The Holidays are still in full swing, but not for much longer. After the spikes in holiday sales near the beginning of January, ecommerce sites start to experience the downward spiral of sales and revenue. If things weren’t crazy enough, people are going to start returning things (see handling post-holiday returns). The huge overflow of sales takes a dive and you can start to feel the pull of sinking revenue. Thankfully, there are ways to avoid this, allowing you to recover quicker and get your sales back to the stop.

Don’t Get Quiet

We know that once the holiday season has passed, retailers are tired and ready for some R&R, and we like to assume our customers are feeling the same way. However, they’re still out there and still paying attention, so don’t sit quietly. If you can stay active while everyone else is quiet, yours will be the voice people are listening to. Push customers to recognize that you are still on the map and are still there to help them with whatever they may need.

Email Marketing

Once the holidays have ended, you should have a bunch of new connections and email addresses piled up. If you have stayed on top of and held onto those email addresses, then you are in a great position to start using them to market yourself. This is not something you should be putting off until the last minute. As time passes, people are going to forget they purchases from you and will therefore ignore you emails. While their purchases are still fresh, start delivering content and information to keep them involved in your company as loyal customers.

Start a new Sale

You spent the whole holiday season offering free shipping, discounts, coupons and promos, but go out and do it again. Shoppers are discount hungry, especially once the holiday season is over. If you continue to provide discounts, then your customers will stay engaged with what you are doing. If you are stuck and need some ideas, Kissmetrics offers ideas:

• Winter Clearance: this is a great way to get rid of winter inventory, plus people love the word clearance
• Free gift: Throw in a free gift because everyone loves freebies
• Bulk buy discounts: Tell customers that if they buy in bulk, they’ll save more money. This also helps you get rid of extra inventory
• Loyalty program incentives: If you have a loyalty program, invite customers to join and give them perks and discounts for being your customer

Release Something New

It’s time to step up. Release a new product. The New Year is one of the best times to do this because customers are in the “new year, new me” mindset with resolutions and whatnot. Because of this, consumers are itching for something new. And you can capitalize on this mentality by giving them a new product to get excited about. This does require some ahead planning, but there is time. And it is something that will get you ahead of the curve at the end of the season.

So, instead of allowing yourself to be consumed by the depressing drop in sales this post-holiday season, get yourself ahead and plan some strategies to keep your customers engaged. They are out there waiting to see what you’ve got, so show them!