It’s nearly that time of year, where the lights are twinkling, bells are ringing, decorations are aplenty, and so are your online sales! Or at least they can be, if you prepare your online store for the festive season well and far enough in advance.
Christmas is a busy time for everyone, with Black Friday, Cyber Monday and the UK’s notorious Boxing Day sales, and many retailers plan an entire year in advance. So how can you prepare your online store to make sure you’re the one ringing in the sales? Whether it’s ideas for Christmas marketing campaigns, researching which products are most popular and set to fly off your online shelves or learning from last year’s mistakes, there’s plenty to prepare for!
Here are our top tips to make sure you’re ready to go!
Analyse and learn from last years data
One good thing about the festive period is that it happens every year, meaning you can look back on it and make any necessary adjustments. Look at what went well last year, concentrating on the following:
- Did you run a particular campaign that brought a large amount of traffic to your website and shop?
- Was there a particularly good sales day or promotion that you had?
- Which keywords worked well for you last year?
- What was your most popular product?
- Which traffic source was the most popular?
On the flipside, it’s important to also look at what didn’t go as well. This will allow you to not make the same mistakes twice. For example, was there a particular product that didn’t sell well at all? Is there a way you could improve the promotion of that product this year? Was there a reason this didn’t sell as well?
Once you’ve analysed and looked at the data and results from last year, you should be in a much better position to make a plan for this year’s festive period and how you’re going to succeed.
Ensure your website is mobile friendly
When it comes to Christmas shopping, there really are no exceptions. People want to be able to buy gifts on the go, whether that be via a desktop or a mobile, so it’s vital that your shop is set up with the experience of your users in mind, in order to not lose sales.
In a study conducted by Charged Retail, it’s said that UK consumers are Christmas shopping online now more than ever, with almost 50% of all Christmas goods being bought online since the Covid pandemic in 2020. So with those figures speaking for themselves, why would you want to cut off nearly half of your customer base at the busiest time of year?
How do you do this? That’s where White Digital come in!
Making your online store mobile friendly generally comes down to build and design, two things that we’re experts at! From Eliminating pop-ups, spacing out links, changing button sizes and placements to regular MOT’s, we can do it all. Get in touch today to get the ball rolling.
Make sure that your website can handle the traffic
Website speed is always critical but when it comes to the festive period. The last thing you want is for the increased traffic that you’re working hard for to actually make your website slow down or worst case – crash!
Slow websites can make your sales plunge dramatically. Afterall, if you’re looking for something in a hurry and can’t get there quick enough, you’ll look at competitors. In a report by Pingdom, it was proven that websites that take too long to load really are losing sales, with pages that loaded within 2 seconds having a bounce rate of only 9%, whilst pages with an average load time of 5 seconds had a bounce rate of 38%. The difference in rates between just 3 seconds is huge, and certainly not something you or your website want.
There’s a couple of different steps you can take to ensure your website is performing to its potential. These include having enough staff available to answer online queries if you offer a web chat service and ensuring your payment service is set up correctly and ready to deal with more transactions than normal, but most importantly, make sure your website host can handle the traffic that you anticipate.
Website host not up to scratch? We’ve got you covered! With super-fast loading speeds, fast fixes(just incase!), your very own hacker SWAT team and fast-track ticket service, you’ll be ready for more traffic than a UK motorway on a bank holiday weekend! Get in touch to get started.
Use SEO and post content that considers festive keywords
If you use SEO already, you’ll know just how important it is in making your website more visible online, driving more traffic and bringing more opportunities for your business. The festive period is no exception when it comes to SEO and the way that you approach it during the Christmas rush plays a significant role in how well your store performs.
Conducting and using keyword research is a vital part of that when it comes to content. From writing blog posts about your store and your products during the festive period and posting content on social media, using the highest ranking keywords relating to the festive season can help you rank higher on Google.
Want to take your website one step further and introduce SEO to cover things like citations, page optimisation, link outreach and more? We can help!
Our Digital Marketing Team have years of experience in SEO, content marketing and everything you need to boost your online presence. Reach out today and find out more!
Consider email marketing
Similar to social media marketing, being active via email can be a huge part of your marketing strategy during the festive season.
Do you have a mailing list set up already? If not, now is the time! Email is one of the most effective methods of communicating with customers and followers. With the right strategy and platform in place, you should notice a significant rise in revenue, conversions, and other metrics.
Become more personal with your customers and send them exclusive content, offers and promotions, making your store almost irresistible for those looking to buy Christmas presents, without the stress and long queues, and remind them of that.
Top tip: Always include deadlines in promotional emails to increase urgency.
Need a hand getting started with email marketing? We can build connections like no other. Get in touch today!
Here at White Digital, we’re seasoned professionals when it comes to all things digital and this isn’t our first Christmas. From web design, web hosting, SEO and digital marketing, we can help. Find a full list of our services here and get in touch with any questions.
