7 Tips for a Record-Breaking Festive Season Sales on your B2B Marketplace

If you think that record-breaking festive season sales are the hegemony of B2C ecommerce marketplaces and retail stores, it is time to reconsider.

Your B2B marketplace can also tap into the immense potential of the holiday season and record unprecedented sales. 

Still trying to figure out how?

Well, every corporate buyer who has experienced the benefits of B2C festive buying wants a similar experience for their business and is on the lookout for the best deals and opportunities to stock up on the best deals.

Ready to encash on these buyer sentiments?

Set up festive sales on your B2B marketplace and witness it transform into a go-to-destination for businesses and clients seeking to fulfill their festive season requirements.

Not sure how to go about it?

How to prepare your B2B marketplace for the Festive Season Sale

Let us take you through the drill, right from planning the timing to decking up your marketplace website to chalking out the strategies. We bring everything you need to set your B2B enterprise marketplace’s cash counters ringing this holiday season and beyond.

Before we delve into tips for unlocking the great opportunities of the festive season, let's have a quick look at the holiday season forecasts for 2023:

• 10% to 13% growth in global festive season sales in 2023 over 2022
• ~ $284 billion expected online sales between November ‘23 to January 2024
• 35 % increase compared to the Indian festive season sales in 2022
• 70% of online sales in India come from clothes, fashion, skincare and makeup products
• 125 million active shoppers in India in 2023
• 50% of online buyers will spend more this festive period compared to last year
• 87% of consumers in tier-1 cities will shop online for festivals
• 86% of customers from tier-2 cities will shop online this festive period

Source: Deloitte,  Economic Times, the Hindu Business Line

Well, with such a buying frenzy about to begin, businesses are eager to stock up and be prepared to claim their share in the billion-dollar worth of festive sales. Certainly, the most opportune moment for B2B online market websites to gear up for the increased demand and make a killing.

How to prepare your B2B marketplace for record-breaking Festive Season Sales

Ready to harness the festive spirit and set new sales records? 

To help you make the most of the festive buying season, we have curated 7 time-tested tips implemented by successful enterprise brands to make the most of the hottest buying season in ecommerce.

So without further ado let us dive in and get started:

Deck up your B2B marketplace with festive vibes

Wonder what’s the best sales tool you ever came across?

Well, yes, it’s a well-designed website that works as a salesperson and drives sales by gently nudging your buyers to explore and buy more.

You just got the cue about where and how to get started. Didn’t you?

Well, we know that B2B purchases are not as impulsive as B2C, so we have to take up the game a few notches higher from here. And we have a complete plan to get you started. 

Here is what you need to do:

• Set up your enterprise marketplace with bright and happy festive imageries, curated catalogues, value deals and everything that screams “Time to steal a deal this season!”
• If you are catering to diverse audience segments in domestic and international markets go full-blown with multilingual content and festive themes in different languages.
• Make search, filter and navigation on your B2B marketplace super smooth to help your clients find exact matches for their desired catalogues faster.
• Set up dedicated festive landing pages for different buyer segments, product categories or vendor groups to better target your audience.
• Expand your limits and opt for hybrid commerce by directly creating sub-stores for bulk sales where you leverage your dealer-distributor network to fulfill hyperlocal orders. Deck up location-wise marketplace sub-stores with local festive symbolisms.

Implement it with StoreHippo 

StoreHippo enterprise marketplace builder not only gives you tips but also comes with tools to implement all the above. Here is what and how you can design your conversion-oriented marketplace website:

• Use the built-in drag-and-drop design tools to create the most beautiful store and sub-store design. Mix and match designs to create new designs quickly.
• Make multilingual B2B marketplace themes and content with support for 100+ languages, including RTL languages
• Leverage the built-in smooth navigation feature and advanced search filters to offer a streamlined buying experience
• Use the dynamic marketing page features to build new festive season marketing pages in an instant
• StoreHippo B2B ecommerce solutions also come with built-in support for D2C, B2C, B2B2C and other hybrid business models. Pivot to hybrid commerce in no time and accelerate your marketplace brand’s growth.

Plan data-driven deals for each category 

Not all products can be bestsellers. 

Also, not all best selling products have uniform demand perennially.

