Getting your online business ready for the holidays

With Christmas only 6 weeks away, sales are starting to ramp up for many retailers and online businesses. Here are 5 simple tips to help make sure that your online business makes the most of the accelerated opportunities these holidays.

Getting your strategy ready

20 to 40 per cent of annual sales happen during November and December, so it’s important to capitalise on those months. It’s also important to reach customers across digital channels, so consider launching omnichannel, seasonal campaigns. Whether this is by implementing microsites or additional online sales channels such as facebook marketplace, etsy, ebay or elsewhere online, there could be an opportunity to diversify your sales funnel online.

Pay-per-click advertising

If your business uses Google Adwords (or other Pay Per Click ads), it’s important to make sure that you have your scheduling aligned with your trading hours. Prevent the risk of a bad customer experience by ensuring that you’re not taking new enquiries when you’re unable to service them, and that you’re not offering promotions on out of stock SKUs.

Social media

Schedule regular posts to promote products, communicate important events and dates and wish your clients happy holidays. Use social media to promote products and build goodwill with customers.

Website readiness

If you’re an online retailer, it’s important to check whether your website can handle an uplift in traffic, if your online store has correct stock and inventory numbers, and whether there are any parts of your check-out process that can be additionally optimised. Manage these simple tasks early to best ensure that your customers have an enjoyable experience when visiting your online store.

Online returns policy

Again, for online retailers, it’s important to ensure that your website has all legally required and recommended terms and conditions both available and easily accessible by your customers. If your returns scale relative to your sales uplift, this will make it easy to stay ahead of any potential disputes or complaints. GetCapital offers a broad range of business finance solutions for Australian small businesses – whether it’s a Term Loan for any business purpose, a Business Overdraft or even one of our Asset Finance products, GetCapital could help. We’ve partnered with thousands of Australian SMEs to help them with their business finance needs. To find out more, call us on 1300 249 649.