The holiday shopping season is finally here! Christmas is fast approaching, seasonal campaigns from major retailers are in full swing and for smaller businesses the Christmas orders are starting to roll in.
The big question – is your business ready? Find everything you need to know in our guide, including tips, best practices and practical how-tos to help you take on the holiday rush with confidence.
How to increase seasonal sales
Ready to get into the holiday spirit and optimise your store, but don't know where to start? Make sure you're covered with our handy checklist!
1. Make gift cards the star of the show
If there's ever been a time to promote gift cards, it's now. Not only are gift cards the single most requested gift, but 59% of gift card recipients will actually spend more than the amount on their gift card.
Plus, because they can be sent straight to an email inbox, they're great for promoting right up to the Christmas Eve – a ideal last-minute gift with no need for shipping.
With some of our Ecommerce Website Builder packages, once a gift card is enabled, it appears among your other products in your store admin in Catalog ➔ Products.
2. Apply promotional discounts
Ecommerce website builders offer discount functionality for its ease and flexibility, especially during the holiday season. Some website builders let you set the rules for when the coupon can be applied and the products it can be used with. Then, you share the code wherever you see fit (hint: share it everywhere!).
With our Ecommerce Website Builder to set up promotional codes, go to Marketing ➔ Discount Coupons. Click Add New Coupon and fill out the fields.
3. Always show the before price
If you're not doing this already, you should be. If you're going to offer discounts, you want to make sure your store visitors are aware of them. Specifically, you want to show them just how great the deal is! Use "compared to" pricing to display what the price used to be before the sale, and how much they can save now.
With our Ecommerce Website Builder go to Settings ➔ General ➔ Cart & Checkout and set up how your "compare to" price will be displayed.
4. Reward customers with bulk discounts
Another easy win this Christmas is buy-more-save-more deals. Customers can find savings on multiple purchases of their favourite items, while you can increase cart sizes and generate more revenue!
With our Ecommerce Website Builder In Catalog ➔ Products open the product(s) you want to add bulk discount pricing for. Click Manage pricing options next to the price, then Bulk discount pricing to see the bulk pricing settings.
Streamline store processes
The key to nailing the holiday season lies in the little things that make your job easier. We're talking about automated tools and intuitive features that can make it that much easier to manage the holiday rush.
1. Save time and money on shipping labels
Not only are shipping labels expensive, they're also tedious to fill out, especially when you get an influx of orders. Check to see if your hosting provider offers pre-filled shipping labels with your website builder, especially shipping at better rates that the post office!
With our Ecommerce Website Builder go to My sales ➔ Orders and select the order you want to buy a shipping label for. On the right, in the Shipping details section, click Buy shipping label.
2. Calculate taxes automatically
Take the hassle out of determining the correct taxes for your international shipments with automatic tax calculation. See if your current online store hosting includes a tool that can automatically determine a precise tax rate at checkout depending on where you and your customer are located. These tools typically know the tax rules in your country, state, county and city and applies them properly to each order.
With our Ecommerce Website Builder open the Taxes & Invoices page in your store Control Panel and enable the Automatic option – and you're done!
Connecting with customers
As you work hard to optimise your site, sales and logistics for the holiday season, don't forget to let customers know about your offerings through marketing and advertising. Here are 3 tips for your marketing strategy for the holidays:
1. Go where your customers are
Advertising on popular platforms like TikTok is a no-brainer. TikTok has more than a billion monthly active users around the world, making it a great platform to showcase your products through. In fact, 15% of product discoveries begin on TikTok and during the holidays 2 in 5 users look to their "For You" page for holiday ideas. Some web hosting platforms include tools to connect your online store to your social channels.
With our Ecommerce Website Builder you can start advertising on TikTok and connect your online store's catalog to TikTok For Business. Then, choose any ad format that suits your needs. You can promote a certain item, showcase several products at once in one video, create videos with product links and so much more.
2. Retarget to shoppers
Retargeting can help you reach customers who visited your store but didn't buy anything. Retargeting tools use browser cookies to place ads on other sites that a user visits. When used effectively, these ads encourage your customers to come back and continue browsing your store. This can be especially useful during the holiday season when you have an influx of traffic to your site!
With some of our Ecommerce Website Builder packages you can start retargeting with Google by first linking your Google Analytics and Google Ads accounts together. Then, enable the Retargeting with Google Analytics setting in your admin.
3. Bring customers back with abandoned cart emails
Abandoned carts occur when a customer adds items to a cart and leaves without completing the order. And they happen more than you think. The average abandonment rate is about 70%, leaving $4 trillion worth of products in carts every year.
A website builder with the functionality can help recover these sales by reaching out to customers with abandoned carts to let them know that they left without finishing their order!
With some of our Ecommerce Website Builder packages you can find all your abandoned carts in your Control Panel under My Sales ➔ Abandoned Carts. Manually send emails from here or choose to customise the message and/or set up automated emails.
Move to Fasthosts
Looking for a feature-packed website builder to start an online store or upgrade from your current one? With our Ecommerce Website Builder, you get all the features above and more, including 24/7 expert support, free domain, free SSL and free email!
Speak to our sales team on 0800 0612 153 or via our sales page to find out more.
