Holiday ecommerce Trends You Can Profit From Tips for online retailers to make the most out of seasonal online shopping The holiday season is the biggest shopping time of the year in the United States. Consumers spend a large sum of money and retailers gladly accept it. As ecommerce becomes more popular, more consumers are choosing to buy their gifts online instead of going to brick and mortar stores. The holiday season could be a gold mine for ecommerce businesses if they play their cards right and research seasonal shopping trends. By taking advantage of those trends, your ecommerce business could make a great deal of money during the holiday season. Start Advertising Early The early bird gets the worm, and the customer. More shoppers are beginning to do their holiday shopping earlier and earlier each year, some even starting before Halloween. By starting your online advertising campaigns earlier, you are reaching early bird shoppers without having to battle for valuable ad space, like in late November and the month of December. Optimize for Mobile Devices People love to use their phones for more than just calling. Customers use their smartphones and tablets to research items and stores before they purchase any goods. Some use their smartphones while they are in a brick and mortar store to read reviews and compare prices to make sure they are getting a good deal. Others use their mobile devices to make online purchases. During the holiday season, the use mobile devices to buy items online increases. To take advantage of this trend, make sure your ecommerce site is optimized for mobile devices and has a responsive web design. Cyber Monday, Black Friday and Other Peak Shopping Days Black Friday and Cyber Monday are known as two of the biggest and busiest shopping days of the year. While Black Friday is traditionally viewed as having big sales at brick and mortar locations, online sales are also becoming prevalent. Cyber Monday is seen as the biggest sales day for online retailers. However, given the reputation of these days, competition is high and your advertising dollars don’t go very far. There are a few other less famous, but still as busy shopping days that online retailers can take advantage of. The first few days of December are popular shopping days for consumers as well as a couple days in the middle of December. By focusing your marketing efforts on these days, your get more bang for your marketing buck and competition is not as fierce. Offer Free Shipping If you don’t already offer free shipping, the holiday season is the time to do so. Many ecommerce businesses, including some of your competitors, give customers free shipping during the holidays as an incentive to buy from them. Offering free shipping that is guaranteed by Christmas can also be a draw to last minute shoppers that are worried about getting gifts in time. If you do already offer free shipping, offering free rush shipping on more expensive orders closer to Christmas could give your shoppers extra incentive to buy more from your online store. Know Your Audience While most of these tips and trends hold true for the United States, other regions are a whole different story. If you sell primarily to customers in other countries it is important to research holidays and seasonal trends that are pertinent to their area. For example, in China, January is usually a big online shopping month because people are preparing for their New Year celebrations. In India, Diwali is celebrated in November which makes October a major online shopping month there. If your ecommerce store brings in big business from overseas, it is important to research the holidays that your customers may celebrate and fit them in to your ecommerce sales and marketing strategy. Clarity Can Help At Clarity, we specialize in ecommerce solutions. Our team has decades of combined experience helping our clients optimize and improve their online stores and presence by integrating business systems, creating marketing strategies, and using our ecommerce platform, Clarity ecommerce, to make their stores more versatile and user friendly. Our team of experts would love to help your ecommerce business grow. To find out more about how Clarity can help your ecommerce, call or click to contact us today!