{"id":407,"date":"2016-12-07T04:55:41","date_gmt":"2016-12-07T12:55:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.agiliron.com\/blog\/?p=407"},"modified":"2025-11-25T02:37:54","modified_gmt":"2025-11-25T10:37:54","slug":"how-to-boost-e-commerce-sales-this-holiday-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.agiliron.com\/blog\/how-to-boost-e-commerce-sales-this-holiday-season\/","title":{"rendered":"E-commerce Holiday Prep: Tactical Tips to Dominate This Holiday Season"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.agiliron.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/44796_Agiliron_image-1_112916.png\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-437\" src=\"https:\/\/www.agiliron.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/44796_Agiliron_image-1_112916.png\" alt=\"44796_agiliron_image-1_112916\" width=\"675\" height=\"372\" title=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.agiliron.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/44796_Agiliron_image-1_112916.png 675w, https:\/\/www.agiliron.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/44796_Agiliron_image-1_112916-300x165.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 675px) 100vw, 675px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><b>What you will learn in this post:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What the experts are saying about the upcoming holiday season <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Five tactical steps you can take this holiday season to boost e-commerce sales<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">33 additional marketing techniques you can implement this holiday season<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">E-commerce <\/span> sales could again reach new heights in 2016 <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> as forecasters expect this holiday season to be better than the last. Deloitte, a major consulting firm, predicts sales will grow this holiday season between 3.6% and 4%. Another consultancy, AlixPartners, estimates the industry\u2019s sales will increase between 3.3% and 4%.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To put those numbers into context, consider <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/fortune.com\/2016\/09\/27\/ecommerce-sites-holiday-season\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">this forecast from eMarketer<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Total sales are expected to hit $95 billion; a statistic that would take e-commerce\u2019s share of total holiday season sales past the 10% mark for the first time. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What\u2019s more, according to the Ecommerce Holiday Trends Report released by RJMetrics, the days from Black Friday through Christmas pull in 50-100% more revenue compared to shopping days throughout the rest of the year.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The holiday season may very well be your make-or-break season. This is the time when you should invest the energy and resources necessary to prepare your business ahead of time. Inevitably, you will spend most of your time fulfilling orders and handling customer inquiries. You will have neither the time nor the desire to fiddle with anything else. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To help you plan accordingly, we\u2019ve examined all kinds of holiday statistics,<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.practicalecommerce.com\/4-Predictions-for-2016-Holiday-Shopping-Season\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">predictions<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and even took a look back at some of the <\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">lessons we learned last year<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in order to put together a list of the most common, impactful tactics and strategies you can implement <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">this<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> year in order to increase revenue during the upcoming holiday season. <\/span><\/p>\n<div style=\"background: #fffb90; border: 1px solid #fffb90; padding: 15px 15px; margin: 0 0 20px 0; font-size: 18px;\"><strong>Exclusive Bonus:<\/strong> <a class=\"manual-optin-trigger\" href=\"#\" data-optin-slug=\"cs7fhiay3pmixkw2\">Download the FREE Cheat Sheet<\/a> that includes five tips and strategies to boost e-commerce sales this holiday season (and make this shopping season your best one yet)!<\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Five of the most useful tips and tactics you can use to prepare your online store for the busiest time of the year (and boost e-commerce sales this holiday season):<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">1) Make sure your website can handle unforeseen traffic spikes<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If your website is slow or temporarily crashes, you will lose customers. Aim to keep your page load times under three seconds, if possible. Two seconds would be ideal. If you\u2019re using a professional hosting service or a cloud-based provider, increasing capacity can be as easy as contacting your host.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you want to take a more hands-on approach, examine your past traffic levels to establish a benchmark for visitor totals during non-peak months. Then, compare traffic against data from last year\u2019s holiday season. If the latter is significantly higher than the former, you now have a better idea as to what kind of traffic levels you must prepare to support this year. Just to be safe, you should prepare for a spike that is at least 100% higher than what you might normally expect.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Even still, outages can happen unexpectedly.