The festive season is famous for bringing out the shopping spirit in people. All over the nation, customers purchase household products, electronics, apparel, home decor, and more, making it a lucrative time for ecommerce brands to drive sales on marketplaces or their websites.

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One challenge D2C (Direct-to-Consumer) brands face during the festive season is that, unlike marketplaces, they don't have an established customer base, making it difficult to attract new customers. D2C brands can also find it tough to drive repeat purchases from existing customers using offers and discounts.

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Even if a D2C brand succeeds in bringing customers to its websites and increasing conversion rates using the right strategies, it can still face challenges in efficiently fulfilling the high order volume. On the bright side, there are some strategies D2C brands can employ to overcome this; let's uncover them together.

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In this blog, you will learn about the meaning of the festive season and the multiple strategies that D2C brands can use to maximise ecommerce sales during this festive season.

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What is the festive season?

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The festive season is the period between September and December, covering annual festivals in India such as Diwali, Eid and Christmas. Ecommerce brands offer a variety of discounts and coupons to attract customers.

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Online sales during the festive season reached $9.2 billion in 2021.

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Strategies for D2C brands to maximise ecommerce sales in the festive season

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Let's look at how D2C brands can maximise their ecommerce sales this festive season:

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1. Stock-up appropriately

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The festive season can bring in numerous orders, way more than D2C brands receive otherwise. Therefore, to promptly fulfil orders, it is crucial for brands to predict customer demand based on historical sales data. To quickly ship orders, D2C brands can stock up appropriate inventory levels by either manufacturing more products or talking to their supplier to deliver inventory to warehouses or fulfilment centres based on predicted demand. D2C brands should also take note of the time it would take them to transport inventory as the festive season experiences severe traffic conditions and other problems that can delay shipments.

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2. Advertise your festive sale

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Advertisements are a great way to increase the outreach of a D2C brand and create familiarity between the brand and customers. Advertising your festive sale can help excite the audience and make them look forward to the deals being offered by your brand. Moreover, advertising is one strategy that gives your D2C brand an edge over your competition.

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Here are some tips to innovatively advertise the festive sale:

• Excitement about the sale can be built through email marketing and engaging newsletters, and you can leverage social media to enhance your digital presence.
• You can hype the audience up about the festive sale through innovative countdowns consisting of timers, confetti, a live clock and more on your website or social media channels.
• D2C brands can also provide loyal customers with early access to some products or the chance to pre-book products.
• You can positively influence customers by adding customer reviews in advertisements.
• You can use compelling CTAs (Call-To-Action) to create a sense of urgency and increase the conversion rate like limited stocks, limited time period and more.

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3. Ensure website functionality

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You have stocked up on all your products, and advertising for sale is in full swing; on the first day of the sale, customers open the website, and it crashes due to high traffic. All your efforts would be wasted simply because your website is not functioning smoothly.

For D2C brands, their websites are very important; customers make purchases on them. Customer queries and return or refund requests are also initiated on the website. Research shows that high loading time and gateway errors make 20% of customers abandon their carts.

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Thus, before the sale begins, ensure that your website is working properly and you do not lose out on customers because of the website’s poor functionality. Here are some tips to optimise your website:

• Improve page load speed
• Reduce ad network trackers
• Ensure there are no 404 errors by using a checker
• Make the website mobile-friendly

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4. Provide value-packed kits

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Value-added services like kitting (providing two more products as a single unit) help D2C brands increase their AOV (Average Order Volume) and revenue. Kits and custom combos attract shoppers as they are valuable deals as customers pay less for more products and drive more products to the shopping cart.

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D2C brands can create kits to provide offers like-

• Discounts on bulk purchases
• BOGO (Buy One, Get One)
• Complimentary products

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5. Leverage the power of video content

Videos are a great way to connect with customers and boost sales. You engage with your target audience in an interactive using videos. Simply create high-quality videos featuring your festive products. But how? You don't need to be a professional videos editor to do so. You can use an online video editor tool to edit and stand out and showcase the unique features and benefits of your products during festive celebrations. 

