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5 Tips to Get Your E-Commerce Business Prepared and Ready for the Holidays For online merchants, the end-of-year holidays are right around the corner. Follow these tips to make sure your site is ready for the big opportunity.
While many of us look forward to the cheer and goodwill that the holidays bring, online merchants have a different reason for anticipating the end of the year: Holiday sales. Even with inflation and high interest rates, e-commerce isn't showing signs of slowing down. Holiday e-commerce sales in the U.S. are predicted to reach $271.58 billion this year—an increase of 9.5% from 20231.
"Consumers are in a buying mindset, and the seasonal surge creates an opportunity to increase revenue, acquire new customers, and strengthen brand loyalty," says MJ Barazon, Product Marketing Manager, Go-to-Market Strategy at BigCommerce.
While the allure of a surge in revenue is attractive, there are many ways an e-commerce business needs to prepare to make the most of the holidays and make it through without significant setbacks. Not having the right systems in place to support increased traffic and transactions can cause major downtime, leading to lost sales, a poor customer experience, and eroded customer trust.
If you haven't already started prepping, then now is the best time to get going. "Starting as early as possible helps merchants ensure that everything is in place when the holiday shopping kicks into high gear," Barazon says. "This timeline allows enough room to audit inventory, optimize the website, and plan marketing campaigns on time."
Here are five tips to help get your e-commerce business prepared and ready for the end-of-year holidays.
1. Ensure your website can handle increased traffic without slowing down.
This should be every online merchant's first priority when prepping for the holiday rush. Your online store needs to perform well under traffic spikes and be scalable.
"Making sure the website is performing well and scalable should be the first priority—conversions, average order value, and consumer trust can only happen when the website is reliable and doesn't crash nor slow down due to high traffic," Barazon says.
Crafting a successful online growth strategy begins with building an effective website and online store. Working with an e-commerce powerhouse like BigCommerce is a great first step. "In 2023, we saw a 10% increase in year-over-year sales from Thanksgiving Day to Cyber Monday within our platform," Barazon says. "That's possible through 100% platform uptime throughout Cyber Week, along with 24/7 access to support teams."
2. Optimize in-site product search and discovery.
There is less buying friction when products are easy to find, and in-site search results are relevant. Barazon suggests that merchants simplify menu navigation and product categories, offer extensive search filters, and optimize product descriptions to make product discovery as easy as possible.
"Creating custom filters to narrow product search is table-stakes at this point," she says. "But there are other innovative ways to enhance the experience, such as generating AI-based product descriptions for easier discovery both in- and off-site. We offer this out-of-the-box while giving merchants the option to integrate with third-party tools that enable smart product recommendations, without vendor restrictions."
3. Proactively offer scalable promotions and discounts.
This time of year, consumers are expecting a constant stream of promotions. But with nearly every merchant offering discounts, it can be challenging to stand out.
Personalization is key, Barazon says. "Merchants should never ignore the wealth of shopper data that they likely already have. Creating distinct customer groups based on criteria such as location and purchase history can help merchants send hyper-personalized notifications on product restocks and special offers to increase conversions."
Beyond offering the right promotions, merchants also need to be able to pivot promotion strategies in response to sales goals and evolving consumer behaviors this holiday season. "BigCommerce offers these features with an interface that doesn't require e-commerce and marketing teams to call development teams every time they need to make an update to their promotions program," she says.
4. Offer more payment options to ease buying friction.
Last year, Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) sales options generated $16.6 billion in online holiday sales from November 1st to December 31st2. Even if a merchant isn't selling big-ticket products, having a BNPL program in place before the holiday season can help increase conversions from budget-conscious shoppers, Barazon says.
Merchants also need to cater payment options to different customer preferences to prevent cart abandonment and lost sales. That includes Buy Now Pick Up in Store and digital wallets like Apple Pay.
"As new payment methods and gateways typically take a bit of time to set up, merchants who want to expand payment optionality need to do so as early as possible," Barazon says. For instance, BigCommerce offers more than 65 pre-built payment gateways serving more than 100 countries and 250+ local payment methods, making this process quick for merchants.
5. Respond to changing omnichannel shopping behaviors.
Where customers research gift ideas often depends on their age and technology preferences. Fifty-four percent of Gen Z, 45% of Millennials, and 27% of Gen X use social media to inform their gifting choices3, according to a report on market predictions for the 2024 holiday season.
"If a merchant's customer base skews Gen Z and Millennial, integrating e-commerce with channels like TikTok Shop needs to happen well before the holidays begin," Barazon says. "Additionally, merchants need to be prepared to face the post-holiday season surge in returns and think critically about their holiday returns policy, including which types of products they might let customers keep free of charge if processing costs are too high."
No matter where you are in your holiday preparation journey, following these tips can help you make the most of the holiday rush. "Online merchants big and small know that the holiday rush is a key customer touchpoint, so preparing well is crucial to a successful holiday season," Barazon says.
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