18 Ways to Prep Your Ecommerce Site for the Holiday Sales Boom
The holiday shopping season is a bit like the Olympics for ecommerce marketers and site managers. It‘s the big show you‘ve been training for all year. It‘s your chance to go for the gold on peak traffic and sales days like Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
But just like elite athletes, ecommerce brands that win big over the holidays are the ones that sweat the details in advance. They work tirelessly behind the scenes optimizing code, crafting campaigns and checking contingencies. No detail is too small in pursuit of delivering an unforgettable customer experience and hitting sales records.
So how can you ensure your ecommerce site is ready for its holiday close-up? We‘ve compiled the ultimate checklist to cover all your bases, from your first landing page to your last shipping label.
Optimize Your Site for Speed and UX
A whopping 70% of customers say page speed influences their likelihood to buy. And 57% won‘t recommend a poorly designed mobile site. Stakes are even higher over the holidays, when every second – and every click – counts. Here‘s how to ensure your site is ready for its close up:
Maximize Site Speed
Google‘s recommended page load time is under 2 seconds, as the probability of a bounce increases 32% as load time goes from 1 to 3 seconds. Yet the average ecommerce site takes 10 seconds to load. Yikes. Some steps to put your site in the express lane:
- Use tools like Google‘s PageSpeed Insights and GTmetrix to diagnose issues
- Compress images with a tool like TinyPNG (can cut image size by 25-80%)
- Minify JavaScript, CSS and HTML
- Enable browser caching so repeat visitors load pages faster
- Upgrade your web hosting package to ensure ample server resources
- Implement a content delivery network (CDN) to load content faster for visitors far from your web servers
Perfect Your Mobile Experience
Mobile commerce sales hit $360 billion in 2021, up 15% over 2020. And mobile‘s share of ecommerce sales is expected to hit nearly 75% by 2025. Moral of the story? If your site isn‘t a dream to shop on mobile devices, you‘re putting a huge chunk of holiday revenue at risk.
Kick the tires on your mobile experience by:
- Ensuring your site design is mobile responsive and loads fast
- Making navigation seamless with jump-to product category buttons
- Using large, clearly-labeled buttons for CTAs, menu, search, etc.
- Checking that site search results are accurate and relevant
- Confirming checkout forms are autofilling properly
- Verifying payment options like digital wallets are working smoothly
Guide Gift Givers with Curated Collections
Help shoppers in gift-giving mode quickly navigate to hand-picked selections with a prominent Holiday Gifts nav item and supporting landing pages. Consider collections like:
- Gifts under $25, $50, $100
- Gifts for him, her, kids, pets
- Stocking stuffers
- Gifts for the techie, homebody, athlete, etc.
Within those collections, make it easy to filter by recipient, price, category, top rated, and more.
Provide Interactive Gift Assistance
For shoppers who need a little more hand-holding, consider interactive gift-finding tools like:
- Quizzes that provide tailored gift recs based on recipient attributes
- Automated gift concierges that engage shoppers in SMS or Facebook Messenger conversation to narrow down the perfect gift
- On-demand video consultations with your live customer service team
Make Wish Lists a Breeze
Wish Lists are table stakes for holiday shopping. Adding to Wish Lists gives shoppers an easy way to earmark gift ideas (and not-so-subtle hints to share with others). Just make sure Wish Lists are:
- Easy to create and name/rename
- Clearly displayed on product pages
- Shareable via link or social media integrations
- Transferrable to cart with a click
Advanced Wish List tools can even display how many items are still available or on sale since a shopper last visited their list.
Get Strategic with Holiday Marketing
Increased holiday spending is far from a given. Bagging those big seasonal sales requires a coordinated marketing campaign to attract shoppers and keep your brand top-of-mind. Some proven tactics:
Lock in a Balanced Promotions Calendar
With retail giants offering discounts of 50% or more over the holidays, the pressure is on to serve up compelling deals. While you may not be able to compete on discount depth, you can get creative with promotion variety and tempt shoppers to make repeat visits.
Some ideas to get on your holiday promo planning list:
- \X% or $X off a certain product category for a limited time (i.e. Holiday Deals of the Day)
- \X% off a single item with $X minimum purchase
- Spend $X get $X (i.e. Spend $50 on sweaters, get $25 off your next purchase)
- Buy X get X free/discounted
- Gift with purchase over $X
- Free or discounted shipping with $X minimum
- Early access to deals for email/SMS subscribers or loyalty members
The keys are 1) mapping out your promotion plan well in advance 2) ensuring you have the margins to support your discounts 3) clearly communicating any exclusions or conditions and 4) testing all your promo codes.
