After Christmas, Easter is the holiday when the most people are looking to buy – and the number of people looking to buy gifts around this time of year is only increasing. In order to make the most of Easter this year, you need to look beyond decorating your bricks and mortar store, and make sure your online store is ready too.

1. Flexible Delivery

When it comes to Easter shopping, the majority of consumers will be thinking about food, meaning that you will need to take the sell-by and use-by dates of your products into consideration – there’s no point in promoting hot cross buns if they’ll have expired by Good Friday.

Of course, different items have different shelf lives, but if you are promoting perishables for Easter, you may want to offer more flexible delivery options. Allowing customers to choose when they would like their order to be delivered, for example, can help ensure that the food they receive can be used when they need it.

2. Click and Collect

The main problem with Easter is that it lands on a different date every year. This means that a lot of the time, your customers might not realise Easter is so soon – or they may have forgotten about it altogether.

Because of this, it’s important that you cater for your last minute shoppers. For those who leave it a little too late for fast delivery, offering click and collect on your eCommerce store is vital – forgetting about Easter won’t be a problem, as long as they can pop in-store and pick up their order the next day.

3. Offers and Promotions

Arguably the most effective way to convince shoppers to buy is through offers and promotions. If you can help your customers save money – or help it stretch a little further – then this is always a great incentive for them to shop with your brand.

Smaller offers such as ‘buy one, get one half price’ on selected items, or offering a free Easter egg when placing an order for seasonal products can minimise the impact on your business, while still giving your customers a reason to choose you over your competitors.

4. Easter Product Bundles

When looking to buy Easter themed gifts, a bundle or a hamper will always be a safe choice – which is why your store can benefit by offering Easter bundles. Not only will you be able to offer gifts that are appropriate for the season, gift hampers will streamline the experience for your customers and help them find a gift quickly, without having to search round your store.

Whether you offer bundles of hot cross buns, chocolates and simnel cake, arts and crafts for families painting Easter eggs, or treats and toys for pet rabbits, putting together a bundle of your products, complete with a wicker basket, can be a simple, yet effective way to drive sales.

5. Easter Themed Blogs and Content

When looking to increase traffic to your online store, tailoring your content marketing strategy to fit in with the season is an effective way to attract attention, without running the risk of being so sales focused that you accidentally drive customers away.

Whether it’s the best destination for a family trip over the Easter weekend, or arts and crafts ideas that are perfect for young children, taking into consideration what consumers will be thinking about in the lead up to Easter, and centering your activity around this, will help appeal to a wider audience and drive shoppers straight to your website.

6. Competitions

Running a competition around a seasonal event will always be good for attracting customers and gaining some attention for your brand, and promoting a competition on social and hosting it on your website can be a great way to direct users towards your store.

Whether you simply ask entrants to give you their contact details so you can build up your list of email marketing subscribers, or your competitions require a small value purchase to enter ( such as in Coca-Cola’s Christmas competition), they can be a great way increase brand awareness – and maybe your entrants will see a product they like while they’re visiting.

7. Facebook Boosting and Targeting

Promoting your products and offers as well as your content on Facebook is beneficial for any retailer, as it allows you to apply a budget to your posts so they reach a wider audience in a cost-effective way.

Targeting also allows you to choose who you want your posts to reach, meaning that you can ensure that you reach relevant people. Easter is undeniably a family oriented occasion, so choosing to target posts towards parents, and especially those with young children, will mean that you are more likely to reach users who will find your content appealing.

8. Gift Wrapping

Whilst gift wrapping may not immediately seem relevant for Easter, many families do exchange gifts at Easter and appreciate beautiful wrapping – and there will always be gift givers who would rather let someone else do the wrapping for them.

Providing the option to have an order gift wrapped at checkout (whether for free, or for a small additional fee) can sometimes give the last little push that a customer needs to press ‘buy now’, and the more attractive your gift wrapping is, the more likely they may be to return to your brand for future gifts.

How to Make the Most of Easter

Replacing the imagery on your site to photos of rabbits and Easter baskets is one popular way to prepare your online store for Easter, but it’s not appropriate for every brand. However, making the shopping experience as simple and straightforward for your customers as possible (during a time where a lot of them will forget they even have shopping to do) will ensure that you make the most of Easter this year.

If you need any help or guidance in making sure you have everything in place for Easter, feel free to tweet us @WeareHyfig or get in touch.

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