Key Points:
- Boxing Day occurs on December 26, just after Christmas day
- Since many people order their Boxing Day gifts with a lot of holiday cheer at stake, failure to deliver on your shipping promises can result in your customers getting disgruntled
- Easyship can help you nail a great unboxing experience when sending Boxing Day gifts to your customers via branded packing slips, shipping labels, and branded emails -all branded with your marketing materials and business logo
Not about to be lost in the peak season shuffle, Boxing Day is an important celebration across the English-speaking world where the giving keeps ongoing.
When is Boxing Day? Boxing Day occurs on December 26, just after Christmas day. It's a special post-holiday celebration that people use to open their Christmas gifts, send gifts to their loved ones, and repurpose their Christmas leftover holiday boxes into donation packages. It is all about celebrating with family and doing good for others.
Boxing Day is mostly celebrated in countries like Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand, and has always been an official holiday in most jurisdictions since the rule of Queen Victoria in the 1800s.
In this article, we'll provide insightful tips on how to make your Boxing Day sales run smoothly for your eCommerce store, and how Easyship can help you streamline holiday shipping.
Table of Contents
7 Tips To Prepare for Boxing Day Sales
Here is a rundown of some tips that will help you maximize your Boxing Day sales.
1: Run Boxing Day Store Promotions
After a cheerful Christmas day, most customers will possibly be shopping for great deals on Boxing Day. This is the time of the year when people would want to see things like "SALE 50% OFF". This is because people go hard on Christmas day to celebrate and enjoy the fine things of life, and not so many will wake up with a wallet full of money on Boxing Day.
Running Boxing Day store promotions is a great idea to showcase your Boxing Day gifts to buyers and let them know that it is still affordable. Make sure you post your sales days before the date so that buyers can see them and budget for such purchases earlier.
2: Be Honest and Transparent
Online shoppers are known for their impatience. They don't like being surprised by fees. Even a bit of miscommunication is enough to make them take their business elsewhere. Since many buyers patronize stores looking for big purchases as gifts to their loved ones during the holiday season, you want to make sure that you maintain a transparent line of communication with your customers throughout the purchase process.
Be upfront with any delivery fees and delivery dates, and ensure that their items are delivered in pristine condition. Promising to offer compensation for any transit damages is also a great way to strengthen the merchant-customer relationship. This will help you build trust, convert more gift shoppers, and maximize your Boxing Day sales.
3: Set Shipping Deadlines
The Christmas holiday season is a great end of the year shopping holiday for eCommerce merchants. Since many people order their Boxing Day gifts with a lot of holiday cheer at stake, failure to deliver on your shipping promises can result in your customers getting disgruntled.
To avoid all that, it is vital to be upfront with clear deadlines to guide your shoppers on your holiday shipping deadlines and manage their shipping expectations.
Setting shipping deadlines entails guiding your buyers on the last-day they should place their orders if they want their gifts to arrive before or on Boxing Day. You need to factor in the time it takes to produce products, source goods, and the expected shipping delays that come with holiday shipping.
If you are not sure where to start, you can adopt shipping deadlines set by major couriers and communicate the "last day so ship" to your buyers so that their packages arrive on key dates. Here are the holiday shipping deadlines for 2022 in the US. You may need to extend the delivery lead time to factor in the above-mentioned factors.
Then, make sure that you communicate these cut-off dates to your buyers on your website, email promotions, and Boxing Day sales promotions on social media. This will encourage customers to make their orders early and avoid belated arrivals of their Boxing Day gifts.
4: Offer Multiple Shipping Options
eCommerce shopping is about convenience, and 'choice' is the word of the game if you want to offer shipping convenience to your shoppers. Customers like it when they see a limitless menu of shipping options so that they can choose what suits their delivery needs. For example, some are willing to pay extra for expedited shipping of their items, while others will be willing to order earlier for free or affordable shipping.
Whatever the case, you should offer multiple shipping options from different couriers so that your buyers can decide the speed and cost of their holiday shopping. The most practical way to offer delivery options during the holiday season is to do it via a 3PL company like Easyship.
Using our free shipping calculator, you can understand how rates differ among different couriers and know exactly why offering multiple delivery options will appeal to your customers and help you boost your Boxing Day sales.
5: Offer free shipping
Nine out of 10 shoppers use shipping as a deciding factor before they commit to making an online purchase. That means shipping isn't a bonus anymore. It can be a real barrier to purchase. There is a reason why you see savvy merchants advertising free shipping.
It is a great marketing tool, especially during the Boxing Day holiday, when people have expended most of their money on Christmas day. Including free Boxing Day shipping in your Boxing Day sales is all buyers need to see to convert.
While eCommerce giants like Amazon and Walmart can offer free shipping at no additional cost, small business owners need to figure out how to get around this without hurting their bottom line.
Here is what small retailers can do to absorb free shipping costs and face-off with the big box companies during the holidays:
- Built-in the cost of free shipping into product prices
- Offer free shipping to customers who spend a certain amount of money. For example, free shipping on orders over $100
- Offer time-sensitive free shipping. For example, order before Dec 19 to get Boxing Day free shipping
- Offer free shipping on best-selling items during the holiday season
- Free shipping on high-value "bundles" of items
6: Offer Custom Packaging
The branding and design aspect of your shipping boxes has its role when offering great holiday shipping to your customers. A great unboxing experience can be a game-changer when it comes to driving Boxing Day sales in your store.
Using custom branded packaging is also a great way to get the word out there about your eCommerce business, win brand loyalty, and encourage repeat purchases.
Easyship can help you nail a great unboxing experience when sending Boxing Day gifts to your customers via branded packing slips, shipping labels, and branded emails -all branded with your marketing materials and business logo.
7: Nail Down Your Holiday Return Policy
The customer journey doesn't end with the checkout process. Many things happen with online shopping that make buyers initiate eCommerce returns. Wrong size & fit, wrong items, damages, and failure to sell items as advertised are top reasons that can make buyers send items back to your store.
While this can be disappointing, it is not always a bad thing, if handled properly. You may end up winning over customers who won't shop from your store again if they have a bad experience with returns -if you use returns as a marketing tool. Having a transparent return policy that you adhere to guide buyers on how to initiate returns and how they will be compensated is the way to go here.
If you don't have a return policy for your store, you need to nail it down before the Christmas festive season begins. And you don't have to struggle writing everything from scratch. Easyship's free shipping policy generator gives you a customizable template that you can easily adapt to your store's needs.
Make sure that all the conditions and charges associated with the return process are clearly defined in your return policy, then surface it on product pages, your Boxing Day deals, and purchase confirmation emails. Think of it as part of your Boxing Day sales promotion plan.
How Easyship Can Help You Nail Your Boxing Day Shipping
As you can see, you should figure out your Boxing Day sales by coming up with a comprehensive shipping plan to make sure that your buyers receive their holiday gifts on time.
With Easyship you can optimize your holiday shipping the following ways:
- Offer shipping options: With over 250+ shipping solutions, merchants can tap into our global network to find the shipping options that best suite their customers
- Custom branding: With us, you get a real opportunity to gain a personal, competitive edge through custom branding. From branded customs emails to packing slips and shipping labels, there is no shortage of branded materials that you can use to delight your customers with a rewarding unboxing experience
- Nail your holiday return policy: You can easily do this with Easyship's free shipping policy generator, customize the template to your needs and boost your Boxing Day sales
- Shipping discounts: Through our platform, you can access discounted shipping rates of up to 91% from a wide network of shipping couriers
Sign up for a free Easyship account today and integrate your store with the leading shipping platform for eCommerce
