It’s the first of November. Is your eCommerce shop ready for the holiday season? Now is the time to get your business situated and ensure that it is prepared. Many of your holiday shoppers will be first-time customers. You want them to leave your website with a good impression, one that keeps them going back for more. So, in an effort to help you achieve your online sales goals, we gathered up a panel of our own WebDevStudios experts to offer up some eCommerce tips for a successful holiday season. Don’t delay. Get started on prepping your website today!
Design, SEO, and Sitemaps… Oh, my!
“Shopping online is a visual experience for your customer. Sure, they want to read about your product details and specifications, but they also want to SEE it. Make sure your product is presented in its best light possible. This is especially true for design-centric markets such as fashion, jewelry, interior design, artwork and so on. The more likely a customer is to buy your product, especially in those niches, is based, largely, on how it looks.
Are you leveraging image SEO as much as you possibly can through the use of keywords, alternative text, descriptions and file names? Also, many people don’t take this step, but consider submitting an Image Sitemap to Google Search that includes image metadata to help search engines understand your product images better.”
Images & Shipping Info
“Good images sell products! Bad images make me think the site is not reputable. And, make sure your shipping information is current and updated so people purchasing gifts can feel confident things will arrive in time for the holidays.”
Security & Safety
“Security for your website and customer data should always be a top priority. Especially during the holiday season as eCommerce traffic increases. Maintainn can help ensure your website is safe and secure through continuous security monitoring and diligent updates performed for WordPress core, themes and plugins. Maintainn can also help protect your customer data by implementing SSL for your website.”
Get Sticky & Be Clear
“Make the site stickier with related content and products. Product pages should have nice photos and blog posts should have catchy headlines. Plus, make the next steps for the customer easy. If the next steps are clearly called out, the user will not be confused on what to do next. For example, a consultant’s site should have a path from a blog post to services, get in touch, etc. Whatever the end result action is, it needs to be clearly laid out for the user.”
Keep It Smooth
“Provide a smooth checkout process with no delays during the purchase. And, make sure that the customer knows their information is safe and secure.”
Don’t Bury Important Links
“Important links, such as options or refunds or anything like that, should not be buried under a subnavigation. Make sure important links are prominent and easy to find or you’ll get tons of questions.”
Pay Attention to Performance
“Performance is crucial, especially during the holidays when site traffic will be at the highest that most eCommerce sites will ever see. Comparing last year’s traffic, we can expect more than 50% of all holiday sales to happen online. Poor site performance will cause visitors to find another place to make their purchase.”
So don’t be ill-prepared this holiday season. Tackle these tips and you’ll find your eCommerce website enjoying some merry sales and profits. For more information and guidance, read the blog post “Preparing Your eCommerce Store for the Holidays,” by Chris Lema.
Need assistance with your eCommerce website? Contact us today.