13 Underrated Easter and Spring Marketing Ideas (eCommerce)

Come March or April, Easter celebrations start in full swing. In a recent survey, Easter ranks 11th at 65% in terms of most celebrated holidays. 

With the total planned Easter spending expected to reach 20.8 billion US dollars, the opportunity for eCommerce brands to start Easter and Spring campaigns is immense. 

Here’s a list of 13 Easter and Spring Marketing ideas for campaigns that will uplift your sales. 

1. Create an expert guide for the Best Easter Celebrations 

Nearly 80% of Americans celebrate but still find it difficult to come up with ideas. An expert guide containing tips about favorite Easter recipes, party tips, or arranging the table for the best Easter dinner will pique your customer’s interest. 

Create an eBook and send it to your email list as a free download. The expert guide can contain—

• Golden rules that are not hard to follow.  For example, choosing spring flavors or including ham as part of the dinner menu since it's a staple.
• Time-saving hacks that are simple and get the job done. For instance, if you’re a furniture brand, explain why a cotton tablecloth is important to use on the table instead of a nylon tablecloth. 
• Gently upsell your products by stating possible scenarios. For instance, if you’re a protein supplement brand, show how you can create a mocktail using your product and how it's beneficial for their health.

2. Take out the slow-moving inventory via smart bundling

Your slow-moving inventory is gathering dust. Now’s the time to bundle it and create an Easter or Spring basket and sell it at a discount. Here’s a pro tip to get started—Mix slow-selling inventory with fast-selling ones for better results. 

Here’s why it works: 

• You can sell your least-selling and less popular products 
• It will motivate customers to pay more for the bundle than they would have in the case of individual products 
• Value-conscious customers who were not attracted earlier will now buy from you. 

MyProtein is selling its Mike and Ike Essentials Starter pack. 

Selling your slow-selling inventory goods with fast selling is known to increase sales by 20% as compared to pure bundling. 

Including the mixed product bundles at the checkout compels customers to take a look at the products. 

Don't forget to check out 13 product bundling examples that convert (& 10 proven ideas)

3. Weigh in the expert’s opinion 

Humans are more likely to trust people with credible expertise. This is why Authority is one of the best principles of persuasion. 

Including an authority or expert opinion in your Easter and Spring marketing campaigns will help in convincing people to take action. When customers have little to no awareness as to what they want they listen to people who have proven expertise. 

The Armoury creates a Spring guide to choosing the right trouser by Gianluca Migliarotti, founder of Pompella Napoli, on the reasons why a certain fabric suits for the summer.  

4. Jazz it up with a product discovery quiz 

Customers find it tough to identify what products they want. A product discovery quiz will help customers— 

• Take easy decisions when it comes to complex products. For example, a shoe finder quiz can help you find shoes based on your pronation type. 
• Makes the customer journey smoother as 38% of customer journeys start with the retailer. All customer objections will be answered. 

Explore eCommerce Product Discovery: 3 proven strategies (+ great examples)

5. Let media mentions lead the way 

A product becomes more valuable when it is featured by popular media houses. That’s a major social proof achievement unlocked. 

So, why not use it for Easter and Spring eCommerce marketing campaigns, to let prospective customers know about your brand? 

Customers have a lot of options to choose from and media mentions demonstrate credibility and authority as a brand and shape a positive brand image. 

For new customers, media mentions convey that this brand is worth a try. 

Here are a few tips to make the most of your media mentions—

• Include it in your Easter and Spring Marketing emails just below the body content
• Featuring testimonials on your sales page can increase sales by 34% 
• Include video testimonials to improve your open rates by 96% and click-through rate by 65%  

6. Offer perks in exchange for early access 

Reciprocity is one of the oldest tricks in the book and still works to this day. So, why not make it part of your Easter and Spring marketing campaigns? 

Offer Easter and Spring exclusive offers in exchange for signing up for early access products. It could be a new product that had been in the works or a premium product.  

55% of Americans belonging to the (18-24) age group shop online for Easter. This is an opportunity as Gen Z is more likely to grab early access deals.

Case in point, MeUndies offers an early access deal to customers which includes exclusive access to Robes and Slippers. 

According to a Shopify study, 60% of customers are willing to join a loyalty program because of early access to sales while 51% want early access to products.  

7. Revive old conversations with back-in-stock emails 

Back-in-stock emails are designed to create sales opportunities to bring back customers who were interested before the stock went out. 

With an open rate of 65.35%, back-in-stock emails can help sell seasonal product categories and products as part of your Easter and Spring marketing campaigns. 

Here’s what your back-in-stock emails should include— 

• A witty copy to grab the user's attention. 
• Use a high-quality product image as a reminder. Use different types of product images in context, before and after to reinforce the benefits of the product and product demo images.
• Remind the customers when they signed up. Give a context about the time and product. Include product descriptions that include benefits over features. 
• Use scarcity. Convey that this product is back in stock for a limited time only. 
• Offer free shipping and easy returns as nudges to persuade customers to buy.  

