Ecommerce Web Design and Holiday Shopping 2015

Ecommerce Website Design Tips for Holiday Shopping in 2015

The weather outside isn’t frightful yet, but if you go into any major retail store you’re going to see them already getting ready for the holiday shopping season. You should be, too. December is still about another 10 days away, but savvy shoppers are already starting to stuff the stockings. That means you need to be ready so you can take full advantage of the wonderful shopping season that is beginning right now.

Whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Saturnalia, the Festival of Lights, or Festivus, this is a big time for shopping. Here are the things you should be doing right now to get ready for the holiday shopping season 2015 with your Ecommerce Store and your Ecommerce Store SEO.

#1. Don’s Start getting “Creative” with your Navigation

It’s strange to start the list of recommendations with a recommendation not to do anything, but this point is incredibly important. Your existing customers are already used to your website working in a certain way. The last thing you want to do is turn them off and confuse people. Plus, every change you make to your website carries with it the risk of something not working. Now, when customers are swarming Ecommerce websites with credit cards in hand, is not the time for your e-payment system to crash because you messed up a couple hyperlinks.

#2. Increase your Server Load

If you cant increase your server load or capacity, at least make sure you can handle a significant increase in traffic. More people are getting online right now to take care of their holiday shopping than any other time of the year. If your website crashes because there’s too much traffic, everyone who wanted to buy something is going to be mad, and a lot of them might not come back. Don’t risk it. Make sure there is more than enough space on your server to accommodate all your virtual visitors.

#3. Make Sure your Website is FAST!

Customers don’t like waiting for sites to load. Maybe during other times of the year you get good results from your graphics-heavy pages and your fancy embedded videos that show how your products work. But from now until January, you need to get your customers to the products they want to buy and checked out as fast as possible.

• Streamline your graphics
• Move your videos to YouTube and link to them instead of embedding them.
• Make your pages load fast so your customers don’t have a chance to get tired of waiting and click away.

#4. Make your Site Safe! Make sure your customers know it!

Many customers won’t give up their credit card number to a site if they don’t see the green bar and padlock next to the URL, and the “https” prefix that tells them their connection is secure. It is more than worth the investment in a SSL, TSL, or EV SSL certificate so that your customers’ information is safe and they feel confident. Another way to increase safety and inspire confidence is by accepting PayPal. Your customers can pay securely through a site they already know and trust, and they don’t have to enter their credit card number at all.

#5. Make Your Site Mobile Friendly!

More and more customers are shopping from their mobile phones and tablets and the need for responsive (mobile friendly) website design is crucial for online success. If your site isn’t easy to navigate and easy to buy from on a mobile device, you are losing out on sales. Make sure your customers can easily find what they are looking for, order it, and pay for it from any device. If you can make an app that is optimized for the mobile experience, this is a great way to catch on-the-go shoppers. But as with the warning about navigation, don’t do anything that you aren’t absolutely certain will work perfectly. It’s better to make customers go through a mobile site on their browser than to have them get frustrated because your app doesn’t work perfectly.

#6. Deck the Halls of your Web Store

The holidays are a magical time. Santa Clause is coming to town, we’re all trolling the ancient Yuletide carol, and it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas. Whatever holiday your customers celebrate, they’re going to hand over their credit card a lot quicker if they’re feeling merry and bright. So now is the time to optimize your graphics, redecorate your feature images, and put everyone in that holiday spirit so that when they come to your site they instantly start thinking about chestnuts roasting on an open fire. Once you have your store in the holiday spirit, it is a great time to start offering discounts and incentives for people to stock up on presents. Make sure your Ecommerce Store is decorated and is giving off that holiday spirit and are sure to win.

#7. Load Up on Inventory

Get ready for the rush – load up on all the hottest gadgets your customers are going to be ordering. Especially as time draws closer to the end of December, being out of stock is the worst thing that can happen to you when it comes to getting loads of Christmas sales.

#8. Hire more staff for Promotions, Marketing and Shipping

However many people you have answering the phone and handling customer care emails, you need more. At this time of year, customers want their questions answered quickly, and they want to feel that they are being taken care of. Your job is to make them feel like they are the only people in the world putting presents under a tree, so that they will buy more presents from you.

#9. Advertise Your Delivery Deadlines

People want to know that their packages will arrive in time. So tell them what their deadline is. Keep in mind that delivery services slow down significantly in December with the high volume of packages that are being shipped. Err on the side of caution – it’s better to have your customers order presents early than to have the presents arrive after the big day, especially if you are promising delivery in time for the holidays.

#10. Showcase High Margin Items

Shoppers at this time of year don’t want to be seduced by how cool your products are for them, they want to know that other people are going to like the gifts they buy. So showcase your products that have the top reviews. Use customer testimonials to convince buyers that the people on their gift list will love what you have to offer.

#11. Make Gift Packages

While you’re showcasing gifts, make suggestions for gift packages. This is a great way to upsell gift-givers by letting them know that their gift will be twice as awesome if they pair their item with the rest of the gift package.

Let Front Street Media take care of it for you.

Your specialty is running your business. Our specialty is making your website awesome. Let us take care of your holiday website sales campaign. At Front Street Media of El Dorado Hills, we know how to make your website sell like crazy during the holidays. Give us a call today for a free estimate on holiday website optimization!