Capture a Piece of Ecommerce Sales this Valentine’s Day

Online retailers haven’t made it past the holiday craze just yet. Christmas may be behind us, but Valentine’s Day, the second largest gift giving holiday of the year, will be here in no time. National Retail Federation has predicted that consumers will each spend $130.97 on gifts, up from $126.03 last year, with an estimated total of $18.6 billion. Consumers purchases will include candy, flowers, jewelry, greeting cards, gift cards and other goods for their significant others as well as for family members, friends, co-workers and even their pets. Given the current economic conditions, it will be more common for consumers to buy conventional items, like candy or greeting cards this Valentine’s Day.

Not only is spending predicted to increase, but so will the amount of consumers planning to shop online. Based on a survey of 5,815 consumers, 26.3 percent of them will choose to do their Valentine’s Day shopping online, an increase of 7 percent from 2012. Additionally, 40.7 percent of those who own a smartphone will choose to shop online using their device. Likewise, 46.9 perfect of those who own a tablet will not only make Valentine’s Day purchases from their device, but will also use it for researching gift ideas.

There are a few ways you can capitalize on a portion of sales this Valentine’s Day. For starters, you must have established a store online. To get started with the foundation, contact the Azox team to learn more about our integrated ecommerce solution for Microsoft Dynamics GP. If you’re already online, try one of these ideas:

•  Run a Valentine’s Day promotion, such as special pricing, a BOGO offer or a coupon.
• Create a custom catalog that includes items relevant to the holiday, such as flowers, candy or jewelry.
• Setup related products with a Valentine’s Day theme by assign parent/child relationships to different items in stock.
• Offer a quick, one-page guest checkout screen for new customers that may be shopping last minute.

Don’t miss out on this and other busy online shopping days because you lack an online store or need to improve your current site. Having an integrated ecommerce storefront will increase consumer awareness of your brand and will also improve your sales. Azox offers ecommerce solutions for B2B, B2C and customer service sales portal environments. These web stores are easy to build and include modules that make all of the above mentioned tips possible and more. Contact us today to learn more.