November is already here, which means that your eCommerce business should be well into holiday prep for the upcoming busy season.
If you haven’t started holiday prep, or you realize there’s a lot more to do this season than you realized, then there’s no time to waste, you need to start now!
There’s no need to panic (just yet), as you can still get back on track with the prep work.
Let’s take a closer look at why you might be behind on holiday prep and how to fix it.
eCommerce is Growing
It’s no secret that eCommerce has grown massively since the pandemic began. Adobe Analytics found that the 2020 holiday increased 32% from the 2019 season. People mostly ordered online to respect social distancing, and simply realized how convenient it is to shop online.
While people are looking to celebrate the holiday season a bit more “relaxed” this year, it doesn’t mean they’re going to stop shopping online. eCommerce will continue to be a massive part of the holiday retail shopping experience this year. Want to know which marketplaces you should consider when thinking about expanding your business? Read this article.
Fierce competition
Thanks to the rapid growth of eCommerce this year, more and more online stores have popped up to cater to shoppers. All of these online retailers are competing for holiday sales, and this year it will be fierce competition.
To earn as many sales as possible this holiday season, you must prepare an outstanding customer experience. Running out of stock, a slow website, difficulty finding what they need, and any other inconvenience will all cause customers to shop elsewhere for their holiday goods.
Essentially, you must carefully assess and improve your customer experience so that it stands out from the competition. This can be time-consuming, involving some trial and error. Implementing major changes requires detailed planning and execution. If you wait until too close to the holiday season, then it will be incredibly difficult to make necessary improvements in time. We suggest seeking help from a company that has enough experience to know what needs improving on your website.
Shopping Starts Soon
Since we are getting closer to the primary winter holiday season, early shoppers are starting soon. You want to be prepared for the earliest shoppers. If your store is not ready to go when they want to start holiday shopping, then they will turn to the stores that are (your competitors).
Considering the early shoppers, your eCommerce store needs to be ready as soon as possible. By this time, you should be almost ready to go and just making last-minute adjustments.
Here is our eCommerce holiday preparation checklist
To get a better idea of how to prepare your eCommerce store for this holiday season, here’s a checklist of the main tasks:
- Make sure that your website’s customer journey is easy to follow
- Make sure that your website hosting will be able to deal with the increase of traffic
- Test product pages
- Test the checkout process
- Create relevant bundles and kits
- Test all third-party integrations
- Improve the customer experience with
- Site speed
- Storefront design
- Cart abandonment notifications
- Personalization
- Optimize the checkout process (one-click checkout and guest checkout)
- Offer multiple payment options (Gpay, Apple Pay, Paypal)
- Provide several shipping options
- Update your returns policy if necessary
- Consider expanding sales channels
- Try to include buy-online pick-up in-store if you have a brick and mortar location
- Take packaging and unboxing up a notch with holiday options
- Prepare marketing materials and calendar
- Plan email campaigns, including content, design, cadence, etc
- Arrange various incentives like limited-time sales, free shipping, etc
- Bolster customer support and ensure it’s available from a variety of channels
As you can see, there’s a lot to do in terms of preparation for this holiday shopping season. With more customers turning to eCommerce and more eCommerce stores trying to get their attention, proper preparation is vital.
We’re already getting down to the final mile, as shoppers will begin their holiday shopping in just a few short weeks. Understandably, this may induce a bit of stress. Even if you’ve started your holiday preparations, you want to ensure everything is going to run smoothly.
One less thing to worry about when it comes to holiday preparations
While it will take some serious work and dedication to get your eCommerce business ready for holiday shopping at this time, it’s certainly possible with the right tools in your arsenal.
Nventree is here to help! Our software helps you streamline your order fulfillment process, and inventory management to improve your operations and save you time. We provide integrations with the top marketplaces, making it easier than ever to manage all of your stocks and orders in one place.