Summer Is Ending - Is Your Christmas Ecommerce Plan Ready?

Now that September is here, your minds will surely be turning towards your Christmas Ecommerce Plan (if they haven't already!). Many ecommerce companies make more than half their revenue in the last three months of the year so It's important to make sure you have a clear online marketing plan that will deliver sales.

Here are our top five tips to get ecommerce success this Christmas:

1. Email & Social Media Plan - In the final hectic weeks before Christmas it's easy to fall behind on email and social media. This can be a costly oversight, so make sure you have all your emails and key posts planned well in advance, so all you have to do is press send and watch the sales come in.
2. Christmas SEO - It's never to early to launch your Christmas Gifts category and product pages. Give yourself an edge by uploading your categories early, and updating copy on your site to reflect the upcoming season so that Google can index your new products.
3. Google Shopping - Make sure your products have maximum visibility in Google as people are much more likely to convert in one visit during the festive season. Google Shopping ROI will soar over the next few months.
4. Brand PPC - Although you might not run PPC throughout the year, running brand PPC at Christmas allows you to tailor your brand copy, landing pages and sitelinks to Christmas traffic, to improve conversion rates.
5. RLSA - Remarketing Lists For Search Ads allow you to show ads for broad keywords only to previous visitors to your site. Eg. You would never normally bid on 'Christmas Gifts For Men' keywords but with RLSA you can ensure that only users who have visited your site see these adverts in Google. Christmas is the ideal time to experiment with these campaigns.

Get in touch if you would like any help or advice about getting the most out of the festive season.

Are You Ready for Your Online Christmas Rush?

Odd to think about Christmas when you are just off the beach, but here's our 7 point eCommerce Healthcheck to make sure you're in good shape and maximised for peak trading:

1. Have you submitted your sitemap to Google so they can easily index your site? This is the vital first step for any SEO campaign.
   
   
2. Have you submitted a Product Feed to Google Merchant Centre so that they can display your products in their shopping pages? Sorting out your data feeds is a quick win that is guaranteed to generate revenue over Christmas.
   
   
3. Are you running own-brand PPC? You may not run PPC for the rest of the year but it's worth running your brand terms as keywords at Christmas. PPC has the advantage of letting you tailor your message to your audience so make sure you push your Christmas offers with your copy.
   
   
4. Is your software configured properly?  A good Google Analytics set up - as well as other SEO software like Webmaster Tools and SEOMoz - will give you a great vantage point to see what is working and what isn't and help you adapt accordingly. It will also give you priceless data for perfecting your strategy as Christmas draws nearer.
   
   
5. Have you planned your email calendar? Plan your email calendar early -  What offers are you making and when? What stock levels do you have?  What products are you selling? Don't get caught out by the rush of Christmas, by making proper plans.
   
   
6. Are your delivery details properly presented? Christmas is the worst time to have ambiguous delivery policies. Make it very clear what your prices are and how long delivery will take. Turn your delivery terms into a strong selling point by offering guarantees and going the extra mile in your Customer Services.
   
   
7. Do you have gift options? What do you have that makes your gifts better than everyone else's? For example our client David Hampton supply all their products in lovely gift boxes. We're working with them to make sure everybody knows just how nice they are. It's not too late to create and promote some fantastic reasons why your products will be the perfect gifts this Christmas.

Moneyspyder are eCommerce experts, running eCommerce platforms, as well as Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and eCommerce mentoring. If you would like help maximising your revenue this Christmas call us on 0207 492 1929 or email on info@moneyspyder.co.uk.