Without realizing, we are only five months away from most awaiting Christmas. From October to December it is the greatest shopping time of the year. People are equipped to spend money and throw caution to the wind so that they can find the best holiday gifts for family and friends. A huge number of us are thinking how we can take advantage of the holidays and earn a little money for ourselves to assist us for the holidays.
ACTION NOW! It is certainly not too early to start obtaining your online store ready for Christmas shopping and at the same time you really don’t have much time to waste. I’ve added to a month-by month cheat-sheet to ensure you get the UTMOST sales for this Christmas.
August: There are companies marketing ecommerce solutions to allow you act quickly and spend your time wisely so that you can discover a way to take advantage of the holiday spending. Test out suitable online business software if looking to probably change solutions. Now’s the perfect time to make such changes since you won’t have much time to make sure changes going forward. If not happy with current shopping cart, you can either survey for an appropriate one or consider a few major carts such as Volusion, InstanteStore, Yahoo Store, CommerceSpace, 3D Cart, NetSolutions and Early Impact Product Cart. Bare in mind, adequate yourself with professional ecommerce solutions.
September: This month is the ideal time to start sensible on SEO work. Implement keyword research utilizing tools like Google Keyword Tool (https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal) or WordTracker.com that provides free trial. Since time is not at your side, you may take aim “buying keywords” first and then “research/browsing keywords” later on. You may ask “What’s the difference”? Purchasing keywords are more accurate for example “Ipod Nano 8GB best price” or “Apple Ipod Nano 8GB” whereas browsing keywords are more common “apple ipod nano”. Start out writing articles, press releases and syndicating content to create links to your store’s webpages using the keywords you’ve associated.
October: Do build up your in-house e-mail list. Keep in mind you offer something interesting or value to your visitors in exchange for their e-mail address and name. You may want to put yourself in your customer’s shoe while doing this. Then make sure you distribute your interesting list and excellent offers at least once a week. You must have them get used to receiving and reading your e-mail offers. This will in directly get the early Christmas shoppers start buying now.
November: Basically, Christmas shopping wave begins! Do A/B and/or multi variate split testing to create your results. Make sure to test out your layouts, offers, headlines and even prices to see which a mixture works the best. Can use Google’s free Analytics + Multi-Variate testing (http://www.google.com/analytics) to do this for free. You’ll definitely see small changes can sometimes bring you FAVOURABLE difference in results. Optimize all these and make sure you don’t leave any money on the table. Keep in mind to put up CLEAR notices telling your customers when’s the LATEST date to order to be sure they will receive it before Christmas. Definitely a good time to pull ahead your e-mail list with Christmas particular offers.
December: Do continue hitting list with Christmas offers and continue making tweaks to boost visitor-to-customer conversion. It is vital that you Do NOT make any major changes. Split testing is okay. Ride the wave and make sure your supplier and fulfillment house can cope with all your orders.
With all of these information at your fingertips and with such a little time left, you will find that with your time directed in the right way and the aid you need you can build a positive Internet business.
