christmas business rush

Want to know how to survive the Christmas business period?

Well, it’s that time of year again!

I know we all say it, but where has the last year gone?!

The run-up to Christmas can be one of the most exciting, stressful, joyous and (sometimes drunken) times of the year. It’s also a vital time for the Christmas business rush.

Many companies see (or hope to see!) a spike in sales at Christmas time, with customers buying gifts, food and trying to get everything done before the rest of the year.

So, it’s vital your site is ready to take all of these visitors. And, to do this, you need some dedicated WordPress maintenance. 

You wouldn’t want to miss out on half of your Christmas sales because your site had an error you didn’t know about.

So I’m going to go through all of the things you should check, or do on your site. Make sure your Christmas business period is as ready as possible!

However, I should say I can’t guarantee shoppers to your door – that might be more your end!

christmas business rush

 

Get your sales on!

People love a good Christmas sale, and with 53% of people (UK) starting their Christmas shopping between October and November, there’s no better time than to grab their attention with good discounts.

Some businesses might start to think about holding a sale in December, but you’re actually missing out on a lot of potential sales there, as lots of people would be all done!

You could hold a sale in October, then a ‘last-minute Christmas discount’ in December for example. That way, you’re still engaging those customers and making sure you don’t miss out on any late shoppers too.

By doing this, you could also swap up what you put on sale – giving your lower-selling products a big discount in December might push those sales up a touch.

Make sure you advertise your sale on your site when people first get there too! Creating a slider or pop-up to specifically advertise it can help to make sure people know what’s going on.

Plus, using wording like ‘last-minute’ is usually a good way to go as it makes people worry they’ll miss out. If you’re doing a ‘flash sale’ be sure to include the date it ends in obvious places on your adverts so people put it off to come back later.

 

Visit the ghost of Christmas (website) past

If you have analytic tracking data installed on your site – great! This is a time when it can really come in handy.

Take a look at your Christmas business sales from last year. Consider the range of data and what it can show you.

What was your top-selling product? How active were your users over the Christmas period? What devices did they use most?

By analysing this data you could make changes to your site this year. Of course, the results will likely not be the same, but you might be able to spot a trend. Particularly if you have more previous Christmas data you could compare it to.

For example, if you know one of your products sold out completely last year, make sure people know it’s back in stock this year. Then, advertise products similar that they might like instead this year. Sell-ups and cross-sells are a great way to get customers exploring other products on your site.

Make sure you keep viewing your analytics data over the Christmas period to see what is going well and what you could be improving upon.

 

 

Get your feed all festive!

Social media is a big part of SEO now and can be a great help during the Christmas period.

Lots of people love to make their feeds festive and therefore the relevant hashtags go up in popularity too.

By targeting these areas when you use the same hashtags, you can try and get your image to as many people as possible.

Stats show that potential customers are using social media – 54% of social browsers use social media to research products.

By making sure you’re posting relevant content about your products and business, you’re enabling potential customers to find out more them both – which is more likely to lead to a sale.

I don’t know about you, but if I go onto a business’ social media and there haven’t been any posts since a year ago, I have immediate doubt crawling in.

By not keeping your social media active you might be showing that you aren’t too bothered or organised. This could reflect other parts of your business, like customer support.

These aren’t necessarily things you’d think your inactive social media connotates, but it can easily go that way.

So, by making your posts relevant to the time of year, you’re showing you’re on top of things and an interesting business too!

 

Make sure your gifts can actually be purchased

Now you’re busy getting all your potential customers to your site. So you need to check they can actually buy what you’re selling!

Websites need to be looked after, otherwise, things can break. This could cause you major sales issues over the Christmas business period.

There is no point putting all your energy into getting your gifts found and then customers not being able to purchase those products. They will just go elsewhere and you will miss out.

Keeping your site updated via the WordPress version and plugins is important to prevent errors, and security issues which can cause even bigger headaches.

You need to check your site for any issues – try running through each page as a shopper would and see what you can find.

It would also be a good time to check your site looks good on all devices – you don’t want a site that people can’t view on mobile!

 

Do you need some help getting your site ready for the Christmas business rush? Need some assistance getting the updates done? Get in touch with us on 01295 266644 or fill out the form below and we can give you a hand!


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