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Last year, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2015\/11\/30\/target-com-latest-to-crash-from-increased-online-traffic\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Target\u2019s site slowed considerably<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> on Cyber Monday. Neiman Marcus experienced <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/fortune.com\/2015\/11\/28\/neiman-marcus-ecommerce-2\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">two major outages last year<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> which caused the retailer to miss Black Friday entirely. <\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">2) Optimize your online store for immediate, hassle-free conversion<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If preparing your site for a spike in website traffic is priority number one, optimizing your online store for conversion should be a close second. Regardless of the device being used, consumers expect to find what they\u2019re looking for in mere seconds. This year, more than ever, you must tailor an online shopping experience with conversion in mind. According to eMarketer, retail e-commerce is expected to <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.emarketer.com\/chart\/259470\/us-retail-retail-ecommerce-holiday-season-sales-growth-2016-2022-change-vs-prior-year\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">grow by nearly 18%<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, propelled by a significant uptick in mobile shopping.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If it isn\u2019t abundantly clear what sales you\u2019re offering, many shoppers will look elsewhere. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So, <\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">optimize your online store<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to funnel customers to holiday deals and top-selling items. There are a limitless number of tactical steps you can take this season in order to capture a shopper\u2019s attention, boost conversion rates and increase sales. In fact, there are too many to list in this post. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So, here are <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.shopify.com\/partners\/blog\/79651526-5-design-tips-to-boost-conversions-this-holiday-season\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">five of the most impactful design tips<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that retailers used just last year to increase conversion rates and increase average order value. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">3) Ensure you have the proper staffing to handle increased order volume<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">According to an <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.helpscout.com\/75-customer-service-facts-quotes-statistics\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">American Express Survey<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, 78% of consumers cancel a transaction because of poor customer service. So, staff up. Make sure you have the infrastructure and support in place to handle a significant uptick in orders, returns and customer inquiries. If possible, you should plan for around-the-clock customer support. Most importantly, however, ensure that you have an established process for handling all types of customer support requests this holiday season.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For example, triaging customer interactions as they come in can help to decrease the workload on your support team while ensuring all support inquiries receive instant attention. Set up automated rules to flag support requests for common keywords such as \u201clost password\u201d or \u201creturn policy.\u201d This way, support requests are automatically flagged and sent to the appropriate team member for a final resolution. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You should also consider creating a self-service customer support option this holiday season. Creating a knowledge base allows customers to resolve issues themselves, allowing your customer support staff to focus on higher-priority issues. More importantly, you can easily add an FAQ page to your online store in advance of the holiday rush. Put yourself in the customer\u2019s shoes. Anticipate their questions and create an online resource that provides detailed answers to the most common questions you expect to receive. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<div style=\"background: #fffb90; border: 1px solid #fffb90; padding: 15px 15px; margin: 0 0 20px 0; font-size: 18px;\"><strong>Exclusive Bonus:<\/strong> <a class=\"manual-optin-trigger\" href=\"#\" data-optin-slug=\"cs7fhiay3pmixkw2\">Download the FREE Cheat Sheet<\/a> that includes five tips and strategies to boost e-commerce sales this holiday season (and make this shopping season your best one yet)!<\/div>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">4) Plan your shipping deadlines ahead of time (and post them prominently)<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">According to <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.slideshare.net\/GrantMorrow1\/e-commerce-techcampmemphisslides\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">UPS<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, delivery speed is the fourth most important factor in the online shopping process. Even that statistic might be conservative. Last year, FedEx received <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.inquisitr.com\/2657435\/fedex-outrage-christmas-deliveries\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">national attention<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> following a massive package delivery nightmare resulting in thousands of late Christmas presents. Business Insider recently revealed <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/fedex-reveals-anticipated-holiday-delivery-trends-2016-9\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">FedEx\u2019s plans<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to ensure the same thing doesn\u2019t happen again this year. Make sure you\u2019re ahead of the game.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To avoid unnecessary headaches throughout the holiday season, plan and post shipping ETAs and guidelines prominently on your website. Doing so can help reduce the number of customer support inquiries, freeing you and your team up to focus on more pressing items. Plan your shipping dates well in advance in order to ensure your customers\u2019 orders make it to their final destination in a timely fashion.