The Holiday Shopping Season is happening earlier every year. Many big box retailers are beginning their holiday shopping season the day after Halloween instead of the day after Thanksgiving. Some of these same major retailers have begun playing Christmas music inside their retail locations the week before Christmas.
If you are operating an ecommerce site, you have to find some way to capture purchaser’s attention and get them to spend their money with your business, before they spend their disposable income elsewhere.
Here are 6 ways to prepare your business for the holiday shopping season.
Set your shipping policies
Amazon, Wal Mart and many other major retailers have made it extremely difficult not to offer free shipping at least during the holidays. Most retailers have a minimum purchase amount to offer free shipping. For most retailers that amount is $50. It is crucial for your ecommerce business to determine your break-even point for shipping costs. Once you determine the amount you are comfortable with offer free shipping, your business should place the offer prominently on your ecommerce website.
Don’t make any significant changes
Many customers begin researching for Christmas presents long before the Christmas Shopping Season, but it doesn’t mean they buy them early. This early researching means many customers save their favorite items so they can come back to your website when it is time to make the purchase. If you make significant changes to your website during the time between when these customers research and when they attempt to purchase the product, it could impact your conversion rates.
Refresh Staff Training for Phishing Scams
Phishing scams are an enormous threat to ecommerce businesses. Depending upon how much data you store related to your customers, the damages from a phishing scam can ultimately sink your business. Refreshing your employees with some training on what phishing scams look like is important. Sending out some fake phishing scams is a good way to test the training. It gives you the ability to train in-depth the employees who fall for the phishing scam. This will allow you to explain to all employees the risks of being hacked without actually being hacked.
What types of Cyber Insurance does your Business Need?
Cyber Security Insurance is a necessary coverage for all ecommerce sites. Having this coverage can be the difference between a hack causing your business to deal with a temporary stop in business and your business having to close its doors for good.
There are three main types of coverage when it comes to Ecommerce businesses. The first two deal with first party and third party liability, while the third type of coverage deals with businesses that offer technology products and services. The first two types of coverage are needed by most all businesses in this day and age. Those coverages are Data Breach and Cyber Liability Insurance.
Data Breach Coverage deals with the first party costs to you and your business. These costs may include providing contacting all individuals who may have been damaged by the breach and providing credit monitoring services to them for one year. Cyber Liability Insurance deals with your businesses liability to third parties. These third parties may include customers, vendors and employees who had their sensitive information compromised. The final type of coverage is called technology errors and omissions insurance. This type of policy is designed to cover providers of technology products and services from the risks they face regarding liability and property loss.
Identify your Best Sellers and Highlight them
Your homepage, like the door to a retail location, is the prime location of your store. This is the area you should use engaging graphics and promotions for your best products and offers. Whatever sells best during the rest of the year and you have a healthy supply of should be positioned prominently on your website. The fact that you have a large supply of the products is crucially important. You do not want to do a good job of promoting a product and then disappointing your customers when you do not have the products they desire.
Take advantage of your social media followers
One important aspect, that far too many ecommerce sites forget, is the power of social media. If harnessed correctly, social media can put your website in front of many people at the precise time they are interested in purchasing from your company. Traditional advertising does not give you the insight to target and retarget customers who have already shown interest in your brand and your products or services. If used properly, social media can help you convert a large amount of customers during the busiest shopping period of the year.
