Are you ready for the shopping season?

It’s that time of year again and we have Halloween, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Christmas and New Year around the corner! So get your website ready for the shopping season.

Many people have already started to look for Christmas presents.

In a few weeks, the biggest shopping weekend of the year starts and the whole world will be ready to spend money on gifts for friends, loved ones and themselves. During Black Friday and Cyber Monday there is a tremendous increase in website visitors, along with their eagerness to buy. Plus, this trend won’t disappear until Christmas.

For many retailers and on-line shops this time of year accounts for over 30% of annual sales. So to capitalise on sales, capturing your consumers attention is more important than ever. Not only do you have to drive consumers to your site but once they’re there you’ve got to make those visitors happy and get them in the mood for shopping. And the website you use year-round just simply won’t do the trick.

Get your website ready for the shopping season

So is your website ready for the traffic and to maximise conversions?

Our birthday discount still applies and we’re here to help (so give us a call).  See our top 10 tips below:

1. Speed up your website

Did you know?  Even a one second delay can mean a 7% reduction in conversions!!!

Hopefully your website will be bombarded with traffic in the coming months. So if your website is slow, including loading speed, people just won’t stick around.  And image heavy sites can be particularly slow so prepare now.

We can run a full diagnostic of your site, make recommendations and offer you a tailored package to optimise your site speed.

2. Update your Home Page

Make an impact! Make a great first impression on new visitors and existing clients by fitting the look of your store to the season/event/calendar with just a few small changes such as:

– adding a new header banner;

– add countdown timer in the header (this creates urgency)

– or dress your whole front page in a theme (if you have the budget)

We can design a new banner with your targeted message and upload this on your website before Halloween (or your selected time) and this shouldn’t take more than a few days.

3. Create better Navigation

It sounds simple and it is! You can improve the navigation on your site by taking a moment to make sure the “search” function is well configured (or add one if you don’t already have one!):

– Put it in a highlighted place

– Use the option for auto complete

– Make sure it works well and is available to mobile users too

– Add a filtering option

– Add a sort by price option to your search results page

4. Optimise your site for mobile

During the upcoming shopping season more people browse on line stores from their mobile or tablet than usual. So don’t lose these customers just because your website is not optimised.  Make sure it’s easy to browse your products and make a purchase from your store on mobile phones or tablets.

We will run a diagnostic on your website and then advise you on how best to optimise your site for mobile.

5. Add a seasonal/shopping themed exit-intent

Stop visitors in their tracks before they leave your site without purchasing – or at the very least subscribing to your e mail!  An exit-intent themed popup, which appears when the user’s mouse floats towards the top of the browser to leave the page, sends a targeted message at exactly the right moment (e.g. immediate buy now discount or offer). This may just be the thing that prompts some of those dubious visitors into purchasers (or at the very least subscribers) by simply giving them one final offer.

Let’s say that with your exit-intent popup implemented, your website will convert 8% of visitors instead of 5%. If you’re attracting 100 visitors a day, that’s 8 new subscribers instead of 5. If you’re getting 1000 visitors a day, that’s 80 instead of 50!

The fact is this could make a huge difference for your email list’s conversion rate, so it’s definitely worth giving a shot and we can add this easily to your website!

6. Add a special message pop-up

Make your website relevant and get your message to stand our as soon as a user opens your page. Similar to an exit-intent pop-up, opening page  pop-ups are an easy and effective way to grab your clients attention, easy to change (change your message to suit the date/time/event/audience, etc.) and easy to take down. You decide how long you want to keep it up on your site!

So why not give it a try? We could have this up and running on your website within 2 days!

7. Create seasonally focused category pages

Increase your User Experience and keep people in the “holiday” and “shopping” spirit by making it easier to find discounts, deals and gift packages.  Examples of category pages include:
– Cyber Monday
– Black Friday
– Christmas Offers
– Gifts for men/women/Mum/Dad, etc.,

Again, this is simple to do and is really effective at improving UX so why not give it a try? Call us today for help and advice.

8. Make sure your website can handle the traffic

Having your website go down can be a very frustrating experience. However, just because your website goes down doesn’t mean there’s something wrong with your site, or that there’s nothing you can do about it. The best way to prevent your site from going offline is to take preventative action. A spike (too many visitors at the same time on your website) is the most common cause of a site crashing…

We can fully check your site, update all plugins, etc., upgrade your hosting (if necessary) and ensure this does not happen so you don’t lose customers.

9. Be active on Social Media!

During the shopping season it’s vital that you increase your social media presence. Publish as many seasonal and event-focused posts as you can…share your Black Friday offers with your followers, ask questions about holiday plans, etc.,etc. This time of year is also a great time to run a contest on Facebook or Instagram. You can even offer an exclusive gift for your followers to encourage more business through your social channels.

And if you don’t have a FB Business page, again we’re here to help and we can set one up for you!

10. Add Live Chat

And last but not least….what about adding a Live Chat to engage with visitors on the website and grow revenue/sales? Live Chat is the leading digital content method (42% vs e mail at 23% and social media at 16%).  The fact is more than half of all customers prefer to chat with someone in real-time and online, rather than call a company for support – customers simply hate waiting! Blueberry Design has Live Chat so check it out here. By harnessing the power of live chat, you could be:

• Increasing sales and revenue
• Providing faster customer support
• Delivering a better customer experience

It’s really important to start preparing your on-line shop for the shopping season NOW. These are just a few tips to help you get the most of your website. If you take some of the actions above, you can automate your marketing campaigns now so that during the “silly” season all you need to do is focus on your customers and earn extra  €€€€€€…call us today on 041 986 5686.