When it comes to preparing an online store for holiday shoppers, the focus is usually on marketing and graphic design. While brick-and-mortar store owners are putting up Christmas decorations and ramping up local advertising efforts to attract shoppers, e-commerce business owners are focusing on displaying seasonal graphics on their site and boosting digital advertising to achieve similar results.
The overall look and feel of a storefront and the campaigns that drive people to it are highlights of the holiday season for all retailers. But online retailers face a unique requirement: They must also ensure their digital storefronts are in good working order for online shoppers, often in higher quantities than before. If you run an e-commerce site, start early and prepare your online store mechanics now for the holiday season.
Step 1: Increase your site performance
As the Internet grows, performance remains key to a site’s overall success. Here are some ways to ensure your ecommerce site performance is up to par for the holiday season:
1. Guarantee a quality mobile experience
The mobile shopping trend is growing rapidly. Actually, 59% of buyers cite mobile shopping as an important factor when deciding which brand or retailer to buy. To ensure a quality mobile experience, make sure the mobile version of your site performs as well or better than your desktop site. Adopt a responsive design theme for your ecommerce site if you haven’t already, or consider using an ecommerce platform designed for mobile experiences first.
2. Prepare for an increase in traffic
Holiday shopping means a significant portion of the population purchases similar products at the same time, which equates to a large influx of visitors online or to most e-commerce stores. Verify that your site has the capacity to handle a traffic spike and will not be negatively affected. To prepare for increased traffic to your site, opt for cloud hosting managed through a reputable e-commerce platform.
3. Check your loading speed
As the page load time increases from 1 to 3 seconds, the probability of rebound increases by 32%. Check your loading speed to ensure your site loads as quickly as possible to avoid alienating impatient customers. There are several ways to improve your site speed:
- Compress files, especially images, for faster rendering
- Audit plugins and remove those that are no longer necessary for your site
- Use a robust content delivery network (CDN) to distribute the load on servers
Step 2: Evaluate your payment experience
Smooth checkout is essential to ensure a smooth shopping experience that leads to purchase. Here are some aspects of your payment experience to review in preparation for the holidays:
1. Offer multiple payment methods
Overall, buyers are much more willing to purchase when offered a variety of payment options. 42% of customers will not complete a purchase if their preferred payment method is not available. Offer a variety of payment methods, including debit/credit cards, wallet payments, buy now/pay later options, and more to meet your customers where they are. If you’re limited in what you can offer, prioritize the payment methods you’ll offer based on the preferences of your target audience.
2. Analyze security measures
Not only is a security breach detrimental to your company’s reputation, it is also a major problem for your customers themselves. Make sure you have adequate security measures in place so that your customers’ personal information or payment data cannot be stolen by online hackers. Purchasing an SSL certificate for your site and using a PCI-certified solution to manage credit cards will help you boost your security in time for the holidays.
3. Expand Abandoned Cart Messaging
Abandoned carts are an inevitable problem for ecommerce businesses, but they’re even harder to accept when your audience is more inclined to shop. Expand on any abandoned cart messages you already have in place and tailor them for the holiday season to make them more relevant. Follow-up emails, exit-intent pop-ups offering discounts, and browser notifications are all great ways to remind buyers to buy from you before it’s too late.
Step 3: Consider your user experience
Customers with purchasing intent can be easily deterred by an unsatisfactory user experience. Here are some areas of your user experience to consider in order to satisfy your customers:
1. Clarify Shipping and Return Policies
Since the customers you welcome are shopping for specific holidays, they will definitely want to know if they will receive their purchases on specific holiday dates. They will also want to know, if the item isn’t right for them, what their options are for returns and exchanges. Make sure your shipping process and return policy are clearly outlined and can be easily found on your website to avoid customer objections.
2. Increase digital support
Despite your best efforts, customers will inevitably have questions, but answering them is not enough. necessarily need to involve a strong customer service team. Add chatbots to your site to answer frequently asked questions in the form of a real person to save on live resources. You can also use an FAQ landing page, help center, product instructional videos, or other resources so customers can self-help to get the information they need.
3. Make contact information accessible
Some customers prefer a more hands-on approach to resolving their questions and will want to hear answers from a real employee. Others may simply want to confirm that your business is real and legitimate before processing a payment that they might not get back. Make sure your company’s phone number, email address, and other relevant contact information is easy to find (and correct) so you or your customer service team can address any concerns personally.
Final Thoughts
Don’t let upgrading your ecommerce site structure fall behind your other holiday preparation tasks. Although it has a much less visible impact, it can make a big difference in holiday conversions and the success of your holiday campaigns.