This evening I popped along to a Yumbles Meetup in Hammersmith. Yumbles is a foodie website and naturally the attendees (about 50) were all independent food producers. I chatted with everyone from cheese makers to sugar and spices.
The most notable takeaway from the evening was that although we’re hardly out of August, plans are in full swing for the Christmas season. If you’re not already preparing it’s time to do so and here are Yumbles top five tips to prepare for Christmas. Some of them are definitely aimed at food producers, but all of them can be translated to any product you might sell online
Top five Christmas tips
1) Plan your Christmas product range
Yumbles said that now is the time for foodies to think about seasonal flavours, seasonal packagin, themed collections, hampers and of course the option to offer a gift wrapping service.
Whilst you might not have flavour options for your products, designing packaging for products you normally ship in a jiffy bag could be the difference between them being purchased as Christmas gifts or the buyer going to a seller that does. Plus of course you can charge a premium!
2) Product Images
Time and time again we’re told that there’s a significant uplift in conversion rates if the product shots are good. Yumbles are looking for life style images as a preference, as do sites such as NotOnTheHighStreet. Other marketplaces such as Amazon prefer product shots with plain white backgrounds. Either way having an image where the product pops from the page makes a massive difference.
Also Yumbles are planing a ton of Christmas promotions – they reckon that their food producers can see up to 70% of an entire year’s sales on the marketplace in the run up to Christmas. They were very frank and said that they simply can’t market products that don’t set the bar high. If you want your products included in their online and offline marketing materials then the images have to be top notch.
3) Offer express delivery
Express delivery is even trickier for food producers than it is for sellers of non-perishable goods, especially if customisation is offered. Consumers however want to know that their purchases will arrive in time for the bid day so even if you don’t offer expedited delivery all year round offer it in the busiest season of the year.
4) Don’t close early
Last year 50% of Yumbles producers wrapped up around the 10th December and shut up shop for Christmas. We know many sellers who close well in advance of Christmas and avoid the silly season altogether, however if you can stand the heat don’t get out of the kitchen too early as you’re missing out on sales. Buyers will be prepared to purchase right up to the last postage day so (so long as you can fulfil the orders) stay open as close to Christmas as possible.
5) Key promotion periods
Black Friday and Cyber Monday are going to be even more phenomenal in 2015 than they were last year. Whilst they’re largely viewed as American events centred around Thanksgiving, Amazon have been the driving force in importing the shopping days to the UK. Yumbles will be no exception to the marketplaces promoting the shopping days so make sure you’re ready with promotions or package up products as special deals even if you’re not particularly offering a price promotion. Buyers will be coming in droves with money to spend so make them welcome and cash in.
Promotions don’t stop on Christmas day either, Christmas Eve sales are becoming almost as familiar as Boxing Day sales and New Year is obviously a time when shoppers expect to see some bargains.
Christmas might be four months away, but now is the time to start planning to take full advantage and one Yumbles seller, Anno, is definitely planning to make sure that every one has a very merry Christmas.
