How was your Black Friday? Did you snag the white whale of deals and rejoice in your healthy bank account? Of course, you did! Well enough of that, now it’s time to prep for the big leagues and get in shape for the retail Olympics. ‘Tis the season!

Our Magento eCommerce agency in Portsmouth has compiled our top ten tips to assist you in taking advantage of the biggest sales month of the year. So, without further ado;

1.    Look at your historical data

What were your best sellers last year? How can you boost those numbers and what would be best for you to avoid altogether? It’s always a healthy option to take a minute to reevaluate your business and see how you can improve. Check out our blog on scaling your business for more info on this.

2.    Get SEO friendly

Dominate Google with you Xmas joy! You can make the most out of this season by utilising Christmas keywords. Variations such as “gift ideas” can be hugely beneficial to boost the traffic of your website. You can also create some festive content around this idea like “Christmas ideas for inferior siblings” (You can have that for free) this can capture huge search traffic for brainstorming buyers. But don’t forget to include terms such as “Kwanzaa” or “Hannukkah” for those who don’t celebrate Santa!

3.    Time for a Christmas makeover

Your website should reflect the festive season and inspire buyers with your virtual charm. Tinsel, holly, Christmas trees, all the reindeer! Deck your site with bells and holly so you don’t miss out.

4.    Are you prepared for the surge of traffic?

A sluggish website can be an incredibly frustrating experience for your customers. Most simply will not put up with your slow website and leave, resulting in abandoned carts and loss of sales. Unacceptable! To prevent this from happening, consider testing your server load capacity to assess if you need to make any swift changes. To give you an idea, 47% of customers expect a website to load within 2 seconds or less, big ooft! You can take help from our Magento 2 Development agency to overcome this hurdle.

5.    Promote what you’re doing through targeted campaigns

It’s never too late to start shouting about what you’re doing. Social media have some fantastic features you can utilise to draw in a specific demographic. Have a product that’s only relevant to Millennials? Something that only vloggers would relish in? Target your audience accordingly! 

6.    Say hello to your old friends

Just because your buyers haven’t popped in to see you in a while doesn’t mean they wouldn’t be interested in what you have to offer now. Get in touch with customers who’ve dropped off the radar had a great experience. Consider sending them gift vouchers relevant to their last purchase, or perhaps a special discount code exclusively available on their return. Who knows, they may become your stores BFF. 

7.    Offer digital gifts for those frantic last-minute buys

In a more perfect world, we would all be efficient and purchase our loved ones gifts over the Black Friday weekend. But we won’t because effort and we’re still playing with the Black Friday gifts we bought for yourself. To those shoppers, offer a practical and simple solution, consider promoting digital gifts like gift cards or perhaps a membership.

8.    It’s all about mCommerce 

Buyers are always keen to make their shopping experience as efficient as possible. This is why mCommerce is booming right now. If you haven’t got your mobile strategy down to a fine art you stand at losing a large chunk of revenue. To entice mobile users, consider ditching popups and ensure checking out is as seamless as possible. Check out more on this subject here.

9.    Improve check out experience

The Festive period is great for traffic, interest, and sales. But with that increased activity you’re also going to see a huge jump in the number of abandoned carts. According to SaleCycle, 2016 abandonment rates in December jumped from the average ~75% to anywhere up to ~81%. To deter this scary number, offer guest check out, add a progress bar and multiple payment options.

10. Flexible delivery options

Tomorrow, weekends, evenings, tracked, you get the gist. This season, more than any other time of the year it’s imperative you offer flexibility to your customers. They’re on a time crunch and so are you! As well as this, keep your customers informed on their delivery status. This will promote confidence and trust in your brand, enticing them to come back again and again.

If you have any questions about anything discussed in this blog or if you’d like to chat about a project, feel free to get in touch. We’re always happy to help businesses reach and surpass their eCommerce potential.