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7 Ways to Get Your Website Ready for the Holidays, Part 1

The December holiday season is the biggest shopping period of the year, and it’s closely preceded by Black Friday and Cyber Monday, at the end of November, which are the biggest shopping days of the year. Even if persons don’t celebrate Christmas or Hanukkah, many of them still take advantage of the deals offered around this time of year. So if you’re an online retailer and you’re not taking advantage of this, you could be losing beaucoup bucks!

And these holidays aren’t just for online retailers! Even if you don’t have an ecommerce store (which you totally should have, by the way), you can still spruce up your website and use it to gain some new customers and extra sales this holiday season.

Here are a few ways both online and offline businesses can get their websites ready for the upcoming season.

7 Ways Blog II

1.  Spruce it up!

vlc xmas logoIf you’re thinking that giving your website a festive look for the holiday season is going to take a major overhaul and lots of money, think again. All you really need to change to get your website looking great:
  • A logo and icon to fit the holiday. VLC does this every year with a simple Santa’s hat and some snowflakes.
  • Some color and decorations in your footer (think red and green for Christmas, blue and gold for Hannukah, etc.). Both the header and footer show on almost every page of your site, so change them and it’s like you’re changing every page.
  • A special landing page (that could be made into your homepage). This page would be specially designed with a holiday vibe and provide all the details about any special products, promotions and offers you’re providing. Take the guesswork out of holiday shopping and your visitors will love you for it.

2. Create a special promotion

swh-black-fridayIf there’s ever a time to create a special promotion, it’s in those weeks leading up to the holidays. People plan well in advance to buy on Black Friday, the Friday after Thanksgiving, and the following Monday, dubbed Cyber Monday, but they won’t be buying unless they are getting a deal.

This isn’t limited to the United States either. Even though we don’t celebrate Thanksgiving in Jamaica, there are quite a few Jamaicans who take advantage of the online deals, and the international couriers have their own specials to facilitate this.

There are no hard and fast rules on what specials to offer, but advertising your deal in advance is the best way to go. This post on the best deals offered by top brands in the US will give you some ideas.

3. Facilitate gift-giving

This is the one time of the year where quite a few of your website visitor might not be your target customers.Instead, they’ll be friends, families and colleagues looking for the perfect gift for someone who is your ideal customer. (Side Note: Be sure to include your business info in the package to spread brand awareness to the gift recipient!)

To make it easy for gift shoppers to find the perfect gift and make sure it arrives in time, here are a few things you can do:
  • Put up a page or blog with gift ideas for your target audience. (Use multiple lists if you have different types of customers, i.e. “Best Gifts for Dad” and “Best Gifts for Mom”
  • Provide all the details and guidelines of holiday shopping in one location. Create an FAQ section or page that details your delivery scheduling, store availability, whether you offer gift wrapping, etc. When it gets closer to crunch time and your buyers need that perfect holiday gift, having a smooth process can land you a gold mine of grateful customers.
  • Don’t forget to highlight your best stuff! Make sure your top selling products and recommended products are the first things visitors see when they come to your page. And if you have something in stock that your competitors don’t, be sure to highlight that too.

Now it’s time to get working on those promotions! Look out for part two soon, with four more things you can do to get your website ready for the holidays.