The month of December and January are one of the biggest sales month for the Malaysian e-Commerce ecosystem.
The reason for this sudden push is that Malaysian consumers buy more during this season. Most retailers and e-Commerce sites have sales to clear their old stocks and generate a buzz to the public.
Whenever something noteworthy happens within your business, there will be tons of media going to write about you. This is great to grab all free coverage as possible.
The key to driving sales is proactive. You need to adopt an effective marketing strategy in order to stay ahead of the competition.
There are tons of start-ups across the region trying to adopt new brand strategies to tap into millions of dollars floating in the online retail segment.
Therefore, we have compiled a list of the top 8 strategies on how to increase online sales, which you can integrate into this Chinese New Year.
Dedicated landing page
The first step that you could ever think of is to decorate your website/store in a festive mood.
Creating a festive mode will bridge the gap and connect your customers with your online store.
You could have a dedicated banner on your homepage, displaying the best deals or offering what you currently have.
You could also design a specific and detailed landing page exclusively for Chinese New Year offers.
Co-branding network
The risk for your online business to use affiliate marketing more commonly known as “influencer marketing” is extremely low and the conversion is high.
You only need to make payments when a customer converts (i.e. sales took place). You could start collaborating with various coupon websites that offer discounts or cashback and start a co-branded marketing channel.
This method could definitely boost conversions and help your business to increase sales.
Content marketing
For the festive season, content marketing is more valuable than ever. You should deliver content in the best possible way to reach and connect with your audience.
Your website content should be optimized to cater to the offers and deals that you have. You also must make sure that your mobile site is different from your regular website.
While you must stick to your branding standards, your mobile website should be simpler than your web version.
The reason is that a complicated design takes more time to load and looks good on computers, whereas might often be distorted when accessed through a mobile device.
It is understood that your website should be friendly and have a KISS (Keep it short and simple) method by offering your viewers the most important and basic sections of your content.
Re-target customers
Re-targeting customers who have earlier shown interest in your product/service is the most important step to drive sales.
You may focus on those people who have abandoned your shopping cart.
You may offer them the value proposition in the form of exclusive deals and offers through search and display ads.
Retargeting makes it possible for you to stay on top of mind with your customers once they leave your site. After all, you know that they were interested in your brand at some point.
Your ads will remind them of that as they consider different options or delay their purchase. This can be done by placing “cookies” on your customer’s devices.
These data files recognize when they’ve visited your site.
Email marketing
Email marketing is the best way to connect with your customers, increase reach, and drive sales.
With the right and effective email marketing means, you may get leads that are more qualified for your online business.
You could communicate the best Chinese New Year offers and deals to your customers in all your e-mail communications.
You must also incorporate the value proposition into the minds of your customers.
However, try not to spam your customer’s inbox else the e-mail that you sent will go to the customer’s spam folder.
So, in order to avoid that, you must maintain emails that are relevant and appropriate to each individual recipient.
Social media marketing
You could inform your target audience about the offers and exclusive deals that you are offering during the festive season.
With a large customer base, easy-to-navigate interface, and low cost, social media marketing can help you directly to increase customer engagement.
It increases your brand awareness and 33% of customers have identified social media as how they identify new brand products and services.
You could run festive contests across your social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to give your festive marketing a social media connection.
If you have a loyal customer base, then they will surely engage themselves by sending their own pictures using your products or services.
Imagine when your customer did that, they also indirectly helped you to promote your product or services to their friend list.
Don’t forget to create dedicated and relevant hashtags for your festive offerings.
You could even try to run social media ads in Chinese to expand to the Chinese market.
For example, you may wish your Chinese customers a Happy New Year on social media.
Chinese Feng Shui and superstitions
Even if you don’t believe in superstitions, it would do you well to familiarise yourself with Chinese concepts like feng shui and the importance of numbers to show your efforts in understanding Chinese culture.
You need to know that the Chinese have been known to put a hefty belief in auspicious numbers such as 6, 8, or 9 in the house numbers, floor levels, or prices while giving anything with the unlucky number 4 (which sounds similar to the Chinese word for ‘death’).
Hold an event
In your event, you may have musicians performing Chinese New Year songs, shows, food, and lion dances.
Families who come down to the event will get all kinds of free entertainment and a lot of opportunities to get their Chinese New Year shopping done as the businesses are open until midnight and have special sales going on.
The trick is to create an event that will tie with your products or services in some way.
For example, a kitchen store could hold a Chinese cooking class and benefit from an increase in sales of the products used in the class.
A gym could hold a free class to encourage January signups to keep their body fit for the upcoming Chinese New Year festive season and offer incentives to encourage participants to spread the word.
You may put yourself in your customer’s shoes and ask yourself, “any benefit to the customer coming to the event?”