Here is a back-in-stock email from Tens with best sellers back in stock. Apart from free shipping the main takeaway is the use of orange and black fonts as visual cues. 

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8. Offer 101 guides to educate customers 

Basic 101 guides can help in product discovery especially since they educate about products they were unaware of.

101 guides explain the uses of the product and its application just enough to compel users to browse the market. They educate customers if they are the right fit for the product while making decision-making easier. 

A few tips to help you— 

• Offer a solution to a problem. For instance, offer a DIY solution to eliminate food stains from jeans after an Easter party.
• List out the multiple use cases a particular product might help. For example, as a whey protein brand, explain how whey protein can cure a hangover and also make for a mocktail. 
• Information as to why certain clothes are not the best choice for Spring and offer alternatives instead.

Here’s a 101 guide email from Pulp & Press which educates users about cutting back on refined sugar with a blog post. Along with the upsell, the brand aims to bring awareness about sugar cravings and addiction. 

9. Start your Easter email campaigns earlier than Good Friday

Americans began their Easter shopping early. That’s what the data indicates. 

According to an Omnisend study, an analysis of 2.75 billion emails indicates that people start shopping throughout the month of Easter, with the highest sales registered on Good Friday.  

Here’s a checklist before you start blasting your Easter campaigns— 

• Make new product introductions in emails instead of sending just selling offers and discount emails. Ensure you bring something fresh to the table. 
• Send announcement emails mentioning obtaining standard certifications and other milestones. Here’s an email from Stila announcing its Leaping Bunny Certified, the gold standard certification. 

• Send a customer appreciation email thanking them for their support and wish them a Happy Easter or Spring holidays 
• Use an inverted pyramid approach— Attention grabber, anticipation builder, and CTA. 
• Keep the text-to-image 80:20 to avoid triggering spam filters. 
• Use a custom sending domain to reinforce trust 

You'll love reading Increasing sales through email marketing: The no-nonsense guide

10. Sell complementary product categories for Spring 

Selling complementary product categories increases the perceived value of the product making it a brilliant marketing idea for your Easter and Spring marketing ideas. Here is an example of Howler Bros. selling board shorts and towels increasing their utility. 

57% of Americans planned to spend the spring at the beach or outdoors making the shorts and towel they must have in the outdoor beach kit. 

The idea is to become beach ready. Complementary products can help you increase your Spring sales since people are looking to complete their Spring wardrobe.  

Here’s why it works—Complementary products increase AOV. The perceived value of the product increases since there is an image showing the product in context. 

11. Evoke the right emotions 

Knowing what makes your customers buy is more important before creating your Easter and Spring campaigns. 

That’s why it's important to target the right emotions. 

Emotional Marketing is a messaging that companies use to target specific human emotions and engage customers. 

Pet-Supermarket addresses the well-being of pets. This directly hits the bullseye since pet parents always want the best for their pets. The images of the pooch and the feline are visual cues that draw the user’s attention. 

The above example also evokes concern by educating customers why chocolates are harmful to their pets. 

Here are a couple of questions you need to ask yourself before investing in an emotionally driven campaign— 

• What kind of emotions are you able to create?
• How will these specific emotions influence customers to purchase?
• Will these emotions help in the future? 

12. Highlight your cause marketing initiatives 

42% of American customers would pay extra for products and services from companies committed to positive social and environmentally judgement. 

Highlighting your cause marketing efforts in your Easter and Spring campaigns attracts customers who seek purpose-driven brands. 86% of customers are likely to purchase from purpose-driven brands, even better if there’s a mutual match. 

Old Pal Provisions mentions it causes marketing efforts in its Spring campaign where it will donate $1 for every product bought to OneTreePlanted, a non-profit organization that plants trees all over the world. 

13. Make Easter and Spring shopping affordable with BNPL options 

The demand for BNPL services in the US is growing with 41% of American customers using them in the 2022 holiday season. 

Offering BNPL payment options helps split the financial burden since it allows users to pay interest-free payments. This is helpful during Easter and Spring seasons because the offers are too good to refuse. 

Other reasons for the increased adoption of BNPL services include—

• Avoid paying credit interest 
• Borrow without a credit check 
• Safeguard personal data 
• Can’t afford credit cards 

Further, eCommerce retailers that offer BNPL services experience a 2.1% increase in the average conversion rate. 

Easter Marketing by the numbers 

The average spending for Easter has increased by 31% from 2009 to 2022. According to NRF, inflation concerns drove customers to spend on things that are a bang for their buck in 2022. 

Here’s a look at the numbers—

• 42% of American customers will switch to another retailer if the price is high 
• 31% of customers will find another alternative like a different color 

Top Easter Celebration Plans 

As per the 2020-2022 data, the percentage of people shopping online remained constant at 17% with a 4% decrease in 2022. While the percentage of customers shopping in-store saw an increase from 9% in 2020 to 13% in 2021, the figure remained the same for 2022. 

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The percentage tied between in-store and online shopping on Easter demonstrates that people are divided between the two. These could be due to the percentage of discounts, offers, and other perks that are more or less the same at physical stores and online stores.