E-commerce: how to boost your sales during the summer

For many online sellers, summer signals a drop in sales. Although, if you sell parasols and sunscreen, you should be alright. However, it’s quite likely that you’ll need to increase traffic to your website over the summer months. After all, most of your customers are lazing around in the sun, not glued to their smartphones…

Here are our seven top tips from the pros to help you boost your online sales over the summer.

1. Launch special products for the summer

Do you sell pyjamas and underwear? Why not launch a range of swimwear? Do you sell clothing? Put together a collection of T-shirts with summery motifs. Is your business in the home decor sector? Extend your offering with garden furniture.

And, most importantly, make these products visible on the home page of your online shop. You can add a “Summer vibes” or “Summer’s here” tab and feature all your special summer products there.

2. Give your home page a makeover

Summer’s here, the birds are singing and everyone’s wearing sunglasses… Why not give your e-commerce site a new look for the summer? Use bright colours and images that bring summer to mind:

• sunshine,
• flip-flops,
• sun loungers,
• a crab,
• waves,
• a surfboard,
• a coconut palm… do you get the drift?

The same thing goes for your communications: newsletters, marketing emails, Instagram posts, and so on. If you immerse your visitors in an enjoyable visual experience, it’s a subtle way of encouraging them to buy.

3. Make limited-time offers

A limited-time offer is a bit like when 36 other people have liked the same product as you on Vinted… …and you know that if you don’t buy it straight away, someone else will beat you to it in the very near future.

These offers can take different forms:

• Buy one, get one free until (date),
• 10% off kids’ products until (date),
• Free delivery until 15 August,
• 5% off with the code “summer” until (date), etc.

All you need to do is combine a special offer with an end date to encourage customers to buy during the summer holidays. This marketing tactic also works at other times of the year, such as Christmas, for example.

We advise you to add a banner at the top of your home page to draw attention to your limited-time offer. 📌

4. Internationalise your site (it’s winter on the other side of the world)

It may be summer where you are, but not on the other side of the world. There is an effective solution to help you turbocharge your sales over the summer, and that’s to translate your online shop.

You will need to facilitate international deliveries, include a range of payment methods and adapt your business to the needs of your target customers.

By doing this, you will boost traffic to your online shop and increase revenue at the same time.

But beware – Just because a product works well in your country, it doesn’t mean it will work equally well internationally. You will need to adapt your strategy, bearing in mind cultural differences and local traditions.

5. Work with influencers over the summer

Let’s start with a real-life example:

Even though Etam is not affected by the summer slump (because it sells swimwear), it decided to work with an influencer brand to create a limited-edition collection. By working on the principle of exclusivity and that feeling of having something nobody else has got, the two brands wanted to create an urgent need in the consumer.

Here are our ideas on working with influencers over the summer:

1. Consider key summer dates such as International Friendship Day on 30 July and International Cat Day on 8 August,
2. Create a capsule collection (limited series) like Etam in collaboration with L’Armoire de Soso,
3. Organise photo shoots of your products in fabulous and surprising locations, such as the top of a cliff or up in the air,
4. Work with micro-influencers (fewer than 100,000 followers): they have an engagement rate that’s seven times higher than mega-influencers.

6. Organise a competition on social media

Whether with or without an influencer, you can organise a special summer competition on social media. This will build loyalty amongst your existing customers as well as attracting new buyers.

Here are eight competition ideas to try out:

• Prize draw,
• Hashtag challenge,
• Game of skill,
• Instant wins,
• Photo or video competition,
• Best photo caption,
• Paper chase, treasure hunt or
• Quiz.

To organise a photo competition, ask your followers to take a selfie in the sun, by the pool or on the beach with one of your products! Then, ask them to publish the photo on their socials including a hashtag dedicated to your competition and tagging your account. This will enable you to find entrants’ photos and select the big winner quickly.

7. Customise your packaging in summery colours

Using the last six top tips, you can’t fail to boost sales on your e-commerce site this summer. To go that extra mile and coordinate the customer experience from A to Z, we advise you to customise your packaging in summery colours.

If you pack your products in little boxes, you can:

• ask your own graphic designer (or a freelance) to create a special design for the summer holidays,
• print the graphic on a hundred boxes (or the number that you think you’ll actually use, to avoid wastage),
• ship your parcels in these boxes from June to September.

This will show your customers that you’re seeing the bigger picture and really care about your brand image.

How to boost your online sales over the summer: in a nutshell

In a nutshell, here are our seven top tips to turbocharge your sales over the summer:

1. Launch special products for the summer,
2. Give your home page a makeover,
3. Make limited-time offers (with countdown),
4. Internationalise your site and your offering,
5. Work with micro-influencers,
6. Organise competitions on social media,
7. Customise your packaging in summery colours.

To go the extra mile and go faster, we advise you to use these state-of-the-art digital marketing tools.