Preparation for the retail season or making more out of the Christmas celebration starts before the cool breeze starts blowing around. Indeed, it’s the most profitable time span of the year, when retailers have to lace up their shoes to meet the increasingly high demand of product and the need to serve customer beyond their expectations.

Online businesses are focused to make more out of the upcoming holidays, that’s why they have to consider and apply between effective methods, tactics and marketing strategies. The core factor among the revenue boosting techniques is creating convenience for the end consumers to make their shopping experience fantabulous.

PrestaShop Christmas Discounts

To let you avail the convenience in buying products and availing services at discounted rates, FMEModules offers a 30% discount on all PresatShop modules. The coupon code is "3YB9JKNL" and will remain valid from 10^th December to 28^th December 2015. Feel free to download extensions, hire our services or ask for a custom work, before the coupon expires. 

If you are also committed to relief customers in finding products and placing orders without any barrier, following are some of the strategies that may help turning store visitors into your loyal customers.

1. Have a quick health-check of your store

In Christmas season, the online stores have to experience an expectedly higher traffic that ultimately tests the technical aspects of your business. A store that caters the needs of every single customer with care and convenience, in spite of excessive traffic, wins the hearts of many. On the other hand, the customers feel comfortable for getting a quick response regardless of the peak season.

So, to ensure customers’ ease and comfort, the retailers shall initiate with a health check plan of their website, which shall ensure that;

• The home page, products and category pages are running perfectly fine
• The website and inner page loads quickly
• The design looks professional, eye-catching and user friendly
• Broken links are not found
• Coupon codes are valid (if any)
• Stocks are updated

2. Hiring More Staff

Every store owner shall go through previous year sales and compare it with today’s marketing trends to have a rough estimate of orders. If you are expecting hype in orders and consider the scarcity of resource for packing and delivering products, start hiring staff from now.

The gap can be filled with temporary recruitment like students, friends or family members, who are looking for seasonal earning opportunities. This will save the cost plus enhance your ability to serve customers without delaying any order.

3. Ensure Mobile Friendliness

With the rapid technological change, people are browsing online stores on a variety of devices that starts with a personal computer, a laptop and extends to tablets, iPads, iPods and smart phones. Your customers could be using any device with any screen size, which simply means the store must be compatible with a variety of screen sizes.
About 50.3% eCommerce traffic comprises mobile users, among which 40.3% use their smart phone and the remaining 10% are tablet users - Source

Probably, you won’t dare to miss half of the visitors because of people mobile optimization.

Most of the web designs are optimized for smart phone screens, whereas the customers browsing through different tablet screens may not be able to browse products and further categories. For customer convenience, a store must be prepared for users visiting through various screen sizes.

4. Assist Customers in Gift Selection

In spite of numerous gift ideas, customers are still hesitant in selecting gifts for their loved and near ones. Most of the clichéd gifting ideas are ignored at a first glance, as customers are fed up of presenting same items over and again. The solution to this is not only about presenting more items and piling up stocks, but to add charm to what you have in stock.

Highlighting the most demanding items at the home page or alongside a product page will also let them know the interest of other customers. The classification of best selling items with distinction of age and gender will further narrow down the choice for them.

5. Turn Live Chat On

Live support is the ultimate conversion and convenience booster. With live chat, customers can ask questions and get instant replies about products, orders and other queries. It’s a fast method in comparison to other communication mediums.

They will neither have to hold the call to get their questions answered nor wait for an email reply. They are encouraged to ask a question in live chat, as they are quite sure of getting an instant reply. It will not only enhance user experience, but will allow your staff to deal more than one customer at a time, rather than putting them on hold.

6. Enable One Step Checkout System

The standard checkout system comprises multiple steps, where a customer is preceded towards the end by enquiring information at various steps. This may annoy the customers as each page of checkout will take time to load and the customer may abandon the cart in dismay.

To make the checkout process smooth and comfortable, the checkout system is suggested to be of a single step. It reduces the time frame for placing an order and ensures customer engagement. To have a quick checkout page for your store, there are various tools and extensions compatible with the eCommerce platform you are using.

7. Offer a Quick Return / Exchange policy

Make sure your return or exchange policy is quick and hassle free. It must seem comfortable to the customers, so that they can order with the freedom to exchange or return in a predetermined time period. The time an online store takes in returning back to the customer often seems to be a major obstacle, especially in Christmas holidays.

Roy Erez, founder and CEO of an online gift service reports that 25% of their visitors were hesitant in buying gifts for the fear of hassle involved in returns. To have an increase in conversion, such barriers shall be removed wisely - Source

In fact, customers are shopping for the Christmas and New Year Eve that epitomizes the store owners to set a policy that ensures that they get their products and gifts returned back before the celebration even starts. In addition to policy making, the suggestion of hiring additional staff, as mentioned earlier, also coincides with this idea.

8. Offer Discounts

Yes! Christmas comes with loads of discounts and coupons that multiply the joy of holidays. It’s a season when people are chasing for the discounted rates to save more on purchasing their favorite items. This may include giving away coupon codes through marketing campaigns, discounted shipping, cutting membership prices and lots of attractive deals.

To add convenience in shopping, the businessmen are suggested to consider the above points that initiates with the user experience of browsing a website, navigate through the various categories and find various offers like discounts and coupon codes easily.