WHOA HO HO! IS YOUR ONLINE BUSINESS READY FOR THE HOLIDAYS?

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No one needs to tell you that the United States economy tanked in September, 2008. As I write this, banks have been bailed out, the government is questioning the future of the “Big Three” car companies, and the internet is a-buzz with tales of woe on the holiday sales season.

But is it as serious as everyone is saying?

According to Forrester Research, we will spend an estimated $200 BILLION dollars online this Holiday Season – which is up from the $175 billion spent last year at this time. So how can you get a piece of this Internet Holiday Pie? Preparation.

If you haven’t started preparing for your online holiday sales, you are already behind the eight ball. Never fear though, because the present is better than any to start selling to your online shoppers. Just know, holiday shopping starts earlier than the “Black Friday” sales after the Thanksgiving rush and you should note this for next year.

Below are some helpful tips for getting the most out of your online store.

OCTOBER

Q: When should you start preparing online for the Holiday Rush?
A: Early Autumn (Anytime in October.)

If you have the type of online store that caters to consumers, start preparing with new “Gift” categories, create a wish list application and start offering gift cards so you can collect pre-sells.

Re-evaluate your inventory and lines of distribution so that customers won’t be let down with “out of stock” notices. Additionally, make sure you post a shipping deadline on your web site so that your customers know when they need to order a gift to have it delivered on time.

Start developing Holiday landing pages that will bring shoppers right to your gift selections. This should tie in with your pay-per-click campaigns.

Review with your staff the holiday protocol. Make sure your web design, purchasing, customer service, and shipping departments are all on the same page to make all sales go smoothly.

NOVEMBER

Prepare your email list for a blast email in the early part of November. This list should be uploaded to your newsletter service provider and ready to go when you are.

Your first newsletter should hit within the week prior to Thanksgiving. The reason I suggest this date is because the week of Thanksgiving, everyone is preparing for their holiday dinner or travel and your blast newsletter may get lost in the holiday rush.

If you are using Comparison Shopping Engines, make sure you prepare all of your Holiday Sales items to be competitive.

Launch your holiday pay-per-click campaign the week of Thanksgiving. This is also the time to launch your holiday category pages that you made in October.

Follow your pay-per-click campaign closely from now until the holiday season is over. People will increase their PPC cost and you don’t want to find yourself ten pages back for the entire season.

DECEMBER

Cyber Monday is December 1. All of your preparation comes down to this day, but don’t forget other sales days. If you celebrate Christmas, don’t forget your customers may also celebrate Hanukah, Kwanza, and other days of celebration.

Send out your second holiday email blast to encourage customers to shop from you. This should be done ten days to two weeks from the first. DO NOT spam your customers.

Keep an eye on your pay-per-click. You should be able to lower your cost-per-click the week of Christmas because your shipments will not reach your customers in time.

Send out another email blast on December 26. This is Boxer Day in many countries (including Canada) and a huge shopping day in the U.S.


While you are putting this all together, prepare for NEXT year by adding these dates into your calendar. This way, when October comes around, you will be ahead of the game and be prepared for the holidays.

As the old song goes, “The Season comes but once a year…” and it is imperative for your business to be prepared if you want to succeed. Follow these tips and prove the naysayers wrong by excelling in these tough economic times.

Get Your Online Store Ready For The Holidays - NOW

Have you started preparing your online store for the December holidays? If you haven’t already, you will find that you are already four months behind! There are numerous web marketing tactics that you should be looking at for the holiday season – online video, search marketing, email campaigns, online media, social networking – these are all cost effective ways for you to reach potential customers. These are customers that are actively searching for sales and deals right now!

But, why bother with online sales? If you have a brick-and-mortar store, your customers are coming in the door, aren’t they? What if you don’t sell items online? Maybe you only use your store for information and a map to get to your location. This is still the time to be getting ready for Christmas.

According to Advertising.com (http://www.advertising.com/) 84% of consumers will make online purchases this holiday season with most purchases happening in November and December. This study will also occur in local businesses, as well, but you must be prepared for the season.
There are some very important things to remember when you are preparing your online strategy for the upcoming holiday season:

1. Make sure you have the inventory to handle your online sales. A person who uses the internet to make purchases expect to have their orders handled in an expedient fashion. You must either have the inventory on-hand or be able to get their order out the door quickly and efficiently.

2. Customer satisfaction is the name of the game online. Price doesn’t mean anything if you have fantastic customer service in place. Make sure that your customer service keeps the customer informed with each step of the ordering process. Make sure you also post a cut-off date that you will ensure gifts to arrive for the holidays. This is a very easy thing to do and you can stop an angry customer before it becomes an issue.

3. Submit your products and sale items to Comparison Shopping Networks. These are places online that can get your products in front of people’s eyes and compare them side by side with similar products. You can find these at places like: http://www.valueclick.com/, http://www.shopzilla.com/, and http://www.pricegrabber.com/. Remember, people start buying online for the holidays in October. That’s now!

4. Prepare your web site for the holiday season. Change your keywords, tweak your online business, make sure that you are getting the message that you want to your customers.

5. Coordinate your print message with your online message. Don’t confuse your customers by having your online “summer” message disconnecting with the printed message that you are using to entice customers to your store.

6. Offer gift cards to be purchased at your online store. Gift cards can give you up front cash to help you through the months following the holidays. Offer them in both a traditional and electronic format and make sure they are near your navigation bar so that customers can easily find the link to buy a card.

The weather is still warm and we’re all still thinking Autumn, but you have to be ready for the holiday season months before it starts. Promotions take time and that time is now. Keeping ahead of your shoppers will make for a happy and successful holiday season.