Once the holiday season ends, it doesn’t mean your customers’ shopping season is done. Just the opposite – it kicks off a new kind of shopping season. With the mix of onsite gift card usage, holiday gift money, exchanges, and returns, there is a wave of new and returning customers visiting your ecommerce site. 

With this influx of visitors onsite, it’s crucial to capture zero- and first-party data as well as identifying users you should already know. Having this data helps add more personalization to your upcoming onsite and offsite marketing campaigns, which directly contributes to higher and more positive responses – satisfying your KPIs and continuing to prove marketing ROI. 

While this may sound easier said than done, it is achievable and worth the work. The outcomes will take your marketing strategy to the next level. 

1. Capture New Users Zero- and First-Party Data 

Learning more about your customers ranks high on every modern marketer’s list. Customer insights and intelligence is key in creating a personalized buying journey for customers. Even with the potential upcoming demise of third-party cookies, there is still a proven and effective way to get that insight. 

Retailers and brands should take advantage of the increase in website traffic during the holiday/post-holiday season to collect zero and first-party data from these new and returning users so it can be used year after year. 

Zero-party data is data that your customers intentionally share with you while first-party data is the insight you gather from your website analytics based on that user's behavior.

The best way to collect this information from your customers is through users self-identifying, meaning they input their information into pop-ups and other acquisition points. Allowing users to voluntarily give their information in your acquisition sequence makes it more likely they will remain loyal subscribers because they are interested in your website and the personalized experience resonates more with people who want to hear from you.

In return, retailers and brands can see higher engagement rates on all marketing messages, both broadcast and triggered, leading to an increase in revenue. 

2. Identify Otherwise Anonymous Users

During these key holiday months, while you see those spikes in website traffic, use it to your advantage in two key ways: (1) Grow your list and (2) leverage device identification from users who have previously been onsite. For instance, through an identify graph, the Listrak platform can match certain elements from the user’s current data profile to the graph creating a unified 360° marketing profile. 

Knowing these users not only gives you more people to send your marketing and triggered emails to, but also allows onsite visitors to receive a more personalized experience through persistent banners, pop-ups, and content. These elements allow users to have a relevant experience resulting in higher conversions and improved user experience. 

3. Turn Casual Visitors into Repeat Buyers

Whether it’s a new or returning user, the end goal is the same: Get users to make a purchase. Post-holiday site visitors are ready to buy – just as much as during the holidays – due to gift money, gift cards, sales, the list goes on and on. As marketers, it’s imperative for you to aid your onsite customers’ journeys and provide the right guidance through the buying process. 

Many of these users may be first-time buyers. If they do not see elements including persistent banners/buttons, content, and pop-ups that are of use to them, they could potentially bounce. Turning this first-time visitor into someone who will purchase, and purchase again, takes the right amount of personalization and growing the overall perceived value of your site to each new buyer. 

Third-party cookies are going away. So, marketers need to shift their focus from trying to reach the masses, to instead sending more relevant and action-provoking content. When a user is thinking about whether they will buy again from you or a competitor, they will think about their overall experience. Zeroing in further, the real question is, did they find value in your site and the transaction? If the answer is yes, you found a repeat customer. They will return. 

Working these elements into your marketing plan will be pivotal for year-over-year success.

Listrak’s GXP is the solution you need. GXP handles all aspects a marketer needs for prompting and capturing zero- and first-party data, helping identify anonymous visitors, and guiding visitors to repeat buyers. What more, it’s a full-service solution that works with your current email service provider (ESP). It proven to turbocharge your list growth, onsite conversions and triggered revenue – all with performance guarantees. Retailers using GXP have seen, on average, a 7%-15%+ increase in ecommerce revenue.

When you add GXP to your marketing plan, these four ecommerce components – identity resolution, onsite acquisition, first-time conversion, and triggered messages – all work in unison, making every aspect of a marketer’s job easier and achieving fantastic results. So get a guaranteed estimate now – and set yourself up for success in the New Year.

Listrak is a leader in the digital marketing space, helping 1000+ retailers take their marketing to the next level. To learn more about how Listrak can increase your business's revenue, visit https://gxp.listrak.com/get-started.