5 Proven Strategies to Enhance Holiday Sales through Websites and Marketing

With the holiday season on the horizon, companies are seeking effective strategies to take advantage of the festive shopping period. In this article, we’ll explore actionable tips on utilizing GoDaddy’s Websites + Marketing to enhance your holiday sales and maximize the business opportunities this season.    

Strategies to increase sales 

Here are five strategies to enhance your sales this year:

1. Design an engaging and visually appealing shopping experience.
2. Attract more customers.
3. Increase your sales by selling across multiple platforms. 
4. Connect with your audience through email and social media updates.
5. Deliver an exceptional customer experience no matter where you are.

Are you ready to dive in? Let’s get started!    

1.) Design an engaging and visually appealing shopping experience 

Shoppers often determine their intent to buy within the initial seconds of browsing a store, making it crucial to showcase appealing visuals, present information in a clear and accessible manner, and offer the necessary “proof” to support their purchase decisions. 

Here are some useful tips for designing your store to create a strong visual impact: 

Incorporate a mix of contextual images and standalone product visuals

Visuals play a crucial role in assisting customers with their buying choices. When designing images for your products, it’s important to include the following: 

Contextual images that demonstrate products in action 

These create an emotional bond and tell a story, and is the perfect way to show your products in action or suggest a particular use for your product. 

Product only shots

High-quality images of all your product angles, ideally with a white background for greater appeal. 

Personalize your product images

With GoDaddy’s online Store Builder, you have considerable flexibility in how you display images across your store. Here are some features we recommend for optimizing your store: 

Featured products

If your featured product section includes square-oriented product images, utilizing the Spotlight layout will help them stand out.  

Product gallery 

You might be selling products that some in specific sizes or shapes, making their images appear more appealing in a particular orientation. To adjust the way these product images are presented in your store, go to the store page, select the Product Gallery tab, and then click on Image Options. 

Product detail pages

You can enhance the visibility of your product images on product detail pages by opting for the Hero Image layout. This layout is ideal for prominently displaying stunning product photography as the centerpiece of your product detail page. 

To select this layout, go to your store page, click on the Product Page tab, and choose the Layout option. 

Craft an eye-catching header that instills urgency and makes a memorable first impression 

Create a striking visual representation, either through an in-context shot or an inspiring image showcasing your product in use), and complement it with a shop action button. An efficient landing page is essential for attracting new customers and encouraging repeat business. 

Add a header 

Access the Website editor, click on Header, and choose the Cover Media you want to utilize. 

You can include an Action Button and define the accompanying message. For an enhanced effect, make sure the message conveys a sense of urgency to make a purchase. 

Utilize the photo gallery to showcase useful product images

You can also utilize the photo gallery feature in Websites + Marketing to showcase stunning product images effectively. 

Create a photo gallery 

You will find multiple layout options to select from, along with different formats for displaying your images. This is an excellent chance to showcase pictures of customers utilizing your product or in-context product images, fostering an attractive connection with potential buyers. 

Imagine a product photo gallery organized in a single column

GoDaddy’s Websites + Marketing also offers the option to present product photos in a single column format. This is done by enhancing the display of products with multiple images, making it particularly effective for mobile devices. 

Add a mobile-friendly single-column gallery

To use this option, you must be in the Online Store section of your Websites + Marketing dashboard. Once there, click on the Layout Options tab: 

Next, choose the number of columns you want: 

Vertical layout for product detail pages

To achieve a more contemporary aesthetic, consider activating a vertical product detail page in Websites + Marketing E-commerce. This is an excellent choice for highlighting both tall and wide product images. 

Activate a promotional banner featuring limited-time messaging 

Inform your customers about your ongoing sale or special promotion to give them a compelling reason to make a purchase immediately. While you can host several sales throughout the year, focus on one at a time to create a heightened sense of urgency during that particular period. 

Make sure your message highlights the benefits customers will enjoy by shopping, such as free shipping, discounted prices, complimentary gift wrapping, and more. 

Display comparable items in your shop

Related products are a great opportunity to promote additional items in your offerings. To activate this option, you’ll need to modify your Online Store page. After activation, you must publish your site to view the suggested items section. 

Display the available options with color swatches and feature buttons

An effective method to attract attention to the various options for your product is by using color swatches and display buttons. Enabling these features can create excellent upselling opportunities for your items. Customers can view the available options in both the product gallery and the product detail pages. 

Capture attention quickly with your promotions by utilizing the announcement pop-up add-on

This will ensure customers are instantly aware of your current promotions and can navigate to particular sections of your store where they may be more inclined to make a purchase (;ike sale or clearance items). Planning for Black Friday? Cyber Monday? Hosting a sale? Make sure your customers are informed! 

