Holiday business tips from DHL Discover: e-commerce dos and don’ts

Christmas is less than 100 days away and if you’re running a business, the biggest shopping period is a must-win time of the year. Since Filipinos start celebrating Christmas as early as September, searches for gifts and Christmas-related items continue to spike. The opportunities to engage customers online are plenty, but are you winning them over?

Drawing from its experiences shipping volumes of holiday packages, DHL Express wraps up and delivers some useful hacks from DHL Discover, a free library on helping businesses succeed and grow. Here are top recommendations to help you up your e-commerce game—from online shopping all the way to check-out.

DO: Analyze your customer journey

You should be able to say ‘yes’ to two questions: 1) Do you know how your customer prefers to buy your products or services?; and  2) Does your e-commerce process reflect the way your customer buys?

For a start, here are some useful insights from the Facebook 2018 Holiday Study: 94 percent of shoppers turn to Facebook when making holiday shopping decisions, while another 67 percent rely on Instagram. The study also revealed that three out of five Filipinos turn to their smartphones to make informed decisions, especially during their idle time.

DON’T: Expect customers to come to you

Building a site does not result in immediate traffic. The eCommerce Training Academy’s advice: be visible to where your audience is. Leverage search engine optimization, pay-per-click, email, social, display ads, retargeting, mobile, shopping engines, and affiliates to drive qualified traffic to your online store.

DO: Give rockstar service

Since your potential customers spend most of the time on social media, you should turn them into your best salespeople. Give your customers a positive experience at every touch point– answer inquiries, make suggestions, help them solve problems, and, allow them to be part of the conversation around your brand.

DON’T: Make false promises

Claims like “Low prices” and “Guaranteed next day delivery” aren’t just for clickbait. If you can’t deliver on them, your customers will not hesitate to tell everyone how bad your service is.

For your regular shipping needs, partnering with logistics providers can also help you speed up the delivery process. Signing up for a MyDHL account, for example, gives you free online shipping, tracking, and billing services that you can customize for your preferences.

DO: Recommend more expensive items

According to econsultancy, showing consumers a similar but more expensive item is 20 times more likely to drive a sale.

DON’T: Bury your customers in clicks

Though you have a deep, robust website with lots of captivating content, your customer should never be more than 3 or 4 clicks away from your checkout.

If you could show customers how passionate you are about providing a great customer experience, your business is headed for a season to be jolly indeed. Keep in mind that customers are counting on you to provide a great customer experience, something that DHL Express would help you deliver through efficient handling of all your last mile requirements. By tapping the services of a trusted logistics partner, you can focus and further improve your core business.

Find out how DHL Express Philippines can help ensure the safe and timely arrival of your customers’ orders.Visit dhl.com.ph or call +63 917 8118981.