Create Contingency Plans
Even with the most thorough plans, issues can arise mid-holiday-season that throw a wrench in your marketing. Common examples include:
- Unexpected shipping delays
- Inventory stockouts
- Lower-than-expected sell through
- Competitive promotions or new product releases
Have a "Plan B" for various scenarios, like pivoting hard into gift card promotions if you run into inventory issues. Monitor your campaigns and site analytics daily to catch red flags early.
Encourage Wish List Sharing
Shoppers who share their Wish Lists with family and friends are turning themselves into your brand ambassadors. Make it seamless to share lists via link, email or social media with clear CTAs. Add a little gamification by showing shoppers how many times their list items have been viewed or purchased.
Don‘t Forget Post-Holiday Campaigns
All too often, ecommerce marketers take their foot off the gas December 26th. But data shows the week after Christmas is prime time for using gift cards, making exchanges and treating yourself to deeply-discounted goods. Keep the momentum going with:
- Clearance sales on holiday surplus to boost cash flow
- Promotions targeted to gift card holders to incentivize redemption
- "Sorry you didn‘t get what you wanted – treat yourself" messaging
- Automated post-purchase emails to suggest related items to gift recipients
Stress Test Your Backend
No amount of snazzy holiday marketing can make up for major site issues like crashes or payment snafus. Make sure your backend is bulletproof with this diagnostic checklist:
Assess Site Capacity
As traffic ramps up over the holidays, you need confidence your site won‘t buckle under the pressure. Now‘s the time to:
- Estimate traffic using historical analytics and YoY trends
- Load test to 2-3X your estimated peak traffic to pinpoint any breaking points
- Work with your web host to ensure you have ample server resources or can quickly spin up more during surges
QA Everything
Click through every major customer journey on your site, including the checkout flow, to proactively spot any issues. Pay extra attention to:
- Promo code box and discount display
- Shipping options and estimates
- Payment gateway and processor
- Tax and fee calculations
- Confirmation emails
- Potential error states
Optimize Order Processing
Take a close look at your operational workflows to prepare for an influx in order volume. That might include:
- Syncing inventory across sales channels more frequently
- Shoring up suppliers and identifying backup vendors
- Hiring and training temp staff for fulfillment
- Setting up additional workstations and equipment
- Renegotiating rates with shipping carriers
Staff Up Customer Service
Issues or questions are inevitable with more holiday orders coming in. Arm your service team to maintain fast, helpful responses by:
- Staffing up to maintain your average response time SLAs
- Equipping reps with macros for common questions
- Creating a holiday FAQ and self-service portal to deflect routine inquiries
- Implementing chatbots to provide instant answers and facilitate returns
- Clearly communicating holiday hours and expected response times
Monitor, Analyze and Improve
Whew, you survived the holiday rush. Congratulations! But don‘t put your feet up just yet. Studying your performance is key to improving results next year.
Watch for Warning Signs
Keep a close eye on site performance so you can quickly investigate and resolve any red flags. Set up an alert system to automatically notify your team if metrics like site speed, error rate or conversion rate hit concerning thresholds.
Learn from Customer Behavior
Analyze how customers navigated your site over the holidays. Which landing pages, promo codes and traffic sources drove the most conversions? What was your cart abandonment rate? Which products were most popular overall and for different audience segments? Mine these insights to inform next year‘s planning.
Gather Customer Feedback
Soliciting input directly from your holiday shoppers can yield invaluable qualitative insights. Consider popping an on-site survey to gauge ease of use and get product feedback. Follow up post-purchase to ask what worked well and what could be improved.
Start Earlier Next Year
If you found yourself scrambling this year, you‘re not alone. But you can get a jump on next holiday season with the following New Year‘s resolutions:
- Set your holiday calendar and promo plans a full quarter in advance
- Build in ample buffer time for creating campaign assets
- Order inventory and supplies earlier to avoid stockouts or inflated costs
- Test and refine any new site features by early fall
- Document your project plan and timelines to keep all stakeholders aligned
With some foresight and elbow grease, you‘ll be ringing in record holiday sales for years to come.
