Prepare Your eCommerce Store for The Holiday Season

The holiday season is the busiest and most profitable time for eCommerce businesses, with shoppers eager to find the perfect gifts whilst taking advantage of discounts. Every business should embrace this opportunity by preparing for the event, providing a great shopping experience, and standing out in a competitive market. Uncover plenty of helpful tips in this article to maximize conversions and ensure a successful holiday season!

Table of Contents:

1. Establish a Festive Theme
2. Implement Limited Edition Products
3. Discounts and Promotions
4. Building Customer Connections with Pop-ups
5. Sense of Urgency
6. Upsells and Cross-Sells
7. Shipping Cut-offs
8. Contact VIDEN to Make the Holiday Season Work For You

🔹Establish a Festive Theme

Refreshing your website with a holiday theme is a smart way to attract visitors and showcase your brand’s seasonal spirit. A festive design improves the user experience and can boost Conversion Rates by creating an emotional connection that encourages impulse buying. Plus, it helps your brand stay relevant during the celebratory season.

Essential Considerations

• Integrate holiday themes into your social media and ads as the initial step to enhance customer acquisition.
• Keep festive elements visually appealing but not overwhelming; they should not interfere with navigation or readability.
• Maintain clear CTAs even with the holiday design updates.

🔹Implement Limited Edition Products

Offering limited-edition holiday products can significantly increase Average Order Value with more expensive and bundled options such as gift sets, kits and advent calendars. These exclusive offerings encourage customers to spend more as they provide ready-to-gift solutions that create a sense of urgency.

Essential Considerations

• Ensure stock levels are clearly displayed (e.g., “Only 5 left in stock!”).
• Clearly communicate the terms and conditions of the offer, such as ‘Available exclusively this holiday season’ or ‘While supplies last.’

🔹Discounts and Promotions

Offering discounts and promotions is crucial during the holiday season, not only because competitors are likely to provide similar deals, but also because these promotions are what guarantees the boost in conversion rates.

Essential Considerations

• Clearly communicate the specifics of the discounts to prevent customer frustration later in the purchasing process. Use clear language and prominent placements on your website to ensure that customers understand the scope of the promotion from the beginning.
• If using coupon codes, ensure they are automatically applied at checkout to minimize friction and simplify the purchasing process. This reduces barriers that could lead to cart abandonment.

🔹Building Customer Connections with Pop-ups

Benefit from traffic boosts by using pop-ups to gather emails, phone numbers, or social media subscriptions. This is an effective way to expand the customer database, strengthen customer relationships, and increase the likelihood of repeat visits and purchases.

Essential Considerations

• Wait at least 15-30 seconds before displaying a pop-up to allow users to engage with your site first.
• Show no more than one or two pop-ups per visit to prevent annoying your visitors.
• Ensure the pop-up matches the website’s theme, making it visually appealing and non-intrusive.

🔹Sense of Urgency

Creating a sense of urgency motivates users to act quickly, reducing hesitation and increasing the likelihood of conversion. Effective strategies include displaying countdown timers, highlighting stock levels (e.g., “only 3 left”), or using banners to emphasize limited-time offers or shipping deadlines. 

Essential Considerations

• Strategically place urgency cues in high-visibility areas, such as the announcement bar, product pages (PDPs), or checkout pages.
• Timers and banners should be eye-catching but not intrusive, maintaining a balance between visibility and user experience.

🔹Upsells and Cross-Sells

Upselling and cross-selling are essential strategies to maintain and increase your Average Order Value during holiday sales. While discounts attract customers, they can also reduce AOV. By effectively showcasing related or upgraded products, you encourage customers to add more items to their purchase, helping to offset the impact of discounts.

Essential Considerations

• Display upsell and cross-sell offers prominently on PDPs, in the cart, and at checkout to ensure customers encounter them at multiple stages of their shopping journey. Position upsell and cross-sell items where they are most likely to catch attention, such as below product descriptions or alongside the checkout process.
• Offer different product suggestions in each location. If a customer doesn’t engage with a recommendation on the PDP, a different one in the cart or checkout may still capture their interest.

🔹Shipping Cut-offs

Setting clear shipping cut-off times during the holiday season ensures that customers receive their gifts on time. This builds trust, encourages timely purchases, and reduces cart abandonment due to delivery concerns.

Essential Considerations

• Clearly communicate deadlines for guaranteed delivery based on location and shipping options. Misleading or vague information can harm trust.
• Factor the additional costs of expedited shipping into product pricing or order thresholds to maintain profitability.
• Highlight the guarantee prominently throughout the funnel, i.e. in the header, on PDPs, on the homepage, and in the checkout, to reassure customers early in their journey.

Contact VIDEN to Make the Holiday Season Work For You

Book a 15-minute call with our expert!