Even though Halloween doesn’t arrive until the end of the month, now is the appropriate time for business owners to begin preparing for the holiday shopping rush. It will start before you know it! Usually, the day after Halloween, retailers put up their holiday decorations. This goes for online entities as well. As you may know, many Canadians are already doing their holiday shopping!
As an e-retailer, there is no time to waste in turning your online store into a go-to holiday shopping destination. Here are three early steps to preparing your e-commerce site for holiday shoppers:
1. Place a link to your online shop on Instagram.
Instagram is arguably the most popular social media platform amongst young adults. Known as the “photo and video” social media app, Instagram offers your company the ability to visually stimulate your followers. However, it also enables you to put a direct link to your company website or online store in your profile’s bio section. DevriX.com points out that you can create “shoppable” posts on Instagram.
“Imagine your customers scrolling through their Instagram account and they see an amazing sweater that would fit their best friend perfectly,” reads the website, “Instead of going to the website, making an account and searching for this sweater, you can create a shoppable post. This way the only thing they need to do is tap the post, see the price and proceed to check out.”
2. Blog about the holidays.
Taken straight out of the “practice what you preach” column, this tip is something we believe in very strongly. There is no question that blogging helps for your company website to garner more traffic. With every new post comes a new reason for search engines to rank your site in a higher position. With holiday-based content on your website, you will attract a much larger number of online shoppers who are Googling about the holidays.
“We all know content is king and carefully preparing blog posts with search engine optimization in mind for the holiday season can help attract new visitors and buyers to your store,” writes Richard Lazazzera on Shopify.com, “Consider blog posts for each of the major promotions you plan on having. With some careful SEO optimization your blog post can be an effective tool for attracting people looking for the products you carry.”
3. Send reminder emails.
Often, the biggest challenge to e-commerce success is getting shoppers to complete their online purchases. Cart abandonment impacts e-retailers from all industries. In many cases, consumers are dismayed by additional fees for shipping. This is because they are often tacked on at the end of the checkout process. Send out emails to remind your customers that they haven’t completed their purchases. Be open to responding to any concerns they may have.
“A reminder email can do wonders,” believes DevriX.com, “Research shows that more than 40% of cart abandonment emails are opened; 50% of these were% clicked on; and 50% of the users who clicked, also made a purchase.”
Is your company website ready for the holiday shopping season?
At Divvia, we offer a secure e-commerce solution that enables you to easily and securely accept and process all credit cards from your website. To learn all about it, please don’t hesitate to call us at 1-877-748-2884. You can also send us a message on our Contact Us page!
