Shockingly there are only 27 more sleeps until Christmas… Where has the time gone?
Despite being encouraged by large supermarkets since October to get into the Christmas spirit, it is now probably a more realistic time for online retailers to consider developing their websites and and implementing Pay Per Click campaigns to target the influx of Christmas online shoppers.
Christmas is notoriously the time when people spend, spend, spend, and this year online sales are expected to surpass last years figures. From a survey conducted by Moneydashboard 56.7% of respondants plan on using the internet to browse for Christmas presents, while over 45% are expecting to do the majority of their shopping online.
Tomorrow (29th November), has been dubbed ‘Manic Monday’ as the Centre for Retail Research predict that £537million will be spent online, up 29% on last year.
However, ‘Manic Monday’ is to be superceeded by ‘Mega Monday’ on December 6th, as IMRG predict that hourly online sales to peak between 12pm and 1pm at £23.2 million, and draw in approximately 11% more sales. These figures are massive, but tiny in comparison to the £6.4 billion they expect to be spent online throughout December. The CRR also predict that 17% of all Christmas sales this year will be made online.
So if you’re an e-tailer, you must be thinking how can you get a share of this? Here’s some ideas for you to make your festive period a little more jolly!
Getting More Traffic to Your Website
On average we say that it takes 3 to 6 months for an SEO campaign to fully take swing, so realistically this isn’t the most viable option, unless you are in a niche market with few competitors.
Alternatively instant publicity in the search engines can be achieved through a Pay Per Click campaign. Tailored adverts promoting your top selling products, free delivery, free gift wrapping and so on can entice potential customers to your website, and differentiate yourselves from the competition.
Investing in a well structured PPC campaign can draw in thousands of pounds worth of extra business over the Christmas period.
Converting Your Additional Traffic
If a customer has come directly from PPC, they want to want to land on the product page of the product which was being advertised in the sponsored links. Therefore check that all of your adverts and URLs match up.
Navigation
Make it easy for customers to navigate around your website, consider implementing additional categories for the Christmas holidays. For example, you could add a category of Presents for Him under £15.
Delivery Options
On a website wide basis, make it clear when the last delivery dates are in order to receive any items purchased off of the website. Offering a range of delivery options is often favoured by the public and having next day delivery or even same day delivery can entice the last minute shoppers. If it is possible, free delivery can be very appealing in this costly time of the year, and if it is clearly mentioned in the PPC advert, customers may be more inclined to click through and purchase from you as opposed to a competitor. If free delivery is not available, make sure that the prices are listed clearly on the website.
Gift Vouchers
For troublesome friends and family members, gift vouchers are sometimes the easiest solution when it comes to buying them presents. If this something that isn’t offered then it may be worth considering them, as they can be great last minute presents and increase sales.
These are just some examples of how to increase conversion ratios over this festive time of year. Don’t wait until it’s too late to capitalise on the Christmas sales boom!
