How e-Commerce Marketers can take advantage of Ramadan?

Ramadan is upon us. As 1.8 billion Muslims around the world observe Ramadan, the market will see a surge in sales of both necessary commodities and luxury goods.

The holy month in the Islamic Calendar brings with it a massive growth in transactions. Both physical stores and online shops see a dramatic surge. It’s a common sight to find a huge Discount label around the shops in Muslim countries like the UAE, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. There are over 3million Muslims living in the USA which definitely offers a great consumer-base for American online stores.

Current market conditions imposed by Covid-19 means e-commerce is surging right now. With everyone locked inside their home, Muslims are looking to online stores to shop for Ramadan. E-Commerce marketers can take this advantage by offering necessary goods online.

According to a study, people are more likely to shop more in the first two weeks of Ramadan making the next two weeks a doubly-lucrative time for prepared retailers.

How e-Commerce marketers can take advantage of Ramadan?

Major question merchants have is, "I already have a store and people buy from there, why do I need to go online?" The recent data shows that more than 70% of US citizen shop online. If you refuse to go online at this point, you are closing your door for those 70% customers.

E-commerce ensures a business can run anytime and anyplace, no matter the size or location, the global reach. It's cost-effective, thus increases your revenue.

In the midst of a pandemic, it’s had a further spurt of growth. Consumers are largely on lockdown, while social distancing measures mean non-essential retail – sectors like fashion, health & beauty, and entertainment – have had to sub out their physical operations for an online presence where possible.

As we are already in the first week of Ramadan, you should start engaging your customers. Marketing near the beginning of Ramadan lets you provide a relevant and engaging message to help shoppers find necessary commodities and gifts for friends and family.

Useful Tips for Marketers

• Continue to engage your audience with special offers, customized content, and gift ideas throughout the Ramadan period. By maintaining personalized connections, you’ll stay top-of-mind when people are ready to buy something special for their loved ones.
• Offer easy shopping and home delivery for necessary goods. People consume more of necessary goods like food and beverages during Ramadan; hence, you can increase your sales by catering to the necessary goods.
• Put up interesting offers for the upcoming Eid-al-Fitr. This is the time when Muslims horde into the stores to shop for new clothes, jewelry, and luxury items.
• If you’re selling meat items, it becomes important that you advertise only Halal Meat in your catalog. More importantly, you should advertise it as Halal meat to help them find the right product.
• By catering at the time of lockdown, e-Commerce will unveil a new frontier to help shoppers maintain their traditions, assure, and prove that business continuity is in place at the same time
• It is critical for e-Commerce brands to consider how their offerings should be presented during the lockdown. For example, ads showing products that are suited indoors should be favored over those depicting outdoor activities or crowded places.
• Retail shopping in Ramadan happens more frequently when the sun is down. Online traffic increase at 3 is when they wake up to eat the final meal before fast begins. At 4 am, retail sales are 3.5x higher in Ramadan compared to an average day. But sales drop at 6 pm when Muslim shoppers prepare for their first meal after a day of fasting.

What is Ramada like for Muslims?

Ramadan began on April 23 around the world, while other countries began observing the festival on April 24 due to differences in the moon sighting. Muslims around the will observe fasting for one month. The end of Ramadan brings the biggest celebration in the Islamic World, Eid or Eid-al-Fitr.

Muslims around the world indulge in shopping for necessary commodities throughout Ramadan. The time close to Eid sees a surge in sales of luxury goods such as clothing, home appliances, vehicles, electronic devices, etc. Each member of the family wears a new dress and dines with the rest of the family.

Throughout this time, as Muslims focus on pillars like compassion, self-control, and social responsibility (among others), daily habits and consumer patterns change, affecting entire countries and populations around the globe.

How to make your e-Commerce website presentable?

These are some of the pointers you can keep in mind to offer the best shopping experience to your customers.

a. User Friendly

Make your website easy to navigate. Look into user interaction and user experience while designing a website.

b. Online Catalog

The online catalog stands for the listing of the products on the website. The availability and ease of sorting the products from hundreds or even thousands of products become essential to ensure a better user experience.

c. Check out and Payment Gateway

The sale isn't successful until the customer pays. A check-out system must be simpler and easy to navigate, as most customers tend to withdraw from the purchase if they find the final process too complicated for them.

A safe payment getaway is the payment system integrated into the website to help a customer buy with ease. The variable payment options, safe protocol, security, and privacy are a few of the most important factors during the check-out process.

d. Privacy and security

Today, most customers offer their personal as well as financial data to the business or sellers. It’s important that businesses start realizing the need for user privacy and safety. A customer won’t purchase or pay until they feel safer.

The provision of SSL protocol, data encryption, privacy policy, security compliance, and any legal tender with the third party must be presented to the customer before-hand to commit for their security.

e. Customer support

Customer support is essential both during the website visit and post-sales period. Constant touch with the customer will help them guide through the sales process, and post-sales interaction is important to retain the customer.

Prompt response, frequently asked questions, online chat systems, and variable options for contact are few important factors of efficient customer support.

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