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8 More To-Do Items for Your Store’s Holiday Checklist

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Getting ready to sell online during the holidays is no easy task. But these Top 10 Things for Your Store’s Holiday Checklist and the following 8 more will get you in great shape.

  1. Determine shipping cut-off dates. Check with your shipping carriers to determine what the cutoff days are for the various methods of shipping. Ensure you add a “guaranteed arrival in time for (name your holiday here) if ordered before (name your date here.)”
  2. Prominently display your return policy. Consider rewording it as a “no hassle” policy in order to calm the fears of first-time buyers. While a 30-day return policy is commonplace for the rest of the year, it may scare off early shoppers during the holidays. Make it clear to your visitors that you will accept returns and exchanges on all Christmas (or name your own holiday) gift purchases. This ensures them that they can expect total satisfaction.
  3. Show holiday spirit in your graphics. Go ahead, decorate for the holidays! Consider redesigning some of the artwork on your site with a holiday theme to get your shoppers in the mood to spend money with you.
  4. Ensure your server can handle any increased capacity. If you don’t host in-house, talk with your web host about how you can increase your server performance during the holiday rush.
  5. Allow customers to ship to alternate locations other than they’re regular shipping address. If a customer is buying a gift for someone that does not live near them they may want to have it simply shipped to the recipient’s address as a holiday gift surprise.
  6. Communicate with fulfillment and customer service. Make everyone involved in the order process aware of any promotions or revisions to policies.
  7. Ensure your email campaigns promote the holiday offers and your website backs those up. If you are running any email campaigns you need to ensure that offers presented in the emails are easily found and similarly presented on your website.
  8. Consider offering digital gift certificates redeemable online. These often provide an added option for shoppers and are a great way to increase cash flow.

Take advantage of the holidays to increase ecommerce sales!

This is a great time to dig into the Ecommerce Amplifier. The six-step tutorial will teach you how to identify problem areas on your ecommerce website and implement some of these tips. If you sign up for the Premium level, I’ll even provide you with my expert website review – pointing out exactly what you’re doing right and what you can improve.

Top 10 Things for Your Store’s Holiday Checklist

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The holidays are quickly approaching and this timely post provides you with the top 10 things to get done before it’s too late to maximize the presence of holiday shoppers.

  1. Ensure your checkout process is stable and the shopping cart is streamlined. Take one good look at it and make sure it is working (across multiple browsers) before the holiday shopping season hits big.
  2. If it’s not broke, don’t fix it. If your website is working and is smooth, now is not the time to try new programming alterations, etc.
  3. Ensure your search marketing and ads reflect the holiday things people are looking for. This includes free shipping, big discounts, buy-one-get-one-free offers, etc., that people look for during the holidays especially.
  4. Utilize your social media channels to ensure you spread the word about your offers. Viral marketing during this time of the year is something you simply can’t overlook. Good news (and offers) spread fast!
  5. Tweak navigational elements to cater to the holiday shopper. Consider adding the following temporary categories to your navigation during the holidays: Gifts by Price, Gifts by Person, Gifts for Him or Gifts for Her category as well as Gifts for Boys and Gifts for Girls.
  6. Showcase stocking stuffers. Be sure to highlight low cost products that would make good stocking stuffers.
  7. Make sure your shipping and return info is clearly marked on your product pages. Again, this is something that I say should be there all the time anyhow, but during the holidays you must have it prominently displayed.
  8. Consider offering gift-wrapping services. You can add this as an “upsell” on the product page (and remember to cross sell it on the shopping cart page in case they missed it), but be sure to add enough additional charge to cover any labor and materials associated with this.
  9. Create product bundles. Consider taking several related products and grouping them into a “gift package” at a discounted rate than if the items were purchased separately (this too will encourage sales.) Gift selection is much easier when related items are grouped together in some sort of gift basket or bundle.
  10. Add gift messages as an option. If your cart enables you to do so, let your customers add a personal message to their gift.

These 10 things will prepare your ecommerce store for the holidays, increase traffic and increase sales. If you think of anything to add, let me know in the comments below.

Otherwise look for more tips coming soon.

10 Strategies for Ecommerce Shipping

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Strategies for Ecommerce Shipping

You know what happens the day after Labor Day? The holidays come at you like a freight train come down the track fast!

This year, consider what you can do to improve your holiday sales. One area to focus on is shipping.

