We are only five months away from the year end shopping spree. From October to December it is the best shopping time of the year. People are geared 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 benefits of the holidays and earn a little money for ourselves to allow us for the holidays.
ACTION NOW! It is absolutely not too early to start engaging your online store ready for major shopping and at the same time you really don’t have much time to waste. I’ve covered a month-by month cheat-sheet to ensure that you get the MOST sales for this holiday season.
August: There are companies selling ecommerce software to allow you act quick and spend your time wisely so that you can find a way to take advantage of the holiday spending. Test out suitable ecommerce solutions if considering to possibly change solutions. Now’s the excellent 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 search for an appropriate one or consider a few major carts such as InstanteStore, Yahoo Store, Volusion, 3D Cart, CommerceSpace, NetSolutions and Early Impact Product Cart. Most importantly, adequate yourself with reliable ecommerce software.
September: This month is the excellent time to start relatively competitive on SEO work. Do keyword research utilizing tools like Google Keyword Tool (https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal) or WordTracker.com that offers free trial. Since time is restricted, you may target “buying keywords” first and then “research/browsing keywords” later on. You may ask “What’s the difference”? Buying keywords are more actual for example “Ipod Nano 8GB best price” or “Apple Ipod Nano 8GB” whereas browsing keywords are more fundamental “apple ipod nano”. Start off writing articles, press releases and syndicating content to improve links to your store’s webpages utilizing the keywords you’ve selected.
October: Do build up your in-house e-mail list. Be sure that you offer something alluring 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 give your alluring list and wonderful offers at least once a week. You must have them get used to receiving and reading your e-mail discounts. This will in directly get the early holiday shoppers start purchasing now.
November: Technically, end of year shopping rush starts! Do A/B and/or multi variate split testing to improve your results. Make sure to test out your layouts, offers, headlines and even prices to see which combination works the best. Can use Google’s free Analytics + Multi-Variate testing (http://www.google.com/analytics) to do this for free. You’ll discover small changes can sometimes bring you A FANTASTIC difference in results. Optimize all these and make sure you don’t leave any money on the table. Remember put up CLEAR notices telling your customers when’s the LATEST date to order to ensure they will receive it before the holidays. Absolutely a good time to pull ahead your e-mail list with holiday specific offers.
December: Do continue hitting list with shopping offers and continue making tweaks to buildup visitor-to-customer conversion. It is essential that you Do NOT make any major changes. Split testing is good. Ride the wave and make sure your supplier and fulfillment house can handle all your orders.
With all of these things at your fingertips and with such a little time left, you will find that with your time directed in the right way and the assistance you need you can build a positive Internet business.