From birthday celebrations to Valentine’s Day, people love to offer flowers and gifts as symbols of their appreciation. Why? Because they work as total mood changers. When you receive flowers and gifts, your face suddenly lights up and your spirits are lifted. And nowadays, with the emergence of e-commerce, sending flowers to your loved ones is easier than ever. Let’s find out what it takes to turn flower and gift e-shops into blooming businesses.
1. Make it easy for visitors to find what they need
To improve your visitors’ experience on your website, you should have easy-to-navigate product categories. Enable customers to filter the items by occasion. While browsing through several wedding bouquets may be a feast for your clients’ eyes, it won’t exactly be a pleasant experience if they need an elegant lily arrangement for Mother’s Day and that product is placed at the bottom of your product page.
Better yet, help your customers make the right choice and sprinkle personalized product recommendations across the pages of your website. Through Retargeting Biz, you can use 8 smart recommendation widgets, ideal for all flower and gift e-shops. Display personalized suggestions, based on individual preferences with the Recommended for you widget. Boost your Average Order Value (AOV) and highlight complementary items to what has already been bought through the Frequently bought together widget. Leverage social proof and inspire your customers to finalize their orders (just like many others did) by adding Bestseller, Most popular, or Live Feed widgets.
2. Help them find you
When seeking gift ideas or a florist, people will most likely go straight to Google. Therefore, appearing among the top search results is crucial for flower and gift e-shops that want to attract traffic to their websites. Google campaigns are ideal to set your brand apart, especially as over half of all paid ad clicks come from people with a high intent to purchase. To make your Search Ads truly effective, use catchy headlines, such as “beautiful bouquets from $29” or save yourself some time and use an automation platform and start the ball rolling with auto-generated content, headlines, and keywords.
Don’t limit yourself to generating new traffic though. If, for example, someone adds flowers to their cart but leaves the website without checking out, you can use Display Ads (a mix of visuals and text) to remarket them. Remind them about your online shop while they are scrolling through their favorite wedding planning blog. Take it a step further with Smart Display Ads. Powered by machine learning, these campaigns allow you to automatically create eye-catching ads, set optimal bids, and reach relevant customers in no time.
3. Get social
Let’s face it – flowers make the most incredible material for photos, so why not share them online? Social media is what most flower and gift e-shops choose to gain visibility, build a loyal community, and keep their customers engaged.
Yet, it’s not all about photos. Indeed, by showcasing your products, those likes and shares will ultimately turn into more business. But diversity is key. Users will be more inclined to follow you and buy from you if they see you as a friend or as an authority. Why not share some educational info, such as blog articles or infographics about how to care for fresh flowers so they last longer? Or simply engage your followers in contests, giveaways, or promote user-generated content (UGC) to bring them even closer to becoming brand advocates.
Lastly, let’s not forget about the invaluable Facebook and Instagram Ads. Suppose you have a new bridal collection. You can promote your new line strictly to the most relevant audience (engaged women) to cut down and optimize costs. Just remember to use unique ad designs and animations to boost your Click-Through Rate (CTR).
4. Harness the power of email marketing
Getting new clients is exciting for all flower and gift e-shops. But it’s the repeat customers who refer you to others and eventually spend more with your business. So how can you nurture such a relationship? Through email marketing; more specifically through personalized, automated newsletters.
Sending a slightly different version of the same email to each of your subscribers, depending on age, gender, location, preferences, browsing behavior, previous purchases, etc., leads to remarkable results in terms of customer loyalty and profitability. This is because personalization makes your clients feel important and ensures that all the products displayed are relevant.
If you want to save precious time and maximize your results, automate the sending times of your campaigns, opt for auto-generated titles, dynamic banners, CTA’s, and texts, and don’t shy away from A/B Testing.
6. Pop-ups
People are not well-known for their ability to focus. It takes less than 10 seconds before our eyes and minds start to wander. So how can you make sure your customers are not missing out on what your store has to offer? The answer – pop-up campaigns. These smart assistants pay attention to each of your visitors’ shopping journeys to make appropriate product recommendations and encourage conversions. They are your best friends when it comes to fighting cart abandonment or hindering visitors from exiting your shop too quickly. Finally, they can also help you gather your customers’ feedback and email addresses, which you can later use in your email marketing and retargeting campaigns.
7. Start a Blog
We’ve mentioned before how flower and gift e-shops need to stay among the top search results to gain visibility and attract customers. But advertising is not the only way to achieve this. Google takes into account several aspects when determining the ranking of organic search results, such as Search Engine Optimization and your visitors’ interest. If people enter your website but leave immediately, your ranking will be affected. Therefore, you should include lengthier pieces of content that spark your customers’ interest, such as blog articles.
The great thing about a blog is that you can write about everything related to your business. Are you an online florist? Then you’re in luck because the topics you can cover span from DIY floral decorations to the meaning of various flowers or how to properly care for them. Who could resist reading your latest Valentine’s Day Gift Guide by Personality?
And just like with social media, variety is the spice of life. By creating diversified yet relevant content periodically, customers who appreciate it will come back for more. Well-written blog posts will also denote expertise and trustworthiness. This means customers will be more likely to come straight to your online shop for their following purchase.
In a nutshell
Despite their idyllic charm, flower and gift e-shops are not spared from challenges. In such a competitive market, online shops need to implement the right marketing tactics to gain notoriety and yield good results. A user-friendly website structure, online advertising, and AI-driven product recommendations can make your brand stand out from competitors. But don’t neglect popular channels, such as newsletters, social media, or blogs if you want to see your business blossoming.