E-Commerce

How to Prepare Your Online Shop for the Holiday Season: 6 Essential Tips 

2019 December 2

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How to Prepare Your Online Shop for the Holiday Season: 6 Essential Tips 

As the holiday season is fastly approaching, all e-commerce store owners have to make sure they are on top of their game. This time of the year usually brings the most sales, so it is highly recommendable to prepare in advance and keep everything in track until the holiday madness ends. We’ve compiled some essential tips which will help your online shop to avoid unnecessary issues during the holidays and attract even more sales.

  1. Make a plan for the holiday month

This step is the most important one and covers all the aspects of your business. Learn from your own mistakes and best practices – look at your data from last year. Chances are your results this year will be similar in comparison to the last year but you always have to strive to improve them.

This step will help you find out:

  •  How much stock do you need
  •  How many orders you can expect
  •  Are your sales likely to grow
  •  If you need to have more staff to answer support questions
  •  If the estimated delivery dates will change
  • Any other mistakes you’d made last year and ways to avoid them.
  1. Increase your stock and keep track of it

An increase in order amounts goes by default during the holiday season. That is why it is advisable to have a larger stock to make sure you will not run out of a particular product. Knowing how much to increase the stock may be a trickier question. However, this is where your plan (from the first step) comes in handy. Prepare your stock based on the last year’s sales and, of course, give yourself space to grow.

Another important aspect is tracking your stock accordingly. You don’t want to continue selling products if they have already sold out. This can cause some serious frustration, especially during the holiday season when everyone is trying to get their Christmas shopping sorted

  1. Consider the logistics: optimize delivery and return policies

As delivery dates get tighter and more hectic every year, similarly customers become more and more demanding. So it is your job to find a reliable delivery company which can ensure that your customers get their orders on time and none of them is in any way damaged or, even worse – lost. Make sure you provide delivery information before customers proceed to check out and, if possible, offer lower delivery fees. The return policy is also as important during the holiday season, so double-check if it is easy to understand and follow.

  1. Add more festive items to your online shop 

Most people during this period of time are usually looking for Christmas presents. So, having additional Christmassy items increases the chances that buyers will come to your online shop to look for gifts. In addition to the usual festive items (such as jumpers, socks, candles, etc.), you can also create holiday bundles comprised of several festive items. It helps customers find presents easier and it helps you increase your sales. Win-win!

  1. Start an ad campaign

If you have special promotions, holiday sale or you sell holiday-specific goods or services, it would be the perfect time to run an ad campaign. Seeing an ad which tells that you offer exclusive deals or have specific festive products, buyers will be more likely to visit your shop and do their Christmas shopping here.

  1. Add new payment options 

The last thing you want to see during the holiday sales is the increasing number of abandoned carts. To avoid this issue be sure to include the delivery costs before customers check out (as mentioned in the 3rd tip) and provide a vast variety of payment methods. One of the most popular payment options worldwide is paying by credit or debit card. If you’d like to integrate credit and debit card payments into your website, select a reliable payment service provider which will help you keep track of your holiday sales.

Someone wise once said “By failing to prepare, you prepare to fail” and it is the best advice to give anyone preparing their online store for the holiday season. If you wish that the holiday sales season went smoothly and brought you additional profit, you have to arrange all the discussed aspects in advance.

Happy holidays and a prosperous new year from Cardinity team!


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