Fall in love with these Valentine’s Day optimisation tips

Valentine’s Day – one of the greatest online gift-purchasing periods of the year. Like many gift purchasing periods, the majority of online shoppers will have a specific recipient in mind – whether it be themselves, their loved ones. This shift of intention means your optimisations during these periods also need to change to target specific needs and increase your opportunities.. 

So, how can your website better seduce your customers and maximise profits this Valentine’s Day?

Let’s K.I.S.S – Keep It Simple (for) Shoppers

When shopping for a significant other, many of us will try to buy gender-aligned products. So during purchasing periods such as Valentine’s Day, it makes sense to simplify the shopping task by curating gender-specific Valentines Day categories. Create ‘For Him’ and ‘For Her’ categories and populate them with Valentine’s Day appropriate products for each gender. 

Maximise your categories’ exposure by creating direct links from your home page and in any online Valentine’s Day marketing materials such as emails, so your potential customers can find them quickly and easily. Here is an example from Chanel: 

It’s a personal thing

Who doesn’t like to receive a personalised gift? 

By offering FREE personalisation services such as engraving or monogramming, you offer your shoppers the option to make their gift even more special so they can earn extra brownie points, and you can earn more sales. If free personalisation isn’t feasible, allowing users to pay for the service may provide a boost to your average order value.

Offer free gift wrapping 

Make life easier for your shoppers, especially the dudes. Let’s face it, some of us just suck at gift wrapping! Would gift wrapping influence purchasing decisions? Definitely. 

Include beautiful photos of the packaging and gift wrapping to entice and to show your shoppers exactly what to expect.

If you can make your shoppers’ lives a little easier, they will be more inclined to purchase from you. Every little offer counts so make sure to include this information in your period-specific marketing campaigns.

Don’t forget the single people!

While there is a lot of love in the air around Valentine’s Day, there are going to be people who are single or aren’t fans of the ‘Hallmark holiday’.. Don’t despair – you can still use this to your advantage. 

Who says  Valentine’s Day always has to do with romantic love? It can also offer a wonderful opportunity to acknowledge a friendship, to give love and empowerment to one’s self or even show love for a pet. 

Did you know: American users are estimated to spend $731 million on gifts for their pets this Valentine’s Day! (Source)  

As long as you can communicate your message to shoppers and trigger positive emotions, you can increase interest and sale of your products regardless of their relationship status.  As an example, During China’s “Anti-Valentines day” – Singles Day in 2019, online mega-seller Alibaba’s sales reached $38 Billion in just 24 hours! 

Just like a Tinder profile: Creativity is key. 

Whoever you choose to target during purchasing periods, using creative copy will be crucial. Don’t be afraid to challenge the norm. Here is an example from Orbit Key: 

Love is complicated. But increasing your Valentine’s Day sales doesn’t have to be. 

• Make your shoppers’ lives easier: Create tailored Valentine’s Day product categories based on your user segments.
• You can also improve your shoppers’ experiences by offering gift-wrapping or personalisation services.
• Don’t have tunnel vision: It isn’t all about couples. Remember, people aren’t always buying for a significant other – they may be buying for themselves, friends and family or their fur baby. 
• Be creative with your marketing: Don’t be afraid to think outside the box and use some playful copy to engage customers, whether they are enthusiastic about Valentine’s Day (or not!) 

Take your conversions to the next level!

Best practices alone won’t solve all your drop off issues. For sustainable long-term improvements to your conversion rate, your data and real customer evidence can identify the changes and experiments your site really needs. We often see in-house digital marketing teams struggling to find the time for such thorough analysis, meaning critical insights are lost in an ocean of data. Our expert CRO team have an efficient, targeted Win at Experimentation™ process to uncover the hidden potential of your site and drive your revenue. 

Uncover the hidden conversion opportunities in your ecommerce website with a Complimentary Website Conversion Audit. We will show you potential revenue leaks and insights you can take action on straight away. Together we’ll then help you develop an actionable optimisation and experimentation plan to improve your conversions and meet your ecommerce growth goals.

Take advantage of our complimentary Website Conversion Audit today >> HERE

Jeremy Shane is a Digital Optimisation Specialist at Conversionry, a leading Melbourne-based conversion optimisation agency, that accelerates conversion rates and revenue for global ecommerce and omnichannel retailers via data-driven optimisation programs. He is a data-driven UX designer and has half a decade of experience running an ecommerce business. Jeremy is passionate about optimising ecommerce sites, delighting customers and create business success. On his off days, he loves going to the gym, boxing and taking his schnauzer for walks.