The holiday season brings the “golden quarter” for ecommerce businesses.
Ecommerce holiday season sales were projected to reach 190.47 billion in 2020.
Online shoppers spent $34.4 billion during 2020’s Cyber Week alone — a 20.7% increase year-over-year.
Your business can make the most of this holiday season with the proper website optimization strategy to drive maximum traffic and generate amazing sales.
Here are the top 10 ways to optimize your ecommerce website for this holiday season.
1. Increase Your Site Loading Speed
It’s a fact that the loading speed of an online store has a significant impact on conversions. According to research, anything more than a few seconds, 3 to be exact, causes visitors to leave and lose interest. Reducing the time it takes for a website to load helps boost overall conversion rates and marketing ROI.
Nobody wants to spend time on a website that takes an eternity to load. People expect to find what they’re seeking in a matter of seconds. With so many options, no buyer wants to waste time on a slow-loading website.
A website that takes a long time to load may result in a missed chance for your website, which you certainly do not want. Therefore, speeding up your online store would be the best option you could make for your business.
You can upgrade your hosting server, compress images, minify code, use browser caching, employ CDN, etc., to speed up your site.
For detailed information check out this article: 20 Ways to Speed Up Your Website
2. Make Your Site Mobile-Friendly
Based on the latest trends, more sales are made using mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets, especially during the holiday season. It’s critical to create a mobile-friendly website so your clients can enjoy surfing on their phones.
These days, mobile-friendly sites are also preferred by search engines. That means Google favors mobile-friendly sites. Even if you have a fantastic website, you can see a drop in your rating if it doesn’t perform well on mobile devices.
Now is the moment for businesses to recognize the important role that mobile devices will play in the future of ecommerce.
Take time to work on your website’s mobile performance optimization. You can use the responsive web design and AMP to make your site mobile-compatible.
3. Make Website Navigation Smooth
Shopping is more of an adventure than an activity. Customers that visit your ecommerce store will be more likely to linger and look around if it is well-organized and gives easy-to-use instructions, which will boost their chances of making a purchase.
On the other hand, in a cluttered store, the user would have to spend a lot of time figuring out what to do instead of looking at the possibilities offered. This may cause the customer to leave the store at the start or in the middle of his shopping experience.
Customers will be able to understand where to discover the items they want by categorizing products rationally and then showing them in their appropriate categories. A disorganized and confusing product layout will waste time and irritate the consumer looking for a product.
Concentrate on simplifying and clearing the webpage. You can ask your team or acquaintances to test and give feedback on your site’s user experience. Moreover, you can do A/B testing to find the site version with the best UX. Last but not least, you can hire a UX professional who can help you navigate through this process.
4. Upload High-Quality Product Images
Let’s face it: Seeing products in a physical store has more to offer than just looking at them online. Consumers can touch the products, evaluate, compare, and obtain a sense of how the product appears and feels. And you want to recreate such an experience with your website’s pictures. Make sure to upload high-quality product images from different angles and offer a great zoom-in.
An appealing graphic will undoubtedly hold the customer’s attention and encourage him to investigate the product. Visual content is consumed at a far higher rate than textual content, which explains why a product with a great description but a poor image may not attract as many customers.
Another great strategy to boost sales on your ecommerce platform is to use social media. As a result, buying decisions are made faster than on the online version.
5. Discounted Prices and Gift Cards
The most frequent way for presenting discounts on ecommerce websites is to offer sale prices alongside the regularly posted price of the goods.
Such practice convinces the buyer that he or she is making a wise decision by buying the product at a low, reduced price. Furthermore, the prospect that sale prices may not last indefinitely instills a sense of urgency in the customer.
Unlike the widespread belief that gift cards only generate efficient sales during the holiday shopping season, gift cards can be viewed as a potent marketing tool all year.
For example, gift cards were the most popular gift item in 2018.
If your competition offers gift cards, this immediately implies that customer traffic may be drawn to their store.
6. Optimize Pop-ups and Checkout Process
During seasonal content re-optimization, button names, call-to-actions, forms, and pop-ups are mostly forgotten. It’s a shame because it’s the little things that make a big difference in terms of delight and conversions.
During the holiday season, most ecommerce shop owners won’t be able to perform many A/B tests to optimize every nook and cranny of their website.
Start with a few important ones. Put a seasonal spin on your normal pop-ups. To better complement the seasonal campaign, you can change the colors, messaging, and value proposition. However, don’t get too excited and bury your brand’s usual voice beneath the seasonal campaign frenzy.
Maintain consistency in your seasonal message and offer with your normal brand identity.
For the checkout process, consider pre-filling existing customers’ details, auto-checking shipping addresses, showing shipping times, and adding tooltips.
Make sure you ask for only required information and keep the checkout short and quick. The holiday vibe and easy checkout will surely add some additional numbers to your holiday sales.
7. Incorporate Countdowns
Consumers get FOMO when they see a countdown indicator. They also create a sensation of scarcity, compelling our brain to seek the fleeing object before it vanishes.
According to German experts, a sense of scarcity causes people to perceive in-demand things as more appealing. We also place a higher value on luxury goods that are in limited supply.
You could also use email marketing countdown timers for advertising limited-time discounts on high-value, signature products. Brand dilution can be avoided by keeping these sales semi-private. You can still increase your internet sales at the same time.
For the most popular products, use countdown banners on your website. A timer next to each product reminds customers that time is running out and encourages them to complete the checkout process. If a timer next to each product makes your website look cluttered, consider adding a sticky header banner to the top.
8. Multiple Payment Options Including Pay Later
All of your efforts to improve the appearance and feel of your ecommerce marketplace will be for naught if a consumer departs because his preferred payment options are unavailable. Customers want to pay with their preferred method, but they also want to have options.
Nowadays, customers expect a variety of payment choices from ecommerce marketplaces. Online retailers are leaving no stone unturned when it comes to giving customers the option of using credit/debit cards, cash on delivery, net banking, e-wallets, or the latest Buy Now Pay Later approach.
The Buy Now, Pay Later option is the most recent addition to the already long array of ecommerce payment options. It’s a development of the microcredit concept, allowing clients to shop on credit.
The Customer Credit Limit improves conversions while also alleviating the consumer’s strain of paying out of pocket right away. The process is quite similar to credit card payments, with the exception that the product seller does not get paid instantly. The unpaid debts will be paid at a later date.
9. Referral Program
Offering appealing referrals is another common way to swiftly increase new sign-ups and registrations for your online store. During the holiday season, the concept may acquire traction and attract new clients. Referrals give rewards, which function as a motivator for new leads.
Referrals bring in high-quality leads, boost online buying, and ensure consumer loyalty. This marketing approach relies heavily on word of mouth to generate leads, lowering the cost per lead.
10. Reach Out to Your Cart Abandoners
Companies can expect a spike in cart abandonment during the holiday season as customers look for bargains, compare prices, or simply forget about their original plan to shop with your company.
Send a brief email reminder to complete their purchase to get back on their buying radar. And, because it’s the holiday season, offer something extra like an additional discount, coupon, or free delivery.
Conclusion
These are the top 10 ecommerce website optimizations for the holiday season.
Implement these to make the most out of this holiday season.
If you want to go further, an expert or digital marketing agency can also help you achieve exceptional results and generate off-the-charts sales.
Start the optimization as soon as possible and boost your holiday sales. DirectScale is happy to help! Let us share with you how our clients have achieved triple-digit growth.