Complete Guide To Preparing Your eCommerce Store For Holidays
As the holiday season approaches, online shoppers are looking out for the latest deals and offers for the required product. Due to the pandemic, all the IT workers are working from home and are on the internet most of the time, so there can be a huge rise in the online shopping market. At present, holiday eCommerce is experiencing a boom, and in 2020 the sales mounted up to 190 billion US dollars. If you are an eCommerce store owner, it is your chance to grab the opportunity to increase your sales and revenue. Increasing sales is not that easy, and you need to follow some key practices. Read on to know about the complete guide to preparing your eCommerce store for holidays and increasing your market share.
Each year online stores are preparing for holiday sales and also make huge revenue. It is important to stay ahead of the competition in this competitive world to make a huge impact on holiday sales.
Steps To Follow For Preparing Your eCommerce Store For Holidays
1. Always Be Prepared For Incoming Traffic
There is always an increase in traffic for holiday shopping for any eCommerce site, especially on peak days like Cyber 5, in these peak times, make sure that your inventory is stocked up. Work on the speed and security of your website to maintain a good relationship with consumers. Evaluate third-party integrations and make sure that they can handle the pressure and load during holiday shopping. Last-minute app updates can lead to poor performance of your eCommerce site.
2. Create Hassle-Free Customer Experience
In today’s world, every customer wants the online shopping experience to be hassle-free and easy to find the required products. That means your site needs to provide options catered to their specific needs and a seamless path to checkout. To have the customers feel good about your eCommerce site, you need to regularly test the site, update your merchandise from time to time, personalize user experience, and optimize the check-out process.
3. Improved Shipping And Fulfillment
People shopping online prefer to have a free delivery to their home and to simplify the process, you need to have a clear return policy to automate the online sales. For an additional touch, personalize your packaging to add to the customer experience. Offering flexible shipping and returns can make a huge impact on the sales of your eCommerce store.
4. Content For Holiday Sales Promotion
Generating more marketing content is a crucial part of holiday eCommerce operations. To grab the attention of your consumer and generate leads, the content should be unique and attractive. Investing in Social media campaigns, email campaigns, and other social media activities with appealing content can be a great boost to your sales.
5. Plan For Holiday Promotions
Promotion of your store is vital to increase sales. Promotions also help the consumers pick the right product for their needs, especially when they are confused about buying. Here are some of the promotion ideas that can be used
- Suggest Gift Cards for Consumers
- Offer Holiday Gift Packing with message
- Prepare special gifts and bundles for occasions
- Always highlight the best selling products
6. Always Think For Mobiles
Today’s world is mobile-driven, and everything is completed in the mobile itself, including shopping, payments, and returns. Mobile Commerce is increasing, especially during the holidays, and people are opting for mobile purchases due to flexibility and the easy check-out process. To give the user the best experience, never make huge differences in design as the consumers might get confused after returning to your eCommerce store.
7. Automate Inventory, Shipping, And Returns
One of the best ways to increase consumer experience is to automate your inventory, shipping and simplify the return policy. Automation helps in the smooth running of your online store and can also lead to positive consumer feedback. By automation of inventory, it is possible to get a single inventory for all channels your products are listed and at the same time maintain the correct stock according to sales. Manual tracking of orders and inventory can lead to errors, and at peak times, these mistakes can be costly.
For online shopping, shipping is also most important, and there must be easy returns also. You can avoid negative reviews by making the returns process as seamless as possible to ensure customer satisfaction and increase customer loyalty.
8. Social Media Promotion
Shoppers are now going through social media before purchasing anything from online stores. Reviews for any eCommerce store are vital, and nowadays, people are also purchasing from social media sites. Facebook and Instagram can be used for the social media promotion of your eCommerce store. Try to get more positive reviews on social media to enable your business to move one step ahead of your competitors.
9. Live Chats And Customer Support
Every online store is to have a live chat and customer support to guide the customers in the right way. At busy times of holiday shopping, most customers are likely to contact customer care to clarify their doubts regarding payments and other details. Online chat options can be highlighted to make sure that the consumers can notice them quickly.
10. Start As Soon As Possible
The important key in preparing your eCommerce store for holidays is to start early ahead of the competitors. The sooner you start, the sooner your site will be equipped for the holiday rush, and the more strategic holiday content you’ll be able to release. Make sure the site is as functional and smooth as possible. Get your shipping fully optimized and market like never before.
Wrapping Up
Now that you know the challenges you might face while running an eCommerce store for the holidays, it is time to get ready for your site for all the challenges. For any eCommerce site, design is crucial for making more sales and increasing customer experience. At Ayatas Technologies, we are specialized in eCommerce website development. Contact us for more details.