Will your online shoppers get a trick or a treat this Halloween?
Overall, US shoppers are expected to send $9 billion on this year’s Halloween festivities, which remains close to 2017’s record of $9.1 billion. With Halloween presenting the potential for online businesses to make some serious money, it pays to ensure your ecommerce company is ready to cash in. So, with that in mind, here are our top tips for improving your online store this Halloween.
First and foremost, make sure your site is ready for the huge surge in mobile shoppers who will inevitably come flocking in. This year, mobile retail ecommerce revenue is approximately $206.51 billion in the US, and according to Statista, this is likely to reach $335.84 billion by 2023. We can’t stress just how important it is to make sure shoppers visiting your store via mobile will have the same great experience they otherwise would on desktop.
Halloween takes place just ahead of the biggest shopping periods of the year. Be sure to complete a thorough analysis of performance issues you experience during peak trading. If you have ever experienced outages or similar issues, it is vital to figure out what caused them, and combat them with a solution. Don't be complacent even if you haven't experienced this sort of issue before; instead, find out your tipping point, and work with your IT team to make improvements such as adding memory.
If people are coming to your site looking for a Halloween costume or Halloween accessories, chances are they are looking forward to the ghoulish holiday, so make it fun for them. Grab their attention by updating your home page with a fun Halloween theme.
Competition is hot at this time of year, and consumers are constantly on the look-out for the best deals on candy, costumes and accessories. Tempt existing customers back by sending out emails offering discounts they can't refuse and watch your repeat sales grow.
Checkout forms can be scary at the best of times, especially in an age where shoppers are constantly time-strapped. When it comes to shopping during a major holiday such as Halloween, consumers want to remain stress free and able to complete the checkout quickly. Implementing type-ahead address lookup in your checkout is a great way of avoiding frustration and reducing the amount of keystrokes required of customers, while making sure you are capturing only accurate and valid data.
We are just weeks away from Halloween now, so it’s essential to ensure you can meet the shipping deadlines you’re offering, both on a national and international capacity. If you think this will be a struggle, take a step back and consider what really is a realistic timescale for you. Also, make sure your customers are clear about when they are likely to receive their items so there is no unnecessary disappointment. This can be done by clearly stating your expected delivery times on your website and via email communication on the build-up to the big day.
So, leave it to the costumed kids to dish out the tricks this Halloween – and concentrate your efforts on giving your shoppers an ecommerce treat.