Is your ecommerce site ready for Christmas?
Scanning Facebook’s news feed this morning and seeing ‘Only 10 weeks til Christmas’ as a status update was a firm reminder that it really is that time of year again. Christmas is right around the corner. And whilst most retailers and etailers alike will have been planning for Christmas since early summer, it’s definitely not too late to make sure your site is fully optimized ready to take advantage of the yearly surge of potential festive shoppers.
Last year in one minute alone on 7th December online sales hit 1.4m, and etailers look set to have a very merry Christmas 2010 according to Forrester Research. Almost 15m UK online consumers are predicted to spend upwards of £1.1bn in December alone, with total festive sales set to top £1.7bn. So what can you do to ensure you maximize your chunk of this growing online seasonal spend?
Firstly, it’s essential to make sure your site relevant to for people who are searching for gifts. Shopping for someone else can be a difficult task, and making it easier for users will encourage them to spend on your site rather than your competitor’s. Including specialized search functions, for instance allowing users to shop by price or by recipient, and creating specific gift product categories populated with product types that have historically sold well during festive trade not only makes shopping easier for users, but gives you a destination to direct traffic to, both internally on the site and externally from your marketing campaigns.
Your homepage is your shop window and by making it seasonal you will help visitors to your site get caught up in Christmas shopping spirit. Use this space to encourage users to browse and convince them they are shopping on the right site. Promote key products that have the stock behind them to be your core festive revenue drivers and highlight key offers; enough to allow users to see they will get a great deal shopping with you, but without confusing or overwhelming potential customers with too many promotions at once.
Delivery and returns should also come to the forefront during peak trade. Making your shipping times and returns policies easy to find can overcome major purchasing barriers for shoppers needing to know when their gifts are going to arrive, and whether recipients will be able to send them back! Make it explicit to users when your last date for ordering is, and give them confidence in your customer service by linking to your returns policy at key points in their purchase path.
With both the number of potential shoppers and the amount they are willing to spend online on the increase, making sure you have a few fundamental basics covered can have a big effect on your site’s sales, and ultimately on your profits, this Christmas.
