Retail dates move millions of dollars in the online commerce environment. Each year, the audience is more likely to spend online and take advantage of the promotions that large, medium and small brands have to offer.
After all, promotional events are the ideal period for shoppers to fulfill their dream of buying something of higher value, to buy day-to-day products that fit into their budget or even closing the package of a dream trip.
And when it comes to the best month for online retail sales, November wins by far, especially in Latin America. The reason to that? Latin Americans have a habit of taking advantage not only of Black Friday but also of Cyber Monday or El Buen Fín of Mexico, for example.
In addition, the behavior of consumers in each country is different during this period. Brazilians love to buy during Black Friday, while Colombians and Chileans value Cyber Monday the most and Mexicans buy more during El Buen Fín.
Thinking about it, have you ever imagined taking advantage of all those dates to increase your business’ sales?
Expanding to Latin America might not be just an option. Expanding to the region may be the key you need to increase your business’s revenues and start selling online overseas.
Read more: Ecommerce in Latin America: Market Insights and Trends
According to data from the Chamber of Commerce of Santiago in Chile, for instance, in 2017, Cyber Monday sold more than 100 million dollars only on the first day. This resulted in a growth of more than 50% compared to the record of the previous year.
In Colombia alone, Cyber Monday yielded 52 million Colombian pesos in sales and more than 1.4 million visits led to online purchases.
Black Friday, which is celebrated in countries like Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Panama and others, brings incredible data:
- In Colombia, in 2016, the date handled about 34.58 million pesos with a 20% growth in retail sales and transportation with the sale of air tickets;
- In Mexico, in turn, the date grew more than 130% in its sales compared to 2015;
- In addition to Brazil and Colombia, there were more than 600,000 transactions and more than 9 million dollars in 2016.
- In Mexico only, there is El Buen Fín, an event that from 2013 to 2015 had its sales doubled. In addition, Google searches grew 24% from year to year and 63% of searches were made on mobile devices.
All these data prove the growth of seasonal dates for the retail market and bring the alert for you that have not yet invested in the expansion of your e-commerce.
The time has come for your business to enter Latin America once and for all and start taking advantage of all the potential the region has to offer. Keep reading the tips we’ve selected and start increasing your chances of success in this market.
1. Study your competitors
Sounds cliché, but it isn’t! Studying the competition deeply is essential for any business, especially on the internet.
When retail dates arrive all brands are looking to offer their customers outstanding offers and treats.
The best solution for you to stand out is to know which strategies worked and the ones that didn’t for your competitors in previous years, especially in regard to promotions or even media investments.
That’s because the trend is for brands to repeat deals that have been successful, and knowing that, you can look for even more competitive options for your audience.
Always remember that to sell to other countries the best solution is to study the behavior of the market during periods of great deals and try to predict situations to offer the best benefits.
Always be prepared to attract your audience in the best possible way, receive them on your website and convert the highest amount of sales.
2. Have an efficient stock
If you are thinking of expanding your business, be sure to invest in other features that make e-commerce work. Having an efficient inventory is essential to differentiate yourself from competitors.
It is extremely important that you structure very well what we call the 3 pillars of stock management:
Logistics: whether in the production or purchase of products that will be sold in e-commerce, you need to have the right quantity to meet the demand of the public.
Avoid offering big discounts for products that you do not have a relevant quantity of stock, so you avoid the frustration of the user if you want to buy the product and finish very fast.
Attractiveness: Optimize the promotions and products of your site according to the market that will act.
There are products that have good demand in one country but in others, they do not have. Knowing this, you can make your e-commerce more attractive to people according to each region.
Seek to know the audience of each location and be more attractive to increase sales.
Control: It is very important to have control over the number of products sold in real time. After all, so you avoid selling products that you don’t have in stock!
In addition, you can have on your site a kind of “timer” with the number of products in stock when there are only a few units remaining. This causes the consumer a sense of urgency and triggers the scarcity of the purchase so that the purchase takes place more quickly.
3. Test (like, a lot)
Great promotions or retail dates often inflate website hits, and in many cases, ecommerce stores get “out of the air” for hours due to the number of hits.
This leads to the loss of many and many sales, unsatisfied users and may even generate a crisis in the brand social networks.
Therefore, testing website technology in advance is more than necessary for any online store. Errors on platforms are one of the issues that most hurt sales and billing during seasonal periods.
A drop in your site during Black Friday, for example, could result in fewer millions of dollars for your business.
The golden tip for you to avoid “a headache” is that a few months ago, you created some promotion that many users are interested in and that you can measure how many hits your site can handle.
Test the technology of your site with enough time to revert errors and avoid frustration for the consumer and your business.
4. Offer different payment methods
Do you want to sell to as many people as possible? Offer different payment methods on your site.
As you expand into different Latin American countries, keep in mind that shopping habits change from region to region.
Brazilians, for example, usually pay installments on credit cards. There are already Latin Americans who prefer to pay on the ticket or bank transfer.
Be present to the culture of the countries where your business operates and seek to offer local payment methods.
This makes it easy to make high-value purchases, and especially impulse purchases.
5. Invest in marketing
Stay tuned for your business marketing strategies before, during and after the promotional period. Separate a bundle of ads for each step!
Before the promotional dates intensify the investment in ads to increase the reach of your site and find more people interested in your business. Create campaigns to generate excitement about e-commerce promotion and capture leads.
During the promotional period create a competitive environment by investing in sponsored link ads, for example. In addition to impacting who is already a lead, seek to reach more people within social networks and Google searches.
Then do not forget to work aftermarket and even remarketing for the products that were left in the shopping cart and there is still stock. So you can bill even more during the month of November.
