What are the 4 highest converting proximity campaigns for holiday season 2017?

Six hundred and fifty-eight dollars – That’s how much customers spent during the holiday sale in 2016! That was up by 4% from 2015. Deloitte expects holiday sales to top $1 trillion between the months of November and January this year. This spike in customer activity is both an opportunity and a challenge for small businesses. Streets are filled with sale billboards and paper pamphlets – the challenge, therefore, is to stand out.   

We’re almost in the middle of the holiday season and we have already seen some jaw-dropping numbers from the retail industry. One of our customers, who owns a retail storefront in Orange County, California reports that she is seeing a 37% increase in conversions just by enhancing the experience for her consumers this holiday season.

In this post, we will take a look at why business owners and marketers are embracing beacons. Also, later in the post, I have few quick campaigns up my sleeves that you can create to increase your sales number this festive season.

Why are marketers and retailers employing beacons?

1. A decline in the conversion rates from banner ads

Standard banner ads and billboard shoutouts have seen a decline in conversion rates. According to a recent study in March 2017, the overall conversion rate of display advertisement is just 0.05%. This is paving the way for digital offers and campaigns to take centre stage as a valuable mobile marketing strategy, especially during seasonal times with high consumer traffic. 

Whereas, beacon campaigns have seen conversion rates in double digits. Unfortunately, not all beacon campaigns see that kind of a conversion, but typically the conversion rates are around 2%-4%, which is approximately 80 times the conversion from banner ads. Not just that, with the best practices and recommendations, you could hit higher click-through rates and engagement on your beacon campaigns.

2. Reach out to consumers at the right time

The primary benefit of beacons is obviously that they help reach out to consumers while they’re physically present at the store/location creating a compelling touch point.

3. Retargeting consumers online

Beaconstac beacons allow retargeting consumers anywhere they go online. This has the potential of converting consumers who were considering making a purchase but wanted to check other options. If a consumer receives a promotional offer from a beacon but does not redeem it immediately, there is an opportunity to resend it via mobile at a later time.

Creating a retargeting campaign in Beaconstac is simple – it just needs the Google Adwords conversion ID or Facebook Pixel ID allocated post setting up these ads.

Campaigns to boost sales this holiday season

Consumers have a list of reasons that drive them away from shopping in-store, especially during the holiday season. Excessive crowding is the major concern followed by a lot of other challenges.

Here’s a study from Deloitte that shows why consumers restrict themselves from shopping in-stores –

Most of these challenges can be taken care of by using beacon campaigns. Let’s see how!

1. Direct consumers to your online presence to find items and sizes out of stock, in-store

Send out beacon campaigns that have captivating visuals, compelling copy and call-to-action buttons to direct consumers to your landing pages. Landing pages showcase a fleet of your products in all shapes and sizes. Even if the product is out of stock, consumers add it to the wishlist if they really like the product. Get back to them when the product is back in stock.

2. Tell your story with videos that are embedded on your notification cards

You are a real human with direct touch points with your consumers—take advantage of it! Tell your story and what extraordinary you have done for your consumers this festive season. Putting your face in front of the brand helps you communicate with consumers who haven’t even entered your store. Here’s an example of Farmhouse pottery!

Imagine a group of friends having coffee at a cafe beside your store and they get notified of your story! It does two things – 1. An authentic voice establishes an immediate connect 2. They know what you have in store for them.

With Beaconstac, embedding video on the markdown cards is as simple as pasting the link!

3. Provide an option to skip the queue – Contactless payment

One of the reasons consumers avoid shopping in-store, especially during holiday season, is long lines and slow checkouts. Pushing notifications that prompt consumers to make contactless payments, using a link, goes a long way in building customer experience and providing consumer convenience. Not just that, it also helps you manage the crowd more efficiently during the holiday season.

Integrating location-based technologies, such as beacons, with traditional POS systems is redefining a retailers’ relationship with customers. Businesses are leveraging beacons to revamp their POS systems to deliver quick, safe, and easy mobile-based proximity payment solutions. We wrote an article about how to integrate beacons into POS systems.

4. Permit people to add items to their wish lists while in-store

It’s the holiday season and it’s only natural to run out of items in the store. But here’s what you can do – Before your consumers leave the store, push a form to their smartphones where they can list items they couldn’t find or wanted to buy later. This helps you reach out to them when the items are back in store!

Wishing you the very best of the holiday season!

Are there any other tips or insights that you think will help small businesses set up their stores for success this holiday season? Let us know in the comments below.  

If you are planning to try out beacons for your storefront, take a look at Beaconstac (Retail), that includes everything you need to get started. Using Beaconstac you can set up your own campaign, without a developer’s help!

• Author Details

Author Details

Monika Adarsh

Monika Adarsh is the Director of Inbound Marketing at Beaconstac where her primary job is to help users find answers to anything related to QR Codes. She works closely with customers to understand QR Code usage trends and build a framework for successful QR Code campaigns. She enjoys documenting her learnings about the QR Code market as posts and playbooks. She also anchors a podcast to uncover ways of using QR Codes in DTC/CPG brands. In her free time, she loves gardening and decorating spaces.

https://www.beaconstac.com/qr-code-generator

[email protected]