We're heading into a lockdown Valentine's Day because unfortunately not only LOVE is in the air! For eCommerce sites, there is a silver lining with couples looking for Valentine's Day gifts online instead of heading to the supermarkets. But what can you do to help nudge shoppers in the right direction and increase conversion rates on your website this year?
<h2>Theme Your Website</h2>
Visit one of the many popular online retailers during the run-up to Valentine's Day, and you'll see that the design and theming of their site exudes love and sensuality. The aim? To connect with you and increase their sales. Whatever your choice of eCommerce platform, you can do the same and transform your site in the name of love.

If you don't have the budget for a full site transformation, with the addition of beautifully designed banners and a few select images, you can achieve a similar customer experience.
<h2>Gift Messages &amp; Gift Wrapping</h2>
We know lockdown is here for a while, so put changes in place now that you can use for holidays such as Valentine's Day. If your eCommerce shop doesn't currently allow you to up-sell gift wrapping services or the ability for gift messages to be written by your customers, get these features added straight away! Again these facilities not only help you increase order values, but they also fill the needs of a lockdown Valentine's Day. Be the trendsetter in your industry.

You could even offer anonymous gift delivery to help keep the mystery alive for your customers.
<h2>Consider Time-Sensitive Offers</h2>
Urgency increases conversion rates, so consider daily tile-sensitive offers on the run-up to Valentine's Day. Daily offerings give you something to "announce" on social platforms and keep customers returning day after day, so they don't miss out. The urgency created by the time-sensitive nature of the offers then nudges people into the buying process. It's a win-win situation.

You can add further urgency by including a countdown with each promotion or listing the number of remaining items in stock.
<h2>Valentine's Day Landing Page</h2>
A landing page can be described simply as a page with a purpose; that purpose can vary from site to site. For eCommerce sites a landing page promoting a specific holiday like Valentine's Day, the objective is usually to promote Valentine's related offers and products. Populated with related imagery, text, banners and products, these landing pages are the perfect way to attract new business.

Once a landing page has been created and set live, you can often leave them to their own devices year-round to help bring in customers searching for related keywords on search engines such as  Google. They can also link to PPC (Pay Per Click) campaigns as an extremely relevant landing page which should improve conversions.
<h2>Valentine's Day Newsletter Marketing</h2>
A marketing vector often overlooked are email newsletters, these simple and cost effect communications help attract repeat business from those happy customers who have purchased from you before. With lots of email marketing platforms to choose from, Actuate can help you select the correct solution for your business and connect them to your website for seamless operation. Templates and full campaigns can also be created and coded to catch your subscriber’s eye.

Preparing your eCommerce website for Valentine's Day doesn't have to be complicated. You can action many of the ideas presented in this article yourself or with the help of an agency such as Actuate. Depending on your niche, there are many other marketing ideas that can enhance your sales, so why not pick up the phone and give Actuate a call today and see what can be done especially for you.