Summertime is getting closer and closer and all professional merchants know that this period has a lot of peculiarities. On one hand, there are many threats to declining in sales.
On the other hand, there are a lot of opportunities to sell more if all the features of this period are considered and an online store is prepared for E-Commerce summer trends. Let’s review the main summer trends and possible activities that can help to make e-commerce business more successful in summer.
Popular Summer eCommerce Trends
Summer is the season of vacations and active traveling. It is not so difficult to create the list of popular products which people will search for and buy. You can use this information to expand the product range if it is appropriate. If you can’t add such products and sell them in your online store, it is possible to consider the e-platforms with popular products for the promotion of your online store. Such e-platforms will have good traffic during summer time and well-planned marketing campaigns can be effective.
There is a Ecommerce Trends product list overview:
Tickets and hotels. This is obvious and there is not so much to explain. People will need tickets and hotels to organize travel. Some of them try to catch best offers or “early bird” prices, but not all of them prefer to plan their travel in advance. Discounts on flight tickets or attractive prices for hotel service can be used as effective sales promotion campaigns. If you can propose such value added to your potential customers, you can increase sales in your online store.
Sunglasses. This type of product should be considered separately. Sunglasses are present in different areas and depending on this, the consumer’s behavior can change constantly. If we consider the fashion industry, the sunglasses are not only eye protection from the sun. They emphasize the style and status. A brand or design is more important here than the specifications and usability. Sunglasses for activity summertime fun have a different target audience. A Certain level of comfort and reliable protection are more important here. Anyway, in the summertime, all glasses segments have high competition. You should know all your audience specifics and be well-prepared for high sales.
Leisure products. Depending on the type of activities there are many products that can be included in this category:
- products for the beach and sea tour
- products for a hike in the mountains
- products for fitness classes and jogging
- products for bicycle racing
- products for yoga classes and so on
Each category is a separate market segment that requires a special approach for sales. You need to identify important criteria for each audience and this information gives a clearer understanding of how people will search for products.
Online stores receive most of their traffic from search engines, so product pages have to be optimized according to the users’ most important requests. And this should be done in advance. The product range should be planned carefully to meet the most specific clients’ needs.
Don’t forget that leisure products can be rented and this service is very popular during the summer time. Sun protected umbrellas, garden furniture and equipment to organize active recreation are needed only in summer and some people prefer not to buy such items as they don’t have a place to keep them.
Back to school products. The second half of the summer opens the season of school products. Stationery, books, school bags, school clothes – all such product categories will have high demand, especially in the late summer.
Promotion of winter goods. A certain category of people likes to plan everything in advance and buy the latest ECommerce trends they are seeking at very attractive prices. Therefore, they might be interested in goods such as skis or ski suits, warm clothes, winter shoes, heaters and so on. Of course, they will probably not buy a Christmas tree, but there are so many products that can be bought in advance for winter time. The basic strategy for winter products in summer is to propose very attractive prices.
Customers’ behavior in summer
In summertime, people have a different lifestyle and it affects their behavior. There are some specifics which are used to take into account.
Spend more time away from home.In summer there are more opportunities to be in the open air for rest. Because of this, people have less time for shopping, but they make a purchase decision easier and can buy unplanned products. As they spend more time outside, mobile devices are used actively for shopping.
Buy less in June. June is the month of the lowest sales and there is terrible statistics that confirm this fact every year. Be ready for this period. If your business is not connected with typical summer products, don’t expect much profit. Marketing campaigns and different activities can correct the situation.
For example, to expand the target audience, it is possible to use shopping engines such as Amazon, EBay and others during this period. For Magento ® online store owners, we have the extension – Feed Manager for Magento ® which can help you to send all your products to the necessary shopping engine, so you can save your time and sell more. But be realistic, you can’t sell as much as in December during Christmas sales.
Prefer to shop on Monday. Very often people are away for the weekend and they buy what they need on Monday. Because of this fact, some online stores increase prices on Mondays. It is a good strategy as well as any activities for sales promotion.
Need international shipping. During traveling season it is important to provide delivery to different countries. Loyal customers like to shop at the same stores, and international shipping will be interesting for them, even if it costs more. Active travelers constantly change their location and this service helps them to shop.
These are main summer Ecommerce trends which may help you to prepare your online store for the holiday season. Summer is a very positive time and we hope you can find many opportunities for growing your online store.
