Wait, didn’t we just finish the holiday season? The crush of the holiday gift-giving and the end of year sales – both which have certainly cleared out your inventory and satisfied your customers. 

Now that January is coming to an end and your shipping label printer has finally cooled, it’s time to start gearing up for a whole new sales season – which kicks off soon with Valentine’s Day!

Not just for chocolates and plush teddy bears!

Even if you aren’t in the business of diamond bracelets or selling roses by the dozen, there are still plenty of ways to set the mood for customers to buy more for this day of love. We’ve got a few tricks up our sleeves to help you increase your average order value (AOV) without having to make a grand romantic gesture. 

100% <3, 10% OFF!

Banners and pop-ups are the fastest way to get your website decorated for the holiday. Struggling to find the words to say how you feel about your customer? The copy doesn’t need to be an eloquent declaration of love to fit the season. 

Just take a look at the timeless messages on Necco’s Candy Hearts – REAL <3 , URA QT, HUG ME… it looks like Necco is the original king of coupon codes!

Sending love letters

You’ve heard it before, and you’re about to hear it again: there is gold in your email list. If your customers were satisfied once, there is a high chance they will come back to shop for the season. Creating email campaigns is a cost-effective way to share your Valentine’s Day marketing and offers with your customer base. 

Since it’s a fun holiday, don’t feel as though you have to write epic codes to your unrequited love. The goal is to have your customers feel appreciated, remembered, and not totally-creeped out. Keeping the email copy fun and light, while offering a discount incentive to get them clicking through is a winning strategy.

At Worth eCommerce, we’re always experimenting to see what works best to get audiences buying. We’ve found that your existing customers are more likely to click on a percentage discount for products under $100 (such as “Take 15% off your order!) and prefer dollar-discounts on more expensive offers (Get $10 back on your order of $200 or more). 

Making their heart, and their cart size, swell

Just how everyone’s Irish on St. Patrick’s day, your entire web store is ripe for Valentine’s on February 14th. When presented in the right context, even auto parts and cleaning products can get someone in a romantic mindset.

Bundling up with holiday couplings

Creating a specific product bundle for Valentine’s Day is the fastest way to increase your average order value while moving your highest-margin inventory. When done right, something as little as a 5% overall discount on bundled items can attract even the most cautious and shy shoppers.

To make it easy, create the holiday special as a unique product in your store and appropriately title the bundle. When done right, discounts may not even be necessary since customers may have never found the items in the bundle individually.

Make it exclusive: bundle-only offers

Bundles are a great way to move more inventory, faster while increasing your overall AOV. For one, customers might be discovering products in the bundle for the first time. 

Additionally, making some products available ONLY within a certain bundle allows them to justify purchasing more products that may have gone ignored otherwise. 

Let them send their love

The fastest way to double the size of a cart? Get customers to buy two..or even three.  It’s an easy sell with the right bit of copy:

  • Know who else would love one of these? 
  • Let them know you’re thinking about them.
  • Trust us, this will last longer than roses. 

A pop-up window or a little bit of push text can get your customers thinking about other people in their life. Why not get them a little something? This works particularly well for digital products that won’t require additional shipping costs. Give your customers the ability to send their second (or third? fourth?) product to other email addresses in the checkout process.

The grandest impulse of all? Love.

If they’re in for a penny, why not get them to commit to a pound? Having a pre-payment step in the checkout process gives you the space to cross-sell on impulse buys – additional products that fit within the shopper’s category. These items are usually small and have a lower price point than anything already in their cart. 

Think: accessories, replacement parts, extra cartridges – the disposable products they will have to buy to keep their main purchase in working order. 

Does this really work? It’s the very idea Justuno uses to deliver results to their satisfied customers. 

Want to ensure they buy a little extra? Give them a little push with some copy: 

Jenny from Missoula also bought these items to go with her Vac-O-Matic 3000. 

For the selfish lover – cash back credit

The honest truth of it: the best part of shopping is when you get a little something for yourself. Let your customers congratulate themselves for thinking about others with a cash or store credit incentive. Not only will customers increase their order size to get a larger kickback, but they will also have an incentive to return to your store at a later date to redeem their credit. 

The holiday will be here before you know it. Put yourself in the mood with your favorite rom-com, order dinner for two, and watch customers fall in love with your store this holiday season. If you take it slow and serenade your customers in the right way, they will take home the love in the form of a bigger AOV.