The holiday season is in full swing. If you’re on the ball, you’ve spent months planning how to use this jolly time of the year to connect with your customers and increase sales. Even if you haven’t, it’s not too late to get in the holiday spirit. Here are a few suggestions of improvements you can add to your website to better connect with your customers.
Suggest Gifts
Regardless of which holiday your customers celebrate, gift giving is an integral part of the holiday season. You can help your customers make their gift decisions by highlighting the products that make particularly good gifts. This can be as simple as a featured products category on your website or as elaborate as a dedicated holiday catalog. You can even go further in helping your customers make their gift decisions by giving suggestions of common categories like “gifts for him” or “stocking stuffers.”
Remind of Deadlines
By now, the early birds and super planners have already finished their Christmas shopping. The rest of us, however, are still scrambling to find the perfect gifts for family and friends. Remind your customers of deadlines that can affect their purchase choices. For example, if you personalize items, make sure you let customers know when they need to place their orders so there’s enough production time. Make sure they know when the shipping deadlines are and when rush charges will start to apply. Making your deadlines clear will help your customers get their gifts on time and encourage them to buy sooner rather than later.
Offer Promotions
Customers expect to get deals during the holidays. That doesn’t mean you have to slash your prices drastically, however. Even little incentives like reduced shipping or a free gift can help keep shoppers happy. Offering discounts for specific days or time periods can also encourage customers to purchase their items early, reducing stress for both them and your staff. You can highlight these promotions on your social media, through email blasts, and through banners on your website.
Stay in Touch
Use social media, regular email newsletters, and other means to stay in touch with your existing customers. Let them know about your gift selections, promotions, deadlines, and more. As new customers come to your website, make sure to find ways to connect with them in the future by encouraging them to follow you on social sites and collecting their email address for future newsletters. Also make sure it’s easy for customers to contact you with questions about their order. Consider adding a live chat feature or make your customer service phone number a prominent part of each page.
Add some holiday cheer!
Nobody likes a Scrooge. Adding holiday design elements to your website helps you portray a friendly mood (and subtly reminds customers to buy Christmas gifts). You don’t have to do a complete redesign of your website, though. Adding a holiday-themed background, a special banner, or small holiday designs to your existing content can help spruce up your image. In our next post, we’ll show a few examples of holiday designs that we like.