Here are a few tips:

1. Collaborate with influencers to create genuine and compelling videos
2. Share these engaging videos on your website and social media platforms.
3. Use the online video editor to make adjustments

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6. Engage with new and existing customers

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There is nothing that customers enjoy more than discounts, deals and coupons. Giving exciting offers to new and existing customers is a great way to grab their attention. According to research, ecommerce brands can sell up to 73% more with discounts.

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Depending on the budget, D2C brands can provide offers such as-

• Heavy discounts on high-margin products
• Additional discounts on a minimum spend
• Gifts on a minimum spend
• Free samples of products

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7. Prepare for order fulfilment

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Inventory is stocked up, marketing is done diligently, and orders are pouring in; it's now time to fulfil orders promptly. Seamless and timely order fulfilment can delight customers as they receive the right products in the right condition and at the right time.

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Here's what you can do-

• You can prepare for order fulfilment through a robust Warehouse Management System (WMS) and ensure quick order processing.
• You can use an Inventory Management System (IMS), which prevents overselling and stock-outs and provides real-time inventory updates.

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8. Same day, next day and express delivery

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According to research, 69% of customers are unlikely to shop with a brand that delivers a product later than two days. Thus, customer expectations have changed; they want lightning-fast shipping and delivery.

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Here's what you can do-

• D2C brands can provide Amazon-like 2-day delivery by automating the pick-and-pack process to ship orders faster.
• You can reduce the transit time of orders by splitting inventory across multiple warehouses and storing it closer to customers.

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9. Customer experience

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Providing a superior customer experience will give your D2C brand an edge over the competition, as 73% of customers consider it a deciding factor when making purchases.

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D2C brands can enhance their customer's experience by-

• Shipping goods with high-order accuracy
• Ensuring on-time delivery
• Creating a unique unboxing experience with custom packaging
• Sending proactive post-purchase notifications
• Providing order tracking details

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10. Provide seamless returns

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The ecommerce industry is accustomed to returns, but returns reach all-time highs during the festive season as people return their impulse purchases. Research shows that 57% of customers never purchase from a brand again after just one negative return experience. Thus, a smooth returns process can enhance customer experience and drive future purchases.

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D2C brands can provide seamless returns to customers by:

• Having a simple and quick way to initiate returns.
• Quickly processing exchange requests and refunds.

At the same time, D2C brands can make returns management cost-effective by:

• Scheduling return pickup with an upcoming delivery in the same area to save on return shipping.
• Quickly restocking or refurbishing returned items to make them available for reselling.

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Scale up this festive season with Eshopbox

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The steps mentioned above may seem challenging, but an end-to-end ecommerce logistics and fulfilment provider like Eshopbox can make it simple for you. Here's how Eshopbox can make peak season fulfilment effortless for your D2C brand:

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• Notify Eshopbox about the festive sale, its duration and expected order volume. Eshopbox will allocate fulfilment resources according to your current order volume.
• With Eshopbox, you can provide exciting pre-built and virtual kits to increase your AOV and revenue.
• Prevent stock-outs and overselling with Eshopbox’s automated inventory sync that updates inventory in real-time.
• Ensure seamless order fulfilment with Eshopbox's streamlined pick and pack process that follows SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures).
• Split inventory across multiple state-of-the-art fulfilment centres to ensure same-day, next-day or express delivery.
• Ship orders at lightning-fast speed with a 99.75% accuracy rate to delight customers.
• Eshopbox’s self-service customer portal allows your customers to initiate returns easily and turn return requests into exchanges in a few clicks.
• Eshopbox makes returns management cost-effective for you by quickly processing returns and restocking them.
• Eshopbox creates a superior customer experience even during peak season with custom packaging, sending proactive order notifications, providing order tracking details and ensuring on-time delivery with high-order accuracy.

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Summing up

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The festive season's joyous milieu and high shopping spirits are an excellent time for D2C brands to attract and impress customers. However, brands should be appropriately prepared to handle bulk orders to capitalise on the festive spirit properly. A tech-enabled 3PL can make festive season fulfilment a cakewalk for your D2C brand with its fulfilment expertise and widespread network of fulfilment centres.