How to protect yourself? 12 tips for Christmas

According to a recent survey conducted by the e-tailing group, this holiday season more shoppers plan to do their gift buying online instead of in stores. The reasons shoppers gave for the switch included time savings, better product selection, no crowds and saving money — in other words, convenience, value and time savings. Survey participants also said they planned on buying fewer holiday gifts and spending less money this holiday season. 
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So if you own or operate an online store and hope to turn a profit this holiday season, the message is clear. Your site and your products really need to stand out. You need to make sure customers can easily and quickly navigate through your site. You need to make sure you have (in stock) the products that customers are looking for. And you need to make sure you have enough bandwidth, so if your site gets lots of hits, it won't slow down. 

So how do you accomplish these goals and make your site a must-visit destination this holiday season? Ecommerce-Guide.com asked several e-marketing/e-commerce experts as well as several online business owners for their tips, some of which you may already be doing, others you may want to start doing — now. 

The 12 Tips for Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa

1. It pays to advertise. Hopefully your site is already search engine optimized (SEO), so customers can easily find you. But to boost traffic to your site during the holiday season, consider pay-per-click advertising (e.g., Google AdWords). While not free, pay-per-click advertising needn't cost a fortune, and it's probably the quickest, most efficient way of getting holiday shoppers to your site. Bonus tip: When picking key words, be sure to include alternative spellings or styles. For example, if you sell backpacks, use both backpack and back pack as key words. 

2. Offer holiday-related specials and/or sales. Customers love to feel they are getting a deal, especially around the holidays. You needn't put your whole inventory on sale but offering a few, choice holiday-related items at a reduced price, right on your home page and/or key landing pages, is a great way to lure customers. 

3. Run a holiday promotion, such as a free giveaway with a certain level of purchase or a no-purchase-required sweepstakes. And put it right on your home page, where people will immediately see it, with smaller links or boxes on landing pages. MountainGear.com, an outdoor gear and clothing store, for example, is currently running a Winter Getaway Sweepstakes on its home page, with anyone who makes a purchase automatically entered to win a vacation for two to Snowbird or one of 20 other great prizes. People who sign up to be on MountainGear.com's e-mail list are also eligible. Not only does that kind of promotion increase traffic, it increases sales and expands your e-mail list of prospective customers. 

4. Use e-mail and mobile marketing to alert customers to holiday sales, specials or promotions — and offer coupons or discounts. Don't forget about existing customers, who tend to shop at your store in good times and in bad. Let them know about holiday sales, specials and/or promotions with a personal e-mail and/or Twitter or mobile alert. Also consider offering existing customers coupons and/or discounts on purchases above a certain amount. 

5. Split Test. "No matter when you send e-mails, you should be split testing to look for the ideal subject lines that get the best open rates," said Anthony Kirlew, the founder of Web Traffic Team and the author of "The Internet Marketing Guide for Small Business." After all, what's the point of sending e-mails if no one opens them?

6. Don't just be Christmas- and/or Hanukkah-centric. As marketing guru and author Shel Horowitz noted, by acknowledging other holidays besides the big two, such as Kwanzaa, the Winter Solstice, Boxing Day and New Year's, "you'll get noticed… because almost no one else will do it, and those people who do celebrate these holidays will feel very warm toward you." However, Horowitz cautioned that this approach is not necessarily right for all sites, particularly those with a strong religious tone or bent whose customers might take offense or be turned off. 

7. Offer free gift wrapping or free wrapping with purchases over a certain amount. "The reason people buy online instead of going to a store is because it's 'stupid easy,'" stated Michael Michalowicz, author of The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur. By offering customers free gift wrapping (or free with a minimum purchase), including a gift card, you are fulfilling customers' expectations and needs. Never underestimate what people will do for convenience.

8. Offer free shipping. According to the e-tailing group survey, of the 36 features customers identified as important when shopping online this holiday season, free shipping was number one — and the high cost of shipping was cited as the number one reason customers don't buy more online. If you are unable to offer free shipping, which some smaller businesses can't do, consider discounted shipping, say free or reduced shipping on purchases over $25 or $50 or $100 (whatever number works for your bottom line). 

9. Provide terrific customer service. Be prepared when your customers ask for or need help. Make sure you have an 800 or toll-free number and customer service e-mail address right on your home page, as well as on all your landing/product pages and at checkout. If possible, also offer live help via a chat window. 

10. Allow people to create wish lists — and recommend gifts. Efficiency and speed are high priorities for today's online shoppers. And wish lists and a list of recommended gifts (based on age or gender or previous purchases) definitely help shoppers save time by getting the right gift(s) quickly. 

11. Keep 'em coming back for more by including a freebie or future discount with each shipped order. Customers love free samples — and freebies and coupons in general. In addition to offering free shipping, JCearrings.com is giving customers a free one-week pass to an affordable nationwide fitness center with each purchase. Music equipment and audio retailer Sweetwater.com includes free candy with each shipment. And many online stores are sending customers coupons for 10 or 20 percent off their next purchase this holiday season, which not only gives shoppers that feel-good feeling now but gets them coming back for more. 

12. Share the e-commerce love. "Form agreements with other [complementary] e-commerce stores that offer discounts and incentives with links to you (and vice versa) when purchases are made," said Michalowicz. As people tend to do their buying in groups, by having links to other sites where they may want to shop (and vice versa), you are increasing the chance of a sale. And this kind of cross-marketing costs nothing except the time it takes to add a link and a little bit of copy. 

Another great money-saving holiday tip for smaller e-commerce businesses, although it doesn't have to do with marketing, is to consider temporarily reassigning staff from other departments/areas to help out with fulfillment and shipping during the busy holiday season, instead of hiring temporary staff, said Brian Combs, the senior vice president and chief futurist a Apogee Search.

"Even seasonal employees have real costs," he pointed out. And by rotating employees into fulfillment duties, say, one or two days a week, you minimize hiring and maximize efficiency. The result: employees often welcome and feel invigorated by a temporary change in their day-to-day duties — and happier employees lead to happier customers and increased sales. 

As to when you should start implementing these suggestions, the experts all agreed, there's no time like the present. Consumers are shopping earlier than ever (before the traditional post-Thanksgiving Cyber Monday), and they are looking for value, convenience and ease. Give them what they want, and they'll not only buy from you now but there's a good chance they will return to your site in the future.