Getting ready for the holiday sales? Here's how to increase sales this festive season
Nigeria is the 33rd largest market for eCommerce with a revenue of US$6.9 billion in 2021 - eCommerceDB
One of the consistent characteristics of the festive season is it brings customers and businesses together. The Covid-19 pandemic and inflation can't keep consumers from spending a lot this holiday season.
Zooming In. Consumers are more likely to start shopping early to avoid price hikes, as a result of inflation fears spurred by the weak naira, which has increased the cost of imported consumer goods. The dollar/Naira relationship is weird as hell this period.
"Inflation rose to 20.5% in August from July’s 19.6%, marking the highest print since September 2005. " - Focus Economics
Zooming Out. The holiday season is here, and with it comes the need for businesses to increase sales and revenue by acquiring new customers or upselling existing customers. If you’re old enough, you’ll remember this child-play song - “Christmas is coming, mama buy shoe for me”.
Small businesses are no exception to this. With the evolution of digital marketing strategies and tools, businesses can now do more than ever before to increase their sales. Vis-a-vis, revenue.
"The persistently high inflation will continue to negatively impact consumer spending power over 2022." - Fitch
Even though holiday sales have been down in recent years, we're still seeing a trend toward more online shopping and online purchases than ever before. This means that businesses need to figure out how to increase revenues during this season—and fast!
"In 2020, the number of online buyers in Nigeria was at about 76.7 million. Nigeria's total population amounts to 206 million and the internet penetration is at about 46 percent." - Statista
In a recent article, Fitch - one of the big three credit rating and research agencies, previses real household spending to grow by 3.6% in 2022, a modest reduction from the estimated 3.7% growth in 2021. Total household spending in nominal terms will reach NGN150.9bn (USD362.7bn) in 2022, increasing from NGN128.5bn (USD314.9bn) in 2021.
Pay Attention. The eCommerce market in Nigeria is expected to increase over the next few years, as indicated by the Statista Digital Market Outlook. In one of its reports, the research company said;
"It has been predicted that the CAGR for the next four years (2021-2025) will be 12%. Compared to the year-over-year growth of 30% between 2020 and 2021, this decrease in yearly growth suggests a moderately flooded market. However, an indicator of growth potential is the online penetration of 26% in Nigeria; in other words, 26% of the Nigerian population have bought at least one product online in 2021."
With the advancement of infrastructure, increased adoption and penetration of the internet, and a growing number of payment channels - card, USSD, transfers, PoS etc., it's clear that digital businesses can thrive this season, but must be strategic to do so.
Be Deliberate and Strategic. The competition this year for customers to open up their wallets will be a tough one more than ever - spending power is low. Inflation does not look like it will be slowing down any time soon. It was at 20.52% in August 2022.
For any business to win, it must plan to have a clear and deliberate positioning strategy. Don't do the sprinkle and pray thing. It might not work this time because more people are waking up to the realities happening around the world and would rather save than spend. Thanks to Emefiele and his guys - CBN.
$1 = NGN830. source
But, you can still win.
"In everything you, ensure you have acquired your prospects before sales start." - Africa Tech Memo
What You Can Do. Some strategies to acquire more customers, nurture existing ones and increase revenue through sales:
- If you have a website and it is one of your sales channels, improve your website’s SEO ranking by implementing SEO strategies that increase traffic to your site. Know anything about SEO? This SEO quick guide can help you get started.
- Most small businesses leave money on the table by not collecting essential data from their customers. Always collect emails and phone numbers for every sales, support or enquiry made. Create an email campaign that targets potential customers with relevant content about what you have to offer them. And upsell the existing ones. Use this email marketing guide to get started.
- Use social media ads on Facebook and Instagram to reach potential customers who are looking for what you have to offer them. If you are not yet familiar with running ads, use this Facebook guide and start right away. Don’t be ashamed to ask (or beg) your customers to follow you on these channels.
- You can also set up paid ads on Google AdWords because they have higher click-through rates than organic search engine results (SERPs). Depending on your type of business, try out LinkedIn.
Here are bonus activities you should also consider:
Leverage PR. Generate as much awareness for your business as you can get. Do it yourself on Presofis for free.
Collaborate with influencers. This can be tricky. Ensure you know what success looks like before engaging. Use tools like Plaqad Marketplace to engage with influencers. Define your Return On Investment (ROI), Call To Action (CTA) - “what do you want the people that interacted with the influencer to do?”.
Do giveaways. If you're new, do it in collaboration with a thought leader to drive awareness. And maybe, some sales.
Consider giving discounts. Do this by either a number of items purchased or first-time users. Never do it beyond a limit that hurts your business margin.
If you're still not sure where to start, reply to this email for a free 30 minutes call to get clarity on what to do.
Oh, My Business is New. What about if you're just starting out? How do you make sure that your business isn't left behind?
Here are some things we've found work well for getting more customers as a new business:
Make sure everything has a reward system attached to it. This one is especially helpful because it allows you to measure how successful your marketing efforts were—and can help make sure they're effective in the future too!
And do all of the tips mentioned above.
Ensure you do all of these in a cost-effective way. Don't burn through your cash only to run at a loss at the end of the season.
Round Up. But here's the thing: it can be hard to keep up with all of this demand in a busy season. That's why we're offering a 30-minute free call to walk through your business to get clarity on what you need to do to acquire more customers and increase your revenue during this time of year.
There's a caution though, ensure everything you do is done in a margin-enhanced way while delivering value to your customers. - Africa Tech Memo
Till next week.
PS: Read “What is web3? The Creators Way”.
Cheers!
Samson
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