7 Tops Tips for Attracting Last Minute Christmas Shoppers

Christmas is well and truly in full swing, and while most people are fairly organised with their Christmas shopping, some people will still be panicking, looking around for some last-minute, amazing gifts that they can give their loved ones just in time for the big day. But what can you do to make sure that you’re standing out from your competitors when it comes to enticing those last-minute Christmas shoppers? Here are seven tips for making sure that you’re bringing in those additional sales, just before the festive season ends.

1. Put on a dazzling display in-store & retheme your website

If you have both a store and an online website, you should make the most of decorating and retheming them for the Christmas period. Don’t be tempted to wait until the week before Christmas to decorate or retheme your website. You need to be enticing customers in as soon as possible, but you also need to make sure you’re encouraging them to cross the threshold right up to the big day itself. 

Whether you hang some fairy lights and put up a Christmas tree or go all-out with a grotto and some elf helpers, it’s always warm and welcoming for customers entering your shop. The same goes for virtual shoppers. Make sure that your website is rethemed over the Christmas period for a bit of festive fun, and also to let customers know that you mean business at this time of year. 

2. Offer some Christmas promotions, deals & offers

People are always looking for some great deals and bargains. Usually, the closer we get to Christmas, the more retailers are looking to shift the last of their stock, and how do they do that? By dropping prices and piling on the offers for shoppers. This is a great way to bring in those who are looking for some wonderful, thoughtful gifts who are also short on time. 

Whether you offer a ‘buy one get one free’ deal, drop your prices by a certain percentage (usually 25% to mark the 25th day of the month) or offer free shipping for a limited time only, putting on some exceptional deals on the run up to Christmas is a great way to increase sales and to get rid of any festive stock you don’t want to keep hold of. 

3. Look at what your competitors are doing

When it comes to bringing in some last minute Christmas shoppers, look at what your competitors are doing to drive their sales right up to Christmas Day itself. Are they offering free shipping over the festive period? Are they putting on any special offers that you aren’t doing? Have they rethemed their website or added new products? 

Make a note of everything they’re doing and use that to your advantage. Don’t just copy what they’re offering, go above and beyond. If they’re offering 20% off on the run up to Christmas, you should offer 25% off instead. If they’re doing free local shipping, you could offer free national shipping. It’s all about having the edge over your competitors, especially if you have a physical store close by. 

4. Publish some Christmas gift guides to your blog

Whether you’re offering a product or service, one way to encourage people to purchase your items is to publish gift guides that feature only your products or services. Not only does it showcase the items you have available, but it also gives people ideas that they might have had otherwise. 

You could publish a few Christmas gift guides to highlight each of the products you sell, including one for him, one for her, one for tots and even one for grandparents. But you can categorise them in different ways, depending on how many of them you want to put together and the nature of the products you’re offering. Here are a few Christmas gift guide example titles that you can use for your own blog:

• Christmas gift guide for him
• Christmas gift guide for her
• Christmas gift guide for children/toddlers/babies
• Christmas gift guide for the hard-to-but-for
• Christmas gift guide for a foodie
• Christmas gift guide for a writer
• Christmas gift guide for an engineer
• Christmas gift guide for a healthcare worker
• Christmas gift guide for gardeners

5. Host a Christmas competition or festive giveaway

One of the best ways to bring people into your shop, or onto your website, is to host a competition or giveaway event. If people think they’ll be able to win something worth their while, they’ll be far more likely to get involved. While the prize you give away doesn’t have to be expensive, you should look at what your budget can afford you by way of a prize. 

If it’s something simple and relatively cheap, like a bag of chocolates that can be bought at the supermarket, then customers won’t be interested. If, however, it’s something a little more costly, like a hamper worth £50, then you’ll get a bit more interest. If your budget can stretch to something like a tablet or a games console, then you’re even more likely to have people partaking in your competition or giveaway. 

You might be wondering, therefore, what’s in it for you? There needs to be certain criteria met by those looking to enter a giveaway or competition. There are a number of tasks that you can ask people to do to be in with a chance of winning the grand prize, such as:

• Signing up to your newsletter
• Signing up to an email list
• Writing a review 
• Sharing a post on social media to their followers
• Following you on social media  

6. Give back to the community

While this isn’t directly linked to enticing in last minute Christmas shoppers, it will certainly help. If your customers, or prospective customers, can see that you’re going above and beyond by giving back to the community, then they’ll be far more likely to choose to shop with you over your competitors. This is another example where you should take what your competitors are doing and have a one-upmanship. 

7. Make shopping with you simple, quick & easy

This is where some of your competitor research should be coming in useful. You should now know what they’re looking to do for their customers to make shopping with them as easy as pie, so why don’t you do the same, plus a little extra to give you the edge? From free shipping or next day deliveries through to extending your shop opening hours, think of easy ways in which the customer journey can be streamlined, setting you apart from the competition in the process.

Kumo is a dedicated digital marketing agency based in the heart of the East Midlands. Proud to serve clients throughout the UK, we have a wide range of digital marketing services available to those looking to propel their business into the spotlight, including SEO, PPC, content writing, website design and more. If you’d like further information about how our experienced team can help you today, get in touch with us at a time that suits you – we’re always happy to hear from you.