How to Deal with eCommerce Slow Season

It is easy to fight off the slow season in eCommerce with some creatively planned strategies. Find out helpful initiatives to counter the slow season in eCommerce.

How to Deal with eCommerce Slow Season?

Every business owner wishes that their customers visit the stores in large numbers and purchase their products throughout the year. However, the notion seems practical and reasonable on paper, while the real scenario reflects something else entirely. With an eCommerce business, you may expect your business to draw in customers throughout the year without any obstacles. On the contrary, you are highly likely to encounter busy shopping seasons as well as slow seasons. However frustrating they may sound, slow seasons can end up spelling the doom of eCommerce businesses. So, how can your eCommerce business fight off the slow season? Let us find the answers to your question in the following discussion. 

How dangerous is the Slow Season?

Before diving right into an overview of the strategies to recover from a slow season, it is essential to review the numbers for the slow season. According to Google Shopping, January, February, and March are the toughest for eCommerce. The slow season comes right after the months following the extended holiday season and before the Easter holidays. Shoppers go through massive shopping sprees in the last three months of the year for the holidays. So, it is improbable that shoppers would look for new products when the New Year begins. 

The sales during the summer months can reduce by almost 30%. Therefore, it is evident that people's pockets are also recovering from the holiday season, just like their bodies recover from the cold. People generally become more conscious regarding their health, and some people return to work or education without much time to browse online stores. Therefore, the slow season quashes off any promises of sales for products other than essentials. 

Accepting the Fact

Slow seasons are undoubtedly quite frustrating and present many difficulties, especially for new eCommerce store owners. However, one of the first recommendations to deal with slow seasons in e-commerce sales is to accept their existence. You must know that sales activity does not remain constant for eCommerce businesses of different sizes. Such types of cases are evident in eCommerce businesses that sell valuable products for a specific time of the year—for example, winter coats or raincoats. 

If you are an eCommerce business owner, then you must accept the ups and downs in the natural course of running and growing your business. However, it does not mean that you should sit by as your sales numbers keep going down further. 

Tips for Fighting Off the Slow Season in eCommerce

If you enter a slow season for your eCommerce business, you need to reflect on the creative possibilities. You must develop a proactive attitude regarding the necessity for driving sales of your eCommerce business in the slow season. Rather than just giving in to slowing down sales and waiting for them to pick up again naturally, you should work on new ideas. Think of new campaigns and testing some helpful tactics to drive more purchases. Here are some practical ideas you can try out to deal with the slow season for eCommerce businesses.

Giveaways

One of the most proven measures to bring in your target customers closer refers to giveaways. During the period of a sales slump, you could improve sales by introducing a giveaway. The best platforms for the giveaway would be your social media pages and blog. The benefits of a well-tailored giveaway contest include,

- Improved brand awareness

- Capabilities for leveraging loyal fans and customers 

- Driving more traffic to online stores

- Differentiating from competitors

- Increasing sales

- Expansion of email list 

Some of the vital pointers for designing a compelling giveaway contest are as follows,

- Use management tools for building giveaway contests with specific rules and guidelines.

- Please take note of your goals to establish how you want to achieve them through the giveaway.

- Set reasonable and excitingly rewarding prizes in the giveaway.

- Try to offer real-time updates along with advanced notifications about the giveaway contests.

- Most important of all, refrain from any overcomplicated details in the giveaway.

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Related: How to Add a Gift Message Option to  Shopify Checkout: The Easy Way

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Reward Customer Loyalty

Dedicated customers of your eCommerce business are the most significant source of revenue in the time of the slow season. Therefore, rewarding loyal and devoted customers can provide exceptional value in dealing with the slow eCommerce season. Even a gift for the birthday of a loyal customer would give them something to return to the store. 

Most important of all, it could also encourage them to recommend your eCommerce store to other buyers. Above everything else, loyal customers can pressure procuring new customers during the slow season. So, you could still achieve better sales in a slow season without worrying about bringing in new customers. 

Educate and Inform

The slow eCommerce season also gives you a lot to reflect on your brand's content. Your eCommerce store might have a lot of products or a specific varied selection. However, you need to ensure that your customers' shopping experience delivers the value they are looking for. So, a slight reform in the visuals of products on your store or descriptions of the products in a user-friendly manner might go a long way. 

Some helpful content that could drive more sales conversions includes newsletters, recipe books, how-to videos, beginner guides, and buying guides. You can use these materials as an opportunity for establishing a distinct identity in comparison to your competitors. 

First of all, you are offering personalization. At the same time, you are also helping customers in getting the best value from your store. So, you could appreciate customers' appreciation for the additional efforts you have put in for combat a slow eCommerce season.

Conclusion 

Slow seasons can be pretty frightening circumstances, especially for new business owners. Online business is not an easy venture in contrast to popular assumptions. However, it would help if you never let down your spirit to excel in online business with your eCommerce store. You have the right tools and suggestions to make your eCommerce store stand out even in the slow season. Bring in your loyal customers and give your customers something useful to make the most of your products. In the long run, creative strategies and proactive response could serve as the proven remedies for a slow season in eCommerce ventures. 

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