Boxing Day: Complete Guide to the Perfect SMS

A festive image featuring a Christmas tree adorned with presents.

It’s December 17. You are most probably absorbed in thinking about your Christmas sales, and for a good reason – this is the most profitable period of the year for eCommerce.

But try not to get too preoccupied with the Christmas jingles and forget what happens right after: Boxing Day and the January sales!

That’s why we are here – to talk Boxing Day. December 26 is just as monumental a day as Christmas itself, some people even refer to it as the second Black Friday.

Nowadays, Boxing day has become a synonym for post-Christmas laziness, watching sports on TV, cold turkey… and bed-based online shopping. Oh, and rich marketing puns about boxing – the sport.

Being primarily an online holiday, Boxing Day is the perfect chance for eCommerce merchants to reach their customers via SMS. Let’s not forget that SMS has the stunning 98% open rates and response time of 30 seconds. (

Source

Do you know how to set up SMS campaigns that will keep conversion rates high even after the Christmas craze? We do. And we are about to give you the keys you need to fuel up your tank and boost turnover. 

Grab Customers From the Beginning

Since this is a text message, not email or any other form of messaging, you don’t have a subject line to grab your recipients’ attention with.

But with SMS you have something even more powerful – visuals.

Since Boxing Day is a rather “lazy” retail holiday, your visuals should also be easy on the eyes. Make them simplistic, but with bold colors, big letters and be straightforward with what you are offering.

  Full SMS Template:

{SiteName}: Walk in the New Year with a great pair of new shoes, {FirstName}! Grab our exclusive Boxing Day treats in the next 24 hours: {DiscountCodeURL}. Text STOP to opt out.

If you are not feeling adventurous, you can always turn to our partners from Pexels or GIPHY for inspiring images and GIFs that will make your Boxing Day preparations even easier. See how MMS can drive your conversion rates up in our blog post


 

Offer Big & Bold Discounts 

Why go big? Price has been rated as the top factor for choosing to purchase online by 61% of consumers. One thing you can be sure of when it comes to Boxing Day: your customers will be bombarded with offers from all over the place and you will be competing for their attention.

  Full SMS Template:

{SiteName}: It's Boxing Day, {FirstName}! What better post-holiday excuse to shop? Unbox some great offers, with up to 60% off: {DiscountCodeURL}. Text STOP to opt out.

This is why Boxing Day is the perfect opportunity for you to announce clearance on items that haven’t been selling well, or are no longer in style. It’s the ideal way to win back old customers and increase traffic to your online store.

  Full SMS Template:

New year, new inventory at {SiteName}, {FirstName}! Are you ready for a clearance? As a Boxing Day special enjoy a 48-hour blowout sale: {DiscountCodeURL}. Text STOP to opt out.

Still, SMSBump enables store owners to offer personalized offers to their customers and this is always better than just slashing prices and offering one and the same discount on all items.


 

Win Them Over with a 10-second SMS 

Make your Boxing Day SMS as quick to read as an Ali punch. (we just had to have a boxing match metaphor).

Like we already said – this is the day when people are unwinding from all the holiday cheer and the last thing they need is some long and complicated text message, that involves more than 1 tap of a button.

160 symbols, with a strong call-to-action and a juicy discount is not only light on your budget, but will help customers recover from the gifting fatigue and will bring them back into shopping mood. See more

here

  Full SMS Template:

{SiteName}: {FirstName}, celebrate Boxing Day with some quick after-Christmas shopping! Enjoy 50% off on all items for a limited time only! {DiscountCodeURL}. Text STOP to opt out.

Speaking of gifting fatigue… 


 

Boxing Day – The “Selfish” Shopping Holiday 

For awhile now, this day has been claimed to be the time for people to indulge in some “Me” shopping. After all, they spent all month trying to find the perfect gift for their loved ones and now need to pamper themselves a bit.

Boxing Day is an excellent occasion for stores to dust off their top-shelf items and promote them. Even if you decide not to be too generous with your discounts, careful wording, emphasizing the exclusivity of the item, how “luxurious”, “deluxe”, “rich” it is, and how much your customer deserves to “spoiled” themselves, to be “special-treated”, “catered for” etc., will still win you big. 

  Full SMS Template:

{SiteName}: Been good all year, {FirstName}? We know. Time to tickle your senses with our exclusive exotic fragrances. Pamper yourself this season: {DiscountCodeURL}. And have a Merry Christmas! Text STOP to opt out.

