Holiday Ecommerce Tips

Building and running a successful eCommerce business often entails making mistakes and learning from those blasted mistakes.  I'm sharing 6 holiday eCommerce tips and tricks that we wish we would have known and that have saved my tush in the past.  These tips will save you from mistakes and help you have a successful holiday season!

Our Discussion of Holiday Ecommerce Tips at Swiss Days

Check out this video of our trip to Heber City, Utah for Swiss Days and a wee bit of a vacation.  I show you the amazing things that we saw and some of my favorite booths up there. Oh, and let's throw in the 6 things we wish we would have known for holiday sales.  The holiday season is right around the corner, and using these holiday ecommerce tips will make your sales more successful and less stressful.  You'll also get a glimpse of some of the fun we had as a family after our visit to Swiss Days.

Holiday eCommerce Tips We Wish We Would Have Known

These are the tips and tricks Jared and I have learned over eight years of eCommerce on how to prep for the holidays.  The holiday season is your moneymaker and can pull a lot of businesses all the way through the year.  Now we say seasonal because we are coming up on Christmas, but there's Easter, there's Mother's Day. There's a lot of holidays in there. This stuff applies to every big seasonal push.

Don't Just Buy a Ton of Products

You still have to make sure you're testing it, testing the waters with whatever it is you want to sell. Make sure it's a targeted buy. Do your homework and test it out a little bit.

Start Selling True Holiday Products 90 Days in Advance

If it is a true holiday product like Christmas stuff, red and green, Santa Claus, stuff like that, you want to start selling it 90 days in advance.  Christmas products, you could even start selling in July for the big Christmas in July sales. You want to make sure you're selling that in November or earlier. But your typical normal holiday, you need to start pushing it at least three months in advance. Now, the month of the holiday is usually a wash. So we try not to sell Christmas items in the month of December. 

Customers are Like Hungry Toddlers

This is one we have learned the hard way, and it is that during the holiday season, customers are like hungry toddlers.  They're throwing tantrums, they're not rational, they're just so super focused on the food.  Prepare your customer and let them know when things are going to ship. Put a red banner across your site if you need to. I've also gone as far as putting in the terms and conditions. When they go to check out, it says, “This will not be delivered until after the holiday.” If they've missed the deadline, you've got to be super, super clear. Just like you feed a toddler on a regular basis, make sure you're communicating with your customers on a regular basis; it will save your tush.

If there's an issue, your customers are so much more rational and understanding if you address the issue before they call you out. It's all about open communication and really staying on top of that.

Pictures are Even More Important During This Time

Pictures are always very important, the images are always important, but these are even more important. You really push home the experience and the holiday spirit, whatever it is.  Also, if you can help your customers understand that this would be a good gift to give to someone, it takes out that thought process for them. They see it halfway wrapped up, under the Christmas tree, or in a stocking. It helps them through that process a lot faster.

Sell Cold Weather Items Before Christmas

If you've got ‘cold' stuff like scarves, and mittens, and hats, you want to sell them before Christmas. Sales do so much better on that stuff before Christmas. If you're trying to sell it after Christmas, you're going to have to do an after-winter blowout. After Christmas, people are already wanting warm weather, and it shows in the sales.

Give Yourself Plenty of Time with Your Shipping Deadline

There needs to be a shipping deadline when you are dealing with holiday sales.  You have to really cut it off so that the customers know when to expect their product. So for Christmas, for example, we do a deadline of December 15th. It gives us 10 days to get everything to the customers, and if we have any issues, we can address and overcome those issues. 

Another thing is if we can get it out by December 15th, December 16th through December 25th we can enjoy the holidays. 

Live Your Because I Can Life with These Holiday Ecommerce Tips

It's now your time to live your Because I Can Clan life. Get out there, get involved, be a part of the Facebook group Because I Can, follow us on YouTube.  Follow these holiday eCommerce tips to have a successful and less stressful holiday season with your business!