Demand forecasting is the hallmark of successful businesses.  It not only gives enterprises a clear understanding of the market conditions but also contributes hugely towards boosting profit margins.

Festive season combined with demand forecasting and personalized deals is a recipe for record-breaking sales.

Here is how you can go about it:

• Review historical data of your past peak seasons and sale periods to identify the best-selling categories. Target your marketing efforts and promotions on these high-demand product-market-mixes.
• Get your vendors and suppliers onboard with your teams for nuanced planning for deals. Collaborate with your vendors to gain insights and tailor deals for their respective markets.
• Encourages bulk purchases on your enterprise marketplace with volume and purchase-frequency-based discounts. Offer personalised deals that incentivise large and regular orders. 
• Chuck one-size-fits-all approach. Tailor different deals for different markets and customer segments.
• Run targeted promotions on your B2B marketplace. This will not only help interested sellers but will also add a new revenue stream for your marketplace brand. 

Implement it with StoreHippo 

StoreHippo B2B ecommerce enterprise marketplace builder gives you a gamut of features and tools to implement all of the above. Here is how you can plan a holiday season sale that has the potential to be a smash-hit:

• Leverage the built-in reporting engine to get a complete understanding of bestselling locations, sellers, products etc. for strategizing your marketing. 
• StoreHippo’s feature-rich vendor admin gives your vendors a better understanding of their business, orders sold, repeat orders, best selling products etc. which can help your B2B marketplace brand strategise better.
• Built-in discount engine and coupon code generator help you create multi-level personalized discounts and coupons
• Easily tailor location, product or customer segment-based multi-pricing
• Built-on MACH architecture and decoupled headless solutions, StoreHippo offers better creative control and flexibility to implement any new approach strategies, revenue channels etc. for your enterprise marketplace.

Expand your Product Catalogs

The festive season is the best time to launch or add new products.

But what should be your guiding principle when planning the product catalogs for the holiday season sales?

What if we say someone already did the homework for you?

Yup, you got it right! 

B2B sales are inadvertently led by B2C demands. So, all you need to do is get your stats right about B2C market forecasts and add new catalogs to meet these demands. Jazz up your offerings by introducing some new product ranges that have chances of good acceptance by end B2C buyers ( Pro Tip: data is the gold standard for planning new launches too). 

After all, your retail sellers are looking forward to making a kill during the festive frenzy. Aren’t they, just like you?

Here is how you can go about it:

• Introduce new catalogs with ancillary products or related services for your B2B merchant clients or their end buyers
• Offer premium versions of products at introductory prices on your B2B marketplace
• Personalize and incentivise the purchase of newly launched catalogs with cashback/credits which ensure your customers come back to your enterprise marketplace for next purchase
• Create product bundles with catalogs from different vendors which make shopping easier and promote cross-selling
• Curate corporate gifting solutions which offers bulk purchase discounts to corporates looking for large quantity purchases.

Implement it with StoreHippo 

StoreHippo B2B ecommerce solutions come with inherent flexibility and features that make adding new products on your marketplace website a breeze. Here is how you can achieve high-volume festive sales while powering your business with StoreHippo:

• Cloud scalability which enables you to scale to any number of products, vendors, markets etc. without compromising site performance
• Solutions to create login, IP or any other criteria based landing pages to launch new premium products for select buyers
• Store credit feature to offer cashback points to buyers
• Support for product bundling, cross-selling and upselling to experiment with new product pitching on your B2B marketplace
• Multi-level discounting solutions to offer product, cart, and volume-based personalized discounts for different buyers.

Make order enquires smooth and streamlined

If there is one time-tested formula for more orders on a B2B marketplace it works as below:

Informed order process>> Shorter Sales Cycle>> More Orders

Enabling your clients to get maximum basic information about your products, prices, deals, terms of service etc. goes a long way in closing deals quickly.

Faster sales become all the more important if you want to tap in on the festive buying streak.

Automating customer enquiries and offering multiple self-service tools can significantly contribute to planning and executing successful holiday sales. When your clients find the information they need, they engage with your B2B marketplace effortlessly, and ultimately make purchasing decisions more quickly, contributing to an increase in orders.  