Free shipping is a sales driver—it always has been and likely always will be. If you can’t offer free shipping on every order, try the following practices to maximize client satisfaction.

Shipping Best Practices

1. Don’t make customers login to get shipping rates.

2. Include shipping info on all the product pages.

3. Link to the shipping page from the shopping car.

4. Don’t try to make money on shipping.

5. Consider offering free shipping at a level above your average order value.

6. Show delivery estimates by region.

7. Ship next business day as the norm. Ship express orders same day.

8. Provide tracking numbers.

9. Don’t ignore or point fingers on lost shipments.

10. Under promise and over deliver… figuratively speaking.

Here’s some more proof that free shipping is high on customer want lists. And here’s a post that shows the sales results generated from testing various types of shipping promotions (although these were tested during none holiday seasons.)

Last Day to Get 50% Off Ecommerce Amplifier

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Just a reminder here for any store owners looking to get into the summer session. Today is the last chance you have to get 50% off your first month as a member of my exclusive online coaching program Ecommerce Amplifier.

If you’re still on the fence thinking about it, now would be a good time to take advantage of this proven system. Remember, it is a month to month program (no long term commitments) that you can easily cancel at any time from within your members area so you have nothing to lose. My system works with any shopping cart system you are using (open source, custom, hosted solutions, etc…), and don’t forget, as a member you get access to me as your personal mentor to help guide you toward success with your ecommerce business.

This offer is strictly limited and the 50% off coupon expires tonight. Once it expires the offer is closed.

Current store owners that have been a part of the system have seen fantastic results and continue to rave about it. Here are a few testimonials:

"This is The Real Deal"

"I find that there is a lot of professional know all’s and “crapologists” in the ecommerce game with a lot of theories and potential’s at the end of the day. There are very few who have the runs on the board. What I like about you, your news letters, website’s and emails is that this is what I need to understand the in’s and out’s and be good at what I do.

I am not the designer or techno person in the back I am the driver of the bus and have to make decisions on how, where and when we are going to get there. I am more interested in how we can sell goods and services online.

I joined this site as I believe what you do and tell us is factual and usable as you have runs on the board.

Thanks for your support."

Regards,

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"Well. I am swamped with orders and cannot do anymore work on my sites for now! I am having to work and keep production going and hired a helper full time (he was part time until a month ago). Your insight (which I only implemented some of the video review so far) has taken our orders from 40 to 45 a week last July to 83 last week. We are now hitting 20+ orders a day now (last Friday and then again Sunday). I hope to launch another 2 sites using your ideas and tips and hope to double or triple what we did last year. I could not have done it without you. You have taken us from struggling to a reality of owning a successful business.

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"Quick follow up…

As you know, I implemented all of the suggestions in the video review about a week and a half ago.

My conversion rate for the last 7 days has climbed to 3.86%!

I’m going to keep plugging away at the weekly lessons and hopefully that will help increase traffic and maybe nudge that number up a little more.

Thank you!!!"

Sarah Taylor-Salamaca

Don’t miss out on this unique opportunity. Let’s build your business together.

See you on the inside.

50% Off Ecommerce Amplifier. Limited Time Only

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Ok, I’m looking for the next set of store owners who want to be part of Ecommerce Amplifier. The current group is working their way through the system having great success and now it’s time to add to the mix.

For a limited time only you can get 50% off your first month in my online coaching program. If you have been considering joining then now is a good time to take advantage of the opportunity. This is the first time this offer has ever been presented and likely the last time.

I’ve posted a coupon code on the front page of Ecommerce Amplifier that expires at midnight on March 11, 2010 (only 7 days from now!) Once the coupon code expires, that’s it. No exceptions.

Remember, as a member of Ecommerce Amplifier I give you access to the same tools resources and process I personally use to build very successful ecommerce businesses daily. Plus you get access to me as your personal mentor and can ask me anything you want about how to better your business.

Best of all, this is a month to month program (no long term commitments) that you can easily cancel any time you want by simply clicking a link—so you’re not locked into anything.

There’s no better time to start building your business. Let’s do it together.

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The Ecommerce Expert offers products and services that help move ecommerce businesses toward growth and success. Our products and services help store owners maximize their ROI, decreasing expenses and increasing revenue. The net result is sustainable growth and stability with above average results.