Ten tips for profitable Christmas business in e-commerce

Those who are already preparing for the Christmas business can keep the tills ringing during the festive season.1. open wide the door: ensure full hosting powerTwo critical situations come together at Christmas: There are a lot more visitors in the online store - who also have a lot less time because they need to buy lots of presents quickly. This means that store operators should upgrade their system so that even sudden increases in visitor numbers do not lead to agonizingly long waiting times. In these hourglass seconds, the more impatient customers jump ship. Needs should therefore be determined in advance. The provider can also provide an estimate in terms of traffic and visitor numbers. Store operators should also ask about scalable servers whose performance can be adjusted on a monthly basis, and about caching and CDN (Content Delivery Networks).2 Tomorrow, children, there's to be something: Send parcels quicklyAlways underestimated: the additional logistics effort. Many more parcels have to be packed (really many more!) and many more parcels have to be sent. Is there enough material (boxes, filling material, adhesive tape, labels) available? Are there enough hands (temporary staff, employees) available to help out? And: It's not just your own store that has to deliver significantly more parcels to the recipient before Christmas - all other stores have to do the same. That's why you should clarify now what capacities your logistics partner can offer. Every minute counts before Christmas, nobody wants to receive their gift on the 27th. Clear information about the delivery time is important - which can then be adhered to.3 Let's be happy and trendy: Serving current trendsWhat are this year's top sellers? What are perennial favorites? Which products in the range have what it takes to be a popular gift - or which products need to be temporarily added to the range? These products can be bundled into separate "gift idea categories" to create attractive bundles. The gift categories also include adapting the tags and keywords of the products (see tip 4).4 . Descriptions never sound sweeter: Customizing SEM and textsThe search for a gift is far more complicated than the search for a specific product. Keywords such as "beautiful", "creative", "fun", "remote-controlled" or "under 25 euros" form the categories in which customers think before Christmas. Store operators should ensure that customers land on the store with these search terms and then also find what they are looking for there. The red tie is no longer just "business", "red" and "quality", but also "gift", "father-in-law" and "under 25 euros". Offering an advice function or customer segmentation is worth considering: "For parents", "For boys", "For sports freaks". The most important keywords in recent years have included: "unusual/special gifts", "cool gift", "find a gift", "make someone happy", "exclusive", "unusual", "offers" and "gift ideas".5. oh my goodness: Small gifts keep the customers comingA greeting from Santa as a parcel enclosure makes for a positive experience. Whether it's a little relaxing bath for after the stressful search for presents, a small Christmas tree decoration or a festive greetings card - the effect is always the same: everyone is happy to receive small gifts.6. up from the shelf, here I come: maximizing the warehouseA sold-out item always creates a bad mood before Christmas. Full of anticipation, the customer clicks through the store - and then can't order the item after all. What remains is disappointment. A negative feeling. This should not happen. Store operators should prevent this - ideally by always being able to deliver directly without any problems. The information that the desired item will be available again on January 7 is of no interest when looking for a gift.7. socks every year: What about returns management?This is also part of the Christmas business: customers buy a product with conviction - but the recipient still wants to exchange or return it immediately after Christmas. One conceivable solution: offer special return/exchange conditions at Christmas - deadline extensions, exchange campaigns until the end of December, free shipping for repeat orders or similar.8. ring, hotline, ring, ring: service, service and more serviceGift hunters rarely have the time to wait indefinite hours or days for a response. All inquiries should be answered as promptly as possible and always within a clearly communicated deadline. On the one hand, the service team must offer the appropriate resources - on the other hand, it is also worth answering the most frequently asked questions clearly in the store in order to keep the effort as low as possible. Unclear statements on the Internet lead to customers dropping out and higher service costs.9 Come, come all ye customers: beat the advertising drum vigorouslyEven if hardly any customers need to be encouraged to shop at Christmas, it is still essential to advertise your own store. After all, customers should buy here and not from the competition. Shop operators should be visible to their target groups before Christmas - both on social media and on all other communication channels, show products in beautiful pictures on Instagram or Pinterest - and use the viral effects. Advent calendars or pre-Christmas discount campaigns can also be publicized well on social media.10. ... and: think about your own Christmas!What about your own gifts? A salesperson who doesn't know where their head is and how to get all the presents before Christmas will hardly be able to give their customers a good feeling. A satisfied and confident salesperson, on the other hand, always makes for satisfied customers, and wishing them a Merry Christmas now would admittedly be premature - but store operators should still slowly but surely prepare for the Christmas business to ensure a happy and successful festive season.