The holiday season is the busiest time of the year for both brick-and-mortar locations and online retailers. Customers flood in, eagerly seeking out the best deals to complete their holiday shopping. Unfortunately, after the holiday hustle and bustle ends, many ecommerce sellers see a decline in sales. However, when you stay mindful during the holidays and follow a few simple tips, you can maintain high sales throughout the post-holiday season. 

Ensure your site is up to par

It’s pretty standard for retailers to update their website, making sure it can deal with extra traffic during the holidays. However, it’s also important that your site handles any post-holiday traffic as well. Online customers expect fast and simple shopping which means slow loading speed, complex navigation, and poor website design can all result in a negative outcome. 

After your site has handled the holiday traffic, look it over, update the design to accommodate new campaigns, run speed tests to make sure load times are fast, and make any other necessary site improvements.  

Clear out stale inventory

Ordering the proper amount of inventory to get your online store through the holidays can be tricky. Inaccurate forecasting or unexpected sales slumps can result in having excess stock. After the holidays, it’s a good time to clear out that inventory, opening up space for new products. 

There are a number of ways to clear out excess inventory. Consider bundling related items together, or offer items that cannot be bundled at a deep discount. If you have way too much of one item in your inventory, offer it as a free gift to customers who spend a certain amount at your store or to those who join your loyalty program.

Deliver post-holiday email

People pay a little more attention to their inboxes during the holiday season, whether they’re waiting for holiday ecards or checking shipping information on items they’ve ordered themselves. After the holidays have passed, customers are still likely to be checking and reading email regularly. 

Take advantage of this by sending email that highlights new sales and discounts. Make it look exciting and unique, personalizing it with customers’ names. For customers who have bought your products before, consider specifically advertising items that make sense for them based on their buying history. 

Keep up on social media

After all the excitement of the holidays comes to an end, many retailers fall silent on social media. However, this is the time to do the exact opposite. Engage with your customers!  Ask them to post photos and reviews of your products. Encourage your audience to use a specific hashtag for their posts as well. Then you can include the hashtag in your content so others can find and view your products easily.  

Try retargeting 

Retargeting is a great way to boost sales after the holiday rush. Target shoppers who have purchased from you before as well as those who showed interest but ultimately abandoned their shopping cart. Retargeting paying customers is simple, as you already have their email addresses. And for those digital window shoppers, retargeting based on browser cookies is a great option. 

Start a new sale

Consumers often shop based on timing, attempting to finish their orders with ample time to ship before the holidays. However, many holiday shoppers are also looking for the best deals. That’s why it’s a good idea to offer new sales and discounts even after the holidays. Of course, you may not reach holiday level sales after the season is over, but there are still different ways to keep customers feeling incentivized to buy. Consider offering free shipping with purchases of a certain size, discounts on holiday-related products, or waiving membership costs for your loyalty program. 

Conclusion

It may seem like a decrease in sales is inevitable after the holiday season ends, but there are steps you can take to encourage more post-holiday sales. Improving site speed and navigation, advertising to your previous customers, and offering new sales can all boost your revenue and keep your products moving. With a little bit of focus and the above tips, you can have success year-round.