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">DealHack has put together a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/dealhack.com\/blog\/holiday-shipping-deadlines\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">list of the holiday shopping deadlines<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> for three major U.S. shipping carriers (UPS, USPS and FedEx) as well as for 10 of the most popular online shopping destinations for American shoppers. Be sure you familiarize yourself with these dates as early as possible.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">5) Consider more flexible shipping and return options<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Under normal circumstances, you may not wish to incur additional costs in order to secure a sale. The holidays, however, are anything but normal. Increasing sales is your number one priority during this peak season, so you may want to consider adopting a more shopper-friendly shipping and return policy.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For example, last year Target offered <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.internetretailer.com\/2015\/10\/30\/target-offers-free-shipping-through-christmas\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">free shipping on all online orders<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> during the holiday season. It was the second year in a row Target offered free shipping for holiday shoppers. According to Slice, an e-commerce analytics provider, Target\u2019s policy resulted in a 3% increase in average order size.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you\u2019re not comfortable extending a free shipping option to your customers, consider loosening the reigns on holiday returns. A more favorable return policy removes a potential barrier from the purchase which is why a number of online sellers have turned to a hassle-free return policy. In fact, last year\u2019s Mystery Shopping report, produced by the e-tailing group, revealed that 19 out of 100 retailers allowed shoppers the luxury of free returns while 5% made it conditional. <\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To recap: <\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This holiday season will again set records. You should plan in advance for unprecedented order volume and ensure that you have the infrastructure in place to support a significant uptick in traffic, orders, returns and customer support inquiries.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">November and December drive <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/rjmetrics.com\/resources\/reports\/ecommerce-holiday-trends\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">30% more e-commerce revenue<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> than non-holiday months. Most e-commerce business owners cannot afford to take any chances. In fact, if you haven\u2019t started your holiday planning, you\u2019re already behind the game.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you want to boost sales and profits during this record-breaking season, do the following:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\n<h4><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Make sure your website can handle unforeseen traffic spikes<\/span><\/h4>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\n<h4><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Optimize your online store for immediate, hassle-free conversion<\/span><\/h4>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\n<h4><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ensure you have the proper staffing to handle increased order volume<\/span><\/h4>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\n<h4><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Plan your shipping deadlines ahead of time (and post them prominently)<\/span><\/h4>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\n<h4><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Consider more shopper-friendly shipping and return options<\/span><\/h4>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And just for good measure:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Here are <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/ecommerce-platforms.com\/ecommerce-selling-advice\/33-techniques-boosting-holiday-sales\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">33 additional marketing techniques<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> you can use to boost e-commerce holiday sales.<\/span><\/p>\n<div style=\"background: #fffb90; border: 1px solid #fffb90; padding: 15px 15px; margin: 0 0 20px 0; font-size: 18px;\"><strong>Exclusive Bonus:<\/strong> <a class=\"manual-optin-trigger\" href=\"#\" data-optin-slug=\"cs7fhiay3pmixkw2\">Download the FREE Cheat Sheet<\/a> that includes five tips and strategies to boost e-commerce sales this holiday season (and make this shopping season your best one yet)!<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What you will learn in this post: What the experts are saying about the upcoming holiday season Five tactical steps you can take this holiday season to boost e-commerce sales 33 additional marketing techniques you can implement this holiday season E-commerce sales could again reach new heights in 2016 as forecasters expect this holiday season [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":437,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45,13],"tags":[64,63,23,62,66,65],"class_list":["post-407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ecommerce","category-growing-your-business","tag-boost-sales","tag-christmas-sales","tag-ecommerce","tag-holidays","tag-increase-sales","tag-tips-for-sales"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.agiliron.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.agiliron.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.agiliron.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.agiliron.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.agiliron.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=407"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.agiliron.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.agiliron.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.agiliron.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.agiliron.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.agiliron.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}