Holidays and festive seasons are great for business. At these special times of the year, Diwali, also known as the Festival of Lights, is one of the most celebrated festivals in India. It holds immense significance in the Indian context, not just culturally but also economically. The festive season is a goldmine for small businesses and online stores, as they can significantly boost sales during Diwali by implementing effective marketing strategies.
In the pandemic era, where online shopping has become the new normal, the Diwali season offers a unique opportunity for small businesses and ecommerce platforms to expand their customer base and increase their online sales.
At these special times of the year, consumers have plugged into the “buying mindset” and look forward to sales and promotions.
In this post, we’ll explore four Diwali promotion ideas for small business to attract new customers and generate unprecedented profits. Regardless of your industry or type of business, you can find creative ways to commemorate the season.
Ways to increase sales during Diwali
Indians will be looking for Diwali deals again this year, on everything from precious metals to cars, machinery and electronics. Here are some Diwali promotion ideas ideas to boost your sales.
1. Start selling online
Many small and micro business owners know they should be selling online — they just don't know how to.
This Diwali, sell your products on the web with Online Store Builder — includes secure payment processing, shipping, inventory management and a suite of marketing tools. You can try it for free — there's no obligation and nothing to cancel if you don't like it.
Creating an online presence is not enough; you need to make sure that your online store is easily discoverable. This is where Search Engine Optimization (SEO) comes into play. Optimize your website with keywords related to 'Diwali', 'Festive Season', 'Offers', and your product categories to ensure that your website appears in search results when potential customers are looking for products online.
Related: Need a website fast? Templates are the answer
2. Use social media in your marketing strategy to share offers and promotions
It is crucial to understand the importance of social media platforms in today's digital marketing landscape. Platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp have a massive user base in India, making them ideal for reaching your target audience during the festive season.
An optimised social media marketing strategy can help you create brand awareness and attract potential customers. You can use these platforms to share special Diwali offers and promotions, showcasing your products in a festive context. For instance, if you own a home decor business, share images of beautifully decorated homes with your products like diyas and other home decor items.
3. Create special bundles & offers for your brick and mortar store
Next on our list of Diwali campaign ideas is bundling, a strategy that is particularly effective during the gift-giving season. By offering items bundled together, you sell a set of goods or services for a lower price than you would charge if the customer bought all of them separately.
Bundles help customers maximize their savings while you sell more products overall.
How do you create irresistible sales bundles? First, identify the needs of your customers. Dive deep into any marketing information available to you and uncover buying trends. Then bundle items that customers have already shown a strong preference for.
Always bundle complementary products/services
A shoe shine care kit would go well with a new pair of shoes; phones with cover cases, chargers and so on. The easier it is for customers to immediately see how the items in the bundle go together, the more compelling the offer. As GoDaddy contributor Ashley Grant, wisely states: “The key is to create a package filled with products your customers are already considering buying individually.”
Spice up packages by offering mixed items in some of the following ways:
- Digital + physical products: For example, a Diwali special recipe eBook to go with a purchase of cooking utensils.
- Services + physical product: Perhaps a special shampoo pack offered to customers who pay the full-service fee for a manicure and hairdressing.
- Popular product + lesser-known product: As an example, a festive color pack plus other suitable product.
Irrespective of the way you choose to bundle, always bank on products or services that are guaranteed to generate maximum sales. Amazon, for instance, encourages affiliates to add top-selling sub-categories during the Diwali season. Even a minimal discount rate on such products would still attract customers and result in considerable revenue.
if you own a physical store, try to drive foot traffic by offering special offers that are exclusive to your brick and mortar stores. This could include special discounts, giveaways, or even a festive decoration competition to attract customers to your storefront.
4. Utilize email marketing to personalize your offers
Utilise email marketing and SMS notifications to keep your customers informed about your Diwali sales and special discounts. This can be a powerful tool to ensure that your customers are aware of what you have to offer. You can use templates for your email campaigns to ensure a consistent and professional look.
Email marketing is the most effective holiday marketing channel for at least 60% of businesses. If you haven’t already, start warming up your email list for the holiday sales.
Email tools like the one included with Online Store allows you to divide your customer list into groups with similar interests and characteristics. By doing this, you can better tailor your email message to each group. This way, you’ll get much better response rates.
There are many ways to divide, or segment, your list, including:
Acquisition stage
This method groups customers based on how long they’ve been customers. For example, new vs. existing customers, two groups with fairly different expectations and needs. While new customers might be more interested in bargains and one-off deals, your existing customers might tilt towards long-term rewards like loyalty points.
Demographics
This method groups customers based on defining characteristics — for example, male vs. female customers or under-20 and over 50-year-olds.
If you have information about your buyers’ gender or age you can carefully tailor the offer for each group to boost sales. For example, you could send targeted discounts to male customers to entice them to order items or services for their sisters for Bhai Dooj, the last day of Diwali when sisters are celebrated.
Geographical location
Since observances of Diwali vary depending on the geographical location, you can also create special offers tailored for specific towns or cities — if your market reach extends to several locations. For example, some locations do not observe Bhai Dooj; thus, you can skip these locations in your campaigns that promote these gifts.
4. Use limited availability to drive sales
The good news is that this time of year presents an opportunity to try out Diwali promotion ideas and possibly generate revenue for your business. The bad news is that hundreds of other business are also offering special sales, aimed at the same buyers.
With several offers to choose from, buyers could become indecisive.
Throwing scarcity into the mix will nudge your customers to take action, especially if you already have a compelling offer.
Here are some ideas to get you started:
- Offer the discount for the first x number of buyers (first 20, first 50, etc.).
- Limit the Diwali special offer to a specific date or a few hours.
- Tie offer to stock availability — i.e. “offer valid while stock lasts.”
If you run a local business, you can also find creative ways to leverage this technique to draw foot traffic to your store, such as by using LED countdown timers at your storefront.
Do your financial homework
As appealing as discounts and special promotions can be, they require careful planning and execution to avoid cutting into your profits.
Your aim is to find the sweet spot where you make a healthy profit while offering customers an attractive deal.
To achieve this, you need to calculate your profit margin, or the amount by which your sales revenue exceeds your business costs. Only then can you determine the volume of sales required to stay profitable at specific discount rates.
Once you have your gross margin figure and target discount rate, you can check how much more you will need to sell using the table below.
For example, if you have a gross margin of 15 percent and discount your product or services by five percent, you would need to increase your sales volume by 50 percent to make a profit.
Simply stated, offering high discounts at low profit margins will cost you money. To avoid such losses, restrict your promotions to products and services with high profit margins and, as much as possible, avoid steep discounts. Simple enough, right?
Get started with your Diwali promotion ideas
Photo: rawpixel on Unsplash
Diwali is a time of celebration and joy, and for businesses, it's a time of immense potential and opportunity. By leveraging social media marketing, email marketing, SEO, collaborations, and exceptional customer service, you can significantly boost sales during Diwali, ensuring a profitable festive season.
Whichever way you choose to structure your Diwali promotion ideas, be sure to tidy up your finances before you get started. For best results, build bundle packages that your buyers will love and personalize offers to make sure they hit home. To boost conversions even further, throw scarcity into the mix and nudge buyers to make a decision.
Don’t be afraid to get creative with your offers and have fun winning sales. Remember, the goal is not just to attract new customers but also to retain them. So offer them a shopping experience that they'll remember, long after the Festival of Lights is over. Happy Diwali, and happy selling!
Editor's Note: This post was originally published on 13 November 2018 and updated on 14 October 2019, 10 September 2020, 19 October 2021 and 18 October 2024.
