Posted on Oct 14, 2015

How to Make the Most Online Sales This Holiday

Hey guys, it’s mid-October! This means the holiday sales rush is just around the corner. And whether you run an online store, own an Etsy shop or sell products through an online vendor, you and your website have to be prepared for this busy season. Now while it’s a bit early to be singing carols and hanging mistletoe, it’s not to early to initiate your holiday sales strategy.

As you probably already know, the part of the sale where the customer hands over money is only a small element of the sales process. And regardless of how your product or service ends up in the hands of the consumer, the process of making a sale can takes weeks (and sometimes months). So in order to make the most sales and to get your digital sales strategy right, your holiday dash will need to start now.

Believe it or not, 45 percent-plus of US consumers spend over $53 billion dollars during the holiday season. Here’s how you can make your website and online sales effort more effective during this time:

 

  1. Show Off Your Products

You can increase sales on your website by optimizing your product listings. This approach is similar to how you display your products in your bricks-and-mortar store. When you carefully set the displays to look appealing, you can catch more attention and motivate customers to buy.

Make sure that you have high-quality images of your products. And write engaging descriptions that encourage your customers to think about how they would feel when owning your product. For example, Method Home uses a bit of humor in their product description: “A lot of secret handshakes start over the holidays…”

handwash

If your product description is long, format the words in easy to read bullet points that give your customer a complete overview of the product. And make sure that the “call to action” at the end is engaging – yet not cliche. Again, Method Home does this nicely with “what’s that smell?” This allows the customer to visualize themselves already owning the soap, making the “Add to Cart” button look like a necessity.

 

  1. Make Your Policies Easy To Find And Understand

Policies and information covering shipping costs, delivery times, returns, and guarantees are a normal part of purchasing online. It’s important that you are honest and confident about this as it will increase your credibility. You can do this by making the information as easy to find as possible.

You can also use these policies to help you get more sales. For example, you could offer a better guarantee than your competitors, or lower shipping costs.

 

  1. Be Safe and Secure

The loss of reputation, let alone any direct financial costs, or a security breach would be devastating to your holiday sales performance, so take time now to make sure your website is safe and secure.

This should be done by using merchant services that consumers know and trust. TransFirst and Paypal are good examples. You should also use an SSL certificate to further protect your customers’ personal information.

 

  1. Run Tests To See What Works

Changing the displays in your store is an important part of effective brick-and-mortar retailing, and it applies to your online website too. Your website is not a static entity. Running tests, changing the order of products, or doing something as simple as changing the color of a button can result in more sales. Don’t be afraid to try new things, especially now, as you have some time before the big traffic rush hits.

 

  1. Craft Your Sales Strategy

You might be thinking that this all sounds great, but it is not really helpful as you cannot currently sell on your website. Like we mentioned above, the good news is that you still have time before the holiday season gets underway, to change this.

You can set up an online store using a solution like Ecwid or one of the major free platforms like OSCommerce or ZenCart.

If you think that is too much too soon for the holiday sales rush, you can simply add a sales discount to a prominent place on every page of your website. While this isn’t recommended for just any industry or company, discounting your products can sometimes be the easiest way to quickly bring in more sales. Additionally, make sure your contact information is as prominent as ever. And any holiday promotions are clear and exciting. This will encourage customers to give you a call or head down to your store to make a purchase.

Have an email list? Start sending out messages now to potential customers about upcoming sales, or new and exciting products you have in store. Consider allowing them to print one of your emails out and bring it with them for a discount when they make their purchase. Anything to encourage them to think of you and your business when brainstorming holiday gift ideas — that should be your mindset.

 

  1. Sell Through Social Media

If you have a good following on social media you can start to integrate your holiday sales strategy into your content plan. This includes posting images of your products, information on sales, and other helpful holiday-related information. But this is important: do not exclusively use social media for promotional purposes otherwise you will alienate your customers, or they could perceive you as too pushy to make a sale. Also, make sure that your social media posts start conversations with your customers first. Then (and only then!) you can talk about the products that your company offers.

Another option to this is selling directly from your Facebook page. Ecwid’s solution adds a store tab to your page so that your followers can buy from you on Facebook.

 

  1. Add Credibility

The final tip is simple but it’s incredibly important: Is your email address YourName@YourBusinessName.com, or sales@YourWebsiteAddress.com, or something similar? Or is it an email address that you registered years ago? If you are still using a generic email address (like Hotmail, Yahoo or Gmail) and /or an email address that features (an embarrassing) nickname, you should change it immediately.

Google Apps for Work is a good solution to achieve this quickly. Plus it gives you a range of tools that will not only help you market your business but allows for better organizing, communicating, planning and more. Plus, iPage maintains a great relationship with Google so unlike other hosts, your Google Apps will work seamlessly with already existing iPage website.

 

It takes time and effort to make customers aware of your online store. And the same is true when it comes to making them purchase once they arrive. But when you follow these seven steps you’ll have a higher likelihood that your customers will have an enjoyable experience, leading to an eventual purchase. So take advantage of these suggestions now, and make the most of this holiday season.

Cheers and good tidings to you,

iPage-Annie

 

 

 

 

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