Strategy

6 Ways to Attract Last-minute Holiday Shoppers in 2019

We’ve reached the end of 2019, but the Holiday Season hasn’t ended yet. And obviously, neither has the purchasing frenzy coming from last-minute shoppers. This means that whatever you, as an advertiser, got until now, isn’t all. Some leftover customers are still wandering about trying to find the right present or merely taking advantage of the offers and discounts. So, what to do? Let’s bring them in! In this blog, we’ll discuss how to urge last-minute shoppers to make that purchase they’ve been procrastinating for so long.

Millie D'Arcangelo

Copy Writer at The Next Ad

Dec 17, 2019

Whether your company has undergone a highly profitable Holiday Season up until now or you’re far below your target, last-minute shoppers will be an excellent opportunity for increasing revenue. 

But how does a last-minute shopper typically behave?

Last-minute buyers are usually people in a hurry because they’re scared they won’t make it to the ‘deadline’. This means this type of customers won’t have enough time to dwell on what to buy or spend too much time in the purchase process. Consequently, advertisers and marketers should do a simple thing: speed up the funnel. Awareness, consideration, and conversion should happen more quickly than usual. To do this, just offer a seamless shopping experience: easy, simple, and quick. That’ll sort it.

So, how do I attract desperate last-minute shoppers?

1. Promotions and offers

Here are some ideas for promotions and offers you can provide your customers with during this last period of the Holidays:

• Gift-wrapping: sometimes, customers are in such a rush that they don’t even have time or don’t want to ‘waste’ it wrapping gifts. This is an opportunity for you to offer this sort of service, and, as a consequence, attract these last-minute buyers.
• Express/one-day delivery: a must for desperate shoppers since they don’t have spare time to wait for product delivery. Simultaneously, if you also have a brick-and-mortar store, you can offer in-store pickup. 
• Special gift-cards: as you know, gift-cards are the simplest of gifts but also so valuable. Customers often don’t know what to buy and/or haven’t got the time to make a ‘proper’ purchase, which adds to their frenzy. Offering gift-cards for the Holiday Season will lure all the last-minute shoppers who are too busy or baffled to make a choice.

2. Employees & customer service

As last-minute buyers often want to be taken care of whilst being offered the best service, they need someone who lessens their holiday stress and helps them get what they want as quickly as possible. 

To ensure this, you could pay attention to employee training. This means you could run a specific training programme addressing the Holiday Season; what you will offer, and how they will approach customers. Enhance your customer service since it will be more than needed during these last days of the Holiday Season.

3. Website tech checkup

Website tech checkup consists of three steps:

1. Store navigation should be simple.

We all know what it feels like to be in a hurry, enter a webshop, and be desperate to make the purchase as quickly as possible. It all goes alright until . . .

The website is too slow. It keeps reloading. Now it doesn’t work at all. Argh, this is useless.

The customer is likely to be really wound up if you don’t provide them with a working website, and you can’t expect them to add to cart if you don’t allow them to enter the catalogue. 

Now that we’ve mentioned the catalogue, providing a clear description of your products (with lovely pictures and precise details, obviously) would surely help last-minute shoppers select what they fancy more quickly. By the same token, you could perform a design checkup. A straightforward website layout is more bound to lead desperate customers to conversion. 

2. Order overview should be clear.

If the customer has finally decided what to purchase, they should get a clear overview of the order they’ve placed; for example, primary customer details, number of products, and delivery date and address. In this way, the customer won’t go back on the website if they’re unsure whether they’ve filled in the details correctly.

3. The checkout process should be seamless.

Cart abandonment is bound to happen if your website isn’t working as it should, and it would be a pity if you lost that last-minute customer because of a stilted checkout experience. Furthermore, this tends to annoy and frustrate customers, and, because of the high amount of competition, customers don’t forget what they disliked about a particular webshop.

Apart from doing a tech checkup, sending quick receipt and bill emails will speed up the checkout experience. By the same token, you can offer the possibility to make mobile payments. 

We all know how mobile is thriving nowadays, don’t we? 

4. Holiday gift guides

If you send out holiday gift guides to existing or potential last-minute customers, those who’re sitting on the fence or are clueless about what to buy will probably find inspiration in them. This ultimately brings them to visit your store and potentially make a purchase based on what they’ve seen in your gift guide.

5. Personalised targeting

As we always advise, when advertising digitally, ads need to be tailored to specific audiences so that they feel addressed. If you’re seeking last-minute shoppers, turn to your buying history and find insights on the preferences of your customers. You can target them or create lookalike audiences to find potential buyers who show the same shopping behaviour.

Likewise, you can send encouraging messages in your ads. Remind them why they have chosen you and that you’re offering a special discount, either for being a ‘repeat buyer’ or for the Holiday Season itself (but only for late shoppers, so they feel more unique).

6. Extending store hours (brick-and-mortar)

If you have a brick-and-mortar store, you might want to consider extending store hours. Giving customers more time to drop by your shop will be likely to increase revenue, but be mindful that not every business is suitable for this. 

How to know? Look for insights: when do customers tend to come into the shop? Do you usually have too many clients browsing and/or shopping before closing the store? 

Be sure to recognise peak hours, but don’t forget to simultaneously take care of your employees’ well-being (don’t make them overwork!).

Final point: their rush is your primary focus.

Customers who are two days away from Christmas and haven’t got a present yet are desperate. This allows your business to shine and attract them—but to do that, you need to take a specific approach. These shoppers are different from the ordinary; they want the seamless, the quick, the effective, the best even if they’re late. Let them know your business is something they can turn to when they’re in this position, increasing the possibility that the next Holiday Season, they’ll turn to you again.