Here is how you can go about it:

• Implement self-service features that empower clients to seamlessly explore the products, discover offers, and access deals with ease on your B2B marketplace.
• Integrate Request for Quote (RFQ) and Minimum Order Quantity (MOQ) capabilities to expedite negotiations and streamline the deal-closing process.
• Enhance decision-making by providing clear and transparent pricing structures on your marketplace website for different products and order volumes, making it easier for clients to make informed choices.
• Integrate custom forms at various stages of the buyer journey to gather valuable client feedback and address queries promptly, enhancing the overall customer experience.
• Ensure that your merchant clients can easily connect and engage with various vendors on your enterprise marketplace, which will foster collaboration and facilitate smoother transactions.

Implement it with StoreHippo 

With the comprehensive B2B ecommerce solutions from StoreHippo come with a host of B2B features that make the ordering process streamlined and self-service. Here is how you can speed up the sales cycle and close more deals during the festive season on your marketplace website using StoreHippo features:

• Tiered pricing allows vendors to showcase different pricing based on volume, which in turn helps with quicker decision-making
• Built-in custom forms feature to add forms at different stages for collecting client inputs and requirements
• Inbuilt RFQ feature makes it easy to send queries to multiple sellers at the same time and accept or reject quotes received from different B2B marketplace sellers.
• With MOQ sellers can decide the minimum order quantity and cut a few steps of negotiations
• Seller-buyer-admin chat support enables closing deals quickly with real-time negotiations on your enterprise marketplace

Engage your customers across channels

B2B buyers now are more discerning than ever. Your enterprise marketplace is no longer scrutinized on the products and prices alone. 

The latest hack to win customers is to welcome and engage your buyers wherever they are!

Gone are the days of binary phygital presence for enterprises. The new-age B2B buyers expect their favorite brands to have a strong presence across the top 4-6 channels they routinely explore in a day. 

And the stats prove how an omnichannel presence can tip the scales in your favor, be it the festive season or any other time of the year. Here are some stats to get you onboard the omnichannel bus: 

• 89% of customers are retained by enterprise marketplace brands with omnichannel customer engagement strategies.
• 94% of B2B decision makers find the omnichannel sales model as or more effective than the phygital sales model they used before the pandemic.

With such remarkable data to back your strategies, the festive season is the best time to engage your buyers on multiple channels.

Here is how you can go about it:

• Make your B2B marketplace brand’s holiday offers available on all the channels your clients surf during a day’s work.
• Offer exceptional mobile channel experience even on poor connections or when offline
• Add live chat on your marketplace so that your clients can connect with you regarding deals and offers during the festive season.
• Add chatbots that can sort regular client queries and free your salespeople to answer late-stage client queries and close deals faster.
• Build consistent branding across different channels through a data-driven content strategy. 

Implement it with StoreHippo 

StoreHippo B2B ecommerce solutions are built on mobile-first principles and come with built-in omnichannel solutions to enable enterprises to have a robust multichannel presence. Here is how you can speed up the sales cycle and close more deals during the festive season on your marketplace website using StoreHippo features:

• Build your B2B marketplace and add new frontends using the same backend logic and APIs.
• Create Android and iOS apps in no time using the built-in mobile app builder. Turn your enterprise marketplace into a PWA in a few clicks.
• Integrate the best-in-breed live chat software easily using 300+ API endpoints.
• Easily integrate with your chosen chatbots to engage and help your clients round the clock.
• Create your social media pages and divert traffic to your dedicated landing pages to engage and convert your buyers on different social platforms. Build a strong brand image for your B2B marketplace with a built-in blog engine.

Offer Extended Payment Period

How do B2C retailers gear up for record festive season sales?

No prizes for guessing that- by stocking rather than over-stocking in anticipation of bumper sales.

What does this imply for their business as a whole? Well, before the B2C orders start trickling your B2B marketplace’s merchant clients have to go on a buying spree.

No wonder this buying spree strains budgets and making upfront payments for large-volume holiday orders can be a challenge for your clients.

Sounds chaotic, right? What if we say it’s not, rather it's an opportunity to cash on.

How?

Offering relaxed and extended payment options encourages buyers to make bigger orders conveniently and will boost festive season sales on your B2B marketplace.

