Christmas in August is a far removed concept for most holiday shoppers, but for ecommerce merchants, this is a time to prepare for what is to come. Some reports suggest an 11% projected growth in 2010 online/ecommerce sales this year vs. only a 2.5% sales in overall U.S. retail. To put this in perspective, “in 2010 ecommerce will likely account for 7% of all U.S. shopping.” (Ref: 2010 WSJ: E-Commerce Growth Slows, But Still Out-Paces Retail)
To help you prepare for the holiday shopping season, we have created this Top Five Holiday Readiness Guide for Ecommerce Merchants below:
1) In anticipation of the increase in traffic, go ahead and load-test your site. This will help prevent bottle necks, which are known to cause customers to leave and go directly to the competition’s store. While you’re testing make sure all links are firing and other features (videos, expanded product photo views, etc.) are working.
2) Customers also find “out of stock items” to be a BIG turnoff, especially during holiday season. Prepare inventory ordering schedules now to accommodate holiday orders.
3) Design and schedule gift messages, gift certificates (preferably delivered online), top-nav. banners, wish list features, free shipping banner incentives, last minute gift ideas, holiday cart decor, etc.
4) Prepare your customer service to handle shipping delay complaints. Set up a special FAQ and order/ship-by deadlines/expectations section for holiday shoppers. Many times excellent customer service is enough to drive customer loyalty and distinguish your product from that of your competition. It is especially important to be pro-active in this area during the holiday season.
5) If you haven’t already built a mobile store or created a branded presence on social media, it should be done immediately. This year’s shoppers are projected to be shopping on the go…if they can’t navigate your store from their smart-phones, they’ll find one they can. They’ll also be talking about what they’re buying on social. If you’re not there to pick up the fans and encourage the raves, you’re missing a great opportunity.
FastPivot can help you prepare. We provide world class Yahoo! Store design & development, social media enhancement design packages, and mobile store solutions. Contact FastPivot today to get started.
