1. Be responsive
Mobile devices accompany us everywhere we go, and we use them to shop too. In the US, mobile purchases account for up to a third of all transactions. Here, around 15% of people shop via their mobiles. Meet their needs and have a mobile solution ready for them.
2. Page speed
Are you sure your website or online shop can handle the surge in traffic over Christmas? If a page takes more than 3 seconds to load, up to 40% of users will leave immediately. At least, that’s what research by Kissmetrics suggests.
Test your loading speed. Google can help you with this.
3. Content is king
If you haven’t started planning blog posts and social media updates yet, get started right away. Suggest gifts for grandmothers or friends. Advise them on how to wrap them.
You can also share foolproof recipes for delicious vanilla crescents. Simply look forward to Christmas and use your content to make Christmas planning easier for your customers too.
4. A Christmas gift for customers
Offer your customers a Christmas gift in the form of a special offer. How about free delivery or orders placed by 12 December? Or you could send gifts already wrapped. You could simply include a postcard with a festive message with every order. Come up with a thoughtful gesture that will delight your customers.
A small extra touch is a great way to build loyalty. Thanks to this, they might even shop with you after the New Year.
5. Christmas advertising
Do you know what Coca-Cola does brilliantly? Its Christmas adverts. Prepare suitable adverts for social media and PPC. Choose a sensible theme – definitely no reindeer or Santa. Offer customers things that might interest them.
6. Keywords
Add new keywords to your PPC campaigns today. You can probably guess what people are searching for: gift ideas, a gift for dad, Christmas gifts. If you’re not sure, test it using the keyword planner in Google AdWords.
Don’t forget to add some content to your blogs or get a copywriter to draft a few Christmas articles for you.
7. Forgotten purchase?
Has a customer added items to their basket but not placed an order? Remind them via email. A polite message never goes amiss. What’s more, you can remind the customer about the free delivery mentioned in point 4. Did you know that 75% of these people actually want to buy the product? They just need a little nudge now and then.
8. Customer service
Start planning in good time. It’s important to plan how you’ll process and dispatch orders. Every year, the post office gets very busy – will they manage to deliver the gifts on time? Does that sound like a trivial matter? Yet many people forget about it.
Also bear in mind that a gift doesn’t always hit the mark. Customers would certainly appreciate it if they could exchange a gift they weren’t happy with for something else, free of charge.