10 ways to improve your online retail store for the holidays

Yay!! The holiday season is here. We look forward to good food, the festive spirit, the fun time with family, and of course the gifts! But to reap all the goodness that the season brings we need to endure the exhaustion of long shopping hours.

Holiday shopping can get cumbersome even for the most ardent Shopaholic. We all have heard ‘holiday shopping’ horror stories – instances where people stood in long lines for 14 hours to avail of ‘Black Friday’ offers, old ladies fought bloody fights to get ahead in the line and what not! On the other side, retail shop owners enjoy their highest sales this season. Salespeople at the stores have arduous hours at their counters but all the back-breaking effort is paid off by the hike in sales.

In recent years, there has been a change in the story. Online retail stores arrived. Recent research says that consumers are increasingly shifting to online shopping to meet their holiday needs because let’s admit it – No queues, no fights, no pushing carts, a lot less stressful, right? A ‘Bizrate Insights’ survey conducted in Nov 2018 reported that more than 60 % of consumers planned to spend more than half of their holiday shopping online and more than 80% planned to do at least a quarter of their holiday shopping online. This trend is expected to continue in 2019. Research firm Deloitte predicts that e-commerce sales will hit $144 billion to $149 billion during this holiday season, which is more than a 14% hike from e-commerce sales in 2018.

If you are an online retail company, this is surely great news for you! But these predictions wouldn’t make much of a difference if you don’t actively use them to your advantage. You need to be prepared to make the most of the season. Here are 10 simple tips to help you make this holiday season the best sales season you have had yet!

1. Use Historic data

Data is the most powerful tool that the digital revolution has blessed us with. Use your last years’ holiday season sales data to get insights on planning the promotions and strategies for this year. This will help you target your offers to your most likely buyers.

2. Leverage Artificial Intelligence

Take data analytics a further step ahead to make use of Artificial Intelligence for gaining those sure-to-work ideas. AI tools can help you narrow down the exact time that you need to send your email campaign to a particular consumer so that your email is more likely to be opened. It can also help you customize the email to include the products that the consumer is more likely to be interested in.

3. Milk the last drop out of Social Media.

Social media is the place to go bang on with your marketing efforts to pull in the millennial and Gen Z crowd. Using the new Instagram TV feature to create long-form video content to woo your prospects can be a thing to try this holiday season. Facebook can support more textual content so create engaging copies for your FB campaigns. Use all the social media platforms possible but make sure your story is consistent across all the channels.

4. Offer Free-shipping

Research tells us that the top reason that most people cite for abandoning the items in their online shopping cart is excessive and unexpected shipping costs added to the bill at check- out. This holiday season increases sales by offering free shipping on most products. But if that is not viable, specify minimum shopping limits to avail of these free shipping offers.

5. Use the Holiday Theme

Spread the cheer of the season in all your marketing messages including emails and blogs. Your customers will be sure to appreciate the extra care and effort that you put into making them feel happy and special. Guides to choose gifts, cooking and decorating tips, some history on the holiday, and other such holiday-themed content will not only drive more traffic to your site but will also amp up your brand’s goodwill.

6. Deals and Offers.

Special offers and deals are a common-sense promotional tool that any retail shop normally uses in the holiday season. As an online retailer, you can’t be without using such deals and offers to attract your prospects too. But the trick here is to tailor your offers to suit your prospects. Build campaigns around wishlists and abandoned carts and other information that you have about your prospect’s preferences.

7. Provide expedited delivery options

Make it easy for those last-minute shoppers. If they figure that the delivery might get delayed they might give up on the ease of online shopping and prefer to rush to brick and mortar stores to make sure their loved ones get their gifts on time. Expedited delivery options can seal the deal for that particular category of shoppers

8. Refresh Product Offerings

Before the core holiday season ends, move the items that have not been sold for a long time through discounts and offers. This will help you more time and space on your websites and pages for hot-selling items that are in demand.

9. Revamp Content

This holiday season is the right time to give a facelift to your website and web pages and make it more attractive as you have always intended to do. You can experiment with the color and other design elements to give your visitors that ease, convenience, and visual incentive to stay on your site longer and make purchases. And don’t forget to make the site ready for the extra traffic.

10. Offer popular payment methods

Another common reason for shoppers exiting after piling items on their online shopping cart is that the payment method that is most convenient for them is not available. This season make sure that you make it hard for your prospects to abandon their carts by offering them a wide and convenient range of payment methods to choose from.

Are you an online retail company looking for help to hone your competitive edge and pump up sales this holiday season? Infognana Solutions offers online retail services like catalog management, competitive pricing analysis and much more at competitive rates.

Get in touch with our eCommerce experts to assist you with any service. For more information, check out our website:

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