Prepare your sleigh in summer: Test your readiness for holiday sales (before customers do this)

Black Friday and Cyber ​​Monday are the most important days of the year for online business in the United States and beyond. Competition and noise are very high during this period, and retailers are looking for a creative way to stand out. Below we give several examples of promotional tactics and recommendations for preparing an online store for holiday sales:

Flash sale is a special offer valid on certain days or even hours. The Flash Sale Newsletter motivates customers to come back and see what's new. Another advantage of flash sales is the creation of a sense of urgency and scarcity that encourages buying here and now.

Gift for purchase- In addition to the order, everyone likes the free gift. Brooks Running has offered a free running t-shirt with delivery to every customer who has spent more than $ 100 on the site. As a result, the average purchase amount increased, and the T-shirts paid off with interest.

Competitions - make the contests a part of your strategy and be creative in choosing the prize pool. The call “Win ​​products from your wish list” will increase the number of registered users on your site. Such an offer can change consumer behavior, increasing his desire to buy from you. Customers can also be invited to vote for their favorite products. Some companies are launching such a vote to better understand what it is worth promoting before the holidays.

Final purchase chords. Think in advance what customers may miss in the context of the upcoming holidays - gift wrapping, gift certificates, other small gifts or details decorating the main gift under the Christmas tree.

Begin testing in advance . Try to find out early what offers and promotions cause maximum response from customers. Which discount do they like more, 15% or $ 15? What ratio of cost and delivery time do they prefer? Do they expect relatively expensive items to be delivered for free? A / B testing will help determine the nuances of sales that are important for a hot season long before the start of the holiday season.

Here are some recommendations for the retailer ahead of the New Year season:

1) Check stocks and prices
Check all promotions and offers, make sure that all discounts are calculated correctly, both in the basket and on the advertising platform; both on the home page and on the product page. During testing, make sure that all stocks turn on and off on time. Also, do not forget to check the entire product grid to see if the full and reduced prices are displayed correctly. Do this in parallel with checking your stock.

2) Optimize search results
Test and adjust the conditions of search results on the site. Try to predict what buyers will look for by going over last year’s data. Analyze the top site searches and keywords for the past year, and optimize your product range accordingly.

3) Test navigation
Check how visitors navigate your site to make sure they can find the products they’re interested in. Think about remote usability testing, a side view. You may just not notice some problems. It may be worth optimizing the gift assortment by changing the sorting rules - put the expectedly popular items at the beginning of the product line. Optimize your search filters by introducing new parameters that make it easier to find a gift (for example, “gifts for children,” “soft gifts,” “electronic gifts,” etc.). Test the set of effective keywords that narrow the search field as much as possible, which will lead the buyer to the perfect gift.

4) Goods face and without scrolling
The product page is obviously one of the most important in the sales process. Make sure that all promotions and parameters that influence the decision-making (such as free delivery, warranty, key product details: size, color, specifications) are displayed on one screen and do not require scrolling. Check the pictures for compliance with the presented product (color, modification, case material, etc.), as well as, as already mentioned, prices for accuracy and compliance with each other (accounting for all stocks and conditions) in different places on the site.

5) Check all stages of the checkout
A checkout is capable of both “making” and destroying a sale. Make sure that there is nothing superfluous in the checkout chain of steps and that the support phone is always before your eyes in case the user has a sudden question. Clearly indicate shipping options. And, of course, allow the user to save the goods in the wish list - thanks to him, many potential buyers will return to you for the purchase.

6) Moral support for the support service.
Prepare staff to communicate with customers during seasonal sales - your employees should have comprehensive information about special offers and possible problems or delays, and proactively offer a replacement / alternative if necessary.

7) Stress tests - a mandatory charge before the holidays
Check the technical statistics, make sure that the site is ready for additional load. Indeed, even if you tried to promote your site for the holidays, it will be in vain if the back-end does not cope with the increased traffic. Engage your IT team for stress testing to prevent crashes and downtime at the most critical time for holiday sales.

Remember: Black Friday and Cyber ​​Monday are just the beginning of the New Year shopping season. Naturally, many people will buy gifts throughout December and even in January. So do not despair if at the moment you do not have time or missed something. But in general, it’s better to prepare for the New Year holidays from the beginning of autumn or even from the end of summer - then holiday purchases turn into a pleasure for all parties involved in the process ...