Once again, buying online and picking up in-store is a major holiday trend; 43% of this year’s Black Friday purchases were BOPIS. It makes sense that more retailers would offer that option; a February GPShopper survey found that 85% of people who BO make additional purchases while they’re PIS.

BOPIS is a great example of the increasingly blurred line between on- and offline shopping. It’s also far from the only one. When it comes to merchandising, physical stores still have an advantage. While ecommerce is perpetually on the rise, most sales still happen in a brick-and-mortar store. Why not use email and mobile messaging to get people there?

When Sailthru surveyed 2,000 people about their feelings toward brick-and-mortar retail last year, we found that 38.1% of American and 27.3% of British consumers have beencompelled to visit a store by email. Black Friday may be a few months away, but as consumers think about holiday shopping earlier, so must you. Here are five tips for driving store traffic with digital messaging:

Provide an Incentive Like Frye

Curious about cowboy boots? Frye is so confident in theirs that they offered shoppers a $50 gift, just for trying on a pair. The deal applied both on- and offline, but of course, it’s much easier to try on shoes in-store. And if that incentive got someone into a store, they’re definitely going to look around and who knows, maybe they’ll see even more Frye boots they like.

Share Experiences Like Tory Burch

We largely say “the holidays” in reference to those few weeks from late November through early January, but there are holidays all year. For Mother’s Day, Tory Burch appealed to the New Yorkers on her subscriber list with a special store event where they could pick up a one-of-a-kind gift for mom. 

Create In-Store Exclusives Like Foot Locker

Few segments of consumers are more passionate than sneakerheads, for whom Foot Locker created a whole app. The Launch Reservation tool allows shoppers to reserve new releases before their scheduled drop. Foot Locker could ship the shoes. Instead, the brand sent emails with codes that can be activated in-store, guaranteeing physical traffic.

Combine Promotions Like Ulta

This email from personalization pro Ulta is fantastic on a few levels. It re-engaged a lapsed customer during Cyber Weekend with an incentive. That promotion also serves as a store traffic-driver, but only if the customer wants it to be. The email includes both a promo code and a bar code to be used in-store.

Leverage BOPIS Like Macy’s

Order confirmation emails have sky-high open rates; people naturally want to know where their purchases are. In this case, Macy’s capitalized on the confirmation by upselling additional items to a customer who was already guaranteed to stop by the store.

Simplify Returns Like Target

While online purchases are increasingly easy to ship back to brands, Target simplifies the in-store return process by including bar codes in its order confirmation emails. Target understands that returns are inevitable… and that 71% of people make additional purchases when they’re returning something at store.

Looking to get a head start on the holidays? Of course you are. Download our 2019 Holiday Marketing Playbook for more insights about the new table stakes, how to diversify your discounts and recalibrate your recommendations strategy, the importance of triggered messages, and more!