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- Hi, I'm Emily Collins.

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I'm a principal analyst
on the B2C marketing team

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here at Forrester.

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And happy holidays!

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The holiday season is upon us.

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And if you're a retailer,

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chances are you already
have had your decorations up

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for a couple of weeks now.

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And your holiday campaigns
are locked and loaded

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and ready to go.

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Which is good, because when it comes to

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thinking about how you can
impact the relationships

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that you have with your loyal
customers this holiday season,

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the last thing they need
from you is another offer.

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So as part of this installment of

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the 2019 holiday retail blog series,

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I'm going to share three
things that you can do

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over the coming weeks

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that are not just sending
another offer to your customers.

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So the first thing is to
remind your customers,

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and your best customers,
of the things that you're doing

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to make their shopping experience easier.

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The holiday is an exciting time,

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but it's also a stressful time.

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They are trying to figure
out what are the best gifts

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that they can give to the
people that they love.

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Sometimes to the people
that they only like.

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And so, think about sharing with them

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the services that you
offer around gift wrap

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or buy online, pick up in store.

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Most of the growth, or 40% of the growth

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of the retail sales this season

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will be coming from in-store purchases.

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So don't just think
about sending out emails,

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but connecting it to
that in-store experience

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as they're shopping to make it as easy

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and enjoyable as possible.

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The second thing that you can do

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instead of sending another offer,

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is to make a plan for all of the
new loyalty program members

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you might be getting.

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So as consumers start to think
about how they can optimize

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their shopping and purchases
this holiday season,

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you might see an uptick in
the number of new members

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who are enrolling in your program.

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So, what's your on-boarding plan?

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This is a really busy time of year.

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Brands are shouting at
everyone as loud as they can,

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trying to get attention.

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So maybe in a couple of weeks
after the busy-ness dies down,

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think about sending
out a welcome series

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to welcome these new
members to the program,

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remind them or give them some information

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about the value they might
get from the program,

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as well as using it as an opportunity

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to learn more about
what their interests are

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and what their preferences are.

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And the third thing that you
can do this holiday season

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is to revisit your
personalization approach.

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When you think about the ecosystem,

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consumers are being
bombarded with messages

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from all kinds of brands
looking for their attention.

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So rather than thinking about

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how you can shout louder
than everyone else,

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revisit how you might be personalizing

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the experiences and
interactions you have with them.

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And there are three things
that I like to remind people of

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when they're thinking about
their personalization efforts.

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The first is to drive relevance.

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So, making sure that the
content that you're sending

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is relevant to the
customer in that moment,

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and is useful to them.

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Not just trying to shill
a new product or service.

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The second piece is creating
that emotional resonance.

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So emotion is a big part of
customer's loyalty to brands,

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and a big part of their
decision making process.

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So how can you make them
feel positive emotions

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in the communications that you're sending?

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Really showcasing that
empathy and authenticity

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of the relationship.

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And the third thing is to show restraint.

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So sometimes the best communication

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is no communication at all.

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Really making sure that you're respecting

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and knowing those customer preferences,

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and realizing that next best experiences

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are not always the next best offer.

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Well, thank you very much for tuning in.

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Good luck with all of
your holiday execution.

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And if you have any questions,
feel free to reach out

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and schedule an inquiry.

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I'd be happy to talk
about how you can improve

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your customer loyalty efforts.