50 e-Commerce Tips for Christmas Store Owners – Boost Festive Sales

Christmas is exactly 30 days away, making now a critical time for eCommerce store owners who want to end the year on a successful note. While it may be too late to make any major changes to your online website, it’s not too late to make some minor tweaks! The following 50 eCommerce tips can help you find success this Christmas season.

• Disable Interruptions:

  Remove irritating pop-up windows and banners as these interrupt the shopping experience and may even distract buyers from finalizing their purchase.

• Update the Website Aesthetic:

  Spread Christmas cheer and update your website with a festive look. Featured images should show Christmas gifts, banners should promote Christmas offers, and interactive presentations should point people to your hottest products.

• Have Competitive Pricing:

  Make sure that you have the right pricing. If your competitors have lowered theirs, price check and price match accordingly.

• Provide Free Vouchers for Social Media Engagement:

  Giving away free gifts and free vouchers for a shop/product review or comments on your social media profiles is a great way to get traffic to your site.

• Provide Gift Wrapping:

  When your parcels look amazing, your store will be remembered. This is a very good value-added service that allows you to add in a festive twist as a way of saying thank you to your customers.

• Provide Free Delivery:

  Customers love free delivery and free returns, just make sure to put the last order date in your announcements/banners so that customers get a Christmas delivery.

• Segment Customers & Target with Emails:

  Target your customers with emails that make suggestions based on price ranges, order history, and wish-listed items.

• Extend Your Return Policy:

  With so many festivities going on around Christmas time, many customers end up missing the return date deadline. Extend your return policy to mitigate the potential loss of future orders.

• Use Weather Forecast to Push Urgency:

  If a snowstorm is expected, urge your customers to order earlier to avoid parcel delivery delays. Use geo locations to target your messaging accordingly.

• Use Flash Deals/Deal of the Day:

  Getting an initial purchase is fantastic, but you want to encourage people to return on a daily basis. Use flash deals and deals of the day to get them to come back.

• Subscribe to Your Competitors:

  This is a very easy way to keep tabs on what they are doing. Get access to promotions and find inspiration for your next sale.

• Incentivize December Buys:

  Give customers coupon codes, vouchers, and gift cards for their purchases in November and make them only usable in December. Use emails to notify your customers that you’ve added these vouchers/codes/gift money to their account.

• Get Your Customers to Email/Call You:

  Stressed shoppers are far more likely to click away if they have a problem with your website. Encourage them to call or email and ramp up your call centre teams.

• Update Your About Page:

  Make sure people know who you are and feel like they can trust you. Make sure addresses, photos, and profiles are up to date and accurate.

• Do a Grammar Check:

  Typos will deter people from buying. Grammar check!

• Do a Website Speed Test:

  If your website download speed is too slow, your competitors get more sales. Speed up your website by optimizing it.

• Make Your Last Delivery Dates Obvious:

  Give people countdown to your last delivery dates to ensure that customers get their purchases done in time for Christmas.

• Create Gift Pages:

  Create a pre-made gift category to help customers find appropriate products to gift to others. Use gender, age, and relationship as filters.

• Create Product Bundles/Baskets:

  This makes customers feel like they are getting a good deal and they are far more likely to buy these as gifts for others.

• Create a Paid Search Campaign:

  Include more holiday-themed keywords in your paid campaigns and increase your chances at converting.

• Use a Landing Page to Boost Sales:

  You can boost holiday purchases by using a landing page to show off your best deals and hottest products.

• Engage Shoppers on Social Media:

  Create shareable content that promotes tagging, provide exclusive promotions, and give out gifts for those who win your challenges/games.

• Do a Giveaway Every Day:

  Leading up to Christmas, do a give-a-way via a raffle/challenges/games.

• Use Automated Emails to Mitigate Abandoned Carts:

  Remind people that they have gifts in their carts via automated emails.

• Simplify Your Checkout Process:

  Use a one-page checkout process to avoid losing customers during the checkout phase. Why? People are in a hurry during the Christmas holidays.

• Allow Your Guests to Checkout:

  Needing to create an account just to checkout is frustrating. Allow your guests to check out and watch as your sales jump.

• Hide Out of Stock Products:

  Deactivate product displays that are out of stock to avoid disappointing customers. Only concentrate on available items.

• Post Available Stock Amounts:

  Encourage customers to finalize their purchases by posting how much stock you have of your products on their product pages.

• Use Reassurance Blocks to Encourage Purchases:
  

  Add in reassurance blocks across your website that state things like free returns, secure payments, and delivery date guarantees.

• List Your Products on Comparison Websites:
  

  Syncing your catalogue with price-comparison websites will increase your sales revenue and provide you visibility.

• Use Online Marketplaces to Boost Sales:
  

  If your brand isn’t well known, use online marketplaces like Amazon & eBay to help move your stock.

• Have Friendly Customer Service:
  

  Have all of your team members respond warmly to customers and add in a few holiday greetings.

• Have a Live Chat Feature:
  

  Tons of customers who are shopping online will want to use a live messenger to finalize sales or get questions answered. Make sure you have a live chat.

• Allow Customers to Share Products:
  

  Enable share buttons on all of your products for Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest.

• Have Customized & Personalized Christmas Wish Lists:
  

  Allow your customers to make Christmas wish lists and make sure it is easy to add products to the list and share them with others.

• Give Accumulating Vouchers:
  

  Reward those who are loyal and give them more for every purchase that they buy, whether this be via a points system or a code system.

• Highlight Your Newsletter:
  

  Increase subscriptions to your newsletter by highlighting it now. Perhaps give out a special offer to those who are new to your newsletter list.

• Bring Those Gift Cards Front and Center:
  

  Make sure those gift cards are prominently featured on your homepage or in your gift selections category. Gift cards are easy to give, so make them easy to buy.

• Give Your Customers Delivery Updates:
  

  Keep them informed about the delivery status of their packages. This translates into fantastic customer service and potentially snags a long-term customer.

• Alert Customers to New in Stock Items:
  

  When a product runs out, give customers the option to receive an alert for when it becomes available again.

• Don’t Just Sell in Domestic Markets:
  

  Make sure that you are selling globally. Top marketplaces include the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, India, and China.

• Make Sure You Have Language Support:
  

  If you are going to sell globally, make sure shoppers can view your website in their native language and talk with customer service reps who are fluent.

• Provide Vouchers for January:
  

  Re-target customers in January by giving away vouchers for a January purchase.

• Implement a Thank You Page:
  

  This will make them feel good about their purchase and it allows you to suggest complementary products.

• Create a Full-Blown Mobile Site:
  

  Make sure that every product that you have available on your website’s desktop version is available on mobile too.

• Offer Discounts for Bulk Purchases:
  

  Depending on what type of stock you have, you can offer discounts for bulk purchases of items.

• Optimize Your Website Copy:
  

  Create unique and enticing product descriptions so that they sell better.

Of course, make sure that your website is secure and that you are prepared for the onslaught of holiday traffic. You don’t want your website going down in the middle of Christmas sales! For more details and tips, please contact us! We would love to hear your feedback or suggestions too on info@letsnurture.com