Early this year, it was widely reported in the media that 2004 online holiday sales were up dramatically from 2003. For example, e-commerce data from VeriSign®, Inc. showed that the 2004 holiday shopping season (Thanksgiving Day through Monday, December 27) yielded a 24 percent increase compared to the same period in 2003 for its customers. The trend will likely continue: a recent study by market research firm Forrester Research, reported that online retail sales will grow by 22% to a whopping $172 billion in 2005.
If you were in business last year, did your holiday sales perform in a manner consistent with the reported increases? Is your site ready for the increased demand of the 2005 holiday season? This article provides insights to help you prepare your webstore for the 2005 holiday shopping rush and beyond.
Provide secure ordering
If you’re not already offering a secure shopping experience for your customers, the
2005 busy holiday season is a great time to begin. More and more customers now understand
that https:// protected order forms mean that a site is secure, and many will not order
unless your site is protected. If you have not yet set up your online store for SSL,
you can purchase an SSL certificate from providers such as GeoTrust® and VeriSign.
For more information about the features and benefits of SSL, see last month’s article on SSL (August 2005) issue of this newsletter.
Offer gift certificates
Did you know that gift certificates were among the most purchased items online during 2004 holiday
shopping season? Offer gift certificates from your online store to promote brand awareness and
increase sales. (GoECart’s Gift Certificate module makes this easy; see “Know Your GoECart” in
this month's eNewsletter.)
Test key features, such as site search
The pre-holiday season is also a great time to double check key functionality of your webstore,
especially the “Search” button. Since many customers will be doing their holiday browsing
and buying with shopping list in hand, many will use your online store’s search functionality
to look for specific items in your website. Try doing a search for items using the same keywords
that you would expect to be used by customers. If the product doesn’t appear at or near the top of
your search results, optimize keywords and make other adjustments as necessary.
Design your site for success
If you’re offering specialized holiday promotions, you may wish to rework the site design to “guide”
customers to specific items or more information about the promotions. Be sure content is written in
clear and concise language and images are optimized for download speed and placement. Test your site
design on multiple browsers and platforms—especially the most popular browsers such as Internet Explorer
and newer browsers gaining popularity like Mozilla’s Firefox and Apple’s Safari. Since increased foot
traffic is practically a guarantee over the holidays, you may wish to seize the opportunity to get
customer feedback on your site design by running a small survey.
Optimize email campaigns
Without a doubt, thousands of e-merchants will be conducting targeted email campaigns this holiday
season. Combine these legitimate campaigns with “spam,” and you’ve got a holiday email overload
problem waiting to happen. Make your holiday email campaigns stand out with these simple tips:
Run campaigns early to beat the holiday rush.
Customize and personalize emails for existing customers.
Offer discounts to existing customers.
Inform customers about recent changes made to improve customer service.
Generate excitement with free shipping and other specialized promotions.
The Happy holidays
This busy holiday season may very well generate the highest demand since the birth of e-commerce.
If you’re the last-minute-shopper type, don’t delay in optimizing your online store!
Start your planning now to give yourself the gift of e-commerce success this holiday season.
Take the SEO Challenge
Search engines are the main traffic drivers for an online store. Take the free SEO challenge and learn if your shopping cart is search engine friendly.
Fill the form below and start the test.
