Christmas is the busiest period for most eCommerce websites. With online sales growing nearly 20% last year it’s important to plan for the season to ensure you can maximise your income.

Here are some things you could consider for your eCommerce business.

Preparing your Christmas marketing

We know it might still feel early but preparing your Christmas marketing campaign early is key. Consider contacting your graphic design or web agency to create your promotion banners and advertisement. Brainstorm ideas for both social media and newsletter campaigns to encourage people to interact with your brand. The last thing you want is a rush to prepare all the banners for your website!

Make sure you have the hosting capacity

It’s never been so important to ensure your website is fast. Google DO take site speed into account as a ranking factor. With an increasing mobile audience, a fast and optimised website has become essential.

Speak to both your hosting company and your web development team to make sure your website is optimised and able to cope with the increased traffic during the Christmas period.

A mobile presence is key

Many websites now receive half their traffic from mobile devices. With people now feeling confident to order on their mobile devices it has become essential to make sure your website is mobile optimised.

The best method is using responsive web design. This means you can use the same HTML for all devices but with CSS it can adapt to provide an optimised experience on all devices and platforms. Unfortunately it may be too close to Christmas to implement such a major change to your website but you could make sure your website is usable on a mobile device. Run some test orders and contact your website developers to see if they can improve the usability.

Prepare your email activity

Your email activity should be a key part of your marketing campaign. Recent research shows that people are happy to receive up to 2-3 emails per month. Keep in mind sending too many emails can have a negative impact on your brand. Planning the content of these emails can have a big impact on click-throughs and sales. Make sure they are eye catching and incentivise people to visit your website.

UserXPlot

We recommend using mail services such as MailChimp and Campaign Monitor. They both have several responsive templates you can customise to fit your brand. They also send emails over a long period of time across several whitelisted servers so they don’t hit spam filters.

Check stock levels

Make sure all your products are in plentiful stock. There is nothing worse than a website with out of stock products. Make sure any stock delivered by third parties are also in stock and ready for the busy period. Keeping sufficient stock levels and delivery on time is key to building a successful relationship with the client. Remember nobody likes a late delivery!

Remember Black Friday and Cyber Monday

Black Friday and Cyber Monday are the busiest eCommerce days of the year. This year they are on Friday 25th November and Monday 28th November respectively. Make sure you have separate campaigns ready for these days!

Beyond Christmas

The busy Christmas period extends beyond the end of the year. January and February can often continue to be busy. You can also use your increased customer base from the Christmas period to market offers and deals through social media platforms and newsletters.