Organization Is Key for Holiday Gift Guides

Is your store’s gift guide ready for Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and Cyber Monday?

A well-designed gift guide:

• Showcases items that customers are unaware of,
• Helps customers build wish lists to share with friends and family,
• Helps new visitors find an ideal gift, even if they know little about the product line,
• Inspires themed gift-giving, which can result in multi-product purchases,
• Presents something for every budget,
• Provides an opportunity to turn first-time shoppers into repeat customers.

Gift guides can be as simple as listings of products that have something in common, such as subject, category, or price — or as sophisticated as high-end landing pages. The presentation depends on the brand.

A primary landing page helps shoppers make the first decision. Providing simple options — gifts by gender, style or mood, and price range — helps shoppers avoid unnecessary products. Kohl’s nails this concept, by putting everything on a single landing page, displaying links to all the basic list types, followed by themed lists, such as “cozy products.”

Kohl’s features a gift guide that addresses price, gender, and themes.

Price ranges help budget-conscious shoppers. Don’t forget that many people participate in gift swaps with colleagues and groups. These swaps often have a cap of $10 to $25. If your catalog includes products in that range, be sure to showcase them.

Logical product listings are key. Use themes when listing items in categories. Showing a random lot of ideas can leave shoppers frustrated. Themes can be based on interests, colors, seasons, lifestyles, or mood.

For example, under “Unique Gifts for Him,” Sharper Image focuses on unique personal gadgets with a digital aspect.

Sharper Image showcases unique and primarily personal gadgets for males.

Themed gift-giving is common. Whether from an individual or a group of people (like one’s staff), purchasing several products of the same line can happen if you present the information logically.

Target’s site includes several themed sections, including Star Wars. If a mom is looking to buy a Stormtrooper bike for her son, for example, the Star Wars Kids Activity Tracker may intrigue her. She may scroll a bit further to find other themed items to put under the tree, resulting in a multi-product purchase.

Target aims to capture multi-product purchases by presenting themed products in attractive landing pages.

Help a fan’s friends and family. Van Halen Store, for example, carries a range of gifts and collectibles for the band’s fans. Using a gift guide, a spouse or friend can find something a fan will appreciate.

Van Halen Store’s gift guide is designed for both fans and those buying for fans.

Gift guides facilitate wish lists. If you make it easy for customers to share what they want — via wish lists and share tools — they’ll do a good amount of legwork for you. While user-generated content and word-of-mouth sell better than internal marketing, longtime customers can generate orders during the holiday season. And they are better about contacting you privately should there be an issue.

If you’re not quite ready for holiday selling, there is good news. A gift guide built from standard categories and sub-categories is better than nothing. Make sure to focus on the key components: gender, price range, and interests. Oh, and stocking stuffers. Don’t forget to showcase little add-ons that complete someone’s gift-buying task.