What e-commerce preparations should you take advantage of before the holiday season approaches?

Last Updated on Jan 30, 2024 by Nurul Afsar

While the holiday season may be right around the corner for consumers, e-commerce business owners are in the midst of their busiest time of year. As if regular preparations weren’t enough, online sales have taken a huge jump since the start of the coronavirus pandemic and if your website isn’t ready for an increase in traffic, it’s less appealing to shoppers, which decreases your overall conversions. At Numinix Web Development Inc., we recommend that you take a close look at your website to see if any of the following elements are worth investing in before the holiday shopping season is in full swing. 

Optimize content for mobile traffic 

Mobile shopping has redefined retail with upwards of 79% of smartphone users making at least one purchase every 6 months. In fact, “according to research from RescueTime, one of several apps for iOS and Android created to monitor phone use, people generally spend an average of three hours and 15 minutes on their phones every day, with the top 20% of smartphone users spending upwards of four and a half hours”, which means that if you aren’t investing in mobile optimization, your business is missing out on loads of potential customers and conversions. 

Mobile optimization is the process of adjusting your website’s content to ensure that visitors accessing your site can effectively navigate and make purchases, regardless of the type of device they’re using. This will ensure that every customer is given an equal experience that’s customized to their device of choice. So, when users are on-the-go, either busing or commuting, sitting in a coffee shop or even browsing in a brick-and-mortar store, your website’s content will seamlessly fit onto their smartphone screen, adjusting the font and images as needed to ensure convenience for mobile users. 

One of the things about investing in mobile optimization is that it will allow you to reach a wider audience, as responsive websites make online shopping easier and allow web visitors to share your content with friends and family on their social platforms. Another added benefit of mobile optimization is that your automatically rank better on search engines, which can be combined with search engine optimization efforts that will help you to outrank your competitors. 

How do you optimize your site for mobile?

When you invest in the creation of a strong user experience, you’re paving way for a ton of business possibilities, including brand loyalty. 

What to expect with mobile optimization?

• Videos on your pages need to be optimized to be compatible with smart devices. 
• Content will need to be scrollable, rather than forcing mobile users to click through multiple pages. 
• Images will need to be high-quality and closely cropped to maximize details, otherwise they won’t look good on a smaller screen.
• All website buttons will also need to be operable for mobile users.
• Shorten paragraphs on certain pages to keep mobile customers interested and motivated to make purchases. 
• Set up more clickable elements, such as “email us”, “contact us”, and “find us” to allow these to pop open tabs to better appeal to smartphones. 

Ensure that your website loads and transitions quickly

It goes without saying that you want your website to load as fast as possible! However, the ideal load time for e-commerce websites should be between one to two seconds. Statistically speaking, “53% of site visits are abandoned if a page takes longer than three seconds to load, and a two-second delay in load time will result in abandonment rates of up to 87%”. So, in preparation for the chaos of the busiest time of the year for online shopping, you will definitely want to decrease your page load time through website speed optimization. 

Speed optimization is a tactic that’s used to improve how fast your website loads and transition between pages. Since website speed affects everything from user experience and site traffic, to search rankings and the overall search engine optimization strategy, optimization is a critical component to convert visitors into returning customers! Users demand fast-loading websites and the slower yours takes to load, the higher the probability of abandonment. According to Google, the rate of bouncing goes up by:

• 32% if the site load time is 1-3 seconds
• 90% if the site load time is 1-5 seconds
• 106% if the site load time is 1-6 seconds
• 123% if the site load time is 1-10 seconds  

Since site speed is one of the most crucial aspects of your website, many e-commerce business owners invest in speed optimization services, which involve testing your site load speeds. A technical SEO audit provides you with a report that includes a list of directions and website performance techniques, including identifying the slowest loading URL and how you can prioritize individual pages that require immediate website speed optimization. Then the developers would get to work fixing these off-page and on-page issues to bring you a faster overall website. 

Are you interested in Numinix’s speed optimization service? Give your users the gift of great website experiences this holiday season by improving your website’s speed now. Contact us today by filling out the form at the bottom of our speed optimization service page. 

What determines page speed and how do you optimize it?

Page speed, otherwise known as page load time, is the time that it takes to fully display the content on a specific page or the time it takes for your browser to receive the first byte of information from the web server. 

Since longer load times negatively affect conversions, here are some ways that you can increase your page speed: 

• Enable compression
• Minify CSS, JavaScript, and HTML 
• Reduce redirects 
• Remove render-blocking JavaScript 
• Leverage browser caching
• Improve server response time
• Use a content distribution network
• Optimize images

Hire a designer to create holiday-themed graphics 

Whether you’re planning to host some holiday promotions or sales, or you simply want to make your e-commerce business webpage cheery and festive, graphics are one of the most popular in-your-face methods for showing your customers that you’re getting into the spirit of the season. 

We decorate our homes and workplaces for the holidays. Why shouldn’t you do the same for your website? While it may seem like a minor detail in the grand scheme of things, holiday-themed websites get people excited about spending time shopping there and will likely help to increase your conversions, showing your customers that you’re in touch with their jovial needs. 

What are some projects that businesses owners undertake to beautify their websites for the season: 

• Consider inclusivity with your images/design: A festive design could include images of children playing in snow or presents nestled in pretty lights, but only targeting Christmas may not be the best idea for your target audience. December is almost the month for holidays like Hanukkah and Kwanzaa, so be sure you know who makes up your customer base and have graphics designed that appeal to their likes and interests. 
• Tweak your logo: Some businesses choose to add a little Santa hat or some snowy background to their logos for the holiday season. 
• Change up the fonts: There are so many typeface variations that are available and fit with the charm of the season. Ask your graphic designer what they recommend for a timeless and nostalgic look. 
• Tweak your website’s colours: When you think of the holiday season, visions of greens, reds, silvers, and golds dance in your head. Consider asking for these elements in your graphic design. 
• Develop a countdown timer: Whether you’re counting down the days until the holidays begin or you’re choosing to highlight a shipping countdown to encourage customers to get their orders in, a countdown timer is an essential element for any e-commerce business. 

Which of the above services will you be outsourcing for the holiday season? Drop a comment below to compare with other readers.