Have you made your list and checked it twice? A little planning in the fall months can make your ecommerce site's holiday season run much more smoothly once Christmas gets closer.
It’s the most wonderful time of the year! Halloween? Nope. Thanksgiving? You’re getting warmer. Literally. Is it getting hotter? We’re still in our shorts and sundresses over here, so why am I already talking about Christmas?! Well, if you have an ecommerce website, then now is the time to start preparing for the holidays.
Here are some tips for making sure your ecommerce site is ready for the holidays:
Update Your Products
Make sure your products are updated and accurate. Adding a nice image to each product will really help boost sales as well. Be prepared for highly sought after items and make sure you have plenty in stock or ways to source more to keep up with demand. Make sure your prices reflect any sales you’re planning. If you are pushing a certain product, it might be a good idea to feature that on the Homepage. Speaking of your Homepage, see the next tip!
Spruce up Your Homepage
This is the first thing people see, so make it count. Freshening up your Homepage is a great way to let your users (and search engines) know that you are keeping your site up-to-date. If you are an Infomedia client, then you are in luck! Our developers build websites that make it easy for you to update photos and content. So get your site ready for Christmas by changing out your slider images or updating the content to let your users know about big sales. Or just make it more cheerful, merry and bright!
Promote Sales or Specials
The aforementioned homepage is a great place to do this, but you should also be doing this on your social media accounts or your email newsletters. Now is the time to be thinking about this so that you can make sure any coupons or discount codes are in place in time.
Do a Test Purchase
Sometimes we think our site is easier to navigate than it really is because we are so familiar with it. It’s a good idea to make sure the checkout process is easy to navigate. The last thing you want is for someone to leave your site — and their full shopping cart — because they get overwhelmed with the checkout process.
Be Sure Your Site Has an SSL
We’ve written about the importance of having an SSL on your website here and here. Your users need to trust that their sensitive information is safe when shopping online. If you’re an Infomedia client and you have an ecommerce site that we set up for you, then you have nothing to worry about — all of our ecommerce sites have an SSL, so everyone is protected. We worry about that so you don’t have to. If you’re just adding ecommerce to your site this year or you don’t have an SSL for any other reason, get in touch and we’ll help you get it set up.
Shipping Deadlines
It is important to make sure your customers know that there is an order cut-off date if they want to get their products by the big day. You want to go ahead think about that timeline before the holidays even begin so you can communicate it to your users throughout the whole season. You’ll want to make your order cutoff and shipping options clear on your site — especially as key dates start nearing.
Make Sure Your Site Has Responsive Design
I cannot stress how important this is. If your website is not responsive yet, please give us a call and help us help you. This is a trend that is non-negotiable in 2017. You need to be sure your site adapts to and performs perfectly on all screen sizes and devices. I do most of my shopping on my cell phone, as I am always on the go — even more so during the Christmas season.
Want to learn more about getting set up for the Christmas season? Our Infomedia Communications Director, Carrie Rollwagen, created a webinar all about setting up your shop for Christmas — watch it for free on our Training Videos page!
