If you run an e-commerce store, is your website prepared for the Christmas and holiday season?
Some of the things you must check:
Is your online store at risk of slowing down with a big spike in traffic?
In recent years Boxing Day has always been the busiest online shopping day, according to Akamai Technology. However, in 2014, their research shows that web traffic on Black Friday and Cyber Monday was noticeably higher, showing a shift in consumer shopping patterns.
Ensure that your web hosting account and web server is prepared for a large increase in traffic, especially around November 27th 2015 (Black Friday) and November 30th 2015 (Cyber Monday).
People expect websites to load in about two seconds and have increasingly high expectations about page loading speeds, so it’ll be no surprise to hear that people will abandon their shopping carts and leave your site if they get frustrated with sluggish web performance.
Worse still, if your website goes down, this could have big consequences to your business. An estimated £810m was spent online by British shoppers on Black Friday in 2014, so you cannot afford to lose out!
At Primary Image, where most of our clients use the WordPress platform, we have invested in highly reliable web hosting infrastructure and have automatic monitoring checks in place to ensure our customers’ websites run smoothly, even during traffic spikes.
Get in touch if you’re interested in moving your website to Primary Image.
Have you tested your website recently on mobile devices?
In the UK market, use of desktop and mobile devices is almost equal, so ensure your visitors are getting a good experience on their smartphones and tablets.
- Can people easily read all the text?
- Does all the functionality work, like product popup images?
- Are all the links easily tappable?
- Is the shopping cart experience easy to use?
- Is your website fast to load on a 3G connection?
Does your website offer trust and confidence?
Over three quarters of online shoppers look for a website to demonstrate its security as part of their decision about making a purchase, according to research from Akamai Technology.
Ensure you offer trust by showing your security credentials, including clearly displaying your policies, how you’ll use visitor’s email addresses, and display any security certificates you have.
Want more advice about preparing your website for Christmas?
If you want to speak to a specialist about preparing your website for Christmas and the holiday season, why not contact Primary Image?
Mike founded Primary Image in 2010. He specialises in the WordPress website platform and speaks regularly at national web design conferences. Mike became a member (MCIPR) of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations in 2015.