Christmas Marketing for Small E-commerce Business

When is it too early to start discussing Christmas for a small E-commerce business? The truth is, when you research it, every result will be different. Some say you should start talking about it in August, and some say after Black Friday, but with supermarkets dropping boxes of Quality Street in the summer (blasphemous if you ask us), consumers are planning for the big day earlier and earlier. So, think about it in two parts: when should your clients start PLANNING for Christmas and when should you start TALKING about Christmas?

PLANNING

Regarding the logistics (products, stock, cut-off dates, etc.) and comms planning in-house, it's always good to get these squared away by September...unless you're John Lewis and you already started developing and filming your Christmas AD three years ago. Doing this puts you in a position to start working on/executing your plans in September and October.

If you're running a full-on campaign or your client requires outside services such as a photoshoot, graphics, etc., then you and your client need to start planning earlier, as you'll have to work around other people's schedules.

Word of advice

Don't leave everything to the last minute. Christmas is stressful enough. And if you're taking time off over Christmas, let your clients know early and encourage them to get organised.

TALKING ABOUT CHRISTMAS

You've done your planning and executed your content and comms, and everything is ready to go. So, when should you start talking about Christmas? What tends to be the industry standard for smaller ecomm is early to mid-November. But if your product has a long lead time, we suggest starting the comms earlier and being very clear on lead times. You don't want your client to miss out on sales.

COMBINING BLACK FRIDAY WITH CHRISTMAS MESSAGING

Should you talk about Christmas during a Black Friday sale? Absolutely. Instil the idea that people cannot only get a great gift for their loved ones but can also get it on special offer. 

Word of advice

Something to consider is the last Christmas shipping dates. Usually, these are mid-December, so if you wait until December, you only give your customers around two weeks to shop your products. The earlier you talk about Christmas, the more time your client's customers can shop before the shipping cut-off.

Something else to consider

The last thing you want during your busy season is to answer (let's face it) stupid customer service DMs or deal with issues that could easily have been averted and, quite frankly, are beyond your contract. So you need to make sure your client is managing their customer's expectations.

On their socials, create a highlight with all your client's general operating hours, and then create a clearly distinguishable highlight for your Christmas/holiday operating hours (include the last guaranteed shipping date for Christmas, too!). When can people expect your client online? Will you/they be replying to DMs on Christmas Day? (Surely not, but you'd be surprised how many people are on their phones on the day itself!)

You could also add it as a pinned grid post to make it more accessible to your audience. It's also a great idea to create another highlight with your holiday season FAQs: What are your return/refund policies? Are there gift-wrapping options? Is your client running any holiday promotions? Creating highlights and keeping everything in one place will improve the customer experience by clarifying everything!

You should encourage your client to update their website, email marketing, sign in the window, etc. It's crucial that customers' expectations are managed at every touch point.

We've created Master Christmas, the one-stop shop for your Christmas marketing. It includes content theme ideas, prompts and how we'd use them, a 12-day Christmas campaign, and a final to-do list to stay on top of your tasks and promos. We also detail best marketing practices and how to get new customers with 0 AD spend.

The key is being organised and staying on schedule.