The Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in a huge shift to online shopping, making it more important than ever to ensure your ecommerce site is ready and raring to go!
After an expensive December full of socialising, present buying and indulging, the New Year brings about a drastic change in consumer behaviour. Resolutions for self improvement and self discipline are plentiful, and for retailers the January sales are the perfect chance to take full advantage of this.
Why Is It Important To Prepare Your Website For January Sales?
It’s all well and good having impressive and successful marketing campaigns on the run up to the January sales, but if your website collapses on the big day it could all be for nothing!
Preparation is key when it comes to ensuring your e-commerce website is ready for the bustling January sales – and with the overwhelming influx of shoppers online it’s essential to make sure everything runs as smoothly as possible.
Avoid Disaster
Going headfirst into the January sales without preparing and testing your website is a recipe for disaster. By preparing and testing your e-commerce site you’ll be able to address any issues that could potentially sabotage your new year sales.
To Ensure Functionality and Security
You’ll need to test the functionality of your site – the smoother and more enjoyable the customer experience, the lower the chance of drop off and the higher the chance of them shopping with you again! You’ll need to test everything including load speed, CTA’s and more – ensure all your CTA’s are clear so a customer’s journey from start to finish is as seamless as possible.
With cases of security breach always being on a high around the festive season it’s vital to maintain a highly secure website for both your customers and your online store. So make sure to obtain or set up SSL certificates for the privacy of your website.
How To Prepare Your Website For The January Sales?
We’ve pulled together a few of the most important things to consider when it comes to preparing your website for the January sales:
Speed
Online customers are impatient! So in order to maximise sales your website needs to be running as smoothly and quickly as possible. Slow websites will lead to high drop off rates – if your website takes longer than 3 seconds to load it can cause a drop off rate of 70%. You’ll need to check your capacity and ensure your hosting is robust enough to cope with a drastic increase in traffic. Also make sure your website is updated, this is incredibly important – otherwise your website performance might lag behind your competitors.
Mobile Friendly
The number of site visits coming from mobile devices is constantly increasing, so you’ll need to be certain that your e-commerce site is mobile friendly and up to date. Otherwise you could push customers right into the arms of your competitors!
Check Out
Although it’s the last step, check out has the highest abandonment rate! One of the main reasons for customers dropping off is if the check out process proves more complicated, for example if they are required to make an account inorder to proceed. Instead offer customers the option to checkout either with/without an account, and only request relevant data.
Test your website!
In preparation of the January sales make sure to run a test on your full website to identify any potential or existing issues. Test the checkout process to ensure it’s easy and everything works properly, this will include:
- Load speed
- CTA’s
- Checkout process
- Extensions and plugins
- Security
This will allow you to rectify any issues, making it as easy as possible for your customers to engage and purchase.
Do You Need Help With Your Website?
If you require any help with your website, ensuring it’s always running as smoothly as possible, Wriggle Marketing are on hand to help!
