Ever heard of the invisible, the hidden, the forgotten: the bonus quarter?
While everybody’s focused on turning the year end period, including Cyber Monday, Black Friday and the all-important festive weeks into an utter sales feast, only few wonder: “What about the aftermath?” The attention devoted to Q4 being more than justified, retailers should make sure to carry that momentum into the new year – meaning: Q5. Because after all… New year, new luck, right?!
What’s this mysterious fifth quarter all about and how does it affect your eCommerce business? What can you do to make the most of it? And: Who is there to support? Find out and make your online business Q5 post-peak season proof.
“Finally… Time to chill and gently slide into the new fiscal year after that busy holiday shopping splurge.” Just in case we just read your tired festive mind, think twice. How about taking your supposedly low-key post-peak period – also known as “Quarter 5” – into your own hands and prepare for it just like you would for Q4? Let’s take a closer look at its definition and why it matters.
Quarter 5 Mystery: What’s It All About?
Maximizing revenues and reaching new customers right after the busy year-end peak shopping season hasn’t really been a top priority for online retailers – until the phenomenon “fifth quarter” crossed our minds a few years ago. By leveraging this long underestimated and underrated time, brands can milk their seemingly tired profit cows, feed customer loyalty, attract new fans and push customer lifetime value.
The term refers to the period after the end of the traditional four annual quarters. More precisely, it describes the time between Christmas and mid-January , which is when peoples’ holidays are in full swing and shopping moods are in hibernation mode.
Why it Matters: The Hidden Quarter
Q4 has long been the holy grail for online and high street retailers alike. And then there is Q5, a time full of massive revenue potential, as consumer shopping intent is still high, while competitive pressure and the cost of media are relatively low.
Competition, what?
With many retailers counting bills, analyzing post-campaign figures, prepping for Q1 and recovering from the stress of preceding weeks, Quarter 5 is the perfect time to offer your best sales, raise brand awareness and attract novel audiences.
Keeping the shopping spirit alive
According to a survey, 92% of consumers still intend to shop once the holidays are gone. This is the time to return or exchange undesired gifts and treat oneself with something special. Plus, recipients of gift cards or cash presents are keen to spend those while bargains are still a thing. Thus, shopping itself continues to be high in demand, yet with a different emphasis: from gifting others to treating oneself.
Bargaining on media
Once the holidays and the shopping peak are over, competition is low – and thus ad costs are even lower. A simple equation that presents great marketing opportunities for those looking to get the best value for their advertising money.
Strategies to stay on top of your Q5 eCommerce
Here are a few ground rules to begin with: look at Q5 as a central part of your holiday season, plan early, set realistic expectations and think both long and short term – because who wouldn’t want to maximize customer loyalty and foster repeat purchases during this long-underrated period?
Then select a few specific branches of your business that require attention:
Data quality and maintenance:
Cleanse and maintain your data
A busy Q4 usually leads to an abundance of new customer data. This is the opportunity for retailers to take a step back, evaluate the collected data and ensure the collected data is clean and accurate. Turn collected data into valuable potential future profits with a data health check and a data cleanse.
Optimize your click-to-brick experience and offer hassle-free returns
Create a fully integrated and seamless customer experience from click-to-brick that increases online transactions and drives incremental sales in-store by utilizing a store finder solution for our checkout. This will also make it easier for customers to return purchases in-store and promote exchanges vs. refunds.
Product, Operations Marketing:
Make web improvements
Stress-test your website: conduct load testing to ensure it can handle high traffic volumes to prepare for post-peak traffic surges. Optimize website speed and performance against Core Web Vitals targets, using tools like PageSpeed Insights and Pingdom for testing. Plus, regularly update your homepage visuals and banners with personalized creatives to push your post-holiday promotions.
Improve customer loyalty
Capitalize on your holiday shoppers and turn them into long-term fans by keeping the barriers to entry for your product or service as low as possible. Q5 is a great time to woo your existing tribe as well as new audiences with first-hand product experiences, such as incentives, free trials, discounts and offers. Most notably, turn seasonal shoppers into year-round customers through email and social media campaigns, loyalty programs and personalized marketing campaigns. Make sure email and phone data is accurate to minimize bounces and undeliverable text messages.
Prompt, personal customer support
Train staff for quick and effective customer service. By that we mean preparing standard responses for common issues during onboarding or leveraging chatbots for customer support and improved conversions.
365 Days of Loqate – your Year-Round Global Address Verification Partner
Whether you’re in the midst of feeling that tingling start-of-the-business-year sensation or getting ready for your customers’ upcoming Christmas shopping rush: Loqate is your go-to partner for all things address verification, cleansing, enrichment and maintenance – globally, perennially and at scale.
That also includes your Q5 success by us assessing, cleansing and maintaining your data – for better efficiencies, stronger customer relationships and a boost in your bottom line.
This is how you will benefit from Loqate’s solutions (among others):
Data accuracy and maintenance
Here is a key rule to start with: make sure your post-Christmas product info, pricing schemes, inventory levels, and most importantly your customer data are accurate and up-to-date – at all times.
A quick and simple tool review and cleanse your data quality following the insightful holiday shopping period is Loqate’s data validation solution including our free data health check.
Our large-scale data cleanse service will identify and update information that’s incomplete, incorrect, improperly formatted, duplicated or irrelevant, while our monthly maintenance will keep data clean and up-to-date.
Take advantage of our free data health check: Select and send the data you would like us to analyze, we ensure this is safe, secure and compliant. We analyze the data, create a visual report, and talk you through the findings. Quick, effective and for free.
After all, clean data benefits are priceless: how about improved customer communications, reduced marketing expenditures, fraudulent actions and smoother onboarding?
Onboarding made easy
Loqate’s data validation solutions help you get the most out of you onboarding process – flawless customer experiences guaranteed.
Avoid data entry errors, customer frustration from filling out lengthy, partly unnecessary online forms, plus spinning wheels and page crashes, and ultimately form or cart abandonment by taking advantage of Loqate’s single line type-ahead search capability. Have customers find their address in just three keystrokes, returning accurate results even when details are missing or misspelled. Our address verification tool then standardizes and validates the address, phone number or email, ensuring only clean and accurate data is collected.
Calling for conversions: checkout optimization
We support you in streamlining your checkout process to reduce cart abandonment and help you skyrocket your conversions. Let’s talk perks like payment options, including BNPL and digital wallets: we share our long-standing expertise to help you deliver exceptional checkout experiences. You need more proof? Explore our customer stories.
Seamlessly from click-to-brick – our Store Finder
Focus on a superior omnichannel CX and ensure your customers find your physical store fast with Loqate’s solution to encourage click-and-collect and drive foot traffic to your stores. Check out our Store Finder – for seamless click-to-brick experiences, increased online transactions and in-store sales.
Learn more: Everything you need to know about our Store Finder.
Summary: Ready or Not – Here Q5 Comes
If there is just one thing to be learned from our “Q5 deep dive”, it’s this: recognize the fifth quarter as a fierce post-holiday force to push your products and services into the new year.
Integrating your Q5 planning into your actual holiday marketing and sales strategy, you have a great opportunity to maximize your profits during this largely overlooked bonus quarter. And by turning to experienced location intelligence partners like Loqate, you have an even better chance to boost your Q5 sales, reach new audiences, make loyal fans and clear out excess inventory.
Ready to optimize your operations for post-peak season? Speak to our account managers or product specialists today to get started long before the Q5 frenzy hits your eCommerce game.