22 December 2020 | Annabel Hudson
The Christmas and holiday period is one of the most important times of year for an e-commerce site. Not only is it normally the busiest time of the year, but also the most profitable – especially this year considering majority of Christmas shopping is being done online. It is therefore crucial that retailers spend a little extra time carefully planning and preparing their site for this period. Let’s take a look at a few ways you can do just that:
Test Your Site for Traffic and Speed
It is crucial that your site is ready in terms of scalability and stability, to guarantee it can handle the increased demands during this busy period. It only takes improving your sites speed by milliseconds to reduce shopping cart abandonment and lower your bounce rate, in fact; over 57% of consumers will leave a site which fails to load after 3 seconds. In order to check your sites speed, make use of free online tools like Google PageSpeed Insights and WP Checkup.
Offer Free Shipping If You Can
If your site does not already offer free shipping, maybe considering introducing it for the holiday period. Free shipping has become a must-have for many consumers. According to Retail TouchPoints, 88% of shoppers prefer when a website offers free shipping over fast shipping. The primary reason customers abandon their basket is because of shipping costs, and with expected growth in E-commerce sales this year, the stakes are even higher. If you remove this area of friction from your website, you are likely to see an increase in order value and order volume.
Increase and Improve Your Customer Service
Packhelp explains that if a customer purchases from you around the holiday season, they are already primed for subsequent purchases. However, this is under the circumstances that they receive a good service which makes them want to return to your site. There are a few ways you can enhance your customer service during the holiday period, including; create a clear and well thought out FAQ page which includes all the changes around the holiday period to make sure customers do not have to dig out this information, hire seasonal staff if you can afford to do so who can help the customer service team meet every customers demands and also make sure to manage expectations , e.g. if there are delays in shipping make sure it is noted at the checkout. Customer service really is at the heart of a successful organisation, so make sure your ramp up your efforts during the festive period.
Optimise Your Promotional Copy
E-commerce sites are impeccably primed to take advantage of SEO. Therefore, during the holiday period make sure you have a great SEO campaign to drive your Christmas sales. Prepare with focussed keyword research and exciting content which will make your promotional copy increase traffic to your website.
If you would like any help creating a website which is fit for the festive period, contact us today.