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As of today, August 17th, we are officially just 100 days away from Black Friday.
And if you’re an eCommerce business owner that might make you sweat a bit. After all, it’s still summer and we’re talking about Christmas shopping but it’s never too early to start preparing for Black Friday and Cyber Monday. These two days are some of the busiest shopping days of the year, and if your site isn’t ready, you’ll miss out on a lot of sales. In 2021, according to Shopify, online shoppers spent $6.3 billion during Black Friday, making it the second-largest online spending day in U.S. history. It sharply jumped 23% compared with the same period in 2020. So let’s talk about how to get your site in tip-top shape before the influx of holiday shoppers.
Can Your Site Handle The Traffic?
The first thing you need to do is make sure your site can handle the traffic.
On Black Friday and Cyber Monday, you can expect a lot of visitors so it’s essential that your site can handle the traffic. If your site isn’t prepared, it will crash and you’ll lose out on sales. To avoid this, you need to make sure your hosting plan can handle the traffic and that your site is optimized for speed. Some ways to do this include:
- You can test your site’s speed with tools like Google PageSpeed Insights and GTmetrix. Both of these tools will give you a report of what needs to be fixed on your site to make it faster.
- Make sure your images are optimized for the web. Large images can slow down your site so you need to make sure they’re the right size. You can do this using an image optimization tool like Kraken.io or TinyPNG.
- Use a caching plugin to speed up your site. Caching is a way of storing static files on your server so they can be loaded faster. There are many caching plugins available for WordPress and other content management systems.
- Enable Gzip compression to reduce the size of your site’s files. This will help your pages load faster for visitors.
- Consider upgrading your hosting plan to a VPS or Dedicated server if you’re on a shared hosting plan.
Make sure you fix all the issues on the report so your site is as fast as possible. This will ensure that your site can handle the traffic and won’t crash during the holidays.
Is Your Checkout Process Quick and Easy?
The next thing you need to do is make sure your checkout process is quick and easy. During the holidays, people are busy and they don’t have time to waste so you need to make sure your checkout process is as smooth as possible. According to Fundera, improving your checkout process can increase your conversion rate by 35.26%.
There are a few things you can do to improve your checkout process:
- Make sure the checkout process is on one page. This will make it quicker and easier for customers to purchase from your site.
- Add an autofill feature for your checkout form. This will save time for customers who are making a purchase on your site.
- Include a progress bar so customers can see how far along they are in the checkout process.
- Make sure your checkout form is optimized for mobile. More and more people are using their phones to shop so you need to make sure your form is mobile-friendly. You can test your form on different devices to make sure it’s working properly.
These are just a few things you can do to make sure your checkout process is quick and easy. By making a few changes, you can streamline your process and make it easier for customers to purchase from your site.
Is Your Site User Friendly?
One thing you really need to consider about your site is the customer journey and experience. Is your site easy to navigate? Can customers easily find what they’re looking for? Is the purchase process quick and easy? These are all important things to consider when preparing your site for Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
Here are a few ways you can improve your site’s user experience:
- Add a search bar so customers can easily find what they’re looking for.
- Make sure your navigation is clear and easy to use.
- Add filters and sorting options to your product pages. This will help customers find the right product quickly and easily.
- Make sure your product pages are well designed and include all the information customers need.
- Include customer reviews on your product pages. This will help build trust with potential customers.
- Create curated collections for specific sales or events like Black Friday and Cyber Monday i.e. gifts for mom, kid’s favorites, stocking stuffers, etc.
- Consider adding a live chat feature to your site so customers can get help if they need it
By considering these items you can improve the customer journey and make it easier for people to find what they’re looking for. This will lead to more sales and happier customers.
Do You Have Enough Products In Stock?
Another thing to consider is whether or not you have enough products in stock (or will by Black Friday.) This is especially important if you sell products that are in high demand.
If you don’t have enough products, customers will get frustrated and they’ll go to another site to make their purchase. To avoid this, you need to make sure you have a sufficient amount of inventory and are prepared for any increase in shopping around the holidays. You can do this by:
- Checking your sales data from previous years to see how much inventory you need.
- Making sure you have a backup supplier in case your primary supplier can’t meet your needs.
- Increasing your production if you make your own products.
- Doing a test run of the holiday shopping season by promoting a sale or offering discounts to customers. This will help you gauge how much traffic your site will get and how many orders you’ll need to fulfill.
By being prepared, you can avoid any issues with inventory and make sure your customers are able to find the products they want on your site.
Are You Offering Any Deals or Discounts?
Black Friday is all about the deals, right? So if you’re not offering any discounts or special deals, you’re missing out on a huge opportunity. According to Statista, 93% of all consumers will utilize an online discount this year and are more likely to choose a store that offers a promo code over a competitor that doesn’t.
Think about what kind of deals you can offer your customers. Do you want to offer free shipping? A percentage off their purchase? A buy one get one deal? Whatever it is, make sure it’s something that will entice customers to shop on your site.
In addition to discounts, you can also offer special deals like free gifts with purchase or doorbuster sales. These are all great ways to increase traffic to your site and boost sales.
By offering deals and discounts, you can encourage customers to shop on your site instead of going to a competitor’s site. This is a great way to increase sales and grow your business.
Do You Know How To Market Yourself?
Finally, like always, you need to make sure you know how to market yourself. And if you haven’t started on your marketing plan — you’re behind. Just because you have a great product doesn’t mean people will automatically find your site especially when everyone is competing for the same Black Friday sales. You need to do some marketing to bring people to your site and increase your sales.
There are a few things you can do to market your site:
- SEO — Make sure your site is optimized for search engines so people can find you when they’re searching for products.
- Paid Advertising — Run ads on Google, Facebook, or other platforms to bring people to your site.
- Social Media — Use social media to promote your products and drive traffic to your site.
- Email Marketing — Send out emails to your customers and subscribers to let them know about your Black Friday sale.
By marketing your site, you can bring people to your eCommerce store and increase your sales. If you need help marketing your site reach out to an agency like EYStudios.
Are You Ready for the Holiday Shopping Season?
The holiday shopping season is a busy time for e-businesses. If you’re not prepared, it can be overwhelming and stressful. But if take the time to prepare your site and plan ahead, you can make it through them with ease.
By making sure you’ve answered the questions above you can ensure you’re as prepared as possible for Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and the rest of the holiday season. Need help preparing your site? Reach out to EYStudios.