The “Everything Must Go in a FLASH” 

Time for a Trivia break: the shortest boxing match in history lasted 20 seconds.

Now, that’s way too short but we do advise you to advertise your Boxing Day sales as Flash sales that will only last 24 hours and cover only a very limited number of items. You’ve already heard about the power of urgency but on days like Boxing Day, when people are looking to score one last great purchase before the end of the year, its strength is undeniable.

Running a flash sale is a great chance to generate major sales momentum, particularly when combined with social media and other forms of marketing.

Use words like “hurry up”, “act fast”, “grab now”, “snag them”, “last chance”, “today only”, “you’ve got one hour” etc. 

  Full SMS Template:

{SiteName}: Put your gloves on, {FirstName}. it's Boxing Day! Today only – enjoy full clearance on all sports equipment, no tapout: {DiscountCodeURL}. Text STOP to opt out.



“Santa brought you a vacuum, not the shoes you wanted? sad_emoji_SMSBump

Another fun fact for you: the official name of boxing is not really boxing, it’s pugilism.

While you might not win your customers over with “fun” facts like this Wikipedia-extracted one, you will definitely get a smile (and a sale) from using humor and common sense.

Why common sense? Because Boxing Day in the UK is also known as the gift-returning day and that is an easy icebreaker. “Didn’t get what you wanted for Christmas” – don’t worry, we have it, and you can get it today at an awesome price.

  Full SMS Template:

{SiteName}: Santa didn't bring you what you wanted, {FirstName}? Our Boxing Day promo is your 2nd chance. Up to 40% on all items: {DiscountCodeURL}. Text STOP to opt out.

Such a call-to-action is very relevant and you can’t really go wrong with it – a lot of people don’t get what they actually wanted for Christmas so they can relate to your message.


 

“It’s the Final Countdown”… for real 

Boxing Day has the privilege to be a couple of days before New Year’s Eve – the time for self-retrospect and grand promises.

Being so, there is no better time to nudge your customer’s desire to enter 2021 in the best style… or armed up with the newest gadgets… or equipped with the most awesome kitchen utensils.

Make sure that FOMO (fear of missing out) is what you emphasize in your text message.  They only have a couple of days to make a complete makeover of themselves (with the help of your products)… and they should know it.

Use expressions like “while stocks last”, “merchandise is running low”, “ends in…”, “beat the clock”, “don’t miss out”, “limited number of items” etc. 

  Full SMS Template:

{SiteName}: Waltz in 2021 with a new look, {FirstName}! With our glamorous make-up kits the glow is guaranteed and so is the 30% special discount: {DiscountCodeURL}. Text STOP to opt out.

And Finally – Don’t Forget to Automate 

It’s a lazy day. Give your customers some time to make up their mind and allow them to go back to their order if they didn’t check out right away.

Set up an abandoned cart flow that will remind them they have items left behind behind and will prompt them to take advantage of your offers. 

Your first abandoned cart you should fire up 1 hour after a checkout was abandoned. This can be a simple reminder – just to make sure your customers aren’t paying more attention to the movie on TV than your offers. Upgrade it with a free shipping treat to increase chances of conversion – after all, shipping costs are one of the most common reasons for cart abandonment.

If this doesn’t reap the results you were looking for, try sending them a second and final reminder, one day later. It will be a new day, they might be in a better mood, rested and ready to buy. Again – don’t forget the incentive and remind them they only have a couple of hours to recover their order.

  Full SMS Template 1:

{SiteName}: We think you forgot something in your cart, {FirstName}. Finish your order now and get free shipping. Hurry, while stocks last! {DiscountCodeURL}. Text STOP to opt out.

  Full SMS Template 2:

{SiteName}: It's a new day! But your order is still safe and sound, {FirstName}! Check out in the next 60 minutes and grab a 10% discount: {DiscountCodeURL}. Text STOP to opt out.



And if you are looking for a light holiday read or find yourself in need of a complete guide on how to create a successful abandoned cart reminder, check out our automations ebook

Box Away 

Boxing Day is soon approaching. And your sales are coming along with it. Now is the time to start launching effective SMS campaigns and reel in some big profit. 


Unbox SMSBump

Special thanks to our friends at SMSbump for their insights on this topic.
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