How to Get Your Online Store Ready for the Holidays

It’s the most wonderful time of the year…especially for making sales! ‘Tis the season to get gift shopping, and because of this, the holidays are prime time for your to get an extra boost in sales and publicity for your store. Here are some tips for how to get your online store ready for the holidays!

Update Your Online Store with Holiday Graphics & Sale Info

Making a holiday-ized version of your business homepage and social media profile photos is a great way to get your business ready for the season. It’s also a place to put sale information, promotional information and shipping times. Social media posts with sale info can get missed by your customers, so having it on your store’s homepage is a great way to reinforce the message. Having it upfront in your online store keeps it in customers’ minds while they’re shopping. This is key, considering one study found that 78% of the customers said that a coupon, can ‘close the deal’ if they’re trying to decide on to buy. Reminding customers of a discount in your store could mean the difference between a sale or no sale.

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How Signalnoise is using the cover photo in his Artist Shop to share free shipping with his customers

Add Limited Time Holiday Products to your Store

This is the time of year that people are more willing to spend money on products that are relevant to this time of year. Take advantage of the this by selling a limited time only holiday products and designs.

Here’s a helpful tutorial on how to make an ugly Christmas sweater design!

Make ‘Last Chance to Receive Your Order in Time For the Holidays!’ Dates Clear

You want your holiday and your customers’ holiday to be merry and bright…not angry and gloomy! Customers don’t want to order a product that won’t arrive in time for the holidays. Let your customers know when the final week, few days, and final day is to order items from your online shop to receive them in time for the holidays! This shows you care about your customers getting their gifts on time, and adds a sense of urgency that encourages taking “buy now!” action.

Let Them Know Who You Are

When it comes to boosting holiday sales, “gaining trust” is crucial for customers new to the brand. Luckily, there are many ways to build trust. Make sure your “About” page includes links to your social media and information about who you. Unless you want to come across as a corporation, stay human when writing about your business. Be sure to post customer testimonials so that buyers can see those as well!

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Shops using their ‘About Us’ page. Top: Chicago Design Museum’s Artist Shop | Bottom: Naked Animals’ Artist Shop

Create a Gift Guide

Content marketing and blogs in general are a great thing to take advantage of during the holiday season. Create a holiday gift guide featuring your products that you breaks them down by price or a different theme. You can also reach out to influencers and ask them if they’d feature your products in a gift guide or if they’d like to share a guide you’ve made.

Offer New Products and Styles

Offering new types of products is a great way to create intrigue during the holidays. Our very own Artist Shops has many products which make perfect gifts and stocking stuffers (like mugs, totes, and art prints). Try promoting your products as great gifts that your customers’ loved ones will love!

Sales & Shipping

Having a sale during the holidays – both for expected events like Black Friday as well as other sales leading up to the holidays – is crucial. Promote your best-sellers, drop the price of select products, and in general experiment to find what works. And offer free shipping as well! Studies have found that free shipping can be the most important thing to customers during the holiday season, second only to lower prices.

Check out some ideas for promotions and sales here, here, and here!

Promote, Promote, Promote

As usual, promoting your sales, items, and Shop is key to generating sales and revenue. Here are tips on how to promote like a pro on social media.

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Artist Shop owner Nathan Burdette spreading the word about free shipping.

Do Some Holiday-Centric Lifestyle Photography 

Quality lifestyle photography is key to making your products look worthy of purchasing. Get some friends together, whip up some hot chocolate, and do a holiday-themed photo shoot to show customers a lifestyle that they want to be a part of.

Illustrations by Katie Lukes

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