Ten tips for online retailers for a successful Christmas

Christmas business is often crucial for successful online retail. In 2014, German online retailers generated almost a third of their total annual sales in the Christmas period: around 10 billion euros. The industry is expecting further increases this year. Against this backdrop, Heidelberger Payment GmbH, or heidelpay for short, a payment institution licensed and supervised by the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority for all common payment methods on the Internet (www.heidelpay.de), has published its white paper "Christmas in e-commerce - How Christmas business works online". In the areas of marketing, payment, risk management and the post-Christmas period, the payment institute gives e-commerce operators the following recommendations, among others:1. use market analyses and your own reporting from the previous year for the perfect timing of all marketing activities.2. design Christmas-specific keyword campaigns and subject them to regular analysis and optimization.3. incorporate Christmas design elements into your store, for example an Advent calendar competition or a countdown to Christmas Eve.4Make Christmas shopping easier for customers with special functionalities and services, for example: the option to save the shopping cart and share it by sending a link, gift wrapping, extended return periods, etc.5 Ensure that the performance of your store is stable even at peak times - short loading times prevent abandoned purchases.6 Tailor the payment method mix to the target group, the sales country and the sales channel.7 Make the checkout process as simple and streamlined as possible. For example, offer registered customers the option of a one-click checkout.8. Carry out credit checks in order to offer only certain payment methods to customers with poor payment history.9. Use integrated returns management that also enables automated allocation of goods and payments.10. Give customers incentives to rate their purchase - if you have done everything right, you will benefit from numerous positive reviews.These ten points are an excerpt from the white paper "Christmas in e-commerce - How Christmas business works online". The complete whitepaper is available here  available for download free of charge.