Five Tips to Get Your Website Ready For the Upcoming Festive Season

With holiday sales recording a staggering 20% of the annual sales cut, retailers are joining in the fervor to make the most of the festivities. But what does that mean for online businesses? While it might be too early to talk about prepping for the holidays, for online retailers, it’s an altogether different ball game. Most businesses have already started preparing their website to meet the spike in traffic and earn a large chunk of the holiday revenue. Don’t fall behind!

Here are five ways you can get your website ready and make this holiday, the most profitable one yet:

1. Boost Your Website Speed

You might already be aware of the negative impact a slow loading website can have on your conversion rates. But now is the time, when you need to truly amp up your game. Holiday shoppers are not likely to think twice before switching over to your competitor’s fast-loading site. If you’d like to avoid that, get a web developer on board to optimize your site’s performance and serve up content quickly.

2. Guard against Unanticipated Downtime

Right when you’re at the peak, if your website crashes, then you’re out of the race for a while and lose out on a significant share of holiday revenue. Splurge out money on a dedicated server and bid adieu to cheap, shared hosting that is bound to bring your website down during the rush. Making a smart investment now will help you curb massive losses later.

3. Plan Special Holiday Promotions

Give your customers a reason to pick your online business over others. Outdo your competition by building your promotional strategy and rolling out coupon codes to give your website more oomph this season. Start out early, and enlist your coupon codes in the main directories so customers are well-aware of what’s up for grabs.

4. Connect With Your Buyers

Remember, a large percentage of visitors during the holidays are potential buyers, and you cannot afford to lose out customers due to lack of transparency. Overhaul your website by adding more contact options – live chat, a 24-hour hotline and email forms can go a long way in building customer trust and increasing conversions.

5. Join in the Festivities

From promos to cash in on the festive fever to switching servers, even if you’ve done it all, unless your website adds visual appeal, you’re not truly holiday-ready. Update your website with a holiday theme, new headers, vibrant graphics and more, to make sure it sets the holiday mood and catches visitor attention.

Welcome the holiday rush this year by revamping your website before the holiday season sets in! Get holiday-ready today!