Is Your Online Business Prepared for the 2015 Holiday Season?

Holiday season is undoubtedly one of the most profitable times of the year for businesses all over the world. Customers are seen avidly shopping online for Thanksgiving, Christmas and the New Year. A look at  Google Trends data for the year 2015 indicates that searches for ‘Christmas gifts’ began from the start of September and this trend is likely to continue till the end of the year.  This shows that people start looking for holiday gifts three months before the actual event. Keeping this in perspective, online stores need to start preparing and develop a strategy for meeting customer demands well ahead of time in order to enhance profitability. Here are a few tips for online businesses which will help in preparing for holiday season this year.

Ensure Seamless Customer Support

In order to make the shopping experience convenient and pleasant for your customers, you need to ensure that your staff is highly qualified and trained to deliver service across all customer support channels. The addition of a proactive Live Chat Service to your website is essential for meeting your customer support needs. This service should ideally be provided 24/7 in multiple languages to ensure help is delivered to all customers at all times. Providing a great experience to your online customers where all their questions regarding prices of products, availability and delivery time etc. are answered will ensure more satisfied customers this holiday season.

Create a Dedicated Christmas Shopping Page

Having a dedicated page for Christmas gifts/products on your online store will grab the attention of prospective customers the moment they land on your website. This is a great strategy to increase your sales. Adding an eye-catching top banner to the home page of your online store and linking it to a dedicated Christmas shopping page would surely help you generate more revenue. Moreover, the live chat window on your website can also be customized with Christmas graphics and the latest promotional offers can be advertised to your customers through live chat.

Monitor Customer Trends

It is vital to monitor customer trends and shopping behavior of the modern consumer. This will give you a better insight to your customers’ needs and preferences. For instance, many customers all around the world are now shopping for items through their smartphones.  This indicates the need for having a mobile friendly website which makes it easier for customers to search and purchase items. Customers also prefer reading reviews of products before making a buying decision. Therefore, adding product reviews is a great way to help your customers to make a choice on what to buy.