP) shown below Donald Russell offers complementary product recommendations of side dishes that pair well with the customer’s selected main dish. Dynamic product bundling is a clever way to increase product discovery and average order value (AOV):
Of course, the key to offering a relevant gift guide is to know your audience and who they’re shopping for. This leads us to our next tip:
Tip #3: Map your Valentine segments ahead of time
Valentine’s Day isn’t just a day to make a special someone feel appreciated; it’s also a day to make your customers feel special! The best way to do that is by making their shopping experiences as personalized as possible.
This starts with segmenting your shoppers. On Valentine’s Day, the most common way to segment is by gift recipient—creating ‘gifts for him/her’ the way Smythson displays them on their navigation menu:
However, the same way the holiday isn’t limited to overpriced bouquets and boxes of chocolates, it can also be about recognizing someone other than a spouse or partner. For example:
- Gifts for friends (Galentine’s Day is a thing, and it’s celebrated the day before V-day!)
- Gifts for mom/dad
- Gifts for children
Once you’ve mapped out the segments you want to create, you can move on to Valentine’s Day-themed email marketing campaigns for these segments using unique UTM tagging for each one. These links should then lead to a gift guide relevant to the segment of a specific shopper.
Another segmentation idea is to create a segment of customers who haven’t completed a purchase during your Valentine’s Day campaign. Then, a few days before the holiday (when there’s not enough time to complete an order and receive the shipment on time), send a reminder email to these customers offering them electronic gift cards. This way, those last-minute shoppers won’t stay empty-handed.
Want to make the most of your segmentation efforts year-round? Check out our top four tips for driving conversion with ecommerce customer segmentation.
Tip 4: Offer free shipping and extra perks
As your significant other might say, sometimes it’s the little things that make the biggest difference. After you’ve attracted people to your website with gift guides and sales deals, try increasing your average order value by offering free shipping with a minimum purchase price.
Additionally, you will want to make the Valentines Day gift hunt as stress-free as possible—and by doing so, your customers will thank you with their loyalty. White glove customer service always leaves a good impression, so offer your customers free gift wrapping to show a little extra love.
How to get started with your ecommerce Valentine’s Day strategy
These are just a few of the many ways you can attract more shoppers on the most romantic day of the year. If you’re already using Nosto, reach out to your Customer Success Manager for more insights on additional strategies you can implement ahead of February 14.
Eager to kick off a new personalization strategy with Nosto this year? Request a demo with us, and we’ll help you find solutions to your specific growth goals.
