Holiday Prep for your E-Commerce Store – Start in the Summer

Both e-commerce and physical stores know that business often slows down during the summer months. Use this summer shopping hiatus to make your e-commerce store ready for the upcoming holidays. During the months of June, July, and August, sales can drop as much as 30%, but these slow shopping months for e-commerce stores can be a perfect time to get ready for the fests ahead.

Posted 5 years ago by Tatiana Dudin

Find out how to be prepared and make the most out of your store for Halloween, Christmas, Valentine’s and more. With e-commerce and mobile browsing rising year after year, you can’t afford not to prep your store for the holiday season and the best time to start is now!

Use our special offer to get started and get $200 off our quarterly plan for the first quarter with the code SUMMER200. Be ahead of the game when the holidays arrive and don’t leave your planning for the last minute.

Email Campaigns – Timing is Everything

Letting your customers know about the upcoming holiday is the first step. Since a successful campaign entails several emails, it’s important to prepare the sequence of emails according to the VESC formula to get better email open and conversion rates.

Whether yours is a clothing, accessories, beauty or electronics store, a perfectly executed email campaign will speak to your customers and let them know of the awesome holiday deals you have. You can use holiday-themed graphics to create excitement.

Send your first email a few weeks before, and a gentle follow-up reminder email closer to the holiday. You want to give your customers time to shop before the holiday, allowing for delivery time. But without emailing them excessively. Don’t forget to use your social media in conjunction with your email campaigns to drive the message home.

Useful tip: Did you know that putting an emoji in your email headline can increase your open rates?

Collection & Product Pages – Where First Impressions are Made

If your email campaigns work as expected, your potential customer will end up on a holiday collection page. This is especially useful for clothing stores, where displaying your collection in all its glory may lead to a sale.

Making sure this page is mobile friendly and error-free is crucial. We all know when visitors get frustrated with a website, they tend to leave. Ensure the UX is smooth from start to finish for a higher success rate! Read more about creating a successful customer journey here.

Consider a featured collection to gather all your holiday items in one easily accessible space, where customers can comfortably browse. Other useful additions can be a promo bar that talks about any holiday discounts and offers and a sticky header that allows access to the navigation menu while visitors scroll through the site.

Which Holidays to prepare for?

Halloween

Since summer is already here, the first upcoming holiday is, of course, Halloween, which takes place October 31st. Though not an official federal holiday, it’s the one consumers get very excited about and a great opportunity to make some sales. According to an article from digitalcommerce360.com, shoppers spend around $3 billion in online shopping during Halloween!

Clothing and accessories stores will be the ones to benefit from Halloween sales and would do well to prepare their stores for this fun and exciting holiday.

Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday

Thanksgiving takes place on November 28 in 2019, with Black Friday falling the next day and Cyber Monday on December 2. While Thanksgiving is about family, a good meal and a celebration of autumn and Black Friday is focused on brick-and-mortar shopping.

Cyber Monday made its debut in 2008 to encourage online shopping. The event has only grown since, and in 2018 it was the biggest ever online shopping day in the US, with sales reaching $7.9 billion.

Electronics and clothing are the two biggest categories and small but powerful additions to your store like a shipping rates calculator or a collection swatch can make your store stand out.

Christmas & New Year’s

Shoppers also start preparing for these holidays well ahead of time, so consider sending a well-timed email that communicates if they order now, they will receive their item in time for Christmas.

Mobile devices drove an estimated 72% of all traffic and 54% of all orders on Christmas Eve 2018. Ensure your store is mobile-friendly and when you send out the Christmas email, use unique holiday graphics for your header design and draw in your customers.

Valentine’s Day

Though this is another unofficial holiday like Halloween, it’s a big one for online shoppers. We all value our romantic relationships, so Valentine’s day is the perfect holiday to give your customer’s a chance to show their love.

Interestingly enough, many shoppers leave buying things for the last-minute during Valentine’s day. According to an article from digitalcommerce360.com, shoppers put off shopping for Valentine’s until Feb. 1, with the peak days on Feb. 12 and 13.

For jewelry and flowers stores, this could be an opportunity to remind customers a week before to buy presents for their loved ones, and perhaps adding a custom pop-up when arrive at your online store.

Happy Celebrating!

While you don’t need to completely redesign your store and brand for any of the holidays above, a themed banner, custom pop-up or a funky holiday email banner can show your customers you are celebrating with them.

With so many important shopping holidays coming up, getting started now is the key to an organized and well-thought-out communication plan. Ensure your customers have the best shopping experience from start to finish – make your home and collection pages easy to navigate and simplify your checkout process to close leads.

Why not take a look at our task catalog and see how your store can get ready for the festive season ahead?