10 Tips to prepare your e-commerce store for the holiday season
Make a plan
The first step towards preparing your e-commerce store for the holiday season is to make a plan. When constructing your plan, we recommend using data from previous holiday sales periods to inform your strategy for this holiday. In particular, try to identify what worked and what didn’t before proceeding.
Holiday retail provides a unique opportunity to attract new customers to your store, so it is important that you create a plan that will draw them in. Special promotions are a great way to do this. After all, everyone loves a bargain. That being said, you also need to remember your loyal customers and reward their loyalty. This can be achieved through measures as rewards programs.
Target the entire shopping season
The holiday shopping season technically starts during Halloween so you have a full two months before Christmas to optimize your sales. Unfortunately, many e-commerce sites wrongly identify December as their target month, thereby ignoring the rich sales possibilities of October, November, and even January.
It is important to bear in mind that a lot of people like to do their online shopping at one go. They will, therefore, buy everything they need for Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, or Hanukkah all at once. As a result, waiting till December to enforce your sales plans could cost you a large customer base. You should also consider the fact that consumers like to make the most of January sales for next year’s holiday season.
Create holiday aesthetics
When consumers are shopping for holiday gifts, they like seeing a bit of holiday cheer on their screens. It is therefore important to revamp your website for Christmas. If shoppers are not getting the holiday shopping experience in physical stores, it is your job to bring it to them online. Your holiday revamp does not have to be intense. Simply adding some red and green touches on your website, creating a happy holiday banner, or putting a countdown-to-Christmas clock on your e-commerce is enough to show customers your holiday spirit.
Craft a holiday marketing campaign
Holiday marketing campaigns are an integral part of Christmas. Even if you do not have the big bucks to splash out on a huge TV advertising campaign, there is plenty you can do. To begin with, your holiday campaign should advertise all the special deals you are running for the holiday season, as this will draw customers in. You should use whatever medium your target market is most drawn to, whether that be Facebook Ads, email marketing campaigns, or social media marketing.
Optimize the user experience
This is a tip that you should take into consideration all year round, but particularly during the holiday season when you have new traffic on your website. You need to ensure that your website is as easy to use for new customers. Failing to do so could cause them to lose interest.
The best way to do this is to make things clear on your website. For example, make sure your holiday deals are on the homepage so that consumers do not have to go looking for them. You should also make the buying process easy, with as few steps as possible. Using Apple or Google pay is a great way to achieve a fast checkout process.
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Make sure that your website is mobile friendly
Having a mobile-friendly site is a necessity in today’s digital age. A lot of people do their shopping on their phones as it is the most convenient way to shop. To avoid losing sales opportunities and customers, you should test your website’s mobile friendliness before the holiday rush starts. Events such as flash sales that create a lot of traffic at once could overwhelm it so you need to make sure that your e-commerce site is equipped to deal with a large volume of traffic.
Take your e-commerce website to the next level
Clarity your return policy
The return policies that e-commerce stores offer play a key role in attracting customers. Buying online is a bigger risk than buying in-store because you never get to see the product in person. As a result, customers like to have the option of returning their holiday gifts. If you want to ensure maximum customer satisfaction and inspire loyalty among potential customers, you need to ensure that you have a return policy that is transparent and uncomplicated.
Stock up on your inventory
There is no better time to buy new inventory than just before the holiday rush. Now is the perfect time to ensure that you have enough products in order to be able to meet your projected demand.
Provide excellent customer service
While it is important to ensure customer satisfaction all year round, it is especially crucial during the holiday season. With so much traffic filtering through your website every day, it can be tempting to relax your customer service approach and devote your attention to other matters.
If you want to transform a one-time online shopper into a loyal customer, you need to ensure your customer service never wavers. The best way to meet customer service needs with minimal effort is to set up a chatbot on your web page. In addition to chatbots, try to reserve plenty of time for your customer service team to respond to emails and queries. Your main aim during the holidays is to create a positive customer experience.
Stay calm and seize the moment
Last but not least, it is important to stay calm. As soon as you start to stress out, things go wrong. If you have followed all the recommendations in this article, you are guaranteed to be well-prepared. The holiday shopping period constitutes the time of year when your business has the biggest opportunity to thrive so seize the moment. Capitalize on the bargain hunters and appeal to the holiday gift shoppers by providing the most positive customer experience possible.
E-commerce website development services
E-commerce is essential if you want your business to thrive, not only during Christmas but all year round. However, breaking into the e-commerce market can be difficult, which is why Publi Web Media is here to help. With 10 years of experience in the business, we offer a series of comprehensive online and marketing services.
These include:
- E-commerce website development
- Enterprise management system integration
- Search engine optimization
- Social media marketing
- Telemarketing and customer acquisition
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