5 eCommerce tips for having a successful Holiday season

November 26, 2013 By BJ Cook,

When eCommerce websites and holiday shopping come together - you have one of the most successful shopping weekends of the year. Between Black Friday and Cyber Monday your eCommerce website might experience a growth in sales this year like never before. Last week we put together a list of the Mistakes eCommerce managers can make during the holidays. This week we wanted to give 5 tips to help eCommerce managers have a successful holiday season.

1). Customizing your store - It's Christmas!

With 41% of spending being done online this holiday weekend, make sure your eCommerce website is ready for the holiday season. You can increase you SEO just from a holiday themed homepage. Change up your homepage and add some content for the items that are going to be on sale. If you are having a huge Cyber Monday sale - change your titles to include the phrase "Cyber Monday Sale". You will have a better chance of optimizing your SEO for the holiday season if your eCommerce website reflects what you are promoting. I am not saying to add Christmas trees or lights - but, changing the theme to Winter and changing some colors can make a world of difference to your holiday shoppers.....Get in the season, don't be a Scrooge.

2). Utilize PPC - big risks will lead to big rewards

Do you have PPC set up for the Holiday season? I know PPC is a scary thing - you may think you are spending extra money that may be wasted. But, the only way to succeed is by taking risks - Big Risks reap big rewards. Spend the time to place Cyber Monday ads in your PPC campaigns, offer special deals through your PPC. Paid search sales were up 29% last year and it's only going to continue to rise, since digital is making moves like we've never seen. Holiday keywords are very competitive and expensive to bid on - but, manage your budget and just know that one conversion can lead to a customer for a lifetime.

3). Embrace the Christmas/Holiday spirit - communication and context are key

Regardless of how you feel about Christmas, you can't hide from it. It's happening on December 25th at any rate - so you might as well embrace it. Change your eCommerce website to reflect the holidays and make sure you are blogging about it. Theme a couple of your posts to reflect the upcoming holiday season and how you are giving back or even giving away something free just because it is the holidays. If you host your own toy drive and volunteer at a food kitchen. Blog about it, tweet it and even send it to Facebook. 84% of consumers will tell friends and family about eCommerce websites that are big on corporate social responsibility.

4). Be honest or clear with pricing, shipping and payment method

There is nothing worse than spending tons of time shopping for the perfect gift...only to find out the perfect gift really isn't 20% off and shipping is only free if you spend over $175. Damn the small print at the bottom of the page. Be clear and concise from the customers first click. It's all about customer retention and by being misleading about free shipping and the price of the item, is not a way to keep customers coming back. If you are direct and save your customers time by answering all the shipping and pricing questions out front - you might have won them over for life. Plus, they might tell others how seamless their shopping experience was, you might gain customers by word of mouth.

5). Get Mobile Now

2 words - RESPONSIVE WEBSITE! This makes it easy for customers to view your website on their mobile device. Did you know 30% of shoppers are anticipated to shop online and more than half will make their shopping purchases via mobile, that's $41.68 billion dollars...yes, BILLION in mobile sales. You can't risk an outdated website that takes forever to navigate through. Well, you can....but, don't expect to make many lifelong customers. People expect to be able to make moves and purchase an item at the drop of a hat - at dinner, at the park, and at work. Since there are fewer shopping days more people will be using their mobiles phones to shop. At Digital Operative we know SEO, PPC, Web design, UX, strategy, web development and more. We know that the holiday season is very important to eCommerce managers and hope that our list of the top 5 helpful tips can help build better experiences for eCommerce websites and their customers.