To enhance the sense of urgency, include a compelling reason for them to buy now (such as “sale ends soon” or “limited time only”) along with a call-to-action button that leads them to the discounted products in your store.  

Visually compelling categories for feature stores

Product images aren’t the only visuals that should look appealing. Make sure your categories are eye-catching as well. 

Establish a Sales Category 

By setting up a dedicated category for sales, you make it easier for your customers to locate any limited-time promotions you may have. You can designate a specific category for discounted items and adjust its position to ensure it appears at the top of the list. 

For more details on how to create and manage categories, go the to GoDaddy help center. 

Elevate the attractiveness of a category by including stunning images

Incorporate a captivating image for each category along with a description to ensure it catches the eye of consumers and becomes easily identifiable while they explore your store. 

The chosen category image will serve as a banner for your customers. 

Highlight specific featured categories across your store with stunning visuals

Simply navigate to the Websites + Marketing editor, click on Add a Section, and choose Featured Categories. 

By selecting the option to add an image, you can designate a specific category for the image to link to. 

Develop and display categories that assist customers in narrowing down their purchasing choices. 

Help guide them on which products to explore if they’re uncertain about where to begin. Think about setting up categories such as “new arrivals,” “best sellers,” and “limited availability” at the top of your category list to instantly attract consumer interest. 

Remember: Having an excessive number of categories can overwhelm customers. 

Concentrate on establishing clear product groups and a streamlined selection of categories, ensuring that customers aren’t overwhelmed with too much information, which could hinder their ability to locate or comprehend what they need. 

Display customer reviews

Your customers will be more assured in their purchasing choices when they see that others have bought from you and given positive feedback. 

Enable product reviews

Enable customers to leave reviews for each product you offer, making them visible to tother potential buyers. This serves as a fantastic way to showcase your company’s reputation on social media. 

Showcase customer testimonials

While product reviews enable your customers to evaluate your individual products, you can also include a broader testimonials section. 

Incorporating a testimonials section alongside your product reviews can emphasize customer’s overall opinions bout your store and the quality of your customer service.  

Display your Facebook and Instagram presence on your store

You can enhance your credibility and strengthen your connection with customers by showcasing your social presence. Discover how to enable links to your social profiles and showcase any reviews you’ve received on social media. 

If you gave an Instagram, account, you can also integrate your instagram feed with your Websites + Marketing store. 

2.) Attract more customers

After customers discover a product they’re interested in, here are some tips to boost your chances of a purchase.

Provide options for free shipping, local pickup, or delivery 

Encourage customers to complete their purchases by offering free shipping and prominently displaying it on your store. This strategy can also help reduce cart abandonment by alleviating surprise shipping costs. 

To enable free shipping for specific products, navigate to the Shipping section on your product details page and choose the option for “this item always ships free.” This will showcase a free shipping badge on your store. 

Provide complimentary product returns

Provide your customers with reassurance by offering free returns. This feature enables sellers to implement free returns for any or all of their products. You can easily locate the free returns option on each product detail page, and view your product list sunder Commerce > Products.  

Activate abandoned cart recovery 

Another way to attract more customers is by utilizing the abandoned cart feature included in Website + Marketing E-commerce. This tool sends email reminders to customers who have left items in their carts. 

Acknowledge special gifts and provide complimentary gift wrapping 

Numerous purchases are intended as gifts. Enable your customers to indicate this at checkout so you can prepare the order accordingly. To set this up, visit your Store Settings, go to the General section, select Check-out, and then choose the option to Allow customers to include special instructions during check-out.  

You can request that your customers provide the recipient’s name and specify how you will handle gift orders, such as including a gift note in the package. 

To differentiate yourself from competitors, consider offering complimentary gift wrapping. This option can be made available for all products, and instructions can be included at checkout as mentioned earlier. 

If you’d prefer to offer gift wrapping only for certain items, you can add it as an options for individual products. 

Showcase your limited edition items

If your business frequently offers seasonal or limited edition items, you can highlight these products using the new limited edition feature. This option is available in the Inventory section for each of your products. 

Remember that you must publish your site after enabling this options for the first time. 

Establish a personalized threshold for low inventory notifications

Along with the ability to display limited edition messages in your store, sellers can now set the threshold for when low inventory notifications will appear. 

This feature needs to be configured for each of your products individually, and it’s an excellent tool for creating a sense of urgency to boost sales. 

