The tinsel is being hung and the carols will be ringing loud through the airwaves in no time, hell we even know people who have already watched Love Actually! Those three things alone say Christmas is here and it's time to make your online presence deliver a selling period to eclipse all others!

The shop-till-you-drop season is upon us and while consumers are looking to avoid the long queues and are heading online, small and mid-sized retailers are scrambling to prepare for the holiday rush. We get it, as a small business you’re worried about having enough inventory, your ability to quickly fulfill orders and how you’re going to maximise sales during the busiest time of year. But trust us, you can't afford to deliver an average customer experience through your online store

Four key findings from the BNZ's Online Retail Report for December 2018 highlight just how important it is to not only have an online store but to have a customer-centric online experience:

• New Zealand’s total online retail spending in December was 6% higher than in the prior December.
• Online spending at international sites was 1% lower than a year earlier. 
• In contrast, local online sites saw spending up 10% compared to the prior December.
• The growth rate at local online stores also outpaced that at traditional stores, where spending was only up 1.3%1 year-on-year.

It's time to get your e-commerce website on the nice list

Many businesses assume simply having a web presence is enough to attract and retain visitors and convert them to sales, but most websites don’t automatically make it onto Santa’s nice list. E-commerce websites need to be optimised for search, performance and usability in order to reach and engage online consumers.  If Google and other search engines don’t know your website exists, you’re missing out on a valuable revenue source. And once people can find your site, you need to make sure you’re providing a great user experience to keep them there. According to research, 47% of users expect a maximum of 2 seconds loading time for an average website

Let's do a quick Q & A to ensure your web efforts aren’t getting lost in the white noise of the worldwide web:

• Can Google and other search engines properly index and crawl your site?
• Is your site targeting the appropriate keywords for your target audience over the holiday period?
• Is your site optimised for mobile devices? (remember over half of online sales are now made on a mobile device and 80% of shoppers use a mobile phone inside of a physical store to either look up product reviews, compare prices or find alternative store locations) 
• Is your site easy to navigate and search through?
• Are you leveraging images to engage visitors?
• Are you securing customer payment information?
• Is your site integrated with social media platforms?

Still not sure where to start? Download Shopify's holiday season checklist.

Need a hand getting your e-commerce site optimised - connect with us and discuss the best way to make Christmas 2019 your best selling season yet!