Your audience might not be the normal year-round shoppers you are used to, but people who love shopping during holidays.

If you sell hiking products, for example, your average customer might be an outdoor enthusiast. During the holidays, however, your average customer may be the spouse or parent of a child or friend who is an outdoor enthusiast. They may even dislike being outdoors.

How can you help gift-givers like these find the right gift for their loved ones, even if they don’t know anything about your products? Let’s take an in-depth look.

Make gift guides

Let’s suppose your store sells video-game-themed merchandise such as posters, strategy books, and t-shirts. Your average audience might be familiar with the details of each character and game. What about the dad who wants to surprise his daughter by giving him something for the holidays?

Gift guides can be a great way to educate new customers and make them feel confident about the products they buy. You can simply write a series of blog posts that focus on one of your buyers. The video game store may write guides for puzzle masters, racing fans, and fantasy lovers.

They could also write gift guides that are based on age or price (Top Video Game Gifts under $35).

You can list items that are related to the guide’s theme, and a few sentences explaining why they would make great gifts. To avoid appearing too biased, you might want to include items from your store as well as similar products from other shops.

This is a great way for dads to get actionable suggestions. They can be extremely helpful in search engine optimization!

Bundles and Packages for Sale

Bundles simplify things! Bundles make it easy! Instead of looking through dozens of products to find the right item for each of the 15 people you’re shopping for, they can just buy a set of carefully selected gifts.

You can approach bundles in two different ways:

• Offer pre-packaged products. Create a bundle of products that can be used together. This could be a set of beauty products. It might also be used to sell snacks.

Allow shoppers to choose. Gift-givers can personalize their boxes while maintaining control over the contents. If a gift set contains a mug and a sticker, the recipient can choose the size of the shirt, the sticker theme, and the mug design. The Product Bundles extension, allows for personalization and makes it easy to purchase.

Suzi Wong Creations, a UK-based fightwear business, sells a children’s luxury bling boxing set. You can customize the jacket, socks, and shorts to suit your gift-giving needs. This is a great way to gift box your loved one who loves boxing.

Answer all of their questions

Customers should always be able to find the answers they need, and you might want to put more emphasis on this during the holidays. Write blog posts that address your new customers and add questions to your FAQ page.

These are just a few the examples.

• How long can your products last?
• What number does my loved one require?
• What accessories do you need?
• Is it possible to have something custom-fitted?
• Are your products compatible with the products of a friend or family member?

You should also answer any questions regarding shipping and turnaround times, return policies, and other factors that could affect a person’s decision to purchase.

Gift cards can be added to your store

But what if the new shopper is still having trouble selecting the right gift? Maybe they just want to give their friend, family member, or colleague the freedom to choose exactly what they like.

Gift cards are a great choice for holidays. These cards are easy to buy and deliver the gift they love. The Gift Cards Extension allows shoppers to choose the right amount and send a personalized message.

Brown Brothers sell gift certificates along with their wine bottles. It is important to weigh the pros and cons of wine purchases. Some holiday shoppers might rather buy their wine-loving friend gift cards than guess what they will like.

Write detailed product descriptions

Another great way to give your customers all the information they need to make an informed decision is to include product descriptions. Include as much information as possible. Include information about how the products were used and describe smells and flavors. This will help people feel more confident about the gift they are purchasing.

Your marketing language should be changed

Consider changing your language when running holiday ads that target new customers. If you are a paint supplier, an example of this is:

“Top single-pigment watercolors are so finely ground that they can be used to do 0.15 mm airbrushing.”

If you are marketing to experienced artists, this ad might be very successful. It won’t be very meaningful to someone who just wants to buy a gift for an artist friend. Instead, you might use something like:

“High-quality, durable watercolors that even the pickiest painter will love.”

Recommendations for additional items

If they are shopping for their spouse, parent, or child, holiday buyers may be looking for multiple gifts. They may also look elsewhere for additional items if they aren’t familiar with your products.

Make it easy for them by offering product recommendations. You can use the default Kobe Digital functionality to add related products on individual product pages.

You can also use the Product recommendation extension. Customers can set up recommendation rules to show products based on their past purchases, what they’ve seen, which items they are most likely to buy together, which category they’re in, and many other factors. You can also add them to your shop pages, product pages, cart, and checkout processes.

You can add a variety of photos

Photos can be very helpful in demonstrating how a product works and communicating key details such as size, color, and material. Start by taking high-quality photos of your products. Next, add a variety of them. These are some ideas to think about:

• There are many angles. The product can be viewed from all angles, including the top, bottom, and sides.

• Use cases. Photos should show how the product is used. Show all the uses of your product, such as a high chair that can be converted into a toddler seat.

• Size. Show your item’s size in context.

• Color. Photos should be well-lit and accurately convey the color of your item.

• Your target audience. Photos should show people who are like your target audience. Do you have items for parents? Students in college? Dogs? You can show them how they interact with the products. It will allow potential buyers to visualize their loved ones using the products.

Review of features

Reviews can be very helpful for someone not familiar with your industry or store. Although they may not be able to tell if your products have high quality, they will trust you more if they see real reviews and comments from actual users.

There are many ways to get more reviews if you don’t have many. Email marketing is one of the best tools you have. Learn more about collecting feedback through email.

Remember your audience 

It doesn’t matter what time of the year it is, it is important to think about your audience when making any decision. Your audience might shift to gift-givers during the holiday season. This doesn’t necessarily mean that you need to change everything in your online store or marketing strategies, but there are some things you should be aware of.