Top 4 E-Commerce Checks Before the Holiday Rush
The holiday season isn’t just about twinkling lights and festive deals. It’s also the most demanding time of year for your e-commerce website.
Increased traffic, higher order volumes, and shoppers with epic expectations can put a serious strain on your site. If your pages load slowly, your backend operations aren’t up to snuff, or your checkout is bumpier than a country road, then you risk losing sales at the very moment demand is peaking.
Before shoppers come stampeding in, here are four things you’ll want to review to make sure your site is running smooothly all holiday season long.
1. Optimize site speed and mobile performance.
Fast-loading pages keep customers engaged. Which also means that if your website is a slow-loader, you could lose sales.
In fact, three out of four customers will abandon a slow-loading site. Mobile shoppers are even harder to hold on to, with 85.65% of carts abandoned on mobile devices.
We’re writing this post in mid-Oct0ber, before all that consumed Halloween candy jumpstarts the holiday frenzy, which makes it a great time to:
- test page speed
- compress images, and
- ensure your site is optimized for mobile performance.
(Psst – Did you know that in 2024, 8% of shoppers started their holiday shopping in September and 19% started in October, while just over half began in November?) 🛍️
2. Make search easy peasy.
The easier it is for customers to find what they need, the more likely they are to buy. In fact, did you know that 15% of visitors who use site search generate 45% of total e-commerce revenue? (That’s a lot!)
So double-check your search functionality, product filters, and category structure—and beef things up ahead of time.
3. Streamline your checkout.
Holiday shoppers want quick, hassle-free transactions. (Who doesn’t?) And fewer clicks = more completed sales. Unfortunately, 48% of shoppers abandon their carts when faced with unexpected costs like shipping or fees.
What can you do to get those sales completed? The best thing is to review your checkout process.
- Reduce form fields.
- Enable guest checkout.
- Make sure costs are transparent early on in the process.
4. Prepare your inventory and shipping systems.
A surge in orders is great! That is, unless you’re not ready to fulfill them. Take some time now to review your inventory management systems, shipping options, and fulfillment processes.
Shoppers expect fast, reliable shipping (or clear communication if there are delays). Flexible payment options, such as BNPL (Buy Now, Pay Later), can also help boost conversions.
Is your site ready for the holidays?
Your e-commerce website is about to be tested by higher-than-normal traffic and transaction volumes.
By optimizing your website’s site speed, making search easy, simplifying checkout, and shoring up inventory and shipping systems, you’ll be as happy as a pig in mud (and so will your customers) during the busiest shopping season of the year.
And as they say, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. (Well, apparently Benjamin Franklin said this about fire safety, and these days, it’s usually used to encourage us to exercise and stay healthy. But we believe it totally applies to websites, too!)
Need help prepping your website for the holidays?
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