Personalize order, shipping, and booking confirmations

With this update, website owners can now personalize their order, shipment, and booking confirmation emails. You can add your company logo, align the design with your brand, include a coupon code for the next purchase, and more. This new feature is available under the “Automations” section.  

Activate sales tax calculation at the zip code level

To streamline tax calculations, you can set up sales tax for your online store using an automated sales tax system. 

To enable this feature, go to your sales tax page and select the zip code level sales tax option., Then, specify the states where you need to collect taxes, and the tax rates will be automatically updated and calculated at checkout based on the shopper’s zip code. 

Because tax rates frequently change, manually tracking them can be challenging. This solution ensures that tax rates are automatically updated every day.  

Obtain precise shipping rates and print labels effortlessly  

Fed up wont the hassle of copying and pasting addresses into different tools to buy shipping labels? You won’t have to worry about that anymore! The GoDaddy integration with ShipEngine allows you to effortlessly obtain rates and purchase labels from FedEx, UPS, and USPS, all within GoDaddy. (Note: this feature is currently available exclusively for US-based customers.) 

To get started with your shipping labels, just click on “Buy Shipping Label” while viewing an order, and the ShipEngine onboarding process will begin.  

Utilize smart ribbons to highlight your sales

Using the Smart Ribbons feature, you can showcase your chosen products by applying Bestseller and New Product tags. To utilize these Smart Ribbons, make sure you’ve chosen the appropriate tags for all qualifying products. (Note: When featuring categories with ribbons, please note that each product can only display one ribbon at a time. In the event of multiple eligible categories, the order of priority is: On Sale, Bestseller, and then New Product. 

Include Smart Ribbons for your Featured Products as well

If you’re looking to promote your bestsellers and new products, the Smart Ribbon feature for Featured Products will ultimately assist you in achieving that by allowing you to highlight key items effectively. This feature can help draw attention to your offerings, thereby increasing visibility and potential sales. Using the Smart Ribbon can create a more engaging shopping experience for your customers, making it a valuable tool to enhance your marketing efforts.

Utilizing the dropdown menu beneath each category option allows you to select the specific labels you’d like to apply for each one. 

The default, transparent, and rounded rectangle options will maintain the Smart Ribbon in its original position based on your template. The pill style option will adjust the ribbon’s placement, making this useful if the default ribbon location isn’t suitable for your particular product images. 

Design and distribute coupons

Coupons are an excellent way to encourage users to make a purchase. Promote the coupon effectively by featuring it prominently in the promotional banner on your website. Try to consider incorporating eye-catching graphics and a clear call-to-action to draw attention. By regularly updating the banner, you can keep the promotion fresh and engaging for returning visitors.

These strategies will help maximize the impact of your coupon promotion. These strategies will enhance visibility and encourage more customers to take advantage of the coupon, and will help attract more attention from visitors, ultimately increasing the likelihood of conversions. Lastly, ensure the design of the banner is eye-catching and clearly communicates the value of the coupon to maximize its impact.

Include an email subscription form along with a coupon incentive 

A newsletter is an excellent way to engage with your customers and keep them informed about email promotions for new products, current sales, and other noteworthy updates. Websites + Marketing simplifies the process of adding new subscribers to your company’s newsletter. 

To activate a coupon, simply toggle the option to enable coupons for sign-ups, so you can customize both the discount amount and the message content accordingly. 

3.) Increase your sales by selling across multiple platforms

In addition to selling through your online store, you should also consider expanding your reach to popular marketplaces like Amazon, eBay, and Etsy. Include social networks like Facebook and Instagram, which attract billions of users daily. Utilizing these platforms helps you significantly increase your visibility and customer base.

Websites + Marketing simplifies the process of selling your products across major marketplaces and on Facebook and Instagram. (Note: the social media eCommerce integration and marketplace features are currently available only fro audiences in the United States. 

Sell from any location with GoDaddy Payments

With GoDaddy Payments, you can sell in-person at a retail store or physical location, book appointments over the phone, and make remote sales via a mobile app at a farmer’s markets or pop-up events. You can process payments using the GoDaddy Card Reader with Docking Station and the mobile app for transactions on the go, a GoDaddy POS Terminal for in-store payments, a Virtual Terminal for phone orders, and Pay Lines that can be sued through email, text, social media, and more. 

Moreover, customers can enjoy a seamless experience both online and in-store. Specifically, this allows them to buy online and pick up in-store, book appointments online and pay in person, or even order in-store and have their purchases shipped to their homes. Consequently, this flexibility enhances customer satisfaction and convenience, ensuring that they have access to the services they need in a way that best fits their lifestyle. 

