How is it that ecommerce marketers have the least ability to sell during the highest revenue time of the year? On a good day, most marketers are subject to the “Tyranny of the Whiteboard.” Over the holidays, it just gets worse.
You know what I am talking about. For most of the year, the little list on the corner of the whiteboard in the IT or site manager’s office controls your options. No change will happen unless it is on the list and nothing gets added unless something else comes off.
But that is bliss compared to “Lockdown.”
During this period between Thanksgiving and Christmas, IT won't allow any tweaks for fear of bringing the site down — changes are flat–out impossible.
You may shrug and think that's just the way it has to be. If you want to test promotions, try out new creative, or launch a new campaign, you acknowledge that it must be done outside of the holiday season.
I’m going to take a stand here and tell you something: this attitude is flat-out wrong. Lockdown takes place during a time of high traffic, yet your IT team is ignoring the opportunity to optimize that traffic because of fear. Your company is managing the site based exclusively on risk, during a time of the most profound opportunity.
But if you look at testing as an opportunity to increase the average order value of customers or to boost conversions by double or even triple digits, at a time when traffic is at its highest, it makes no sense to avoid testing.
So throw away the notion, just for a moment, that you can’t change your site in the coming months. Think, instead, of what you could do with testing. Some ideas:
Idea #1. Watch consumer behavior and change promotions accordingly
Consumer behavior changes through the holiday season. While free shipping matters a lot in, say, early December, it ceases to matter later in the month. Last–minute shoppers tend to make purchases no matter the cost. So at what point do you stop offering free shipping? On December 15th? December 18th? There’s no guessing.
You can, however, test. Divide your traffic and show visitors two offers: 90 percent of them get free shipping, while 10 percent do not. The branch of the test receiving free shipping will most likely show increased sales over the non-free shipping branch.
As the holiday approaches, you'll reach a point when free shipping stops having an effect, when the two branches begin to converge. At that point you can change the promotion, stop the free shipping, and save yourself a bundle without sacrificing sales.
Idea #2. Play “merchant day trader”
During the holiday season, inventory changes more quickly than at other times, as does consumer behavior. You can test suggested top-selling products head–to–head, see which is most popular, and make the change immediately. Want to try upselling at the checkout cart? Test items with different price ranges ($5-$10, $10-$20, $30-$50), spend an hour or two tracking the test branches to see which increases average order value the most, and dump the other two.
I bet you're thinking one of two things: Either, “Damn, that sounds fun!” (it is) or “Damn, that sounds like a lot of work” (it isn’t).
With the ability to monitor your site and make changes quickly, you can be as effective as any successful day trader. And if you act in the next week, we can get you up and running in time to start optimizing your site before the holiday blitz begins.
Lockdown is appropriate for Prison B–Movies, not for the most advanced marketers on the planet. Take control.