Every year, the holiday season presents e-commerce merchants with many challenges. This article will discuss the most common mistakes marketers and ecommerce store owners make that can lead to a decline in sales. These tips will help you avoid these 7 deadly sins, and increase holiday season sales.

The U.S. continues to see an increase in online shopping during holidays: The Department of Commerce predicted that total e-commerce sales for the third quarter of 2019 will be 16.9% more than in 2018.

E-commerce merchants look forward to holiday sales, but many problems can arise from too many orders. Site crashes and orders being stolen or lost can make it a nightmare.

There are ways that e-commerce store owners can mitigate these risks. Here are the 7 deadly sins that marketers and ecommerce store owners commit at this time of year. These can be very dangerous, and they can help you avoid falling for them.

Holiday Season: Avoid These Common Mistakes

• Not optimizing your mobile site
• Slow loading of websites
• Email marketing is not effective or adequate
• There is no voice-related search option
• It is easy to overlook the importance of having a holiday sales calendar.
• Cross-selling and upselling of products are not allowed
• How to prepare for shipping challenges

Missing the mark on your mobile site?

Half of the consumers use mobile to shop more than they do in-store.

This is in addition to the fact that 30% of online shopping takes place via a smartphone. This is an increase of 120% over last year.

Although this should be obvious, you’d be amazed at how many times I have tried to access a website on my phone only to find it difficult to read or glitchy.

Although I was intrigued by the product, I decided not to make a purchase. Their mobile site was sluggish and provided a poor user experience.

Optimizing your mobile website with effective mobile SEO will make your products stand out in search results. Customers can browse the website and choose the products they wish to buy during busy holidays.

2. Mistake: Slow website loading issues

Google now considers page loading speeds when ranking websites. Pay attention to these things.

Accelerated Mobile Pages       

This open-source framework allows for the smooth loading of pages on mobile devices. A delay of just 1 second in page loading speed can reduce conversion rates by 7%

The report also states that even an extra second for mobile loading can be costly to a business. These issues were overcome by accelerated mobile pages.

Accelerated mobile webpages are a framework that allows developers to create lightweight experiences for mobile users through simplified HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Instead of author-written Javascript, accelerated pages allow for compatibility, lower server load, and faster page loading.

Check Your Images Sizes

Clear, captivating images are essential to your ecommerce success. However, make sure to use the right size images – images that are large enough to be easily seen but not too big that they slow down your website. Your site’s speed is directly affected by how large your images are.

Visit the Page

To avoid slow-loading carts, it is best to have your checkout run across all platforms. This will help you to reduce the chance of losing potential customers.

A customer can be frustrated by a slow checkout page, even after they have spent hours choosing the right gift. Optimizing your checkout page is a crucial part of custom website development.

3. Mistake: Poor or nonexistent email marketing

Every e-commerce company wants to stay ahead of its competition. They need an effective email marketing campaign.

You can send targeted emails to your customers’ lists and new buyers with an email list. If you have a good list, you can cleverly use your customers’ names to grab their attention.

You can easily send cart abandonment emails if you offer a compelling deal that you can grab the customer’s email.

An average cart abandonment of 77.24% was observed between Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2016. It climbed to 78.65% in 2017.

This is just one example of how much potential you may be missing out on if your email capture doesn’t work as soon as your customers arrive on your website.

A “Holiday Gift Buying Guide” is a great email campaign. It is a good idea to make a list of all the holiday gifts that you have in your arsenal.

4. Mistake: There is no voice-related search capability

Voice commerce is growing and will be worth $40 Billion in sales by 2020, according to new marketing trends. SEO and marketing companies in Las Vegas can help integrate voice search into your marketing strategy.

This segment is growing. To get the most out of it, add question phrases to your website’s most popular searches.

5. Mistake: Neglecting the importance of a strategic holiday sale calendar

With so many competitors for your customers’ dollars, the ecommerce websites that create the best shopping calendar strategy will be the ones to beat. To create a holiday sale calendar:

• List the important holiday milestone dates

• Take a look at the ads and sales from last year and develop a strategy to identify what worked and what didn’t.

• For those last-minute shoppers, plan when you’ll extend your holiday offers

• Seasonal marketing content should appeal to the emotions of your ideal customers

• Offer daily deals to your customers and let them know.

Strategically approaching the holiday season can help you give your customers reasons to return to your store to see what’s new.

Mistake 6: Don’t Upsell or Cross-Sell Products

Cross-selling and upselling are the best ways to make money. Forbes claims that Amazon gets 35% of its revenue via cross-selling 

Upselling is the act of encouraging a customer to buy items that are related to their primary purchase. Cross-selling is the act of encouraging a customer to purchase a similar product, such as offering the purchase option for a scanner and printer.

These are some of the most tried-and-true ways to cross-sell and upsell:

• Bundles available

• To make your check-out more pleasant, link frequently purchased items together

• Display “best-seller” and “most reviewed products” as well as “most relevant” articles for the order.

• To get your customer to click on the next upsell, use curiosity

Cross-selling and upselling can help you sell more products while offering more to your customers.

Fault 7: Not preparing for shipping challenges

Imagine this: You ship an item to your customer. Everything went smoothly on your part. The shipping company then lost the package. These moments are difficult because even though you did nothing wrong, your customer is furious. They aren’t blaming shipping companies for their mistakes. They are blaming YOU.

Although it is unfair, it is the reality that e-commerce businesses should accept from time to time.

This is why it’s important to provide excellent customer service in such situations. It’s worth paying a little extra to save a customer.

Companies Can Be Successful by Approaching the Holiday Season Strategically

This time of year can be hectic for everyone involved in e-commerce. While it has its ups as well as downs, there is nothing like knowing that your items are being shipped to people around the world and brightening someone’s holiday season.

If you can avoid these 7 deadly sins, you will be on your way to a profitable and smooth holiday season. You deserve peace and joy.