With Christmas rapidly approaching in just over 3 months, it’s the perfect time to think about gearing your site up for the festive season.

It is well documented that in recent years consumers are choosing to shop online over the high street and this looks certain to carry on again this year.

Here are a few hints to get your site and customers in the festive mood:

• It is good to start planning for the Christmas season by October at the latest as you will want to be able to cope with the higher demand. An average ecommerce site see’s a 30% order increase over the festive season.
• With the current offer on to upgrade to Premium Hosting, now should be the time to do it. After all, you wouldn’t want your current server running at snails pace around what is arguably the busiest time of year for online retail.
• Consumers traditionally shop quickly online and at Christmas even more so. They do not like to have to look for what they want any more than they like the site to run slow. Make it easy for them to find what they are looking for. It might be a good idea to create a Christmas gifts section and feature it prominently on your site.
• In the mass panic leading up to Christmas it is inevitable that people will leave their purchasing to the very last minute. You should clearly show delivery times and emphasize the urgency. People are far more inclined to buy if they know exactly how long it will take for delivery. Also by showing what is in stock, and what isn’t, you are far more likely to generate those just considering buying into actual customers.