Preparing Your Online Store For Christmas 2009. A Month-by-month Cheat-sheet
We are only five months away from most awaiting Christmas. From October to December it is the premier shopping time of the year. People are willing to spend money and throw caution to the wind so that they can find the best holiday gifts for family and friends. A lot of us are wondering how we can take advantages of the holidays and earn a little money for ourselves to support us for the holidays.
ACTION NOW! It is absolutely not too early to start building your online store ready for Christmas shopping and at the same time you really don’t have much time to waste. I’ve added to a month-by month cheat-sheet to be certain that you get the MAXIMUM sales for this Christmas.
August: There are companies marketing ecommerce software to help you act on time and spend your time wisely so that you can look for a way to take advantage of the holiday spending. Test out suitable ecommerce solutions if searching to certainly change solutions. Now’s the perfect time to make such changes since you won’t have much time to make sure changes going forward. If not happy with existing shopping cart, you can either search for the right one or consider a few major carts such as Yahoo Store, InstanteStore, Volusion, CommerceSpace, 3D Cart, NetSolutions and Early Impact Product Cart. Most importantly, adequate yourself with professional ecommerce software.
September: This month is the right time to start relatively competitive on SEO work. Implement keyword research using tools like Wordtracker.com or Google Keyword Tool that offers free trial. Since time is constrained, you may take aim “buying keywords” first and then “research/browsing keywords” later on. You may ask “What’s the difference”? Buying keywords are more actual for example “Ipod Nano 8GB best price” or “Apple Ipod Nano 8GB” whereas browsing keywords are more common “apple ipod nano”. Start out writing articles, press releases and syndicating content to create links to your store’s webpages making use of the keywords you’ve determined.
October: Do construct your in-house e-mail list. Keep in mind you create something interesting or value to your visitors in exchange for their name and e-mail address. You may want to put yourself in your customer’s shoe while doing this. Then make sure you distribute your wonderful list and best value promotions at least once a week. You must have them get used to obtaining and reading your e-mail offers. This will in directly get the early Christmas shoppers start buying now.
November: Technically, Christmas shopping spree sets about! Do A/B and/or multi variate split testing to improve your results. Make sure to test out your headlines, layouts, offers and even prices to see which a mixture works the best. Can use Google’s free Analytics + Multi-Variate testing (http://www.google.com/analytics) to do this for free. You’ll notice small changes can sometimes bring you A FANTASTIC difference in results. Optimize all these and make sure you don’t leave any money on the table. Bear in mind to put up CLEAR notices telling your customers when’s the LATEST date to order to ensure they receive it before Christmas. Ultimately a good time to hit your e-mail list with Christmas specific offers.
December: Do continue hitting list with Christmas offers and continue making tweaks to boost visitor-to-customer conversion. It is important that you Do NOT make any major changes. Split testing is good. Ride the wave and make sure your supplier and fulfillment house can manage all your orders.
With all of these information at your fingertips and with such a little time left, you will realize that with your time directed in the right way and the help you need you can build a victorious Internet business.
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