When it comes to shopping for gifts during the holiday season, don’t underestimate the power of providing your guests with a thoughtful gift guide.
Not only does it allow you to directly advertise your best retail products to customers, but it can also inspire grateful shoppers who may be a bit lost on what to purchase for loved ones.
Compiling a successful gift guide requires more than simply slapping together a list of your latest product offerings. Investing your time and strategies into carefully curating your gift guide ensures an end result that stands out among the rest.
Here are five steps you can take to create a winning gift guide that will help your guests make resourceful purchasing decisions this season.
1. Review sales reports for bestsellers and segment ideas
There’s no better way to determine which products you should heavily feature in your gift guide than by analyzing the cold, hard numbers.
A business management software can quickly and easily pull the numbers for you, like Inspire by STX’s Product Sales by Rank report, which allows users to examine the sales of any product line over a period ranked by Return on Investment (ROI), Net Revenue, Quantity Sold, Total Sales, and Cost of Goods.
You can take this information and promote these products as your bestsellers, which inevitably sparks interest in any curious shopper.
You can also use this type of report to create more specific segments in your gift guide that appeal to different demographics of shoppers.
Let’s say you sell a men’s line or a line of wellness products. Identifying the top products in those individual categories will allow you to create more curated collections in your guide, like “Gifts for Dad” or “Gifts for Stress Relief.”
If you want to get creative, take a look at what’s trending in popular culture with your target audience and incorporate those hot-ticket items into your gift guide.
For example, curating a “Gifts for TikTok Addicts” segment in your gift guide allows you to capitalize on the platform’s most popular viral tutorials by selling products that help giftees achieve the end result. Bonus, you get an edge over similar guides for your creative thinking and of-the-moment suggestions.
Don’t forget to include more affordable segments in your gift guide for any budget-conscious shoppers. Include several items under a maximum dollar amount to help those price-minded guests quickly identify their available options.
2. Poll team members and guests
While crunching numbers may give you the most accurate pulse on what’s popular in your daily operations, getting direct feedback from your employees and your customers can give you new insight on what could be the hot ticket item on your gift list.
Employees can weigh in on which products elicit the most positive responses from their clients and offer ideas for new segments. You could even include “Team Member Picks” segments in your guide for each employee to create their own selection of products to promote to their clients.
And of course, you can ask your customers directly which products they’re most excited about. Conduct “this or that” polls on Instagram by pitting one product against another to find out which products resonate most with your followers. As an added bonus, this will increase your engagement and give you a free boost with Instagram’s finicky algorithm.
3. Create gift bundles for subtle upselling
The holidays present a prime opportunity to assemble festive gift baskets containing a curated selection of products you offer at a discount to your customers.
The benefit of bundling is to encourage customers to spend a lump sum with you on the spot, rather than purchasing individual items over an extended time, or purchasing those same products from multiple outside retailers.
Plus bundling products for one flat cost allows consumers to feel as if they are getting a great deal, even if they ultimately spend more than intended due to the subtle upselling nature of bundles.
Check out our article on the 3 Types of Bundles That Make Retail Fly Off the Shelves for winning retail bundling strategies.
4. Target consumers who are buying for your regular customers
Remember when you asked your customers which products were on their wishlist this season? It’s time to deliver that knowledge to the people who will make those purchases for them.
Create gift guides that target the demographics who will be buying presents for your guests — husbands, wives, fathers, children, etc. — and make it easy for them to know where they should invest their spending money this season.
Highlight “Customers’ Favorites” and tailor your online marketing language, in social ads or email campaigns, to address those buyers specifically shopping for your ideal audience.
5. Don’t forget the last-minute shoppers
Gift guides undoubtedly see an increase in Google searches as last-minute shoppers scramble to find gift ideas for their loved ones.
With this in mind, be sure to advertise a gift guide segment that offers popular, easy-to-purchase options for those buyers who are uncertain about what exactly they’re looking for. This could include bestsellers or more practical items that cater to a broader demographic.
However, your main selling point should be any gift card promotions that you are offering. Particularly eGifts, which experience a surge in popularity as the big date draws near due to their convenient instant delivery.
Read up on our 3 Ways to Market Your eGift Cards to Last-Minute Shoppers to have digital gifts flying out the metaphorical door.
Compiling gift guides can be a fun way for you and your team to flex your creative muscles and get into the holiday spirit, while also bolstering any retail goals you set for the year. We hope your customers find inspiration in your brilliant offerings this season!