With Halloween and Bonfire Night behind us now, 2017 is hurtling towards Christmas at breakneck speed. So if you haven’t already, now is the time to get your ecommerce website ready for the Christmas rush. More money is spent online during this time of year than any other, so for ecommerce retailers, this is a crucial time period. Over the festive period, many retailers will be competing to make those all important sales. Here are some of our hints and tips to help your ecommerce store make a success of the season.
Give Your Website a Festive Makeover
Brick and mortar shops all decorate their stores and window displays to accommodate seasonal changes, so your ecommerce store should too. Whether somebody who lands on your website was looking for gifts or browsing for themselves, adopting festive design on your pages will place Christmas at the forefront of their minds and create a positive feeling. This might encourage visitors to explore your seasonal or gift ranges and make a higher value purchase than they originally intended to. Regularly updating your design and images to reflect seasonality makes your website look visually appealing and suggests to visitors that your content is fresh and current.
Prepare for Increased Traffic
Increased traffic is always a good thing, but only if your website can handle it. A sudden increase in traffic can cause your site to crash, load slowly, or not load at all and the last thing you want is your site to go down when visitors are looking to make a purchase. If your target audience cannot access your site, they will form a negative impression of your company and be less inclined to revisit at a quieter time. Rather than waiting for your website to be back up and running, a customer may choose to purchase the same product from a competitor instead, so plan ahead and chat to your hosting provider to check that your site can survive high volumes of traffic.
Avoid Poor User Experience
User experience is more important than ever over the festive season. With competition among ecommerce retailers being high over this time of year, the website which loads faster and is easier to use is more likely to secure the sale. Large images often cause a slow loading speed, so keep the file sizes of your images small. You should also make it as easy as possible for users to navigate your site, and find the information that they are looking for. Over the festive season in particular, customers are more likely to need information about delivery options, returns policies and customer service procedures. Making these elements clear and easy to find improves the user experience and in turn encourages a customer to make a purchase from your site.
Use Email to Encourage Customers Back to Your Website
Your website might look festive and you might have created some fresh seasonal content, but with so many other online retailers doing the same, it can still be difficult to stay ahead of the competition. Email is an excellent tool for bringing customers back to your website and keeping your ecommerce store at the forefront of their minds. You can use email to direct subscribers to seasonal blogs suggesting gift ideas, to encourage them to return to their cart and complete a purchase, or provide them with a unique link to receive discounts on products or delivery.
Your ecommerce website is your online shop front, so it is important to maintain its presentation and functionality in order to have an edge over the competition in the festive season. As a professional web design agency, we can help your online shopping website stand out online. Whether your site needs a festive makeover or a full revamp, we can help. Get in touch to find out more about our approach to ecommerce website design.
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