Every year something awful happens come January. Just after that lovely spike in sales thanks to Christmas, eCommerce stores are always hit with a downward spiral in sales – or even worse, no sales at all.

Nobody is buying anything after being completely shopped out during the holidays, and what’s worse is people are returning things! 

This plummet in sales can make you feel uneasy and looking at the sinking revenue can be downright depressing. 

Thankfully there are ways you can avoid the doom, gloom, and panic of declining sales. Get over the January slump with these 6 tips to increase online sales in January.

1. Have a January sale

Yes, it’s a standard for most retailers, but for good reason! 

You’ve had weeks of offering promos, highlighting discounts, giving away little freebies, and adding on free shipping but this doesn’t mean you can’t do it all over again!

Consumers don’t just buy from your store because it’s Christmas, they buy because they love what you sell – and discounts help nudge them into another sale. So, if you keep providing them with discounts you’ll be able to get them back on your site for round two (or three) of bargain hunting. 

You might be sick of sales but your customers sure aren’t. You don’t have to give them the same level of discounts as you did before either. Simply having a sale is enough to lure them back in and get them buying your products. 

Here are a few New Year’s sale suggestions:

• Winter clearance, allows you to get rid of old stock and consumers love a good clearance sale
• Add some more freebies for orders
• Free shipping on larger orders, encourages your customers to buy more
• Sell off those post-Christmas returns at a discounted rate to clear out stock for the new season

Remember to get them on your mailing list as soon as they buy, this way you can continue to target them later with more products.

2. Play on New Year motifs

Every year around the first of January people all over the world decide on what their New Year’s resolution is going to be. You can take advantage of this yearly tradition by playing into what consumers are looking for now that the Christmas holidays are over.

Here are a few ideas to get you thinking:

Organisation & productivity

Becoming more organised and productive is a huge resolution for a lot of consumers. After the 1st of January people are looking to fix their lives positively – so they’re going to be looking for anything that can help. 

There is a huge selection of items that can help consumers with their organisation skills. From pens and notepads straight up to iPads and electronic organisers. If you can market your products towards helping improve productivity and organisation then you’ll be able to sell more to your audience. 

Improving health & wellness

When it comes to New Year’s resolutions the largest amount of sales goes towards:

• Gym membership
• Fitness equipment
• Health supplements
• Diet plans
• Personal training

If you’re in the health and wellness niche then New Year is going to be a big time of year for you. 

New Year’s cleanout

Not only do consumers want to stay organised and productive they also want to finally clean out their backroom or give their garage a proper good scrub. After putting off these cleaning jobs all year New Year is the perfect time to advertise any products to do with cleanliness.

3. Release a brand new shiny product

Even if some marketers are starting to cool down, you should step up to the challenge and bring out something new. 

A lot of eCommerce sites start to focus on restocking their old inventory, but you can do something different. You can release something completely brand new. 

The New Year is the perfect time of year to bring out a brand new product. 

Customers are in that ‘new year, new me’ kind of phase with New Year’s resolutions. 

So, why not bring out a brand new product?

Consumers are already looking for something new to try, so it’ll be easier to sell them something brand new this time of year. 

Of course, launching a brand new product after the busy Christmas period takes a lot of planning and prep work so plan ahead and do your due diligence to find something new that your audience will love.

4. Encourage customers to buy again

After the Christmas rush is over you’ll have a huge pile of email addresses sitting there waiting to be used.

Why do you have all these email addresses? They’re from customers who bought from you during the Christmas period. They’ve bought from you before and you can use their email to get them to buy from you again. 

Start sending your previous customers emails suggesting similar products to the ones they bought over Christmas. This will encourage them to buy from you once more. You’re more likely to get somebody who’s already bought from you to buy from you again because they know they’ll receive a high-quality product and service from you. 

Plus it’s cheaper for you to retain an old customer than it is to find a new one. Use this Christmas email list to get the attention of your customers again while they’re still in the buying spirit.

5. Retarget your advertising

With so many consumers coming and going from your website, you should be retargeting your adverts to them.

According to statistics, 30% of consumers have a positive reaction to retargeted ads. The average click-through rate for retargeted ads is also 10x that of display ads and visitors who see retargeted ads are 70% more likely to convert there and then on your site.

Retargeting is a great tactic to work into your New Years marketing strategy and it works just as well as it does during the Christmas season. 

Instead of leaving people to forget your products, remind them that you still have great products they can purchase. Retarget towards them, grab their attention, and compel them to make a purchase on your site.

6. Don’t stop now

Now is not the time to stop! 

You may be exhausted after the busy Christmas rush and consumers might be too, but they’re still out there waiting for the next new deal or product to pop up. 

If you can make yourself stand out now while everybody else is taking a break, then you’ll be the one consumers will hear. 

Don’t quit now – start implementing the perfect online strategy to get more business than ever before.

Are you ready to create the perfect strategy to get your eCommerce business more sales in January?

Get in contact with our eCommerce experts, and we’ll help you figure out exactly what you can do to increase your online sales in the new year. 

Check out our 91 point eCommerce conversion optimisation checklist and learn how you can unlock the hidden revenue already in your eCommerce website by implementing the improvements professionals make on clients’ websites to increase sales.