7 Tips to Beat the Global E-Commerce Summer Slump

With the summer in full swing, we are all looking forward to our summer holidays. Whether it’s lying on a beach all day or spending the vacations actively, probably the last thing most vacationers will be thinking about is spending money online. 

As the temperature soars, the e-commerce sale rates will cool off.

That is to be expected since many people are away on holiday, far away from e-commerce. People would rather spend money on travel, concerts, and summer festivals.

The months of July and August will hit retailers particularly hard, although there is some slump to be expected also in September. 

However, you don’t need to get left behind by other e-commerce retailers and competitors. Everybody will have to go through this slump. But it’s the business that will be able to go through this period that will also have a more successful campaign every year.

Considerations to Make Before Making Any Changes

Before you jump into making changes, you should know a couple of things that will make your life much easier.

• Most purchases will be made through mobile or tablet.

  This is especially true of this time of year. Most people will be outside and away from their computer, so even if there is a slump in sales, the prospects who do spend some money on your website will very likely be on a mobile device. If they are on holiday, lying on the beach, browsing your e-commerce website, they are likely to be on a mobile device. So make your website optimized for mobile devices even stronger.

• People, especially millennials, will buy entertainment products this time of year.

  As people are preparing to head to the beach and relax, they will be looking to buy entertainment products – books, movies, games, and other related accessories and products are likely to be very popular. It might make sense to focus on them (if you offer them, anyway). Clothing will also be very popular during the summer holidays.

• High shipping costs will result in high cart abandonment.

  According to this Statista study, around 63% of all customers are turned off by high shipping rates and will leave the cart when they find out about them. So especially during this time of year, it might be worth cutting those costs or eliminate them.

The good news is that there are some great tips to go ahead and beat your competitors during the slump. 

 The 7 best tips to beat the global e-commerce summer slump 

1. Start with Summer Discounts

The number one obvious tactic to combat the slump is to start with discounts on your retail site. There is no denying the fact that summer sales have had success before. Who doesn’t love a good sale to save some money, right?

Think about saving your customers some money on products for winter, for example. Have them at 40% off, and you’re bound to see some great sales figures.

Or, you can even create a contest that you can post on your social media accounts and offer a giveaway to your customers or some special discounts for the winners. This is bound to crop up more interest than usual.

Organizing a general summer sale should be one of the first things you should try to increase your sales during the summer slump.

2. Increase Your Social Media Visibility

You should try and focus on creating a good social media campaign when everyone’s away. Think about it: everyone will be checking on social media constantly to see what other people are doing during their summer holidays.

Summer is a special time for traveling, and people will like to share their stories on social media. There will be posts about vacation, graduation, and holiday pictures, too. 

So why not increase your social media influence to reach out to these people? You might just see your social media campaign be more successful if you focus on the right channels. 

Facebook and Instagram seem to be especially popular during the summer days, although many people are also gravitating towards TikTok (especially younger people). It might be worth spending more time on creating robust campaigns that will attract these holiday people who regularly post holiday photos on social media.

3. Create a “Summer Feeling” on Your Website

 If you haven’t done this already, then you should try it. Just like many e-commerce retailers will change their website’s theme during Christmas, they will also do the same during the summer. Creating that summer vibe can attract more customers and provide a better user experience on your website.

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Yes, many sites will do well with their own, standard design during any time of the year. But that will only hold for more established and larger companies; however, many large e-commerce retailers have already tried this tactic, and it’s here to stay.

Create a summer feeling on your website, and you are likely to see an increase of interest, as your customers will feel more at home with this design.

4. Offer Special Summer Products

Offering summer-themed products during this time of year can help you increase interest in your website. It can be something related to the beach, sea, or pool. Or something related to the outdoors, since most people will spend their free time outside during the summer.

Not every e-commerce retailer will have the option to do this, but having something ready for the summer is necessary. Whether it’s your product or someone else’s, you should have something to offer for the summer. For this, create a killer landing page to boost that conversion rate right away. 

If you don’t, then a slump can be expected, but you’ll have no way to climb out of this slump. Prepare something worthy of your customer’s consideration and that is suitable for the time of year.

5. Improve the UX

This should go without saying, but your UX should be improved constantly. But especially during this time of year when customers will likely be away, they will gravitate towards sites that are easy to use and offer the purchases almost instantly without painless transactions or long loading times.

Make sure everything is perfect before you expect the slump. The loading speeds should be decreased to a minimum, and make sure the shopping cart procedure is short but sweet. 

The overall navigation throughout your site should also be flawless and very easy to do. This is certainly something that you should consider, and you can expect to see better results during this time of year.

However, this is something that should be done throughout the entire year and not just now, when the competition is fierce and customers are at a premium.

6. Connect with Your Loyal Customers 

You’ll likely have more success with your loyal customers rather than acquiring new customers during this time of year. So it might be worth some extra time to connect with your existing and happy customers. 

This will include extensive social media campaigns for your followers. Be more active on social media and constantly add new posts and promotional offers that will attract existing customers.

Also, follow up on your old and loyal customers with e-mail promotions. Good e-mail promotion is very likely to improve your success during this time of year. A well-written email campaign can be worth gold, especially this time of year where you might be struggling to find new customers.

How about trying with your old ones? You’ve already been successful with them, so why not giving it another try?

7. Go International

If you’re focusing on a specific locale during this time of year, then you might be limiting yourself. Going international is not for everyone, as there is always an additional question of logistics and other important questions that need solving.

You will encounter several new challenges if you decide on this option. However, the results of going international can have significant results. 

There are a lot of hidden potentials if you’re only selling for a particular locale. For example, you could tap into the Australian market where during June, July, and August, winter is taking place. So you can sell your winter products to Australia.

But then again, there comes a question of logistics as well as other problems. However, if you do manage to overcome those challenges, you will be on a good way towards the top.

Wrapping Up

Summer is not a great time for e-commerce retailers, as there will expectedly be a slump during this time of year. Many people will be away on holiday. They will prefer to relax on the beach and spend their time traveling rather than spending money online.

However, there are many tactics that you can try to go ahead and beat the competition, even during the summer. From improving your UX to having a summer sale and connecting with your customers in a better way, there are always some great things to try. Hopefully, you’ll get through the slump relatively unscathed.

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