Preparing Your Online Store For A Great Christmas 2009. A Month-by-month Cheat-sheet
We are only five months away from Christmas. From October to December it is the greatest shopping time of the year. People are willing to spend money and throw caution to the wind so that they can find the best holiday gifts for family and friends. Many of us are wondering how we can take advantage of the holidays and earn a little money for ourselves to support us for the holidays.
ACTION NOW! It is definitely not too early to start building your online store ready for Christmas 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 make certain you get the HIGHEST possible sales for this Christmas.
August: There are companies merchandising ecommerce software to guide you act fast and spend your time wisely so that you can seek a way to take advantage of the holiday spending. Test out suitable ecommerce solutions if searching to potentially 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 explore for a suitable one or consider a few major carts such as Yahoo Store, Volusion, InstanteStore, CommerceSpace, 3D Cart, NetSolutions and Early Impact Product Cart. Bare in mind, adequate yourself with professional ecommerce software.
September: This month is the excellent time to start aggressive on SEO work. Implement keyword research engaging tools like Google Keyword Tool (https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal) or WordTracker.com that provides free trial. Since time is limited, you may target “buying keywords” first and then “research/browsing keywords” later on. You may ask “What’s the difference”? Purchasing keywords are more actual 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 establish links to your store’s webpages utilizing the keywords you’ve identified.
October: Do create your in-house e-mail list. Be sure that you offer something captivating or value to your visitors in exchange for their name and e-mail address. You may want to put yourself in your customer’s shoe while doing this. Then make sure you distribute your alluring list and excellent deals at least once a week. You must have them get used to getting and reading your e-mail deals. This will in directly get the early Christmas shoppers start purchasing now.
November: Basically, Christmas shopping wave gets going! Do A/B and/or multi variate split testing to create your results. Make sure to test out your headlines, layouts, offers 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 GREAT difference in results. Optimize all these and make sure you don’t leave any money on the table. Do bear in mind put up CLEAR notices telling your customers when’s the LATEST date to order to be certain they 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 important that you Do NOT make any major changes. Split testing is fine. Ride the wave and make sure your supplier and fulfillment house can handle all your orders.
With all of these aspects at your fingertips and with such a little time left, you will realize that with your time directed in the right way and the assistance you need you can build a positive Internet business.










