8 Common Mistakes E-commerce Businesses Make at Christmas
01/11/2020 | Share:
If there’s ever a time when you need your e-commerce business to function smoothly, it’s during big seasonal events such as Christmas. The festive season is the perfect opportunity for certain businesses to increase sales and revenue. However, not everyone gets it right. Here are 8 common mistakes e-commerce businesses can make over the Christmas period. Make sure you don’t make the same mistakes!
1. Failing to update your website
Failing to update your website with a fresh and new Christmas design is a big mistake if you want to take advantage of the season. First of all, nobody likes a grinch at Christmas!
A temporary festive facelift to the site will get customers in the Christmas spirit and in the mood to buy gifts. It’s all about the emotional aspect of Christmas shopping. Online, you’ve got to match that feeling people get when walking around the town full of Christmas lights, decorations and festive atmosphere. Make people feel Christmassy!
2. No dedicated landing pages
When it comes to Christmas, you not only need to give your website a Christmassy feel, you need to create landing pages for the people that are coming to your website looking for gifts. This means a page that gives the user easy and instant access to the products that would work well as gifts. For example, this could include gifts under £50 or stocking fillers.
3. Not creating gift ideas
There are 2 types of Christmas shoppers. Those who know exactly what to buy for their loved ones and those that have no clue whatsoever!
By building on your Christmas landing pages from the previous point, you can add gift ideas tailored to the person they may be buying for. Links to pages like “Gifts for Dad” or “Gifts for Her” that contain a curated list of products for that type of person will help people find something to buy much easier.
You can even try to upsell by creating Christmas gift bundles. If you group up a few products that would work well together, for example, some toiletries, you can promote these at a price that is lower per unit but increases the overall order value.
4. Failing to wow your customers
Having offers on your products during the festive period is just not enough these days. There’s plenty of competition just a few clicks away. This means your offers and products have really got to give your customers the wow factor.
Make sure that what you’re offering is actually a real bargain. If you can’t afford to create a viable discount, then think about what else you can offer your customers. Perhaps it’s 10% off the next purchase or free delivery over a certain threshold. Whatever you choose, it’s got to give yourself an edge over the competition.
5. Failing to create a sense of urgency
Whilst you’ll likely start your marketing in November through to Christmas Eve, you can still increase the pressure to buy using a number of tactics. Firstly, special offers don’t have to last right until Christmas. You could run several weekly or daily offers to create a sense of urgency. Using elements such as a countdown timer on your website are a really effective way to draw attention to these time-limited deals.
Another way you can do this is by creating a sense of limited availability. Other websites do this by saying things like “Only 7 left in stock” or “50 people viewed this item in the last 24 hours”. It lets people know that others are interested and if they don’t act soon, they will miss out.
6. Not Using Advertising Channels
Another big mistake you can make during Christmas is forgetting about your advertising. Make use of advertising channels to get your products in front of people who are interested in buying gifts from you. Competition will be fierce and ads will be more expensive at this time of year, especially when you’re competing for keywords or topics related to Christmas gifts… so make sure you’re prepared!
7. Ignoring Your Competitors
Keeping tabs on your competition should be something you do throughout the year but at Christmas it’s even more important. With a limited window of opportunity to boost sales at Christmas, you need to ensure that what you’re offering is not being completely overshadowed by the competition. Take note of what they’re doing and do it better than them!
8. Failing to prepare your stock and logistics
Finally, not making special arrangements over the Christmas period can be a big mistake. If you continue as normal but are promoting your products more for Christmas, you’re going to run into difficulty.
Without sufficient stock to cover increased demand, you’ll soon run out and not only will you disappoint customers, you’ll miss out on plenty of sales opportunities.
Christmas is also one of the busiest times of the year for logistics and fulfilment companies. If you’re doing your order fulfilment yourself, you’ll want to make sure you have the extra staff or hours available to do so. If not, you may want to consider Ogden Fulfilment to give you a helping hand!
