Here it Comes...Is your business ready for
the Holiday Shopping Season?
by Anna Hahn
In 2003, holiday sales were over $200 billion,
and online holiday sales grew to over $18
billion, over
a 20%
increase
from the previous year. If your small business sells products
or services that can be given as gifts, then you would
probably like to have a slice of that pie.
More and more people have internet access and less free
time due to juggling jobs and family life, so they turn to
the internet for shopping as a time-saver and a convenience.
If your business doesn't have a website yet, there is still
time to establish
your online presence before the peak shopping
season begins in November.
If you do have a website, now is the time to prepare all
aspects of your web presence so you can maximize potential
sales during peak season. Here are some tips to help you
get ready now:
- Be prepared for a large increase in website
traffic.
Check your site’s statistics over the past few months
to be sure that you still have the capacity, especially
in bandwidth, for that large increase in traffic. You don’t
want to turn customers away and have them shop with your
competitors simply because your web server can’t
handle the seasonal traffic.
- Even if your site is not an e-commerce site, be sure
you keep your content up to
date. Your customers will appreciate the convenience
of looking at your products and accurate pricing online,
as well as
your seasonal store hours, location and other information
that will make their holiday shopping less stressful.
- Put seasonal gift-giving ideas (including the availability
of gift certificates) in a very prominent place, such as
on your homepage. Use high quality pictures of your products
whenever possible so that shoppers feel like they are getting
a good look at an item before they buy it. This will help
to remove a large barrier to making a purchase. If necessary,
have the photos taken professionally.
- Start collecting email
addresses both
in-store and online so you can send your customers special
offers, coupons,
gift ideas and notices of new products by email throughout
the season. This prevents them from forgetting about your
business amid the hustle and bustle of the holidays. Try
to include useful information (such as a holiday recipe
or decorating tip if it relates to your business) along
with your promotional message. This will make customers
more receptive to your emails, and will increase the chances
that they will forward the email to a friend or family
member.
- Make sure that every page on your site provides easy-to-find
contact methods – phone, email, online forms – so
that customers can ask questions about your products, return
policies, etc. Be sure to check your store’s voice
mail and email very often during peak season so that you
can respond to any inquiries promptly and encourage that
customer to make a purchase. Waiting too long for a response
is a big turnoff. Remember that customers who took the
time to ask questions are already interested in your product
or service.
- To minimize repetitive questions coming through on the
phone or by email, add an FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)
section to your site, where you can post useful information
such as forms of payment accepted and return policies.
- Keep in mind that around 60% of
online purchases are made by women. Is your website appealing to women? Have
women that you know – friends, wives, sisters, mothers – test
drive your site and give honest opinions about what they
like and don’t like. You especially want to identify
areas where a potential customer could be confused about
how to proceed with an order. You still have time to make
changes to improve your site before November.
- Almost half of last year’s online holiday shoppers
used a search engine or comparison site to begin their
shopping. Make sure all your web pages are optimized for
search engines (keywords, content, meta-tags), and be sure
to submit them to search engines as soon as possible to
increase the chances that you will turn up in shoppers’ web
search results.
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