Prepare a sleigh in the summer: Check your readiness for holiday sales (before customers do this)

Black Friday and Cyber ​​Monday are the most important days of the year for online business in the United States and beyond. During this period, there is a very high level of competition and noise, and retailers are looking for a creative way to stand out. Below are some examples of promotional tactics and recommendations for preparing an online store for holiday sales:

A flash sale is a special offer, valid on certain days or even hours. The flash sale newsletter motivates customers to come back and see what's new with you. Another advantage of flash sales is creating a sense of urgency and scarcity that pushes you to buy here and now.
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Gift for purchase - a free gift in addition to the order everyone likes. Brooks Running offered a free running jersey with delivery to every buyer who spent more than $ 100 on the site. As a result, the average purchase amount increased, and the T-shirts paid off with interest.

Contests - make contests a part of your strategy and be creative in choosing a prize pool. Call "Win items from your wish list" will increase the number of registered users on your site. Such a proposal can change consumer behavior, increasing his desire to buy from you. More customers can offer to vote for their favorite products. Some companies launch such a vote in order to better understand what it is worth promoting before the holidays.

Final purchase chords . Think in advance what customers may lack in the context of the upcoming holidays - gift wrapping, gift certificates, other small gifts or items that decorate the main gift under the Christmas tree.

Begin testing in advance . Try to find out earlier what offers and promotions cause the maximum response from customers. What discount do they like more, 15% or $ 15? What is the ratio of cost and delivery time they prefer? Do they expect relatively expensive goods to be delivered for free? A / B testing will help determine the important nuances of sales for the hot pores long before the start of the holiday season.

Here are some recommendations to the retailer on the eve of the New Year season:

1) Check stock and prices
Check all promotions and offers, make sure that all discounts are calculated correctly, both in the basket and on the advertising platform; both on the home page and on the product page. During testing, make sure all stocks are turned on and off on time. Also, do not forget to check the entire product grid, whether it displays the full and reduced price. Do this in parallel with checking your stock.

2) Optimize search results
Test and customize the search results on the site. Try to predict what customers will look for, going past last year’s data. Analyze the top search queries on the site and keywords over the past year, and optimize your range accordingly.

3) Test the navigation
Check how visitors navigate the site to make sure they can find products of interest to them. Think about remote usability testing, a side view. Some problems you may simply not notice. It may be worthwhile to optimize the gift assortment by changing the sorting rules — place the expectedly popular positions at the beginning of the product grid. Optimize your search filters by introducing new options that make it easier to search for a gift (for example, “gifts for children”, “soft gifts”, “electronic gifts”, etc.). Test a set of effective keywords that narrow the search field to the maximum, which will lead the buyer to the perfect gift.

4) Product face and without scrolling
The product page is obviously one of the most important in the sales process. Make sure that all promotions and parameters affecting decision making (such as free shipping, warranty, key product details: size, color, specifications) are displayed on one screen and do not require scrolling. Check the pictures for compliance with the presented product (color, modification, case material, etc.), as well as, as already mentioned, prices for accuracy and consistency (accounting of all stocks and conditions) in different places on the site.

5) Check all stages of checkout.
A checkout can both “do” and destroy a sale. Make sure that there is nothing superfluous in the chain of steps of the checkout, and that the support telephone is always in front of your eyes in case the user has a sudden question. Clearly specify delivery options. And, of course, enable the user to save the product in the wish list - thanks to him, many potential buyers will return to you for the purchase.

6) Moral support for help desk
Prepare staff to communicate with customers during seasonal sales - your employees should have comprehensive information about special offers and possible problems or delays, and proactively suggest a replacement / alternative if necessary.

7) Stress tests - mandatory exercise before the holidays
Check the technical statistics, make sure that the site is ready for additional load. After all, even if you tried to promote your website for the holidays, it will be in vain if the back-end does not cope with the increased traffic. Engage your IT team for load testing to prevent crashes and downtime at the most critical time for holiday sales.

Remember: Black Friday and Cyber ​​Monday are only the beginning of the New Year shopping season. Naturally, many people will buy gifts throughout December and even in January. So do not despair if at the moment you did not have time or missed something. But in general, it is better to prepare for the New Year holidays from the beginning of autumn or even from the end of summer - then the holiday shopping becomes a pleasure for all parties involved in the process ...