With summer now a fading memory and holiday season stock beginning to fill stores both offline and online, consumers are starting to consider their gift shopping lists and how to afford them.
And that’s the hesitation for many. As the cost of living has skyrocketed we’ve all had to look again at our spending. There’s been a glimmer of hope in the last few weeks. The annual inflation rate in the US was 8.3% in August, the lowest rate in four months.
However, consumer budgets will still be strained over the coming months and trying to predict whether consumers will save or splurge this holiday season is a tough call.
What is certain is that buying the right gift, at the right price, is going to be crucial. Consumers won’t want to waste precious cash on a present that’s not wanted, not on-trend or not of the quality they’d hoped for. Their buying decisions will need to be more informed than ever.
So how can you help your customers to make the right choice when it comes to gift-buying for the 2022 holiday season?
At Taggstar we believe that social proof messaging comes into its own during the gift-buying process. We’ve been offering the technology since we were founded in 2013 so have plenty of experience in seeing how it helps. Struggling to come up with ideas of what to buy? Unsure if it’s something that the recipient will love? No clue whether it’s a good quality product or not? These are all questions that social proof messaging can help answer – making the process of gift buying easier, the consumer’s money wisely spent and the gift recipient happy with their present. And with fast integration and impressive results within days, there’s even still time to implement for peak.
Highlighting the perfect present
Social proof messaging works by narrowing down choice and reassuring the customer that their buying decision is the right one. And it does it by using real-time data from your retail website to display message balloons with relevant information giving shoppers confidence in their choices on the product list (PLP), product details (PDP) and basket pages.
It can help highlight best sellers or trending items. That’s perfect for a gift-buyer who isn’t too sure what to buy but knows that the person they are buying for loves going to the gym, for example. By choosing a popular or best-selling item the gift-buyer can be pretty certain it’s something the recipient will love – although whether it’s something they’ve already got is something we can’t help with I’m afraid!
Alternatively, the gift-buyer might have decided on what to buy but be wavering over what that product might be like in reality. Social proof messaging incorporating aggregated reviews helps to make this next step in the buying decision easier by sharing what other customers thought of the product – such as fit or quality.
In peak season demand is high. And missing out on a must-have item – particularly for young children – will lead to disappointment for everyone. Here social proof messaging can also help by highlighting items that are selling fast or running low on stock. That prompts the consumer to buy with greater urgency, ensuring they aren’t left unable to buy the item they want and that you ultimately win the sale.
It’s never too late
“Sounds great,” I hear you cry. “But my stock is in, my marketing is ready and peak season is fast approaching. I’ve no time to implement new technology.”
And that’s where we would argue otherwise. We’ve made integration and implementation of Taggstar’s social proof messaging fast and easy. Taggstar can easily be switched on or off via a tag management system without affecting the core code base of a website, so can even be implemented during the peak season. In fact, by using our Professional Services team the process is so seamless that we can onboard new customers in a matter of days. This means that your IT resources can remain concentrated on your critical peak period
Impressive results are also visible quickly, with significant uplifts in sales and conversion rates usually evident almost immediately.
With a peak season more critical than ever for 2022 can you risk not doing everything you can to maximise sales and improve the buying experience for your customers?