How DSW Delivers During the Holidays

For retailers, the holidays are the most wonderful time of the year...but they're also the most stressful. The pressure is on, the hours are long, and the customers can be hard to please. But there’s no getting around it—Holiday is going to happen every year whether you’re ready for it or not.

Luckily, there are ways to get ahead of Holiday and make it out on top. By focusing on the post-purchase experience, for example, you can discover plenty of places to make improvements in order to earn loyalty and keep your customers coming back long after the season’s over.

Marine Depot makes the most out of package tracking.

One way to do this is by enticing customers with an on-brand, beautiful tracking experience—featuring your marketing content—that has the potential to bring people right back to your website.

Online aquarium superstore Marine Depot is a pro at this, taking the practice even further by consistently testing how various marketing assets perform.

The team sees what’s working best, and then does more of that. “The tracking page itself can be used for marketing,” says Jeff Johnston, Marketing Manager at Marine Depot. “I’m just taking advantage of all the capabilities to figure out what will work best in the long term.”

By testing and learning from whichever assets are converting the most, Marine Depot is able to optimize its branded tracking page and bring in even more sales for the business.

In fact, their click-through rate from those assets is 22.1%, and continues to grow, and the conversion rate from traffic coming from those assets is 2x that of repeat purchasers coming from other sources.

According to Narvar’s benchmark research, consumers are 3.8% more likely to click through marketing assets on a branded tracking page during the holidays than during the rest of the year.

If the season means consumers are more likely to buy again after already having made a purchase, why not do everything you can to encourage them to do just that? Take Marine Depot’s lead and optimize your marketing efforts so that you can get the most out of your customer’s gift tracking experience.

If the season means consumers are more likely to buy again after already having made a purchase, why not do everything you can to encourage them to do just that?

DSW keeps customers informed at every step.

A recent Narvar consumer survey about communication preferences found that 98% of customers feel better about a company if they are notified immediately when something goes wrong.

And since 82% of consumers have gifts sent directly to recipients during the holidays, this season is a particularly bad time to screw things up by not telling customers when their gifts aren’t going to show up on time.

On this front, DSW shows us another great way to set up for success during Holiday.

DSW impresses customers with proactive notifications to let them know when an order’s running a couple days late, couldn’t be delivered, or was ruined and needs to be replaced.

“Being able to offer that delivery information upfront, and then proactively communicate with our customers—that’s a big deal,” says DSW’s VP of Digital Brian Seewald.

Beyond sending proactive notifications through email, DSW also utilizes other digital channels where customers hang out—such as Facebook—to engage with them about online orders.

Says Seewald, “I love what we’re doing with Facebook Messenger. The customer is able to have a very natural interaction. It’s perfect for a quick Q&A.”

Of all the DSW customers who’ve opted to receive additional notifications through channels other than email, 34% wanted them via Facebook Messenger. And this is a growing trend—our consumer survey found that 79% of consumers have used text, messenger apps, or voice devices when shopping. Especially during holidays, when resources can be thin, Facebook Messenger and other emerging channels can help retailers by fielding questions about basic information such as delivery dates and locations.

This season is a particularly bad time to screw things up by not telling customers when their gifts aren’t going to show up on time.

Despite the chaos that reigns during this time of year, there are definitely ways for retailers to retain control over their customer’s Holiday experience. For even more about how to survive and thrive during retail’s busiest season, download our Holiday preparedness eBook.