Americans spent more than $297 billion shopping online during the holiday season last year. WIth an annual growth rate of 9 percent, this is a crucial time for online retailers.
If your business doesn’t yet have an e-commerce website, you would need to act fast. Shoppers are eager to find the best deals and products, and providing them with a smooth and quick shopping experience would be ideal.
Here are some practical tips on building an e-commerce site that stands out from the crowd and meets the demands of holiday shoppers.
Choose a Simple, User-Friendly Design
Selecting the right design is vital to stand out from the crowd. Prioritize user-friendly options with minimal technical barriers.
A clean and simple design will keep the customers engaged. The more heavy elements, like heavy images and videos, are there on your website, the more time it will take to load. Customers who are short of time will not wait for it to load entirely and will simply shop their holiday purchases from a faster website.
Hocoos suggests starting with an AI website design template based on your needs and getting the advantage of launching before the holiday season.
Launch With a Focus On Essentials
As the holiday rush starts, do not let perfection become the enemy of progress.
Prioritize on an impactful homepage, product pages, a checkout page, a help and contact page, and get your site live.
Use concise product descriptions and compelling visuals. Provide some element of social proof with customer reviews or any user-generated content, and you will be good to go. Customers now prefer fewer ads, and more than 90 percent of customers hesitate to make a purchase without any user reviews.
Take Advantage of the Mobile Shopping Option
More than 90 percent of internet users access the internet using their mobile phone, and 47 percent of this is for making payment for something bought online. It is essential for your website to be mobile-optimized.
Given the prevalence of mobile shopping, ensure that your website displays all the critical information and the call to action button prominently. Users should also be able to search for anything they want to see quickly. If the website is unresponsive or fails to load the checkout page, you are bound to lose sales.
Simplify the Checkout Process
Almost 70 percent of online customers abandon their online shopping midway. While there can be many reasons, a cumbersome checkout process is a significant contributor to card abandonment. Extra care has to be taken at this crucial stage. Enable multiple payment options and ensure there are minimal clicks.
What’s essential is a frictionless checkout process that aids the customer to complete their holiday purchases quickly.
To reduce anxiety, display a progress bar during the checkout process so that the customers have a visual cue regarding which stage they are in.
It’s also advisable to integrate payment and shipping systems. Use a system that provides real-time rates and tracking information to make the process easy for holiday shoppers.
Test the entire checkout process multiple times with text transactions to identify the stages where the customer is likely to stop the transaction.
Ensure Your Website is Secure
When customers share payment information, robust security becomes a must-have. Ensure all sensitive data is encrypted using an SSL certificate. According to a 2024 study, a secure website gets visitors to trust it more.
Prominent display of trust batches and security logos reinforces the safety factor in the mind of the customer. It lets them know that your website is actively protecting their privacy.
Also, make the customer service page easy to find at this stage. Customers should be able to quickly reach out in case of any payment issue.
Making Your Website SEO-Optimized
Optimizing your website for search engines like Google is key to attracting more customers this holiday season. Use relevant keywords in your product descriptions and add alt text in images. Ensure there are clear meta descriptions for each page, telling search engines the exact details about your website.
Effective SEO boosts your site’s visibility and helps you stand out during this time of the year.
If you have a business with an offline presence, incorporate local SEO tactics to reach nearby customers, driving more sales.
Taking Advantage of the Holiday Rush
Launching your e-commerce website ahead of the holiday rush is achievable. Prioritize the essentials, like intuitive design and a streamlined checkout experience. Eager holiday shoppers would not be happy to see any glitch and would prefer a smooth experience.
Mobile optimization and fast loading times are non-negotiable. Ensure there are no disruptions in the payment gateway.
By focusing on these key aspects, your business is well-positioned to swiftly take advantage of the increased demand of the holiday season.
Quick Tips to Build an E-Commerce Website Before the Holiday Rush