Specialty Food Magazine

shifting away from promotional and discount offers and talking more about what makes their products special, which helps to increase margins. Scarcity can also be a huge motivator for customers to buy a product, according to Cox. He recommends that instead of overproducing items and marking them down, companies build in scarcity and if or when they run out of the product, they can shift customers to other product offerings. Shifting marketing dollars from prospecting new customers to customer retention should also be considered since the latter generates a higher return, said Cox, who added that some companies are experiencing notable sales increases despite shutting their marketing efforts. Companies should also expect some earlier successes this holiday due to customers feeling the need to order gifts early to avoid product shortages and shipping delays. Holiday Readiness Playbook There has never been a better time to make sure that your e-commerce experience is up to snuff. Cox shared the following tips for makers looking to beef up their e-commerce presence and have a successful holiday season. 1 Assess your website. Get honest and specific feedback from five or six people who have never seen or shopped your site, recommended Cox. Ask them if the website is visually appealing, if it's easy to navigate, if the food products look appetizing. Make sure it's clear what you are selling and how you're different from competitors. "These things need to be very clear within a couple of seconds or people will not stick around to buy your product," said Cox. 2 Make simple improvements. Cox suggested some simple and low-/ no-cost site improvements to help boost sales. For example, display the best-selling and core products prominently on the home page. "Don't make a visitor guess what you are selling," he said. In addition, make sure that your navigation helps visitors find what they are looking for; have subcategories that customers can explore like Gifts under $50 or Gifts by Occasion. 3 Consider free shipping. Though you don't have to offer free shipping to be competitive, it can be helpful to have a category of items on which you offer free shipping. These items should be of low cost to ship and have a bigger margin so you can eat the shipping cost and still make a profit. If you are charging for shipping, make sure that information is easy to find. Most people want to know what costs are associated with shipping before they go through the whole process of purchasing an item; don't make it hard to find. 4 Be mobile-friendly. Be sure your site experience is mobile- compatible. Most traffic starts on mobile devices, so it's important to make sure customers can find all the information they need while on their phone. Adding one-click checkout options like PayPal, Apple Pay, and Amazon Pay also helps streamline the experience for customers on their mobile devices. 5 Optimize customer connections. Many companies already send triggered emails when a customer abandons their cart without purchasing, but there are occasions where triggered emails can help build a dialogue with the customer. These emails can be sent for order confirmations, shipping confirmations, delivery confirmations (which are especially helpful with gift orders), to request a review, or thank a customer for a review. The purpose is just to find a way to communicate regularly with customers. Direct mail can also help establish a dialogue and increase reorder rates, lifetime value, and revenue per customer. Postcard reminders can be especially profitable when sent to those who have visited the site but have not bought an item yet. 6 Be flexible. "As optimistic as we are about the holiday season from an e-commerce sales perspective, it's critical to have some type of contingency plan," if work restrictions and social distancing requirements are tightened again, said Cox, who believes that flexibility will help ensure success. For instance, instead of selling a specific product by itself, why not package it as part of a gift set or sampler. That way, if there are any issues with inventory, the item can be swapped for another easily. Zingerman's, for instance, has three or four different packaging options that can be filled with the retailer's products. "They can create 150 different gifts by mixing and matching the products they have," noted Cox. FALL ' Arielle Feger is content associate for Specialty Food.

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