5 Tips for Online Retailers To Prepare for The Holiday Season

When asked how they would do their holiday shopping, 59% of consumers reported that they prefer online channels. Considering that the COVID-19 pandemic might continue to shadow the shopping trends, the upcoming holiday season is likely to force the numbers higher.

Retailers have been increasingly turning to virtual space in the last decade. If not, 2020 gave them the push they needed to set up a webstore. No matter the circumstances, holidays will bring a boost to sales, even in unprecedented times. 

As such, it is never too early to gear up for the holiday season. Here are some tips on how you can provide your customers with a seamless shopping experience through their screens by adding the holiday charm. 

Check your Holiday Calendars

If you are targeting international customers, getting your holiday season right is a crucial part. You need to create specific strategies for each location and their native holidays, so you can offer promotions that appeal to their traditions. Ensure that all your APIs are updated and working correctly because they enable the customer-facing applications and therefore are critical to the function of e-commerce sites. If API supporting payment options will go down, nobody will be able to pay for their purchases, or if Holidays API won't work properly, users might get wrong expectations around service availability.

Be Thorough with Inventory Tracking 

Before you get ahead with sales and promotions, you need to guarantee that you can accurately predict your products' levels. According to a recent Adobe report, the average daily sales during the holiday season mounted up to $1 billion. And based on the trends, it starts well before Thanksgiving with the early bird deals. 

With this high demand and increased quantity, it is paramount that you are equipped to meet the orders. An excellent place to start would be by analyzing your sales for the previous holiday season. If your business has grown since you have to take that also into account. Consider which products are in trend and are likely to be in trend, and ensure that your inventory is stocked up. 

Speed Up your Website 

90% of shoppers say that they leave an eCommerce site if it takes too long to load. No matter how good your deals and promotions are, if your page is not fast enough, your customers will look elsewhere. 

As we said, now is the time to perfect your website with a thorough checkup. Make sure that your page weight is not too high, preventing quick loading of not only text but also images. You also want to secure the responsiveness of your site and update your mobile app. Pay attention to guarantee speedy checkouts and security to ensure that customers get friendly and fast user experience. 

Vet your Third-party Elements 

If your website hosts any third-party elements or any products, you need to examine them to ensure that it does not hinder your website functionality or reputation. A slow plugin could affect the speed of your entire page, whereas a third party offering poor-quality products could affect your brand image. 

Shipping and Return Policy 

Timing is a crucial component during holidays. Many shoppers buy gifts early so that they can exchange if needed in time for the holiday. This brings your shipping and returns policy to the forefront. You can try reaching out to old customers and find out whether they were satisfied with the experience. It will help you make any necessary improvements and ensure that things go smoothly during the rush hours. 

Retail experts suggest that the pandemic will be good for eCommerce. Regardless, holidays always draw big crowds as well as revenue. In its light. online retailers need to ramp up their market strategies and double down their focus on sales.