It’s only September, but many consumers have already starting their holiday shopping. And the outlook for this year’s holiday spending online looks fairly bright. So if you’re an online retailer and haven’t yet gotten your site ready for the holiday shopping frenzy, now is the time!
If you’re not already doing so, start paying attention to your customers’ online buying preferences. One way to do this is by looking at the most commonly used search terms on your site – this can help you understand what products will be in demand this season and what you should be stocking your inventories with.
In addition, there are a host of other options you can consider to give your site the boost it needs to meet holiday shopping demands, which are included in our new, free downloadable guide: “SLI Holiday Guide: 10 Steps for Preparing Your Online Retail Site Search for the Holidays” which you can download at usblogsli.wpengine.com/holiday-guide.php. Below are some highlights:
Capitalize on the mobile revolution: Mobile commerce sales are rapidly increasing and will continue to do so. Jump on the opportunity this holiday season by launching a mobile version of your site. Be sure to keep site search front and center as its critical to helping users navigate among choices on a small screen.
Put social media content to work: Social media content will increase this holiday season with the increase in promotions, discounts and product reviews. Integrating this content with site search let’s visitors helps shoppers stay more informed about the products they are researching.
Offer refinements: Help your site visitors cross gifts off their shopping lists faster by offering refinements that allow them to sort through products by common gift-buying filters, such as gender, price, or type of recipient (e.g., coworker, child, friend, age, gender).
Help shoppers complete their thoughts: Shorten the shopping journey for your customers by providing auto complete functionality that automatically offers suggestions for search terms as they start typing.
Never let your site fail: During the holiday rush it’s even more critical that your website is stable. Working with an on demand search provider will reduce pressure on internal technical resources and ensure site search is up-and-running on even the busiest days.
Here’s to a happy and fruitful holiday season!
