6 Ways to Prepare Your Business For Christmas

Have you started thinking about the preparations you’re going to make to your online shop for Christmas? It’s a particularly important time in the retail calendar and the opportunity for making sales is huge. Not sure what to focus on first? Check out the ideas below to help get your plans underway.

1. Get Your Stock Ready

First things first, have you planned out the stock you will need, checked out the lead times for getting it from your suppliers, and planned when to order it? You need to have a clear target of what you would like to do in sales over the festive period, order stock to hit that target and then align your promotions to achieve it.

2. Check Your Terms & Conditions

Make sure you are covered. Check that you have up-to-date and detailed Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policies that comply with all the latest legislation.

Consider your refund policy. A nice thing to do for your customers would be to extend your refund dates. Some retailers offer as much as a full month after the 25th of December to allow people to return any presents given. Though we obviously do not want to encourage refunds, your customers will definitely appreciate having the option and you’ll give them peace of mind when ordering a present they might be unsure of.

3. Add Some Festive Spirit To Your Website

Be a cheeky elf and decorate your site to ensure the festive spirit is definitely rife in your corner of the web! Why not check out the “Christmas” sections on these free stock image sites and add a little holiday sparkle to your website!

 

4. Put Your Best Website Foot Forward

When you’re gearing up to make all these Christmas sales, it’s important to make sure that you have tested your site and ensured you’re giving your customers the best experience.

Try navigating your site, check all the buttons and perhaps even trial a few purchases to ensure it’s quick and easy to buy from you. Remove extra content which isn’t adding to the buying experience - streamlining for mobile purchases is worth considering.

While on the topic of keeping everything ship-shape, have you enabled SSL Encryption on your site yet? Your customer will be actively looking for that green padlock and the tell-tale signs that your website is secure. In fact, it has been found that 84% of shoppers abandon a purchase if they find their data is being sent over an unsecured connection (GlobalSign). 

5. Know Your Postage

Make your last posting dates clear so customers know when to order by and when to expect their deliveries. Consider how to create a sense of urgency and encourage customers to order early. Offering free postage before a particular date might be just the incentive they need for you to secure their purchases before your competitors.

Next day delivery at an additional cost is another way to secure the orders of customers who may have delivery concerns - particularly as the big day gets closer. You’ll find that customers are often willing to pay that little bit extra to get their delivery guaranteed the very next day and avoid a trip to the shops!

While we’re on the topic of postage and you’re thinking about it, do you need to order more packaging materials, ink cartridges or parcel tape? The last thing you want is to run out of printer ink in the middle of Friday afternoon.

6. Get Mobile-Friendly

With more customers than ever accessing websites from either their mobile phone or a tablet, it is well worth making the change to a Responsive Website Template (if you haven’t already).

These days, it isn't enough that you website appears on a mobile browser, the content on your site needs to be optimised and arranged to provide the best viewing experience for visitors. Find out what it means to be optimised for mobile.

 

We hope you find these tips helpful. Got any other Christmas ideas for your fellow online retailers? Share them in the comments below.

Make sure you know what the last posting dates are this year and have them scheduled in your diary! You can find them here.

Wishing you all a well-prepared Christmas!