Intelligent Terminal equipment 

The Smart Terminal hardware provides a powerful point-of-sale solution for in-store payment requirements. It can be connected to various accessories, including printers, cash drawers, and barcode scanners. 

Key features of the Smart Terminal hardware include:

• Accept all major credit cards via swipe, chip, or contactless methods. 
• Enable customers to make contactless payments using their smartphones with Apple Pay and Google Pay.
• A portable design allows for mobility, as the terminal does not need to be connected to a docking station during use. 
• An intuitive touch interface enables merchants to easily add orders. 
• A user-friendly docking station connects the Smart Terminal to an existing register, cash drawer, or scanner.
• Online orders for pickup and delivery seamlessly integrate with the Smart terminal, allowing customers to pay in person using credit cards or contactless methods while enabling you to update order statuses directly from the terminal. Orders will automatically sync with your Online Store.

The GoDaddy Mobile App

The enhanced GoDaddy Mobile app provides sellers with a mobile point of sale solution, all within a user-friendly app. There’s no need for extra hardware, making it an excellent choice for quickly setting up on-the-go payments. Best of all, this feature is available at no extra charge. 

Card reader hardware

Perfect for mobile payments, the card reader hardware seamlessly integrates with the GoDaddy Mobile app, providing an affordable solution to help you get started. 

Effortlessly process credit card payments wherever you are using a compact, portable card reader. Accept all major credit cards through swipes, chips, or contactless transactions. 

With contactless payment options, customers can easily pay using their smartphones vis Apple Pay or Google Pay. 

The included docking station provides stability, allowing you to se the reader on a tabletop or at your register. 

Market your products on online platforms

Besides selling on your online store, it’s beneficial to reach customers where they typically browse during their leisure time. 

With GoDaddy’s Online Store, you can effortlessly sell your products across various marketplaces simultaneously. 

This encompasses platforms like Amazon, eBay, Etsy, Google, and Walmart. 

These well-known marketplaces draw large numbers of online shoppers, which can significantly enhance your online sales. Placing your products where there is substantial traffic can greatly increase your sales. 

Websites + Marketing also ensures that your inventory is synchronized across different marketplaces, eliminating the need for you t manually update multiple sites. 

Want to begin using Marketplaces with Websites + Marketing? Here’s how you can connect to Marketplaces for the first time.  

4.) Connect with your audience through email and social media updates

The secret to keeping customers interested lies in actively engaging with them, Two effective methods for this engagement are email newsletters and social media. 

Email campaigns 

Website’s + Marketing provides smooth integration with GoDaddy Email Marketing, enabling you to effortlessly stay connected and manage your email marketing campaigns. 

Utilizing an editorial calendar can significantly assist in organizing your content schedule. 

Social media campaigns

With GoDaddy Studio, designing an impressive social media campaign for your business is easy, enabling you to create and nurture connections with your customers. 

Promote your business through social media

Want to increase your business visibility on social media? Advertising is an excellent solution. You can create social media ads directly from your Products list page. 

Enable customers to post products to their personal social media profiles

By enabling this option, your customers can directly share products from your website to their personal social media accounts. This feature can enhance product visibility through the social media feeds of your customers. 

To activate this setting, navigate to the Websites + Marketing editor and go to the “Product Page” tab under Online Store.

Please note: You must publish your site for this feature to be active after enabling it. 

5.) Deliver an exceptional customer experience no matter where you are

The capacity to be adaptable is crucial for business owners, as there will be undoubtedly be moments when quick decision-making is essential. Here are several features designed to assist you in managing your business on the go. 

Assist customers through chat

With Websites + Marketing, you benefit from an integrated chat feature for your website. This enables you to deliver immediate customer support and effectively address any questions or concerns that may prevent a customer from finalizing their purchase. 

Handle orders on the move

Receive order notifications and completed order details vis the GoDaddy Mobile App from wherever you are. 

Reminder about the return/refund policy

A well-defined return policy is crucial for enhancing the customer support experience. The Online Store landing page features a reminder for store owners to establish or review their return/refund policies. Having such a policy is standard for practice for most stores and is one of the necessary criteria when listing a store on Google.  

Increase your sales this holiday season and beyond

While it’s impossible to completely forecast the holiday landscape for retail companies, it’s clear that e-commerce will remain a vital aspect for businesses moving forward. By taking some time to plan now, you can enhance your e-commerce site and stay ahead of the competition. 

Get your business e-commerce ready through GoDaddy’s Websites + Marketing Online Store to help you build an eye-catching and functional online store in no time.