Everyone has at least one father they love—dad, grandpa, brother, uncle, friend—and Father’s Day is the holiday that lets us give them the props they deserve. Father’s Day can give your sales numbers a big bump, as long as you plan for the best ways to reach shoppers in the final weeks before the big day. With a few strategic moves, you’ll master the course from first search to the final moment of purchase. Here are some effective tools that increase customers’ visibility throughout their journey, thereby maximizing your opportunities.
Reach Out to Last-Minute Shoppers
For retailers and brands, the final few weeks before Father’s Day offer a great opportunity to capture even more impressions, conversions, and sales. While Father’s Day is a big holiday, it’s definitely not something most people plan ahead for. Instead, it’s more spontaneous and last-minute. For this reason, you need to make things easy and accessible.
Promote Specific Merchandise
There are very specific gifts that dads appreciate. From shirts, socks, and ties, to tech gadgets, lawn tools, and sports gear, there are many ways to make dad happy. To help you strategize, here is U.S. Search and Purchase data for the 2017 sales periods from May 15 to May 29, compared to May 30 to June 18. This is a strong indicator of what kinds of gifts shoppers love to buy for Dad.
Search volume shows that perennial favorites like grills and hammocks still made a strong showing, but the biggest sales increases in the U.S. were seen in other categories, with Apparel topping the list.
- Apparel sales grew the most leading up to Father’s Day, up 27%. As men become healthier and more image conscious, it’s no surprise that apparel purchases have increased dramatically.
- Electronics also dominated, up 19%. High-tech toys like drones, GoPros, and gaming consoles dominated this category.
- Home and Garden is a perennial favorite, up 10%. Fire pits, grills, coolers, lawn tools, and pool products are all easy ways to get an immediate, “Wow, thanks!” from dad.
- “Other” category, up 5%. The mix of items in this group includes sporting goods, software, and media. Clearly, dads are all about having fun and relaxing.
Appeal to the Omnishopper
Modern shoppers are Omnishoppers, which means they’re switching devices and hopping from site to site in search of gifts and deals. This also means that a search today might not end with an immediate purchase. To help ensure that you score that final sale, use a multi-pronged strategy that keeps you in front of shoppers throughout their entire journey:
- Three weeks out: Drive consideration with a sponsored-products tool. This will maximize product visibility on search results and cart pages on your retail partners’ sites and maintain high CPCs to win more revenue.
- Two weeks out: Stay top of mind with dynamic retargeting. A dynamic retargeting tool can deliver personalized offers at just the right time and in the right format to keep bringing shoppers back.
- One week out: Use dynamic paid display ads to re-engage your customer base. As Father’s Day approaches and shoppers become more active, use dynamic paid ads that are placed with thousands of your most targeted publishers worldwide. This is a great way to re-engage your customer base across the web, mobile browsers, and apps.
- Father’s Day: Optimize your mobile strategy. When shoppers hurriedly check their smartphones for last-minute gift ideas, make sure your site is the one that comes up in their search, and your products are the ones that end up in their carts.
Father’s Day can be an easy win for you, your shoppers, and all of the dads out there. Even more important, a strong performance here can not only mean enhanced sales, but can also bring customer loyalty. And, let’s face it—that’s definitely the ultimate goal in the race to enhance your Father’s Day web presence.
John Roswech is Executive Vice President of Criteo Brand Solutions