The Christmas spirit is truly contagious. Besides being a time filled with emotions, it's one of the most important dates for retail, capable of generating high sales volume and customer retention. Whether for physical or online commerce, retailers who plan ahead to create memorable experiences that evoke this Christmas atmosphere will certainly be able to strengthen their relationship with their consumers, obtaining benefits that go far beyond just increased profits.
From a marketing perspective, we must highlight the natural movement of the population on this date in search of those much-loved Christmas gifts. In 2022, for example, in-person sales increased by 10% compared to 2021, in addition to e-commerce revenue growing by 18.4% in the same comparison, according to a survey by Cielo.
While every business obviously wants to increase profits, this shouldn't be a constant focus, especially at Christmas. The emotional atmosphere of the season is a great hook for retailers to leverage positively, aiming to immerse consumers in memorable experiences that make them feel important and happy, thus ensuring they remember your brand in the future when searching for 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 interact with. Those who know how to organize communication campaigns that leverage the characteristics of this date, emphasizing differentiators that make them feel special, will elevate their image and reputation compared to competitors.
But what would make sense, in practice, to implement actions that aren't "more of the same," managing to differentiate your company this Christmas? In physical stores, for example, make ample use of Christmas decorations, mixing physical items with olfactory ones, with aromas characteristic of the season. Have "Instagrammable" spaces where visitors can take photos and post them on social media using a specific hashtag created by the retailer. Unite the physical and digital aspects, translating these moments across all the store's sales and communication channels.
Omnichannel is a valuable strategy for enriching this complementarity, expanding and reinforcing the brand in its segment, reaching a greater number of people at all points of contact with the business. This is true, provided that retailers know how to integrate them intelligently and strategically, avoiding an excess of actions and messages that do not resonate with their target audience and that generate a cascading effect of dissatisfaction.
Just because this is perhaps the most important date for retail doesn't mean you should bombard your customers with communication. Use corporate data to analyze your buyers' profiles and history, identifying which channels they prefer to interact with and how to combine them to ensure fluidity in communication and experience.
One excellent tool in this regard, and one that is highly relevant to 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 rich, personalized, and immersive as possible. It enables the sending of interactive campaigns through a set of features that includes sending text, images, GIFs, videos, and much more.
At Christmas, it can be further explored for sending personalized Christmas cards, exclusive holiday promotions, satisfaction surveys, and many other actions dedicated to each individual. This is an extremely versatile channel that can be greatly utilized to complement and strengthen the connection between the parties, always focusing on the emotional aspect.
Ultimately, increased profits during this period should be a consequence rather than the main focus for retailers. After all, there are other dates throughout the year that are also relevant for offering promotions that convert into a greater number of purchases. Now, at Christmas, it's time to strengthen this emotional bond between brands and their customers, so that this connection generates customer satisfaction and retention, the results of which will serve as input for developing assertive strategies throughout the coming year.
