The Christmas spirit is truly contagious. In addition to being a time filled with emotions, it is one of the most important dates for retail, capable of generating a high volume of sales and customer retention. Whether for physical or online commerce, retailers who plan now to create memorable experiences that bring this Christmas spirit will certainly be able to strengthen their relationship with their customers, gaining benefits that go far beyond greater profit.
From a market perspective, we must highlight the natural movement of the population on this date in search of the much-loved Christmas gifts. In 2022, for example, in-store sales increased by 10% compared to 2021, in addition to e-commerce revenue growing by 18.4% in the same comparison, according to a Cielo survey.
No matter how much every business desires, of course, to achieve ever-increasing profits, this should not be a constant focus, especially at Christmas. Your emotional climate is a great hook to be positively exploited by retail, aiming to immerse the consumer in memorable experiences that make them feel important and happy, and thus, remind them of your brand in the future when they seek products or services they need.
This personalized, integrated, and convenient experience is essential to meet the demands of the so-called modern consumer: highly demanding regarding the businesses they will engage with. Those who know how to organize communication campaigns that take advantage of the characteristics of this date, emphasizing features that make them feel special, will enhance their image and reputation compared to competitors.
But what could practically make sense to implement actions that are not "more of the same," successfully differentiating your company during Christmas? In physical establishments, for example, indulge in Christmas decorations, blending physical items with olfactory elements, using scents characteristic of the season. Have "Instagrammable" spaces where visitors can take photos and post on social media using a specific hashtag created by the retailer. Online or in-person to digital, transferring these moments across all sales and communication channels of the store.
Omnichannel is a valuable strategy to enrich this complementarity, expansion, and strengthening of the brand in its segment, reaching a larger number of people at all touchpoints of the business. Yes, as long as retailers know how to integrate them intelligently and strategically, avoiding an excess of actions and messages that do not align with their target audience and that generate a cascade effect of dissatisfaction.
Just because this is perhaps the most important date in retail doesn't mean you should flood your consumer with communication. Use corporate data to analyze the profile and history of your buyers, identifying which channels they prefer to engage with and how to connect them to ensure smooth communication and experience.
A great tool in this regard and quite suitable for retail is RCS (Rich Communication Service). This Google messaging system offers a range of features designed to make communication between companies and their users as enriched, personalized, and immersive as possible. It enables the sending of interactive campaigns through a set of features that include sending text, images, gifs, videos, and much more.
During Christmas, it can be further utilized for sending personalized Christmas cards, exclusive promotions related to the season, satisfaction surveys, and many other actions dedicated to each individual. This is an extremely versatile channel that can be highly explored to complement and strengthen the connection between the parties, always focusing on the emotional aspect.
Ultimately, increasing profits at this time should be more of a consequence than the main focus for retailers. After all, there are also other dates throughout the year that are relevant for offering promotions that convert a higher number of purchases. Now, at Christmas, it is time to strengthen this emotional bond between brands and their customers, so that this connection generates customer satisfaction and retention at the store, with the results serving as input for the development of targeted strategies throughout the coming year.
