The holidays are the busiest time of the year not only for customers but also business owners. There’s a lot of planning and preparation going on to ready themselves for the holiday rush.
With a significant number of customers shopping online for the holidays, website owners need to ensure their e-commerce platforms are free from system vulnerabilities and security incidents. Most of them rely on ServiceNow security operations tool to tackle urgent IT and security issues quicker.
With so many things required in handling an e-commerce website, you have to take critical steps to improve customer experience during the holidays. With that in mind, here are ways to treat your customers to the best holiday e-commerce experience.
Optimize website messaging, pop-ups, and forms
A website micro-copy, including forms, pop-ups, button names, and call-to-action statements, often gets ignored during seasonal website optimization. Truth is, these small details play a critical role by prompting conversions and adding an extra feeling of delight.
Many e-commerce business owners cannot run several A/B tests during holiday campaigns to enhance every aspect of their website. That’s why you have to pick your priorities. For example, on-site banners and pop-ups provide a seasonal flair by changing the messaging, colors, and value proposition to complement the holiday promotion. But don’t let all the holiday promo madness bury your brand voice. If possible, keep your offered and seasonal messaging aligned with the brand personality.
Use holiday-related keywords
Holiday shopping can be very specific. Customers search for festival keywords, such as “chocolate gift box for Christmas” instead of simply “chocolate gift box”. That’s why it’s much better to incorporate holiday keywords in your title, meta description, and content.
Since there are a lot of activities happening during the holidays, use this as your inspiration. These may include Christmas carnivals, family dinners, holiday baking, and craft parties. Try to associate your business with these activities and include photographs and videos to generate more website traffic.
Make sure your hosting can handle the holiday traffic surge
During the holiday season, e-commerce websites normally experience a boost in traffic. This will become even more apparent during the COVID-19 pandemic, as more people opt to stay at home and discover the convenience of online shopping. In this case, you have to reassess whether your website can handle the traffic surge during the holiday rush. Unplanned traffic surges can slow down your website, which can affect your sales and website performance altogether.
If your website has limited bandwidth, consider upgrading the website hosting to handle the holiday demand.
Trigger urgency with limited-time promotions
Time is critical to holiday shopping. Customers often hunt for the best deals and have limited thresholds when considering online promotions. Use this to your advantage by creating urgency-inducing posts when showing off holiday-themed promotions to encourage site visitors to make immediate buying decisions.
When displaying overlay or banner ads, include limited-time offers to urge visitors to purchase products they’re looking for right now instead of later. A great tip is to use attention-grabbing offers, such as new arrivals, bestsellers, and discount offers, all offered within a limited timeframe. You can use words such as “last call” “four hours left”, “today only”, or “until midnight”. These intriguing phrases will spark the fear of missing out, urging users to grab the opportunity at that moment. This explains why standard holiday discounts don’t give out the same level of excitement as limited-time offers.
Dress up your website
Brick-and-mortar retailers often fill their stores with holiday displays as soon as the holiday season begins. You have to follow the same approach if you want to encourage more people to check out your website. The holidays are the perfect time to make your website look and feel seasonal. Dress it up just like how you would do to a brick-and-mortar store.
But making a holiday-themed website doesn’t simply mean adding animated images of Christmas trees and sparkling lights to the homepage and you’re good to go. You have to revise the entire website content and upload relevant content for milestone dates, such as thanksgiving, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Christmas, and new year. Shoppers often respond to content that promotes festival-themed products that give them a sense of holiday delight.
Also, don’t forget to enhance product images by making them look more festive. When taking photos, place the product against a Christmas-themed background to bring more attention. These images can inspire users to share them on their social media.
There are plenty of ways to optimize your e-commerce platform, but it’s up to you how you can put your resources and creativity to work. Take time to apply these tips for a successful holiday sale! For additional guides, make sure to check out holiday marketing sales to leverage your e-commerce game.
