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The buzz around the holiday season has begun. Consumers are shopping earlier than ever and are able to find the best deals as soon as they become available. These savvy shoppers first turn to mobile and desktop for information and inspiration, simply clicking from site to site. In 2016, Nielsen reported that 24% of consumers had started their holiday shopping as early as September. This comes as no surprise, more than half of retailers begin their promotions for the holiday season in September or earlier, and the majority plan to make online shoppers their main target. The retailers that prepare sooner, and understand their consumer, will receive the greatest holiday gift of all – end of the year sales growth.
How Can You Capitalize on Holiday eCommerce Growth?
Ensure a seamless online UX
Customers are looking for an easy and enjoyable holiday shopping experience. When shopping online, customers want simplicity and an optimized flow. To ensure a frictionless checkout experience, audit your current process and see if there is any aspect you could simplify or anything you can add to improve the user experience and limit friction from the shopping experience.
Focus on the inbox for personalized promotions
Email gives you the perfect platform to send a successful promotion with a personal touch – such as using the customer’s name. This simple personalization will go a long way when converting sales. And just like your checkout process, consumers want easy access. When sending an online promotion, the consumer should always only be one click away from the sale page. While their memories of holiday purchases are still fresh, you can start delivering content and promotions that will keep them active.
Search Optimization
While consumers are prepping for the holidays, they are doing their primary searches online to create a shopping list. Most consumers are not brand loyal, they are searching a generic term and are relying on the top results to guide them. To maximize your SEO, pick keywords that will help bring people to your site and are relevant. When you’re researching keywords, don’t just focus on the ones getting massive amounts of traffic, take note of some of the less popular ones too. Include these keywords in your unique product descriptions and product titles, use keyword friendly URLs, and have product reviews. Making your online store convenient and useful for customers will help you achieve your SEO goals. The more time people spend on your site, and the less they click back to the search results page, is a strong indication of success.
Shoppers continue to purchase after holiday
Know anyone that is unapologetically late to their holiday shopping? Some consumers even save their money for the after holiday shopping blitz! With vast amount of consumers coming and going on your website, this is one of the best times to run online promotions, market to New Year’s resolutions, or release a new product.
Understanding your customer during the busy holiday season will lead to happier shoppers and better numbers across the board. Preparing ahead to meet your consumers expectations and needs could be the difference between a converted customer or lost sale.
Learn more about Shoppable’s distributed commerce solution and expand your shopping channels.