The Festive season is quickly approaching. More people every year choose to do most of their shopping online. This allows them to avoid queues and stress, and gives them great options on deals and easy ways to compare products. If you run an E-commerce store, whether it’s big or small, you’ll want to be as prepared as possible going into shopping season. This makes it easier for your customers and maximizes your sales potential.
Marketing
Set up a Christmas shop section of your website and add gift guides and details of any special offers. Consider changing elements of your theme to reflect the season. Just adding the odd bit of festive design will get people excited and make them think of you as somewhere they can gift shop.
Use social media to your advantage. As an online trader, you probably already have an online presence. This is the perfect time to grow it and reap the rewards. Change the branding on all of your profiles to reflect your new festive theme. Share your gift guides and any shopping tips along with links to the relevant areas on your site. Pinterest is a great tool for sharing gift guides and building engagement.
Preparing Your Site
Is your site ready for the increased traffic? Have a look at your hosting package to make sure your site is capable of fast speeds. This will help you get a higher google page rank, as well as keeping customers happy. Can you process payments quickly and efficiently? Look to High Risk Pay if this is something you are worried about.
Mobile Utilization
Is your website mobile friendly? An increasing number of people shop on the go. With busy lifestyles, the ability to shop on the move is something customers look for. If your site isn’t easy to use from a smartphone, they won’t bother. Check your theme has good mobile conversion. Try it out yourself, is it easy to use? If not, make some changes.
Prepare Deals
All of the big stores now run huge deals for both Black Friday and Cyber Monday. You could offer deals on these days, too. If you are worried about competing with the big guys, why not try something a bit different? Offer free delivery throughout December if you can. Considering using your position online – perhaps you could offer special deals to bloggers who will promote your products. Have any deals you want to run planned out ready, so you can prepare the stock and factor it in to your cash flow forecasts.
Stock Levels
This is very important. It’s no use marketing and setting up deals, but then not having enough stock to meet the demand. Increase your stock levels now. People are shopping earlier than ever. Don’t get caught off guard.
With online revenue over the festive period accounting for billions of dollars and growing year on year, it’s more important than ever to be prepared. Follow these tips and your E-commerce store will thrive over the holiday period and continue to grow in the New Year.