Here is how you can go about it:

• Offer extended payment terms or payment plans to accommodate your B2B clients' cash flow needs.
• Implement a simplified invoicing system that depicts various taxes and other components. This simple tweak can streamline the payment process, reduce manual errors and avoid grievances/rework.
• Offer multiple payment options so your B2B marketplace clients can go for frictionless payments using their favorite payment mode.
• Tie up with banks and payment gateways that can offer rewards or credit facilities to your customers.
• Offer discounts on prompt payments to encourage faster payments during the holiday sales.

Implement it with StoreHippo 

StoreHippo not only offers B2B ecommerce solutions to its clients but always offers a wide spectrum of payment solutions. The StoreHippo platform has 60+ pre-integrated payment gateways and other payment channels to help your enterprise marketplace’s clients make easy payments during the holiday season: 

• Implement personalized payment solutions and different payment periods for different buyer groups using the flexible and extensible entities of StoreHippo.
• Use built-in invoicing and tax engine to offer detailed invoices. Create bulk invoices that save time and reduce errors. 
• Enable your clients to choose from a variety of payment options which include net banking, credit/debit cards, UPI, digital wallets etc. 
• Negotiate collaboration deals with your preferred payment partners and easily implement store credits using StoreHippo’s store credit feature.
• Leverage the pricing override feature in combination with discounted pricing for early payments to close payments of large orders quickly on your enterprise marketplace.

Ensure hassle-free shipping

The success of your festive season sales does not depend on what or how much you sell. There is one singular factor that can make or break your holiday season sales strategy.

Perhaps, you already guessed it. 

Yes, we are talking about streamlined logistics.

Despite having the best sales strategies in place for your B2B marketplace, you might miss the mark if you have not aligned your shipping and fulfilment to handle the peak season load.

To make your holiday sales an absolute success, you need to have a well-planned, aligned and closely connected logistics network in place. Ensuring large orders flow smoothly and reach your merchant clients on time so they can further align their festive season orders makes for a win-win festive season experience for you and your clients.

Here is how you can go about it:

• Implement comprehensive order and shipping management systems to reduce manual errors and speed up order fulfillment.
• Maintain accurate, real-time inventory records to prevent overselling and ensure items are available when orders come in.
• Go for multiple shipping partners to optimize shipping cost and time. Implement partial fulfillment by splitting orders between various logistics partners for faster fulfillment.
• Leverage your B2B marketplace’s dealers/distributor’s warehouses to make hyperlocal fulfillment.
• Leverage the local logistics partners/network of your vendors to streamline the delivery load during the festive season

Implement it with StoreHippo 

The B2B ecommerce solutions from StoreHippo gain a winning edge with integrated logistics and built-in shipping management solutions. Streamlining festive season orders becomes easy and hassle-free with access to a gamut of tools and features like automated bulk invoice printing, pick-up scheduling etc. With StoreHippo’s extensive logistics solutions, you can easily plan and execute streamlined holiday season deliveries on your enterprise marketplace. Here is what you get with StoreHippo: 

• Built-in order management and shipping management solutions that automate the shipping on your enterprise marketplace and ensure faster and streamlined deliveries.
• Inventory auto-sync and out-of-stock features to prevent over-selling and be accurate regarding available stocks with different vendors on your B2B marketplace.
• 30+ pre-integrated delivery partners that help in optimizing cost and make deliveries faster. Support for partial fulfillment so you can use multiple delivery partners for fulfilling large orders.
• Support for location-based multistore B2B marketplace feature wherein you can leverage the warehouses of your dealers and auto-route fulfillment from the nearest warehouse/ dealer store from the client location.
• Built-in delivery boy solution which your vendors can use to manage the services of any local shipping agencies they might use for speeding up fulfillment during the festive season. 

Conclusion

Festive season is the time to plan, execute and achieve sales like never before on your B2B marketplace website. With the right marketing strategy, a well-informed vendor-dealer-distributor network and well-crafted deals to attract your customers you have all the elements for a successful holiday sales extravaganza.

To turbocharge the synergy of the above well-aligned factors you need advanced B2B ecommerce solutions like StoreHippo that offer you a gamut of tools and solutions to harness the power of a festive buying frenzy.

Ready to make your festive season sale a reason of envy and inspiration for your competitors? Start your winning streak by exploring the amazing enterprise ecommerce solutions offered by StoreHippo for B2B marketplace brands. Book your free demo right away.