As all e-commerce specialists know, there are certain times of year you just can’t afford to miss. Although online shopping can be done all year round, there are, in fact, times of the year when it’s more convenient. peak buying periods.
You need to be aware of these sales peaks, and anticipate them well to ensure you’re visible at the right time to boost your sales.
We’re obviously thinking of the festive season. But that’s not all!
We give you the keys to use affiliate marketing effectively during these peak periods.
When do people buy most online?
First and foremost, it’s a good idea to find out about the peak peak online shopping season.
For some e-commerce sites, Black Friday is the period not to be missed (we’re thinking mainly of high-tech specialists). For the major players in the fashion industry, the sales period is an ideal time to increase online purchases. Confectioners and chocolatiers, on the other hand, will see more customers during Christmas and Easter.
So, if you’ve just set up your e-commerce business, you can make a few assumptions by finding out about buying behavior of consumers and web users. If you already have a few years’ experience, it’s easy to know your company’s activity peaks.
Good to know: if you want use affiliation to boost your visibility, you can ask your affiliates for advice, as they may know more than you about customer and consumer habits.
What is Q4 in e-commerce?
If you don’t yet know exactly what your activity peaks or don’t have the resources to handle them all at once, we recommend that you focus on Q4.
An acronym for Quarter 4, Q4 refers to the final months of the year. In other words, the period that encompasses Halloween, Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Christmas shopping. As you can see, this corresponds to most important commercial highlights of the year of the year (excluding sales periods).
This period is all the more interesting as it concerns both French consumers and international customers. So it doesn’t matter what your catchment area is, or which countries you want to sell your products and services in, you can be sure of peak sales by choosing to focus on Q4. In fact, some companies make a large part of their annual sales during this important time.
What proportion of the purchasing process takes place online?
Before we go into more detail about affiliation, let’s take a moment to consider the proportion of the purchasing process that takes place online. As you know, there are many different types of affiliate.
Some are interesting in the information-seeking phase, while others representexcellent business opportunities in the purchasing phase.
Here’s what various studies have shown:
- 41.8 million French people have already bought online (Source: Médiamétrie – Observatoire des usages Internet T4 2021) ;
- Clothing is the most purchased product on the Internet, followed by cultural products, games and toys, shoes, hygiene/beauty and home/decoration (Source: Fevad/ Médiamétrie barometer, January 2022) ;
- 85% of customers started their purchase on one device and finished on another (Source: https://kinsta.com/fr/blog/statistiques-ecommerce/#:~:text=Although%2048%25%20of%20buyers%20end%20on%20one%20other).;
- According to The Future Shopper Report 2021In France, 41% of Internet users use Amazon as a source of inspiration (57% in the U.S.), 44% use search engines and 27% use the brand’s website. It is therefore interesting to note that social networks are still in the minority in France when it comes to the purchasing process. What’s more, 80% of respondents want to move quickly from inspiration to purchase. Finally, in Europe, close friends and family remain the main vectors of influence in purchasing decisions (friends at 20% and family at 18%), followed by influencers and bloggers (14%);
- And let’s not forget cell phones, which are becoming an increasingly regular part of the purchasing process, used to compare product prices (67%) and carry out searches (64%). (Source: https://www.lsa-conso.fr/10-chiffres-cles-sur-l-achat-en-ligne,339876).
You’ve got it: the web is used more and more in the purchasing process.
How to anticipate peak buying with affiliation?
Now that we know more about sales peaks for e-tailers, it’s time to get to the heart of the matter: using affiliation to improve your conversion rate during these peak periods.
As we’ve said, there are a number of different types of influencer. If you have the opportunity, we advise you to multiply channels as much as possible by adopting a multi/omnichannel communication strategy. This is to take advantage of the popularity of your affiliate partners, and therefore of their regular users.
Here, for example, is an interesting strategy:
- Before the peak sales period : give priority to affiliates at the top of the conversion tunnel. We’re thinking, for example, of shopping guides, social networks, influencers and adverts.
- During peak sales periods Focus your efforts on affiliates who can instantly increase your visibility to encourage purchases. This is the case, for example, with promo code and cashback sites, and display (retargeting) sites, which are at the bottom of the tunnel.
- After the sales event After the event: you can still use affiliation to build customer loyalty through social networking, emailing and retargeting.
The aim is to to create scenarios that encompass the entire sales tunnel from the research phase to conversion and retention.
Animating your programs during peak sales periods: a powerful weapon not to be neglected
The little extra that makes the difference between a successful affiliate program and one that flops: animation.
In other words : make your affiliate partners want to talk about you rather than your competitors.
To do this, you can offer a compensation boost during the period of your interest, create a challenge with a gift or remuneration at stake, or offer an exclusive promo code.
In any case, you’ve understood that a commercial highlight is coming up. Our advice: plan a roadmap covering the whole year and the various annual events, as well as the associated actions. Contact us for more information.
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