Q4 is in full swing, but while you might not have even gotten around to dusting off the holiday ornaments yet, now is actually the best time to start preparing for a successful 2016! In fact, the earlier you start 2016 preparations, the better you will be positioned to leverage the traffic and subsequent data that you have gathered over Q4, allowing you to generate long-term, happy customers that return to your store long after the holiday decorations are back in storage.

While personalization has been a hot trend for a couple of years now, 2016 will see it move from an optional extra to a requirement for any successful business. So, to help you blast off into 2016, we here at Nosto have collected seven actionable tips:

1. Collect Email Addresses for Retargeting in 2016

In Q4 you will get a lot of new traffic to your store. Take advantage of this by using pop-ups to help you increase the chance of festive sales while simultaneously capturing contact details for the future.

Two effective examples of this include:

• Pop-ups which offer new visitors a discount in exchange for a subscription to your newsletter.

• Pop-ups to be triggered by exit intent of unidentified users, offering to send an email with items that the customer has left in their cart.

Both of these options allow you to provide excellent customer service, incentivize and encourage shoppers to make purchases and help you capture the data you need to re-target them in 2016 with highly personalized recommendations or offers. It’s a win-win!

New customer pop-up at www.dreamandfun.com

2. Follow Up on December Orders

OK, so you have the email addresses, now what? First and foremost, send automated Order Follow up emails targeting customers with highly relevant items to those purchased in December. A great Follow-up email would also include a list of hottest items in your selection right now for a chance to show off your new spring selection and thus entice customers back to your store.  

3. Build Relationships Through ‘We Miss You’ Emails

Triggered emailing is the holy grail of customer retention. That’s why it earns two points in the list! Reach out to your customers with an automated ‘We Miss You’ email triggered when the customer has not visited your store for a while. Populate the email with highly relevant and personalized product recommendations that indicate to your customer that you have learned their likes and dislikes. This will help you build a more personal relationship with them and make them more likely to return shopping with you.

A we miss you email by www.melvin-hamilton.com

4. Enable Personalized Facebook Ads to Re-engage Customers

Take advantage of the seasonal social media buzz and display automatically tailored offers directly in your customers’ newsfeeds. Target customers who have visited your store previously by recommending products picked just for them (e.g. items they browsed but didn’t go on to purchase) or by suggesting items that are highly relevant to items that converted customers have already bought.

Personalized Facebook ads of www.stutterheim.com

5. Display Attention Grabbers on Your Home Page

As you know, not all gifts hit home and you’ll be getting quite a few returns and exchanges in late December and throughout January. Fret not; there is an upside! It means that these customers are likely to come back to your store either to look for items to replace a gift or to learn about your returns terms. Make sure these customers are immediately greeted with the hottest new items in your selection to capture their interest again and ultimately complete a purchase. To increase conversion, add a top list and display personalized recommendations on your front page so that items the customer is most likely to purchase are the ones they see first.

Personalized recommendations on the front page of www.yumikim.com

6. Give Out Coupons for January Purchases

Let’s face it, by the time January rolls around we are all feeling the pinch (and we don’t just mean from tighter-than-normal trousers!). This means that shoppers are more likely to be discount-lead than normal. Delight these bargain hunters with a discount coupon for use in January when they complete a purchase in December. It’s a simple and small surprise but one that will bring them back to your store despite a less than happy looking bank-account.

7. Reward Your Best Customers

New Year’s is about new beginnings. Thank your best customers for the year past by sending them a small gift. This can be anything from a physical gift in your selection to a time-limited discount or other incentives that are exclusive to them. If you have the resources, do something even better, write them a personalized handwritten note to thank them for 2015 (A great example of exceptional customer service was posted on Reddit a while back). They’ll get more for less, return to your store, and you get more happy customers to kick off your 2016!

About Nosto

New to personalization and not sure how to get started? Magento Gold Partner Nosto is offering Magento retailers the eBook “An Introduction to Personalization” for free download here. 
Nosto is the fastest-growing personalization solution in the world, enabling any online retailer to deliver their customers personalized shopping experiences wherever they are.
Nosto’s ease of use and speed of implementation empowers retailers to start growing their businesses within minutes of getting started, increasing conversion, average order value and customer retention. With offices in New York, London, Stockholm, Berlin and Helsinki, Nosto is used by over 12,000 retailers across the globe including Volcom, LUSH and The ICONIC.  

To learn more, visit www.nosto.com or the Nosto magento extension. You can find other important personalization tips by downloading this free eBook here  “An Introduction to Personalization.”