As many Australians return to their desks following the summer break, many brands are now faced with an annual dilemma – the post-holiday season slump.
With promotions such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday gaining popularity in Australia and Christmas continuing to provide a retail spike, January and February can now prove challenging for many brands.
“As a rule of thumb, most retailers experience a top-line revenue decline in the early parts of a new calendar year,” Campaign Monitor VP of commerce product strategy Adii Pienaar told B&T.
“This predominantly depends on their own customers’ fatigue which is greatly influenced by the amount of promotions that got pushed to them during the peak retail period, as well as the extent of the discounts that were available.
“Anyone that purchases a product with a 50 per cent discount on Black Friday is unlikely to buy another product at full price now.”
Although some level of seasonality is to be expected for any retail brand, Pienaar suggested brands turn to personalised campaigns to avoid any significant decline.
“What works well is to piggy-back on the age-old human phenomena, which is New Year’s resolutions,” he said.
“Marketing campaigns appealing to that “sense of self” and aspiration to “be better this year” will win.”
Pienaar suggested email marketing campaigns that focus on niche segments based on specific shopping and interest behaviour as a way to build effective campaigns.
“By niching down on your segmentation, you can further amplify the effect of having a one-on-one conversation that either helps you learn which product a customer might buy now or when they will be ready for their next purchase,” he said.
If executed well, this will not only help to bolster revenue, but also build stronger customer relationships.
“The ultimate goal should not only be generating new revenue but instead building better, long-term relationships with your customers,” said Pienaar.
“By doing that, retailers will start 2020 in a better position and are unlikely to take short-term action in the first quarter of 2020 to avoid any slumps.”
